Thread: My Grandmother Was Polish...

Yeah, my grandmother was Polish and spoke it fluently. She came to the U.S. when she was 14 and forgot all of it?! Can you imagine, forgetting your native language!? She just had no use for it. Anyone else have a similar story/experience?

Apparently, Polish must be so difficult that you keep forgetting it unless
you practice every day

Ah, that rascally Polish. Always escaping.

Seriously, I suspect your grandmother's Polish would come back to her, at least partially, given extended exposure to a Polish-speaking environment.

You're probably right Линдзи. However she's like 88 now and has dimensia so I'm not too sure. Under normal circumstances I'm sure that would probably be the case

Heh. Okay, so if she wasn't 88 and senile, then. My understanding of neurobiology (granted, it's a cruddy understanding; I can't even dissect sheeps' brains properly, and actually lost the hypothalamus once during a practicum) is that one does so much lose the actual encodings but rather the connections between encodings, and thus it is easier to re-learn information, as often one merely needs to...re-connect to the stored information.

That was a terrible explanation. To put it in a cliche: "to refresh your memory."

My grandparents are Polish, but my grandma apparently never learned to read it. She still speaks it all the time, though. Too bad she's 3,000 miles away or I might have learned it too...

Crap, I forgot to sign in... that last post was mine

Ник, I have a similar expirience to your grandmother. I was adopted with two sisters of mine from Ukraine. When we were in Ukraine, we spoke only Russian. Then we came here and forgot ALL of it. My adoptive parents tried to have this nanny speak Russian to us, but we didn't want to speak Russian so she didn't come anymore. After that, I never heard it. Except, I would go to this restaurant with my American grandmother sometimes, and there this Russian woman(Originally from Belaruse I think), who would speak Russian to me. I would always answer in English though(Sadly), but I understood her. It makes me very upset that I lost all of my Russian, but it isnt that hard to relearn because I knew it when I was younger but I still wish I had spoken it all of these years...

Can you call yourself "part Polish" if you have some Prussian ancestors? Junkers count as Polish?

What does Prussian and junker mean?

I don't know carper. I can't call myself part Polish unfortunately because my father was only adopted by my grandmother .

Your fathers adopted to your grandmother? How interesting! So I'm not the only one! Where is he adopted from? Is he Polish himself? Forgive me for asking, but I don't know many adopted people like me and when I find out about someone it makes me happy.

He was adopted in Illinois, USA I assume. He grew up there and lived there until 1985 when I was born. I have no idea what nationality he is because he's never met his birth parents. Who were you adopted by?

@'Женя the great', Prussia was a country that was in northern Germany and northen Poland along the Baltic Sea. My ancestors (on my Dad's side) come from a place called Pomerania in that area.

Junkers were the aristocracy of Prussia, noted for militarism. Pointy shiny hats.....handle bar mustaches...... sigh Every time I go back to Texas to visit relatives I have to live the 'glory days of Prussia' all over again.

With every hoist of beer in the 'Biergarten' "ES LEBE PREUSSEN, ES LEBE DEUTSCHLAND!" ..... silly Lutherans.....

Many German generals and statesmen were Junkers including Hindenburg and Irwin Rommel (Desert Fox ). Anyway, as you can see that is pretty damn German, but Prussia IS (er.... was.. yeah... was ) in the area of Poland. And I would MUCH rather be part Polish than part German.

Originally Posted by carperdiem

Can you call yourself "part Polish" if you have some Prussian ancestors? Junkers count as Polish?

No. Prussians are Germans. Not Slavs. They inhabited lands that are now (after WWII, mainly) Polish, but, for the most part, didn't use to be. Of course, there were Poles living in Prussia too, but they didn't belong to the aristocracy, the Junkers.

doh......

Originally Posted by Женя

but I don't know many adopted people like me and when I find out about someone it makes me happy.

I know what ya mean, I'm adopted too...great fun.

Originally Posted by carpie-baby

sigh Every time I go back to Texas to visit relatives I have to live the 'glory days of Prussia' all over again.

Hahaha... You love it, Prussian glory days...*sigh* good times. Go back, eh? What part are you from?

Originally Posted by Gollandski Yozh

No. Prussians are Germans. Not Slavs. They inhabited lands that are now (after WWII, mainly) Polish, but, for the most part, didn't use to be.

That's an arguable point. It depends on how far in the past you look. The Teutonic Order originally received Prussian lands (East Prussia) from Polish king, and most, if not all, of the West Prussia was a part of Poland before the first partition of Poland (1772). All Germans in West and East Prussia were eiter immigrants or descendants of assimilated indigenous population. And the original Prussians (before the German conquest) were a Baltic people speaking a language closely related to Latvian and Lithuanian.

Hahaha... You love it, Prussian glory days...*sigh* good times. Go back, eh? What part are you from?

Austin... I am not from there originally. I just mean when I go backto visit my Dad's side of the family. I guess I should have said "go down". Maybe I subconsciously consider it retrogression in many respects.

No offense to those who like Texas, just not my cup o' pilsner. Hey, you can't complain about the food. Good food an' all @ Blue Bonnet Cafe. One time I was there and Bush's daughter took a hit of amphetamine at the table RIGHT IN THE SAME ROOM! Oh yeah.... well, not really about the drugs an' all, but she WAS there.