Passing your Polish language and culture to your kids

1jolaThreads: 33 Posts: 2,737 Joined: Sep 23, 08 ♂	Sep 16, 10, 15:37 #61
Yet your son does not speak Polish.

f stopThreads: 33 Posts: 2,861 Joined: Dec 9, 09 ♀	Sep 16, 10, 15:55 #62
It was not easy. It's a miracle he does not speak with the Polish accent. ;) Me and my son practically learned English together.

IronsideThreads: 59 Posts: 6,787 Joined: Feb 26, 09 ♂	Edited by: Ironside Sep 16, 10, 16:10 #63
f stop: It's a miracle he does not speak with the Polish accent. ;) Well, if he was surrendered by English speaking environment, he wouldn't speak with polish accent anyway, and that is that, eh! People usually encourage children to learn as may languages as possible, you said Spanish ? Hell, that is your business anyway.

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Sep 16, 10, 17:29 #64

I don't know any Polish families living in England who do not speak Polish to their children. Even if they are fluent in English, they only teach their children Polish and assume they will learn English in school.

I am English and have a Polish husband and our son is grasping both languages with ease. I know another woman in the same situation and her children are fine with both languages, they do have more of a Polish accent but I see nothing wrong with that.

I think teaching children to speak 2 languages from a young age is better because over time it becomes natural to them.

z_dariusThreads: 22 Posts: 5,091 Joined: Oct 18, 07 ♂	Sep 16, 10, 17:34 #65
warszawski: I know absolutely nothing about Long Island, apart from its position on the map warszawski: Quite frankly, the situation in the states does not interest me. And yet you asked questions about the above? So you're not going to provides us with links to your wife's and her distinguished friends' research on the linguistic competence?

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Sep 16, 10, 17:57 #66

z_darius:

So you're not going to provides us with links to your wife's and her distinguished friends' research on the linguistic competence?

Every morning we wake and have breakfast with our children, we see that all the effort, hard work and money we have spent on education has been worthwhile. In life you get one chance at it, and you in your position with your knowledge, should now and understand exactly how proud we are of the achievements of our children. We have nothing to prove to anyone,because we have done it.

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Sep 16, 10, 20:00 #67

a very sensitive subject - trying to tell others how to parent, especially by those who do not have children. I used to do that too. Now, all I do is tell what I did, or would do, and let others make the choice for themselves.

Simpson:

I don't know any Polish families living in England who do not speak Polish to their children.

maybe it's because they're building houses in Poland? Sorry, cheap shot. Maybe there is a difference between those that leave until the economic situation improves and those that emigrate "for good"?

Wroclaw BoyThreads: 57 Posts: 5,478 Joined: Jul 3, 09 MEMBER ♂	Sep 17, 10, 09:16 #68
warszawski: this is NOT a pissing contest for who's child is better warszawski: my 13 year old's is Polyglot, First Polish, second English, French and Spanish at the same level. Fluent in reading ,speaking writing in all languages. In Aug 2010 started German according to the teacher my child will be fluent inside 12 months.

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Edited by: plk123 Sep 17, 10, 09:35 #69

Bzibzioh:

I don't believe that for a second!

just because you don't believe surely doesn't mean it's not true.. lol.. like you are some kind of authority on anything.. lol

Bzibzioh:

may regret that.

may or may not.. how about you quit preaching and judging people, eh?

Bzibzioh:

I'm not judging, just stating the obvious.

yes, you are judging.. you can back pedal on this all you want but it's there for all to read. haha

Bzibzioh:

If only, it could be useful to have the Polish passport.

he doesn't need to speak polish to hold a PL passport.

Bzibzioh:

I know, it's life. You can't predict how it's going to be but I still think that knowing ANY foreign language is beneficial for a kid. If only for the brain development.

obviously it didn't help you any.. too bad.. :)

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Sep 17, 10, 10:08 #70

Ironside:

I seriously think that not speaking to your child in your native language is idiocy.

your child native language may not necessarily be the same as yours, no?

Ironside:

Well, if he was surrendered by English speaking environment, he wouldn't speak with polish accent anyway, and that is that, eh!

not necessarily at all

f stop:

Maybe there is a difference between those that leave until the economic situation improves and those that emigrate "for good"?

and some don't care to assimilate while others want to.

Wroclaw Boy:

Wroclaw Boy

well said. lol

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Edited by: Ironside Sep 18, 10, 01:22 #71

plk123:

your child native language may not necessarily be the same as yours, no?

its irrelevant, the child may speak also his mothers language, acquired naturally ...

plk123:

not necessarily at all

Well, if his father speak English, his friends speak English and his all world speak English but his mother there no doubt that he would speak perfect English.
If his mother would speak English with polish accent then it would be more harmful to his linguistic ability than her speaking polish to him.
She is was just being ignorant, with an obvious chip on her shoulder - no offence....
And before you jump at me I don't judge her, I'm only expressing my opinion about something she choose to post on the public forum - and I didn't want to but your "defence" forced me to do it!

plk123:

and some don't care to assimilate while others want to.

Sure, you should forget polish then MR Borg!
This is a silly talk, Poles in Britain are blamed that they didn't assimilate after 5 years and yet Poles are refused right to dislike Jews who didn't assimilate after 5 centuries eh?

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Sep 18, 10, 03:31 #72

Ironside:

its irrelevant, the child may speak also his mothers language, acquired naturally ...

what is irrelevant is the mother's tongue if that is not where this child lives and will live... it's up to the mother and the father.. if they don't feel the "need" then who cares, really?

Ironside:

She is was just being ignorant, with an obvious chip on her shoulder - no offence....

bibz, most definitely.. otoh, f-stop, not so much.

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Edited by: warszawski Sep 18, 10, 11:41 #73

Wroclaw Boy:

warszawski:
this is NOT a pissing contest for who's child is better
warszawski:
my 13 year old's is Polyglot, First Polish, second English, French and Spanish at the same level. Fluent in reading ,speaking writing in all languages. In Aug 2010 started German according to the teacher my child will be fluent inside 12 months.

WB, taken out of context, if you have children WB,you should understand more.

Wroclaw Boy:

Arrived last saturday and what an expensive learning curve its been, i came back to settle, even booked the flights for my family to come over next week. After 4 days i was convinced it was a bad idea.

What can i say the UK is not what it used to be, it is the same only a lot, lot worse. Theres no work, nobody has any money, everybody ive spoken to has said the same. Its all doom and gloom, i know ive complained a lot about Poland over the past few years but jeeze its better there than here IMO.

Everyone, makes mistakes WB, the grass is not always greener on the other side. I wish you good luck in the place you choose to call home.

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May 8, 11, 23:37 #74

I know that this reply is going to be relatively late (AND LONG- sorry for that) after all the fighting has died down, but I do have an experience to add.

Personally, I'm still in school, overseas of course in a country where I've been taught in an English school my entire life. I remember as a kid, my mom would buy a ton of polish books and teach me the Polish language. I remember going through the "elementarz", learning "wiersze" and so on. My parents have always spoken only Polish to me at home, so when it was time for me to be enrolled in first grade well lets just say I hardly spoke a word of English. But the school accepted me anyway based on other skills I had and because I quickly caught onto the language. Within a year my English grew significantly and I didn't have a problem with communicating with kids my age (But might I add- people always seem to point out that I have an accent lol). Since then I've learnt an additional two languages, and speak them relatively fluently.

Despite that, my mom continued to work on my polish including writing through primary school. My parents never stopped speaking Polish to me at home, however I started adding more english phrases into my sentences, to the point that around 7th/8th grade I spoke only english at home whereas they spoke only polish to me. Of course I understood them, but for some reason I'd found speaking in polish harder (Or perhaps I was getting lazy). Now however I'm restraining myself from speaking english at home- there is NO WAY I want to forget the language of my heritage.

And thank goodness for that, because due to my parents forcing me to speak Polish at home - it makes it so much easier for me to study in Poland for university (it's my dream to study there).

Point is: I reckon parents should force their kids to speak Polish/their language additionally to the language of the country their staying in. You never know what the child will decide in the future, or which language will benefit them. Maybe none of them will benefit them, but why take the risk. If handled correctly, the child shouldn't get particularly confused between languages at all. Practice makes perfect. And it's a great way of the child to somehow keep in touch with their heritage :) If I ever become a parent, I'll make sure my kids speak polish. It'll make me feel sad if they don't. But hey-that's just me.

f stopThreads: 33 Posts: 2,861 Joined: Dec 9, 09 ♀	May 9, 11, 01:43 #75
Portugese. I wish I knew portugese right now. ;)

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