Polish Culture Observation

Language is a major part of everyone’s life. Every country or even a community have their own language or a way of speaking, and these are the things that differentiate people from one another. Jamila Lyiscott speech, “3 Ways of Speaking English” and Suzanne Talhouk speech, “Don’t Kill Your Language” on TED talks, addresses different issues related with language and the way of speaking a particular language. Both of the speeches effectively use rhetorical elements or devices. Both of these people are well-known speakers, so they have some credibility even before they begin speaking. When they do start their speeches, both effectively employ emotional appeal, facts and logic to convey their intended message to the audience.

The film “American Tongues” documents a variety of English accents that are present across the United States and highlights a lot of the opinions people have about accents and people who speak these accents. A large majority of the people who express opinions about other peoples’ accents tend to express negative views, as they see their own accent as the superior one. The film focuses on showing the array of accents found in the U.S., but also how a lot of people who speak these “inferior” accents work to learn “Standard American English” to increase their chances of getting jobs and communicating in more official domains. Although the film was made in 1988, it expresses views still present in today’s society towards different accents, as people tend to continue judging others based not only on what they say, but also how they say it.

In my experience emerging in a country where most people look and act a certain way, while I am the outlier thanks to my different looks and traditions, has made me a minority. Being born in Mexico City from a Jewish family that immigrated from Poland two generations ago, and then going to college in Texas, has made me feel the differences of being lets say, “different”.

Gil Ackerman is a prominent realtor in Florida that truly understands life as a Hungarian-American seeking a community with shared traditions. There is a thriving Hungarian-American population in South Florida constantly influencing the culture and experience of life in Florida and America. For many Hungarian-Americans looking to embrace the evolving way of life of a Hungarian-American living in America, while still looking to live recognizing their roots and rich Hungarian history, Hungarian-Americans have created a culture visible and authentic that is a true melding of both countries and backgrounds.

Dr. Cieslicka is Polish and she discusses her culture proudly and she wants to maintain her cultural ties, even if she ultimately

Relations with the British effected the Mohawk in many ways but, in order to understand how it affects them. One must understand their lives and culture before they had any European contact at all.

Christendom, is one of the foundational building blocks of the Polish identity and culture. Christianity is so deeply ingrained in Polish heritage and national feeling that it is a great tool to inspire people which Mickiewicz takes great advantage of. Mickiewicz appeals to this religious fervor and hopes that these powerful beliefs will stir up the polish people, and perhaps even provoke them into an uprising against evil foreign oppressors. According to Mickiewicz, the Polish struggle for independence is pure, just, and true when he writes “But the Polish nation alone did not bow down to the new idol, and did not have in its language the expression for christening it in Polish…….. The Polish nation worshiped God, knowing that he who honoreth God giveth honor to everything that is good. The Polish nation, then from the beginning to the end was true to the God of its ancestors.” Through such language, Mickiewicz is able to align the Polish struggle to that of a religious struggle. He does this by simply comparing Poland’s hardships to that of Christianity and Jesus Christ. By doing so, he gives the Polish movement for independence legitimacy in the eyes of god and this reassures Poles that their struggle is for a noble cause. This depiction of this struggle is unique and empowering as it validates their mission. In conclusion for Mickiewicz the struggle for Poland is a struggle for

This culture reacts to sickness differently than other cultures. It is traditional to have a long list of natural remedies and herbs that can cure illness versus going to the doctor and taking medications. They believe there are specific causes that lead to catching certain illnesses such as if you sit on the cold concrete as a woman, it will freeze your ovaries, and that will result in infertility (Wells 2014).

Research the Warsaw Ghetto. April 19 to may 16, 1943 while the world war II was going on, other people of the Jewish Ghetto in Nazi Occupied Warsaw. Poland put an armed revolt against the deportations to expiration camps. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising helped inspire other revolts in extermination camps and Ghettos throughout German-occupied Eastern Europe.

In Pikuni society what separates a man from a boy is his reputation and goals he has accomplished, an example of this is White Man’s Dog getting praise for the raid and being seen as more mature and reliable. What separates a woman from a girl is her ability to bear children and attract men, an example of this is how people saw Red Paint differently after she had married White Man's Dog, she was seen as more important and not like an object for sale at a store. In our society what separates the young from the grown is our maturity, ability to care for ourselves, goals we have accomplished, and training we have gained. The difference in transitions from old to young shows us some of the cultural differences between us and the Pikunis by giving

Communication Project: Polish Immigrant J.B. was only nine years old when he came to America from Poland. Today J.B. is 88 years old, retired, and here to tell me about his experience. Upon his journey to America, he was taken away by Nazis to a concentration camp. Days later he escaped and was found hiding with other young boys in the woods. The U.S. soldiers that found them had brought them to America.

The Ashkenazi enjoys their lives. Humor is not a means of getting through a stressful life but an added advantage of making them live long and happy. They have been assimilated into the American society, which makes it difficult to differentiate them from the real Americans. They have adopted the American culture, which has even changed their approach as they have even dropped the accent, and become new age Americans. However, the Sephardi has remained genuine and loyal to their Jewish origins. They still have the Jewish accent and they humor concentrates of the Jewish culture and the issues affecting them. He has enabled them to remain relevant in the comedy industry, as they have not been assimilated in any culture that has taken away their

The only major difference between Poland and China it that polish people’s non-verbal communication consists more of hand gestures rather than facial gestures. Furthermore, Poland is as unique as China, Poland is a European country that also consists of a different culture and a different language. Along with different ways of greeting individuals, according to Strybel (2008:14), their greetings consist of hand shaking, hand kissing, the combination of both, bowing, and hat tipping. Poland is certainly an interesting country; it has different ways of interpreting things that are interpreted differently in western countries. In other words, in Poland some gestures have different interpretations. Such as in Poland tapping the forehead hints someone is crazy, tapping the neck indicates drinking and pointing at one’s eye is known as an individual believing something is not true or someone is full of lies (Strybel 2008:14). A western visiting Portland would certainly feel quite lost when it would come to the county’s communication skills. For example, an American uses and knows some gestures that do not even exist in Poland, such as the okay sign. When it comes to insults the middle finger did not even exist in Poland it wasn’t until Poland’s younger generation started imitating the Western entertainment that it then became a

Milosz believed that learning new language would change one’s identity. She strongly states that changing language does not necessarily result in changing our identity. Indeed in her essay she states that, Ideally, this results in the expansion of consciousness, not the loss of identity and language. Although I left Poland, I haven’t really left, just as when I leave the United States, I’m still here.

Though I was born in Detroit and am a first-generation American, I have always identified more with my Romanian heritage. My parents escaped from communist Romania and found a community of other Romanians also seeking solace here in Michigan. We connected with each other through churches spread throughout southeast Michigan. And so, I would be able to spend time with my extended family and a multitude of other Romanians at least once every week. There is a saying here: “It takes a village to raise a child,” and that could not be more true of the Romanian family that raised me. They had imbued me with the harsh life lessons learned from living underneath a dictatorship and the struggle of starting life from scratch after escaping from said dictatorship.