There comes a time in the life of a blog when the author (in this case, me) has a sudden urge to confess. At the risk of alienating all my readers and passers-by, that time has just arrived here.
England is the country of my birth and the first 30 years of my life. I’ve never worn a bowler hat, but I’m undeniably English (I can accept ‘British’ and possibly even ‘European’ but, despite my name, I’m not Scottish!).
That’s the first part of the confession.
It gets worse …
I’ve had the following conversation several times.
“Do you speak Polish?” enquires a new acquaintance.
“No,” I reply, knowing exactly where the conversation is heading.
“Yes, I’m not surprised. It really is a very difficult language to learn. Especially for English speakers,” they say.
I nod in agreement with their attempt at sympathy for my challenge and pretend I didn’t notice the thinly veiled insult.
“How long have you lived here in Poland?” they continue their polite enquiries.
“Fifteen years.”
I deliver this with a well-practised expression of self-confident humility over a shallow layer of embarrassment. I notice an immediate shift in them - from sympathy to outrage.
“FIFTEEN YEARS!” they almost shout. “And you still haven’t learned our language?”
At which point they either interrogate me or give up on me and go do something else.
It’s true!
The thing is, I completely and fully understand their reaction.
I’ve lived in Poland for 15 years. Since 1st June 1994 to be exact. And my spoken Polish is just about sufficient for me to feed myself and travel, provided everything is straightforward. I can understand a portion of what’s said to me directly and just about follow a simple conversation between two people.
But by no stretch of anyone’s imagination could it be said that I speak Polish.
Give me your best shot
I understand how I might appear as an arrogant, selfish Englishman who expects everyone else to speak English.
I understand how it might be perceived as a lack of respect, laziness or stupidity.
I know I miss out on potential social and cultural life.
I know it’s inconvenient getting things done.
I understand all this, really I do. I’ve lived it for the last 15 years and I’m not proud of it.
BUT
I’m not going to defend myself or make excuses. I’ve been doing that for 15 years and I’m pretty much fed up with it.
Everyone is free to disagree with me, but please don’t judge me for it. I’ve spent a good part of the last 15 years judging myself for it, and I doubt there’s anything you could think about me that’s worse than what I thought about myself.
I don’t want to learn Polish. I enjoy the peacefulness of being able to tune out all the mundane conversations that go on around me. I like that when I express myself, I’m only struggling in my native language and not super-struggling in a second language.
The simple truth is that I choose not to learn Polish and, now, I’m very much at peace with my decision.
It’s really very liberating to be free of my self criticism and brow beating. The curious thing I noticed is that now I’m at peace with it myself, the attacks I sometimes get from others have no impact on me at all. They used to be like verbal bullets but now they are more like gifts.
I listen.
I understand how it is for them.
I empathise with their reaction.
At the same time I know this is my decision, this is my life and I don’t need to defend myself to anyone.
So there!
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Well, Ian, congrats for that one.
Why would you chose to learn a foreign language if you can get on with your current one? Isn’t speaking a way of getting around stuff? Since when it has a deep quality value? You are ok with the amount of Polish you speak (could be Romanian or Swahili, I understand that), it gets the job done for you, so why bother?
Really, now…
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Ian’s reply:
Hi Dragos. In fact, I can think of several reasons, beyond the practical, for learning other languages. For example, Poland has a very rich literature, especially poetry and I could get a taste of that (not the full flavour, as I believe only native speakers ever get that).
I have English and enough French, German, Polish with a smattering of Italian and Romanian to get by. And Polish serves as a starting point in Czech, Slovakia and to some small extent the Balkans. So for practical purposes I think I do pretty well
Hi Ian,
Bravo to you for living in Poland for 15 years and managing without needing to learn Polish! My husband is from Poland and I know some words. It is a hard language in the sense the letters don’t sound the way that they look at least to someone whose native language is English. My husband laughs when I try to say Warsaw in Polish. So I know how you feel and I enjoy listening to it too. Oh…I know that my favorite Polish dish (vegan style) is bigoes (I probably spelled that wrong).
So no worries, my friend, you are not judged!
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Ian’s reply:
Thanks Nadia! Care to share your recipe for vegan bigos with me? I love that dish, but since I haven’t been able to face meat since the start of the year, I haven’t been tempted.
In fact, I don’t find the pronunciation the problem but I really struggle with the grammar and especially the declination of every single word. I start a word and just don’t know how to finish it. After around 5 years of lessons I just had to accept that I was never going to learn it. Took another 5 years to come to terms with living somewhere and not speaking fluently.
Hi Ian
I can imagine how much work it is to not react to all the comments.
We should all be able to choose what we want and not even have to explain it.
I am English-speaking, but Cornel is Afrikaans speaking. I learnt Afrikaans at school but that was 15 years ago and I certainly wasn’t all that proficient at it. Cornel’s English is just fine, but for me it is important to speak and understand his language. We speak both at home.
My Dad is Afrikaans, but we never spoke it at home because my mother is British. 50 plus years of marriage and she still can’t speak the language. That’s OK.
Juliet
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Ian’s reply:
Well I got used to the questions. Mostly people are very understanding. Often when I speak Polish in public they reply in English, which is a little humiliating!
My wife is Romanian, my youngest daughter is half Polish and I work mainly in Belgium with Belgian, Swiss, Norwegian, Danish and Finnish people. So I’m very comfortable in multi-lingual environments!
Well I still love you. I speak English (Australian bastardised Pommie talk) but I don’t speak ENGLISH….when I was working in England, a woman on the phone told me that she wished the local council would only employ English speakers!
My first question of a foreigner living in Poland is: are you Catholic?
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Ian’s reply:
The English in England can be very uptight about it! Not many fully appreciate how lucky they are that English is the second language of choice of most of the rest of the world. I’m often outraged at the arrogance of my fellow islanders when they’re abroad.
And yes, I am Catholic….. and Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Atheist and every denomination and religion and non-religion. Except Scientology and Mormon, but that’s another story
Ian,
This was an entertaining post to read, and I hope you meant it that way. If I were in your shoes I would probably pretend to be deaf and dumb so I won’t have to answer those awkward questions. All power to you for standing your ground and not apologising for it!
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Ian’s reply:
Daphne, it was one of my frequent attempts at an entertaining yet deep article. As you were not 100% sure, maybe I wasn’t 100% successful. Oh well!
I will add to my confession that, yes, there have been times when I’ve pleaded ‘I’m sorry I don’t understand Polish’ when, in fact, I have understood enough to know that it’s not a conversation I want to have. Usually it’s tele-sales which seems especially rife in Poland. Sometimes it backfires and they switch into perfect English!
Ian,
Seems to me that is a statement of self-acceptance. I think it’s healthy and mature.
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Ian’s reply:
Hey Laura! How are you, my dear? Wonderful to see your name pop up here! Healthy and mature? Nice!
Hi Ian,
Do you want me to place the recipe on here or should I email it to you? Just let me know.
I would be more than happy to share the joys of vegan bigos!
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Ian’s reply:
Tell you what, why don’t you Email it to me and I’ll add it to a post?
Probably not the next post because that’s about capital punishment and may not fit so well with the theme and tone of that topic. Maybe I’ll create a special post in honour of ‘nonviolent bigos’. How about that?
While we’re at it .. anyone else want to share nonviolent recipes and I’ll add them to the post. I’m serious.
I live in London and if anyone says to me “everyone speaks English” my answer is “Listen and look around you”. If people in London do not speak English then the whole question of a global language is completely open.
The promulgation of English as the world’s “lingua franca” is impractical and linguistically undemocratic. I say this as a native English speaker!
Impractical because communication should be for all and not only for an educational or political elite. That is how English is used internationally at the moment.
Undemocratic because minority languages are under attack worldwide due to the encroachment of majority ethnic languages. Even Mandarin Chinese is attempting to dominate as well. The long-term solution must be found and a non-national language, which places all ethnic languages on an equal footing is essential.
An interesting video can be seen at http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_YHALnLV9XU Professor Piron was a former translator with the United Nations
A glimpse of the global language,Esperanto, can be seen at http://www.lernu.net
Thanks for visiting Brian. I suspect that the momentum English has built as the main International language is pretty much unstoppable. I’d be surprised if Esperanto managed to take that place .. but good luck!