Wow thats nice... i have a friend from Mielec who lives here in Ireland... =) Seems like you travel alot like me =) I could be described as a travel-a-holic ;)
Brains expand to fit the knowledge they contain. If it is clear which language is to be spoken to whom and when, then children speaking more than one language works. I did hear something on the radio (BBC Radio 4 - Home Truths) a couple of years ago about a family where all the father's conversations with the children were in German, despite the fact they were English. Because all conversations were in German, they were never confused as to whether to use English or German. He spoke to his wife in English. I can't remember clearly, but I think the mother spoke to them in French.
okii thanks for bringing me back to the real subject at hand osiol! i was brought up by both parents german and they always spoke german to me... then in kindergarten i learnt english and had perfect english when i went on to school. in school i learnt irish... i think the fact that i already had german and english helped me learn a 3rd language.
in secondary school/high school i then went on to learn spanish for 3 years... this summer i stayed in madrid, spain for 3 months... i have to say the best way to learn a language is to get immersed in the countries culture... the people... and just to hear the language every day =)
I live in Australia and I've met one other polish family with children. The son, around my age didn't know much polish and talked english at home.
I guess I'm lucky, because at home from an early age it was nothing but polish. My grammar isn't good but on the plus side my pronounciation and understanding is good. I can even pronounce tongue twisters if I say them very slowly.
I think it's a shame to lose once's heritage and I really hope that if I have children I'll be able to pass polish on.
I think it's a shame to lose once's heritage and I really hope that if I have children I'll be able to pass polish on.
I agree :)... I think that when we have children we have the duty to pass down the heritage of our ancestors... If I never spoke german or english to my future children I think I would feel shame... Its one of the things that forms a person- the pride for their heritage.
Well from what I see, at least in a small percentage of my family the kids are kept stricktly to speak only Polish at home and to attended a Polish school wherever they live. But I also have members of my family who are in Australia which their kids are half Polish half Anglo, and either the fathers (are stupid) and oppose polish in the home because they don't understand - and as the kids are older now they also barely undertand except some basic words. So it depends on the parents and the discipline of what is kept inside the actual home, and also extra activities as polish school, polish friends etc. But sadly I don't think these day this discipline exist so stirctly and then yes, the children at school are teased for being different. This is when they tend to stop speaking Polish because they want to fit in. This is when the problem begins. Hope this helps for you.
the children at school are teased for being different
i was never ever (or so far as i can remember) teased when i went to little school... and this was before the time when alot of foreigners came to ireland... maybe it was due to the fact that i had a tall, blond big brother in the class above me! but even when i went to highschool i was never teased... i went to an international school where everyone was very accepting of different cultures and languages...
it is not something that happens to all kids. I have grown up everywhere (literally - moving around all the time). I found sometimes I was accepted, sometimes I was teased for having different accent or i said something in english which didn't sound to them how it should - whatever... it wasnt big deal to me. but my niece who is 11 years old is teased at her school, so at the moment my sister has much difficult time to keep her speaking Polish. They're living in australia. It doesn't help that her brothers also are "weird" towards speaking Polish, it is influencing her to make fun of the family who dont speak English like she does - but yet she doent want to speak a word in Polish. She understands but will reply in English only.
it is not something that happens to all kids. I have grown up everywhere (literally - moving around all the time). I found sometimes I was accepted, sometimes I was teased for having different accent or i said something in english which didn't sound to them how it should - whatever... it wasnt big deal to me. but my niece who is 11 years old is teased at her school, so at the moment my sister has much difficult time to keep her speaking Polish. They're living in australia. It doesn't help that her brothers also are "weird" towards speaking Polish, it is influencing her to make fun of the family who dont speak English like she does - but yet she doent want to speak a word in Polish. She understands but will reply in English only.
i hope things work out the right way for you and your sisters family... sometimes i say things that dont sound right in any of the 3 languages that i speak fluently but i just tend to laugh it off... and hey, accents can be queit helpful with boys later on ;)
best wishes!!
so am I
donde estas? cuantos anos tienes? vamos a practicar tu espanol un poco ;)
My case is confusing. I can read Polish fast...haven't recognized all the meanings of the words yet so I don't fully understand everything. Same with Spanish, i can read it..dont know what i'm reading. And then ya know theres boringass English.
i speach english learning polish. I can talk but not a conversation but it dosent matter im only 9 got a long time to go. POLAND IS THE BEST!!!!!! Ellie Roczniak
i m turkish my husband is polish ı dont know too much polish but ı m learning .my husband also dont know turkish.. we can only spaek in english and ı m wondering about my kids :))
Yes it is a real shame to lose one's heritage. I'm angry that my father did not teach me to speak Polish. When I asked him why he did not he said he thought it was a useless language for an English girl to learn. It never crossed his mind that I might want to go to Poland one day and meet my relations and find out about my Polish heritage.
I learned some Polish as an adult, using books and tapes.
One day we were in Poland together all sitting round a big table eating and drinking in someone's house. I heard someone ask my Dad why he didn't teach me Polish, and I heard him tell a BIG lie: he said he was so busy working all the time to support me and my mother.
Hahahahaha. My mother supported all of us; he spent all his time getting drunk in the pub.
It depends on the children too. We live in the USA and we treat all our 3 kids born here the same - we speak to them in Polish at home, in Polish and English in public. My older daughter (9) speaks good Polish and English with accent. The younger daughter (7) speaks Polish and English equally well without any accent (that I can detect). My son (7) speaks good English, but his Polish is difficult to understand.
i m turkish my husband is polish ı dont know too much polish but ı m learning .my husband also dont know turkish.. we can only spaek in english and ı m wondering about my kids :))
We were born in London in the early sixties & my brother and I were brought up speaking only Polish at home where we lived with my mum, grandfather and grandmother, so when we went to nursery school we really didn't know any English at all apart from a few essential words like 'yes', 'no', 'toilet', 'please' & 'thank you'.
It's amazing how quickly we picked up the English language. At home we predominantly spoke Polish, but also English to a lesser degree.
I now speak, read and write in both languages fluently, although I'd have to say my primary language is English as I make a few errors when speaking, reading, writing Polish. I never went to Saturday Polish school (I preferred to play football!) but kept the Polish language going by having reading/writing in that language checked by my grandparents - I passed 'O' Level (if anyone remembers those exams) in Polish without attending any formal lessons/classes.
I have done the same with my kids - we live in London but my wife (native Pole) and I spoke to them only in Polish from the moment they were born; they went to nursery school equipped with some essential English words and now aged 7yrs and 5yrs they are bilingual.
Kids at an early age are like a sponge and will pick up languages with great ease. I have spoken with parents at my kid's school who are of a mixed nationality and these children at 7 yrs of age are bilingual and some even trilingual!
At the school they have even started Italian language lessons once a week and I believe that next year they will be able to learn French.
It would be a great opportunity missed if children did not learn the languages of both parents ...... I believe learning languages later in life would be much harder.
i was brought up speaking polish all the way until i started elementary school. i was told by my mother that none of my teachers understood what i would say sometimes. that came from the fact that before i went to school my grandmother and grandfather, or great aunt and uncle would watch me and my two sisters while my parents worked. so i had a knowledge of both languages english and polish before i went to school as a young kid. now i am trying to relearn my grandmothers native language that she always spoke.
Well, YOU can speak Polish to them you know... That's really the only reason I know Polish: because my parents spoke it to each other and to my brother and me at home. Sure, I mixed in some English words here and there, but it's hard not to when you hear English all around you. But today, I speak Polish fluently and well, albeit with a accent. And I absolutely HATED it when my parents spoke English to me (which they did when they had company over, and out of respect for the non-Poles they would speak in English if they wanted something). But I couldn't stand my parents speaking English to me (yes, even in my rebellious teen years) because I felt like they were "putting on" something. It just didn't feel like my parents speaking to me. So if you cultivate an atmosphere at home where you only speak Polish, and you get your children to equate the Polish language with the close parent-child relationship, I think it will be easier for them to keep the Polish language.
My kids don't speak any Polish, but that's mainly because my wife doesn't speak it. If they want to, they can learn it later, I don't care. The important luanguages to learn now are Spanish and Chinese.
live in France, my mother is Polish and my father is French.
Just like my hero Fryderyk Chopin!
Anyway I am half Greek and half Polish. My mother was born in Poland and Father in Greece and they came here (my entire family is still back in Europe). Anyway. I speak English fluently, Greek fluently, but my Polish is rough. I only learned what I could from my mother. I do wish to master the language though someday.
The important luanguages to learn now are Spanish and Chinese.
Yes, but if you don't introduce children to another language before the age of 8, they will speak with an accent and won't be able to pronounce the words properly. The sooner the better. Childrens' minds are liks sponges, as they get older it is more difficult to properly learn a foreign language.
My son is speaking both. For him it is fun to speak Polish with Irish friends :P He is only 5 but he is not teasted for being different ... maybe because in his school - Educate Together - are children from whole world. And one polish guy is not big problem if you have children from Etiopia, RPA, Russia, Japan, Vietnam ect :)
