Can you BE Polish without SPEAKING Polish in the US?

Hardly, he was born in Poland and speaks the language fluently.

He might get mocked for staying there, but no-one here would deny that he's Polish.

Thanx Delph ;-)

You can't blame him. What sane person would want to stay in a country where you can get fined for saying something bad about the Bible?

according to you, we're all mixed breeds (as you so adamantly put it regarding Poles specifically) so what does his place of birth have to do with it?

this is why i keep asking these questions.

before you give each other a wet one, D, why don't you remind PennBoy about the time you called Polonia traitors, particularly the ones with American citizenship.

You can have both US and Polish passport. -.-

Btw, my kids do speak Polish, my point was that they don't have to in order to identify themselves as Polish Americans. Polish Americans bc their father is an American. And bc they have dual citizenship.

In the end, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks, it's what someone's heart tells them they are.

I disagree with this. But if thats how you feel...

As Kaszubi is in Poland and not an independent country I think you've answered your own question ;)

My own answer, is maybe. From an outsiders point of view i think it is actually very difficult to empathise truly with a Polish person in matters such as this. I think that it is because it is a country that has had so many attempts made to stop any form or belief in either A-Poland as a country or B-A freedom to express that "Polishness" (excuse the term please) that the subject arouses so very strong feelings, certainly in the generation one or two removed from my own. I struggled with this initially, however if anyone else truly is actually interested in this concept may i suggest the works of Norman Davies to you. He explains this much better than i, and indeed it was my partners father who purchased them for me to help me understand things a bit better. A worthwhile read for anyone :)

thank you. perhaps some of the people who insist you have to speak Polish to be Polish noticed, too.

Kashubians aren't Polish, in case that escaped your attention too.

delphi when was it the last time that you asked them about it??? I pretty much think they have a dual identity however bad it may sound

From what I've read - they have an identity similar to Scots - where you can either be both Kashubian and Polish happily, or just Kashubian and nothing else (except grudgingly - like me with a British passport).

(actually - one reason why I'll take Polish citizenship is to get away from having to write "British" on forms ;))

no you can not be polish if you do not speak Polish, you have to be born in Poland to be Polish.

oh, so you read something? nice. i happened to go to college with someone whose entire family spoke nothing but Kashubian all day long and he would stick a fork up your a$s for telling them they weren't Polish... i learned some Kashubian from him, too. i taught him some Silesian. all the time unaware we were violating the rules of being Polish...

As I said - some may identify with Poland, others may not. Quite normal for national minorities in Europe.

Or wait 'till 2014. When the vote for independence comes.

Can anyone imagine someone calling themselves English and not speaking English?? That's how silly I see someone who would call themselves Polish and not speak its native language.

No luck there, the vote is likely to be restricted to residents of Scotland only. :(


I'd say that it is totally impossible to get the culture of Poland without the language - I recall having an interesting discussion with someone about how the meaning of words in English and then the literal translation in Polish meant something totally different.

But that would be like admitting that there's such a thing as an ancestry or a race regardless of what language someone speaks. If it's possible for a woman to be Native American whether she speaks a Native language or not and whether she lives on an Indian Reservation or not, then it has to be possible for someone to be Polish or to have Polish ancestry regardless of what they speak or where they live.

I mean, genes do get passed down through the generations. I can sometimes guess where someone's parents or ancestors came from because of the way they look and I'll find that I'm right. It has nothing to do with the language they speak.

no, i will be Canadian with Polish citizenship.

If you remain ignorant of Polish traditions, history, current events, then I guess yes, in a way you would, otherwise no.

Hear hear shewolf!
One should note that the starter of this thread was convinced by Plastic Pole's answer that yes it is indeed possible to be Polish without speaking Polish:


But then a mere 8 minutes later a British expatriate, who isn't Polish, posted claiming that this answer isn't satisfactory. Why do these British people care so much about who is, or isn't, Polish? They should mind their own business.

Well if you didn't drive them to near extinction and actively do all you could to destroy their culture and WOL to make way for your swimming pools, or whatever, they may still speak fluently. However they didn't run from their homeland. America is theirs, NOT just the reservations. One can define oneselve in one's own country.Outside you can only distort and contaminate.

Des: One should note that the starter of this thread was convinced by Plastic Pole's answer that yes it is indeed possible to be Polish without speaking Polish:

Diluted though, like a liquor served in Moe's bar.

Actually its more like melted down in a crucible and made essential. Poles in America got to live in a freedom akin to that of the szlachta in the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, which was itself a republic in spirit like America. The liberal Polish spirit has thus thrived and flourished here amongst the descendants of those adventurous Poles who sailed away to this brave new world. Polish-Americans are tempermentally what Poles in Poland today would be like without the legacy of extra decades of Germanic and Russian oppression. Now that Poland is free and her sons and daughters are throwing off the dour grey cloak that the travails of the Twentieth Century left her clothed in. Poles and Polonians will eventually meet in a culmination of the Slavic people's great destiny to re-introduce the proper human lifestyle to he world- that of cooperative anarchy dedicated to human liberty and joy rather than the ugly consumerist wage slavery of the depraved West of Europe. Poles! my cousins! we are riding our steeds towards a new and golden era!

What about those that did run from their homeland during the wars? It happened a lot more than you might know. Are they no longer Native Americans because they live a few miles across the border?

I've known Native Americans who went to Europe in the military and they and their children (who are born there) are considered American Indians over there. They all get together in Europe. Try telling them that they're no longer Native Americans and see what happens. haha.

People readily accept that there are genetic ties between certain groups like Native Americans or African Americans or Latin Americans but when it comes to Poland, the idea is rejected.


Oh. I thought he was talking about his wife, that she's the one that believes that way.

The starter of this thread really just wanted to bow out gracefully, as he stopped feeling informed, and felt more like a spectator of a polemic battle royale.

That's what PolishForums is all about. ;)

After reading your posts I've got a question: why would somebody not teach their language to their kids? I mean, babies don't need classes, just a person talking to them and also they can learn more than one language simultaneously (say the father talks in English and the mother in Polish, or they learn Polish at home and English at school). So, no matter where you are or how good/bad of a teacher you are you can still do it.

Besides, it would feel weird to me to speak in a foreing language to my own kid, it's such an intimate relationship that I wouldn't feel confortable talking in English, for example.

a lot of Polish Americans who I have spoken to said that they spoke Polish until they started going to school as they were raised by their grandparents however their parents did not see the need for them to speak Polish in America and the children themselves could not see the point of carrying on speaking a language that they probably would not need in the future

My wife speaks impeccable English, but she mostly speaks in Polish to our daughter. She wants her to know both, and that's not gonna happen from me.