PolkaZaGranica
8 May 2011
Life / Passing your Polish language and culture to your kids [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.
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.