Americans who call themselves Polish - how do you feel about that?

I'd like to know what the heck an American accent sounds like!

ahhhhh I see how it works.. so All I need to do is play in few movies and I will
be polish.. :)))


Good guess :))

to many times people say over and over. your American..

We know this.. but.. to many times I keep repeating myself.. Aside from the
American indians.. who can say their roots stem from American soil..
mine as well as a good 3/4 if not more are all of some other ethnic background.
who all immigrated from some other country..

HAHAHA

Are you taking the **** or serious?

The American accent is the most easily distinguished accent in the world, even easier to recognize than a scottish accent.


Play in a few movies!?
Mother of God, you poor woman, do you not know who JFK was!!??


But that policy makes no sense at all!

How do you think the native Americans got to America? Through a land bridge 10,000 years ago. They are not an indigenous people, they simply emigrated a few millenia before everyone else.

Caucasians are not indigenous to Europe, we orginally come from either Northern Africa or India.

Irish People in Northern Ireland today are descended from people who came from Scotland or England only a couple of hundred years ago.
They call themselves Irish, even though they maintain clannish politics etc.

its not a policy.. I can see your point, but America does not have the long
history..


that was before a nation and culture were formed.. how far back are we talking here?

is it when we all sat in a cave drawing pictures of the days hunt. :))))

well its simple, there are all sorts of cases where people are born or live in another country where they have either settled, been born into or adapted to the language and culture of that country and call themselves polish etc etc.

It rather depends on the individual, If somebody Polish moves to England then i would expect them to say they are 100% no matter how long they have lived here. However if they have children then they are considered English in British law and also Polish, so they would have duel nationality.

If i moved to say Poland for the rest of my life tomorrow, i would learn the language but always remain and call myself English, if i had children in Poland then i would teach them both the Polish and English cultures as they would be a duel national.

I would hope and expect all people from whatever country to do this in my country. its nice when you are speaking with somebody, lets say in this case Polish and they can talk to me in english, it makes me feel like they are making an effort to adapt to the English culture and generally communicating with the inhabitants of their adopted home.

sorry if my words seem rushed or un educated, i'm a bit tired tonight :)

Aha! You've been Americanized....

Think of a southern American trying to speak French, and you'll get the picture of what an American accent is :]

LMFAO, good analogy

My fiancee always says Irish people sound like they are trying to speak with hot potatoes in their mouth, HAHAHAH, its so true!

Oh, okay... if you say so??? I suppose that's why when my relatives and I travel abroad, people are usually not capable of distinguishing which country we live in.

You're generalizing too much dannyboy.


That includes you too homeboy!

not taking care of parents has nothing to do with american.

the fact remains.. and i having first hand experience at it that taking care of someone
who is sick is a 24 hour job..

me and my two brothers and neice all took wonderful care of my mom.. but it was
extremely stressful, we all have jobs and me and my niece having kids.. you dont
want the kids to see grandma or grandpa suffering all the time.. even though they
wanted to help, it was extremely hard on them when i was gone for 8 hours to
work then another 8-10 taking care of mom and going home to sleep, and catch
up on my housework and shopping and other things neglected.

and if your parent is completely disabled and no longer able to move and completely
bedridden and it takes two to four people to lift them because they are heavy, or
have edema ( holding water) and swollen.. no one even knows till they have crossed
that bridge.. so stop throwing stones.. nursing homes were created by people who
obviously seen the stress and pressure one family goes thru just to care.. and if
its only a husband and wife who have no children and the wife has some type of
ailment how on earth can she provide care for her husband who is completely disabled?

nursing homes are not anything we want to do.. Ive worked in them and let me tell
you that the families are grief stricken and guilt ridden.. times have changed to where
jobs that take you out of town make it impossible for someone to be home,,
some are only children with no help etc..

* throws back the stones*

its not fair to make such a statement without knowing.. thats all.
FYI I did take care of my mother till she died. it was the hardest time of my life..
and we did finally have to have someone come to our home to give us some
relief to work and take days to catch our breath.. I dont wish anything bad upon
anyone, but its harder then people realize once that bridge comes.

Ps.. i would just like to add that the cost of home care is extremely high and
its a out of pocket expense.. so most do not have the funds to have home care
and have no choice but to use a facility that provides 24 hour care and accepts
medical insurance..

LOL, I can't believe your trying to deny that an American accent exists.
There is nothing wrong with having an accent by the way, everybody has one, regardless of your nationality.

Have a read off that
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_American


And there you have also demonstrated a modern American dialect.
You can check all other English speaking countries, no other nation says 'homeboy'.
That is also American.


Excellent post Patrycja, nice to see a bit of reality brought to the conversation.

I'm not saying in all cases, but in some cases, the elderly prefer to be in a home in the twilight years as they realise they are too burdensome to a young family. In a home they may be surrounded with like minded people.

re: Do you think that they are kidding themselves that they are Polish?
Should they simply say they are americans?

- Well, I think that when some Americans say they are Polish, they actually mean that they are Americans of Polish origin. From my experience, that's how this term is used in America.

Similarly, folks in America who say they are Irish mean that they are Americans of Irish origin.

It's ok to acknowledge and appreciate one's roots, isnt it?

But, I think, those Polish American and Irish American folks are very different than Poles in Poland, or Irish in Ireland, respectively.

Generally, Europeans are quite different than Americans.

Then there those of us that are decendants from those that came from the South of Ireland to England and we call ourselves English, funny old world isnt it :)

Sorry, but that's so common with us Americans, isn't it? We often identify ourselves by the nationalities of our ancestors. I'm 50% Carpatho-Rusyn, 25% French Canadian and 25% German - I can't help it; that's what I am. Sure, I'm an American - that goes without saying, but I'm also an amalgam of all that came before me.

Lots of times this starts out as a defense mechanism when parents or other adult role models begin expressing their racism to younger people - "don't hang around with that dumb Polak" or "what do you expect from a Jew?" Kids want to find out what "they" are, so that they are prepared to respond to taunts from other kids. Other times it's simply a source of family pride - everybody wants to be Irish on Saint Patrick's Day, but it's only those with Irish blood that can proudly proclaim that they are. This is part of what makes America and Americans interesting.

How can anyone be a third anything. It's a mathematical conundrum to me. Half Polish I understand. 25% Polish I get, but a third? Did they have three parents? Maybe they were Mormons. Help, somebody please explain.

If their mother was 1/6 polish and their father was 1/6 polish, they would be 2/6 polish =1/3

:-)

Addition, multiplication - whatever!

I'm a ninth part Guinness

..the black bit or the froth ? <joke>

:)

You should know by now that I'm all froth and no substance

I'm 1/4 noxious fumes, 2/5 testosterone enanthate, 1/7 budejowicky budwar, 7/12 milona and 1/2 buffalo flavour hunky dories

you are correct.. and some dont have any family as they have never married and
have become estranged from the family they did have.. those who are homeless
also go to nursing homes when they are in need of long term care and not yet
ready to go out into society.

wow.. we have just pointed out so many other reasons why people go to nursing homes and its not because their American family dont want them..

....nice reply :)

Correction: The offspring would also be 1/6 Polish.
1/3 total contributed from both Polish parents x 1/2 (or.50) = 1/6


Bye, I have to go and answer the phone with my American accent.

I read this thread and I am ashamed of my Polish roots. I had no Idea Poles were such snobs. I thought Poland and America were close allies. Am I wrong here. Are all of you saying that because I am second generation Americans I have no right to my family heritage. I feel drawn to my heritage the older I get. I want to be married to a nice Polish girl. This thread makes me think of another Country, not that long ago, that felt that a Pure Blood is the way to be a superior race. If I know my history didn't that country use the poles to suplement there race. Maybe a little Nazi propaganda still lives in Poland. I really wanted to find a way to visit the country of my grandparents. Maybe I should rethink that if this is typical of the way most Pure Blood Poles think.

I think its a differnce between people who are proud and actually practice the polish lifestyle rather then people that just say it to say it.

I also think its shame full when sluts or man ****** say F me because I'm polish.........I dont think people should bring neg aspects to our hertiage meanings

And what gives you the right to judge? Being polish and proud is a good thing......some people have no choice where they were brought in or where they were forced to live.......

Do any other Americans really think they are the only people in the world that dont have an accent?

I am genuinely interested in people's responses to this.

Of course we have an accent to everyone who's not American.

I'm not trying to awkward here but I would still disagree.

Sometime from Texas has a noticably different accent to someone from New York or California, all are still American of course.

No different to the difference in the Irish accent between Cork/Dublin/Belfast, or the Polish accent between Warsaw/Krakow.

That doesn't take dialect into consideration of course.

To a European, we phonetically pronounce most words similarly whether it be a Southern accent or Northern. Some just have more of a twang :), but overall it's a different accent than British English and easily noticed as American.

The reason I was posing the question was because of Beckski's earlier responses on the subject. I wasnt sure if it was a a generally held belief in America that because someone has the same accent as you they therefore dont have an accent.

Understandable on a very basic level. Funny nonetheless.

I would hope people don't think this way :)