Passing your Polish language and culture to your kids

Yet your son does not speak Polish.

It was not easy.
It's a miracle he does not speak with the Polish accent. ;)
Me and my son practically learned English together.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.


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"?

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


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


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


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


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


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


not necessarily at all


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


well said. lol

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


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!


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?

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?


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

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


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.

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.

Portugese. I wish I knew portugese right now. ;)