# Forum Other Languages Slavic languages Polish  My Grandmother Was Polish...

## Ник

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?

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## pernat

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

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## Линдзи

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.

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## Ник

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  ::

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## Линдзи

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."

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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...   ::

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## Saavedra

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

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## Евгения(Женя)

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...   ::

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## carperdiem

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

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## Евгения(Женя)

What does Prussian and junker mean?

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## Ник

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

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## Евгения(Женя)

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.   ::

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## Ник

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?

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## carperdiem

@'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.   ::

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## Gollandski Yozh

> 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.

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## carperdiem

doh......

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## Tambakis

> 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.   

> 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?

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## translationsnmru

> 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.

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## carperdiem

> 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 back_to 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.  ::

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## carperdiem

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.

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## Евгения(Женя)

Gollandski Yozh, since you asked who I was adopted by I will tell you. I was adopted by my adoptive parents that lived in Maine when they adopted us. Three and a half years later they got a nasty divorce and my adoptive father left for good, and our adoptive mother sent us to live with her brother(who has one son and his wife.) who lives in New York. We don't see her usually, but sometimes on holidays. And we never got to know her real real well, because we only lived with her for 3 years and a half and we lived with her brother for 7 years,  so hes really more like a parent than they were. I spent more time in the orphanage than I did with my adoptive parents. When we were with them, they were good to us, but we like it better with our uncle. He's going to take us to visit our first mother back in Ukraine.  It is sort of complicated story... If I made it seem sort of confusing you can ask me anything. lol

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## Gollandski Yozh

> Gollandski Yozh, since you asked who I was adopted by I will tell you. I was adopted by my adoptive parents that lived in Maine when they adopted us. Three and a half years later they got a nasty divorce and my adoptive father left for good, and our adoptive mother sent us to live with her brother(who has one son and his wife.) who lives in New York. We don't see her usually, but sometimes on holidays. And we never got to know her real real well, because we only lived with her for 3 years and a half and we lived with her brother for 7 years,  so hes really more like a parent than they were. I spent more time in the orphanage than I did with my adoptive parents. When we were with them, they were good to us, but we like it better with our uncle. He's going to take us to visit our first mother back in Ukraine.  It is sort of complicated story... If I made it seem sort of confusing you can ask me anything. lol

 Complicated story? Girl, complicated doesn't even begin to describe it!    ::

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## Евгения(Женя)

Yes it is complicated and long and there are lots of little parts to it   ::  . Our mom in Maine is going to come visit for a few days to see us during our school vacation(My uncle told me today). I think thats in two weeks or something, maybe three. But her father died in November of a heart attack, so she hasn't been visiting us as often because she's been with her mother(who lives in Main too.) But we've always written letters. SO COMPLICATED! I never really understood why she made us live with our uncle.....  ::

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## pookie123

my mom's parents are polish, they speak it just fine, they moved here ages ago, and dont use it much.

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## Евгения(Женя)

do you speak Polish too?

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## pookie123

> do you speak Polish too?

   well if you were asking me...no i speak it a little bit, but hardly at all. i know very little polish

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## carperdiem

> Lost in a Roman wilderness of pain...

  
Father..... Yes son-> I want to KILL you.......... 
Mother......... I want..to...... MRHGHRRGGHHHH COME ON  YEAHHHHH........  ::

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## Tambakis

> 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.

 Well, Texas is the schizz...you know it I know it...lets embrace the universal love for the Lone Star State.  ::  Which daughter? Ha, I wouldn't put it past either of 'em. They were always really rude to me, I personally don't like them much. The best food is always the backyard BBQ eats...mmmmm   ::

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## Ник

> Father..... Yes son-> I want to KILL you..........  
> Mother......... I want..to...... MRHGHRRGGHHHH COME ON YEAHHHHH........

 Lol. Gross man   ::  ! Those Romans! 
Geez Evgeniya, I feel like I know you personally now!

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## Nova

i think i might be part polish.  but i know i'm part german. funny how that is.  they're so similar...no? eh, no, not really, but they're practically identical to me, most every germ and pol i know is blonde.  but i'm not.  ...funny how that is, 'cause i'm part german and possibly part polish. (ah, by the by...my first post. exciting) why am i posting here?  i'm supposed to be learning russian...oh, it would be great to learn polish, too...if time and life allowed.  it's a much nicer, prettier language than german, and much different than english(in no way undermining germs).  i should prolly stick to russian for now, then i'll learn polish and ukrainian...hey, and then i'll already know byelorussian!  ok. enough..i wonder if my great grandmother was polish??

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## Angel_of_Death-NZ

> funny how that is.  they're so similar...no? eh, no, not really, but they're practically identical to me, most every germ and pol i know is blonde.

 
uh...lots of russians are blonde too...hair color is nothing.  (germans/poles) they are not similar at all.  I think your drunk.

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## Nova

> Originally Posted by Nova   funny how that is.  they're so similar...no? eh, no, not really, but they're practically identical to me, most every germ and pol i know is blonde.   
> uh...lots of russians are blonde too...hair color is nothing.  (germans/poles) they are not similar at all.  I think your drunk.

 
no. not drunk. like i said...i'm *not* blonde and i'm 1/4 german.  and i said, " *they're so similar...no? eh, no, not really*,..."why? are you blonde? or german? both? i love pollocks.  and germans.  so, anyway, yeah...i do know one brunette pole, though.  surprising.  i know one blonde byelorussian and one blonde latvian, but the rest from east europe/russia are brunette, while those i know from poland and germany are blonde, besides one.  that's all. but no, i'm not drunk.  actually, i don't drink.  i must get back to work. paka    ::

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Nova...your weird...there is no relation between germany and poland.  There is not a blonde hair majority in poland.  There are many blonde russians and dark haired poles. 
polish president and his wife  
ooohhhh...look at all the dark haired poles    
shiney boots and dark haird poles.  
some blonde haired russians  
see Nova...[/i]

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## Nova

o boy.  such extensive work to prove me wrong.  congratulations! you win.  that's ok, i'm not proud.  
there. you win. i believe you.  i'm wrong.  but good job.  they were nice, clear pictures.  great evidence.  well done.    ::  
by the way, guest, you spell "your" (you are) the same way as angel.  sometimes i'm observant.  
TAK...   ::  does anyone know how to say "of course" in polish? is it the same as it is in russian, "konyeshno"?  ::  also, how would you say "thank you very much"?  ::  
spasibo

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::  "of cource" in Polish is "oczywiście"   ::  "thank you very much" would be "dziękuję bardzo" 
With regards, 
Michal [/code]

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## brett

Dzien dobry, wszelki. Jak sie pan miewa? 
I don't really know how some families develop a 'really' blonde gene, as opposed to blonde/brown, in Eastern European countries. Hungary seems to have a larger percentage of white-haired's compared with other Eastern European countries. Though I'm sure a photo-gallery could be provided on their dark-haired populous  ::  , there is a linguistic link to back this one up. Hungarian is linguistically linked with Finnish (way back), and Finns most certainly have more blondes than Poland. 
Though the court trial is over in relation to 'most' Poles being blonde, there is a minority who seem to have strikingly light coloured hair. Norwegian like. I'm guessing that the Norse conquests made their way into certain parts of Poland. 
My question; Is there any minority group in Poland which acknowledges any Norse ancestry? 
Side note- I do like your photo evidence, *Guest*  ::  . But to play lawyer for a second- I'll pick you up on the fact that those Russian soldiers' hair ...is bleached.  ::  (though maybe you knew that).

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## Angel_of_Death-NZ

They were soldiers, no bleaching allowed!!!

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## Евгения Белякова

Mychal Duba: How are these pronounced: oczywiście" 
 "dziękuję bardzo" If it's possible can you write with Cryllic letters? If not it's no problem.   ::

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## Pathfinder

One of my great grandmothers came from Krakow, Poland, and one of my grandmothers was born in eastern Poland, what is now part of Belarus.

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## Angel_of_Death-NZ

Thats lovley   ::     This thread is about 2 months old.

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## Pathfinder

Well, There isn't a lot of activity in the Polish Lounge, so, why stop a thread?

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## Pasha

Evgenija, oczywiście - o-ch-i-vish-chye 
the i - is similar to a russian unstressed i eg in the word Iz rossII., ok 
hehe 
dziękuję bardzo, closet i can write in - Jen-koo-ye Bard-zo 
sorry if it doesn

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## brett

Evgenia and Pasha, cut that out. How dare one actually use Polish in the Polish Lounge. You guys are so off topic.  ::

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## Remyisme

My GreatGrandMother was Polish, from Balistuk(I hope I wrote it correctly), she immigrated with her doughter(my grandmother) when she was 9, to Moscow. My mom says that GreatGrandMa, spoke Polish fluently all her life and used to speak on it with her daughter and my mother a little too. My mother doesn't speak it fluently but knows a little, like some sentences and words, and I understand some of Polish too, because there are pretty solid quantity of words in Polish that r the same as on Russian. 
sometimes there r some words that r not the same as russian but the same as Ukrainian, like Thank you that Pasha said "dziękuję" - дякую(Dyakuyu) or love - (kohayu)

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## Jeff

Maybe the Poles tend to vote for dark-haired candidates ?
Here in the USA, it's been shown in studies that dark-haired men excel in business and politics. 
Apparently, they're considered more trustworthy.   ::   
By the way, it seemed to me that Podillia and Volyn had quite a lot of blondes.

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## Jeff

> Dzien dobry, wszelki. Jak sie pan miewa? 
> I don't really know how some families develop a 'really' blonde gene, as opposed to blonde/brown, in Eastern European countries. Hungary seems to have a larger percentage of white-haired's compared with other Eastern European countries. Though I'm sure a photo-gallery could be provided on their dark-haired populous  , there is a linguistic link to back this one up. Hungarian is linguistically linked with Finnish (way back), and Finns most certainly have more blondes than Poland. 
> Though the court trial is over in relation to 'most' Poles being blonde, there is a minority who seem to have strikingly light coloured hair. Norwegian like. I'm guessing that the Norse conquests made their way into certain parts of Poland. 
> My question; Is there any minority group in Poland which acknowledges any Norse ancestry? 
> Side note- I do like your photo evidence, *Guest*  . But to play lawyer for a second- I'll pick you up on the fact that those Russian soldiers' hair ...is bleached.  (though maybe you knew that).

 I'm not sure which Norse conquests you've alluded to but there have been many migrations of peoples across the lands of central Europe. Slavs and Teutons have given and taken territory, and undoubtedly assimilated many of each other. As evidence of this: In earlier times, Slavs lived further west, along most of the Elbe river, leaving behind several Slavic place-names in Germany, including 'Dresden.' And, of course, there is 'Gdańsk,' meaning 'Gothic.' 
If Slavs and Teutons resemble one another, it's because they've lived side-by-side (with the Balts) for at least three thousand years. 
I hope you weren't referring to the Norse "invasion" of Rus' that never happened.

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