1. Preparation of the memory cards:
Create a set of memory cards with Polish-German word pairs that are written or pronounced the same way or similarly but have a completelydifferent meaning – ‘false friends’ or (at least) one similar meaning – ‘true friends’. Use uppercase letters to avoid issues of different spelling– nouns are spelled with an initial uppercase letter in German but not in Polish – and the same pattern of the reverse side. For this, you caneither use the template available on the ALADIN project website or create your own memory game (see Online resources). In the latter case,avoid rare words or those that are no longer in use, as well as highly technical terms. The participants should be able to recognise the wordsand their meanings. Be aware that loanwords from Polish are few in German (e.g. granica / Grenze /border, szabla / Säbel / saber, twaróg /Quark / a sort of cottage cheese, ogórek / Gurke / cucumber) and often no longer recognised as such, while there are several thousands ofGerman loanwords in Polish, similarly often no longer recognised, ranging from rathusz / Rathaus / town hall and burmistrz / Bürgermeister /mayor to the recent autohaus / Autohaus / car dealership and szyberdach / Schiebedach / sliding roof of a car.

If you create a bigger card set you’ll be able to better adapt your selection to your target group or to play the game later again with differentword pairs. The number and difficulty of the word pairs affect the duration of the game and should bed determined according to theparticipants’ profile, for instance 20–30 cards for children of 6 to 8 years old for a duration of 10 to 20 minutes, 30–50 cards for those aged9 to 12 (15–30 min) and 50–75 cards for teenagers and adults (25–45 min), who are able to develop gaming strategies.

2. The rules of the game:
‘True and False Friends’ is played like any memory game. Place the selected cards face down on the table. Players then in turn uncover two cards.
If they think the pair forms a match, that is are true or false friends, ask them to explain or paraphrase the meaning of the words and confirm, or invalidate, their guess. If successful, a player puts the two cards next to him, before being allowed to guess once more. If not, it is up to the next
player to try his luck and test his memory. The game ends when all word pairs have been correctly identified. In a competitive game, the winner is the player with the highest number of cards.

3. Playing the game:
Lay all cards face down on the table, explain the rules of the game and then open it. Before announcing your decision whether a player has guessed right or not, consider asking the other players or add a short explanation on the meaning and usage of a word (see below) if the correct pairing seems difficult for the participants. After the game, ask the players which word pairs have been particularly hard to identify and obtain some feedback to better select your cards in future. If you don’t decide to run the game as a competition, its duration will likely be longer.

4. Additional explanations or activities (optional):
For elder children, teenagers and adults who are familiar with Poland’s history, you can close the came with a short lesson. Explain, for example,why the Polish language has more loanwords from German than vice versa and during which historical periods these were more frequent, such asthe Middle Ages (christianisation from West to East, settlement of German-speaking peasants and traders on Polish territories), after Poland’spartition in the late 18 century (when Prussia and the Habsburg Epire were occupying Polish territories), during World War II and after 1990and the fall of communism, or less frequent , such as during the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and after the refoundation of the Polish State.It is also possible to illustrate how loanwords have been adopted. Thus, the Polish word ‘szlafmyca’ was borrowed around 1793 from the German‘Schlafmütze’ (night cap), at a time when people frequently wore such a cap during sleep – as the wolf in the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood –to protect their head against the cold, their hair cut or the pillow from hair oil. In German, the word has another meaning, which does not exist inPolish, and also designates a ‘sleepy’ person, someone who reacts slowly, lacks attention, is lazy or simply sleeps a lot, thus becoming apotential ‘false friend’ for Polish heritage speakers living in Germany. If a word has been borrowed in both languages from a third language, suchas Latin, their meaning(s) may have developped differently. Thus, ‘konkurs’, from Latin ‘concurrere’ / ‘run ’ or ‘meet together’, has in Polish thesense of a sports ‘race’ or ‘competition’, while in German it refers to an insolvent business – orginally its creditors were coming together.Similarly, a Polish ‘kollega’ is a ‘friend’ or ‘acquaintance’ whereas a German ‘Kollege’ is a colleague at work.

You can also ask participants to write a short text with true and false friends, such as the one below on page 7, or to draw a comic-like scenethat illustrates a misunderstanding between two people through one or more false friends.