One parent Polish, the other one German - their children?

Is there a trait or intrinsic mannerism that is found in children of Polish & German parents?
I'm referring to demeanor, courtesy, patience, congeniality, etc.

What kind of question is that?

The question sounds extremely generalist. Is there some observation that you or others have made that this question is based on?

you mean, one parent Polish, the other one germanized Pole or Serbian who now consider itself as German?

Well, I went to high school with a guy I thought was a perfectly regular Pole, until I found out that one of his parents was German and the other was Ukrainian. So the answer is -No.

You act like this is unusual. Polish-German marriage rate is VERY high. Many people have both Polish and German heritage.


Shut up.

If one parent is Polish and the other parent is something else then it is proper to default to Polish as your heritage. ... unless of course you are a jerk. In that case, you are the other ethnicity. :)

I have found that generally, people who are half-sies usually claim Polish as their ancestry. An English friend of mine even commented on that phenomena.

That's why I call myself Polish. My Dad is Polish, my mom something else so I default to Polish.

Yes, they are very good at football.

Numerous studies in fact have been made measuring the cognitive learning patterns of bilingual language learners, not necessarily of half Polish-German parentage, but many other mixed groups as well-:)

Lyzko, could you tell me more about the findings? :)

I think it could, and I heard something about it, that bilingual situation could be a precipitating factor for some problems that occur in childhood.

Sounds reasonable to me, instead of being flooded by one world and its words, the child develops often conflicting ideas, concepts of different worlds materialized through two different languages.

Gladly, Natasa!

The University of Kraków a mumber of years back, published an on-line paper or thesis by a Polish professor of Cognitive Linguistics (whose name, typically, I've forgottenLOL) reseaching Polish-Russian children and, through 'play therapy', attempted to show how these children who grew up in bilingual homes, coped with two languages at school along with other social interactions.

Just a brief addendum here, to be sure, many of those children tested for the study, indeed experienced numerous culture shock-type issues throughout the period of their childhood, even up through adolescence. As far as adulthood, no further research in this area has yet been done, to my knowledge.

Confusion, some loss of structure language gives caused by concepts from different languages that are not always compatible or overlapping, sometimes even denoting different phenomena, I guess could cause lack of clear lines that one language gives. Inner world filled with struggle over primacy of one of the worlds.

Second problem more psychological one, identity issues. Mom, dad, what am I? (question that has more relevance in Europe, not that much applicable to countries that offer third citizenship based identity like Americans, Australians ....)

Exactly, Natassa!

This feeling of "identitylessness" is often reinforced among the bilingual (not necessarily 'bicultural'!!) children of mixed-nationalty parents. I'm reminded on another note, of the person who was born abroad, came to the States at thirteen, learned English as a secondare tongue, yet grew estranged from his native or 'born' language and finally exclaimed after being in America for almost thurty years that even after all this time, there was literally NO language they could speak without a brokem grammar or accent - their original language or English-:)

One should not generalise, as various scenarios are possible re rearing kids in a bilingual/biethnic setting. It can be a blessing since many bilingual youngsters do better at school, but it can also be traumatic. If each spouse tries to sway the child over to their own ethnicity and derides that of hteir spouse, the youngster may feel torn. In some cases, one spouse is culturally active whilst the other is ethnically indifferent. Probably the best arrangement is where each parent supports the ethnicity of his/her spouse and helps turn the family's biculturalism into an interesting adventure.

True, Polonius, I agree! In my case, I was raised not purely bilingual, but nearly, since I heard German around me all the time, but spoke English on the streets. Having been raised in New York, even if Yorkville while it was still a German neighborhood, my first and sole language of instruction in school was English, not German-:)

Related:

Bloodline question <> Polish or German?


Easy....if there is a football match between Germany and Poland whose flags is she waving?
Which team should win?
*looks mysterious into glass orb*
The blood will tell...ja ja...