Being Polish...

I'm very proud. Though lots of people make fun of me because of it. :-P Screw them though.

proud isnt the right word, id say its more honor. i am honored to be polish. why? cause poles are stubborn and we fight for whats right. through out history poland has been taken over and destroyed numerous times but yet they hold their own and NO ONE will bring us down...no one...when my friends call me stubborn or determined or patient or resiliant, it usually makes me think of how poland would not give up...my parents left poland during the communist take over and received political assylum. some people say that cowardness in running, well, what they dont know is how my parents joined a commity here in the states to fight stalinistic rule. from there is history...anyway before i get off on some tangent,

Jeszcze Polska nie zginela,
Kiedy my zyjemy.
Co nam obca przemoc wziela,
Szabla odbierzemy.

not just beautiful words...

Your exgirlfriend (I hope this is not why you broke up!) probably doesn't know much about Poland. That's not surprising, as Polish culture is really like a hidden treasure. Other cultures have been translated (literature), exported and glorified more, especially in America (oddly despite the large number of Polish immigrants). Maybe it is just a matter of distance, but i do believe the Poles don't get the credit they deserve in Europe either. (From what I see living in Holland.)

If she were not afraid to read some books, you'd have no problem. Milosz has written some good nonfiction about Polish literature and culture, and there are several other famous Polish authors and poets in translation. Or you could pass something about Polish history along to her. It is not something we study in school in the US & most people don't know about Poland's "glory days".

Another question would be her ethnicity - is she from British, German, French or Dutch stock? I'm part English too, but am much happier to claim Polish heritage due to the historical um, morality, of Western European nations. You know, colonialism, brutal expansionism. I simply may not yet know the bad parts of Polish history but at least they were not building slave trading empires. :)

One of the things that strikes me most about "being Polish" is how well it scales from the individual to the Nation and back.

As others have pointed out, as individuals and as a Nation, we just do not give up. We can be pushed aside, run over, plowed under, wiped off the map, and we always come back and reassert ourselves, on our terms. That is a quality to be proud of.

But further, in looking at Polish history as compared to that of other Nations, I have another observation. When other Nations bloom, they impose themselves on their neighbors. England, Germany, Russia... After becoming a predominant power, they all took what wasn't theirs to take, and they did it by force. But when Poland became a predominant power, before the partitions, we partied! We drank, and ate, and traveled, and with relatively few exceptions, we simply enjoyed our good fortune and influence. Yes, we partied too much, and we enjoyed ourselves with reckless abandon, and we turned our eyes to petty internal squabbles, and that's largely why we declined - but we didn't become a fearsome aggressor.

It seems to me that when fate/fortune is at either extreme, the Polish people as individuals, and as a Nation, become more honorable - while the people of other Nations falter and resort to greed, anger and violence. I think that this quality is an even bigger reason for pride than the comparatively simple stubborn refusal to die.

why are we proud of being polish?

(not in any order of importance)

huge loving families (yay catholic background)
pierogies
a strange love of cabbage
kielbasa (whoo hoo!)
vodka
some of the best poetry in the world
film makers (hello, decalogue?)
the happy birthday song in polish is not to the tune of happy birthday (ie: originality) :)

I never thought about being proud to be Polish. I just am Polish. I was born there. I still speak/read/write the language. I teach it to my son. I seek Polish friends. I keep in touch with some back in Poland. Even though I left when I was 8 I made new ones upon returns.

There are also different classes of Polish people just like any other country. You've got your city folk and country bumkins and Polish elite and Polish white trash. When I (rarely) attend local Polish community events I see a lot of the Polish white trash. But I'm not one of them.

I'm just happy being who I am. My past is what creates my present person. I think it is a shame when people try to rid themselves of their Polish identity.

hunger for pride

One can effortlessly feed one's hunger for pride, while Pope is Polish and name Wałęsa has such a worldwide recognition. Nevertheless I would never think of being vainly conceited about ANY heritage. It's just implying one's superiority based on the place of birth.
What's next?
Supremacy of Krakow residents over inhabitants of Warsaw?


We inherited, whatever we did. We can't really hide much of it (especially from ourself). We can forget a lot (or be denied language skills by Polish parents or grandparents) in the new cultural environment. However I would not lose my composure over anyone teasing me with Polish joke.
I may get even, but I will not loose my composure bursting: "mf" etc. I won't give anyone the satisfaction. But I also refuse to glorify polishness as an extremely prideful trait. It's a perfectly normal average trait with nothing special about it.

i am definitely proud to be polish. i may not walk around waving the flag, but i am what i am, and that's polish. as for why i'm polish, everyone's been quoting our rich history, honor, etc. that's all well and good, and is a part of it. but for me, i'm proud of it just because. besides, being ashamed of being polish only works to encourage those annoying stereotypes, becuase it suggests that they might be true. but they're not. so... i'm proud of my polish heritage (and the german, too, but that's not the subject here...)

and yes, the food and drink is great, too ;

I am proud to be Polish because of the strength, courage, and resilience of our nation. Also, I can pronounce any American last name, but they can never get mine on the first try.

I am proud to be Polish because it is where I came from. It is the same way that African-Amercian's are proud of their heritage and have celebrations. We are a strong and courageous people who have played a very important part in history. Our culture is unique within its own right. How can you not be proud of where you came from?

Re:

The funny thing is that Kwanzaa is a made up holiday!

You know, that is exactly the point of my argument here. We, Poles, have over one thousand years of cultural heritage to look back on. Even through the very harsh circumstances of history, we've been able to hold on to that. I'm sure that with some diligent research, many of us could trace our family histories back in time for several centuries - and by several I mean four to six.

Because of all this existing history and culture, we have not had the need to invent one.

I don't think Poles are proud of their heritage in the same way that African-Americans are proud of theirs. "Kwanzaaski" just seems silly to me.

Well, Kwaanza isn't supposed to be just an African American (I hate that term!!) holiday; it's supposed to unite all races and people, but... mostly African Americans celebrate it. And many think it's "their" tradition only. Not many people in general consider it a real holiday, though.

WOW, take a chill pill...I was making a legitimate comparison. I said nothing about Kwanzaa. You took what I said and twisted it into something else. I have participated in Kwanzaa before, but I wasn't talking about that. I was more or less referring to African dress, dance, food, etc. If you look at it that way, that is what was meant by being proud of our heritage.

I don't think I'm the one in need of a "chill pill". The Kwanzaa reference was tongue-in-cheek. It was meant as a sarcastic joke, because the comparison you made was far from valid. Here is why:

African-Americans are not a single Nation. Unlike Poles, who share a very unified cultural and historical heritage, American Blacks (Yes, "black" - so let's just dispense with the politically correct junk, alright?) come from many parts of Africa, originally. Many come from the Caribbean region, where their families lived for generations before coming to the US as slaves. They share a common history from the time they were slaves, not from before. Common dress, customs, dance, food and whatever, are not really common within the black race as it exists in America. There isn't even a single "black race" anywhere in the world. My pot-shot at the idea of Kwanzaa was aimed squarely at this fact.

Kwanzaa is a fabricated, artificial holiday. It is well-intentioned, but good intentions do not make it real or any more culturally relevant than Halloween is for children living in Poland. It is an attempt at unifying "the black race" socially and politically, much like all other "common African-American culture" artifacts. It is a made-up holiday which exists solely to give a people who, lacking a common and unique culture, want to have the reasonable approximation of one.

Blacks from the Ivory Coast region have one culture. Blacks from Nairobi have another. Blacks from Zimbabwe have a different culture and heritage than blacks from Rhodesia - even though they come from the same geographical region - because when Rhodesia became Zimbabwe, the cultural substrate was changed from one of tribal heritage onto which was imposed British colonialism, into a self-ruling Socialist system. It made a big difference. Blacks from Algeria are completely of a different culture and custom than blacks from Kenya.

The culture of American blacks is an amalgam of various ratios of these, and many other, diverse cultures. Lumping them all into one identity is unreasonable, and unfair to the many cultures involved. It's like saying that all European Americans have a common culture. There is nothing "common" about the culture of blacks in America before the time of slavery. In fact, since they had so little to do with their own fate while slaves, I would even draw the line of commonality later, at the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 (if I remember right). Saying that their culture is like that of the Poles is as valid a comparison as saying that all American Catholics have a common culture - and this group would include the Poles, the Irish, the Italians, some French, and so on.

What I did was to take an unjustified comparison and twist it into a clear distinction. I humorously pointed out the fallacy of your statement, and you took offense at my lack of political correctness, without considering that you might be drawing an erroneous parallel. I have nothing against black people, but your comparison was completely unfounded, and completely false on so many levels that I felt compelled to point this out.

I'm sorry to jump down your throat about this. Well, actually no, I'm not sorry about it. I however do regret that my doing so is likely to hurt your feelings. That is certainly not my intention here, so if that is the result, I apologize. I just really don't appreciate it when people assume I'm being a jerk when in fact what I am trying to do is clear up a misunderstanding.

Unlike Poles, who share a very unified cultural and historical heritage, American Blacks (...) come from many parts of Africa, originally.

By all means correct me if I'm wrong, I don't have the multicultural experience most of y'all had. I thought African Americans have over the years formed their own unique culture - at an AA messageboard I found descriptions of experiences common for every active poster: specific food (black-eyed peas at New Year, chitterlings (Flaczki, anyone?), used grease kept in cans), childhod games, music (jazz, blues, hip hop), some ancestor or family friend who remembered segregation, some ancestor or family friend who was a Panther...
So even though their ancestors - slaves - hailed from many African countries, I guess modern blacks do have a rather unique culture of their own. The 'Black Pride' movement was based on skin color, but many African Americans feel just that - Americans of African descent, a subset of America's population with their own cultural quirks like Latinos, Irish and Poles.

I never said otherwise. My point was to show that the Black and Polish backgrounds are so different as to not be fairly comparable.

The "common culture" of American Blacks goes back just a couple hundred years, at most. Most of this culture has been created during this time, from echoes of oral tradition. This in no way makes this culture less valid, or less worthy of respect and celebration, than any other. But it does make it too different from our own to draw a fair comparison. Same with Latinos, really, I think.

It's just as reasonable to compare American Blacks to Poles, as it is to compare either of these groups to Jews. We all have our cultures, of which we are immensely proud and so on, but our cultural experiences are so vastly different that comparing the nature of this pride is, in my eyes at least, impossible.

By contrast, I would be much more receptive to a comparison between the Poles and the Irish, or the Italians, or even the Chinese.

Sorry for stirring up such controversy.

Sorry for stirring up such controversy.

G'wan, don't you apologize! About time someone kicked the anthill. Did I mention I love reading well-thought-out opinions? :D

Did I mention I love reading well-thought-out opinions?

I'm not sure if that's a compliment or a very sly insult. ;)

I dig the killer, vampire bat frogs! That's FUNNY!

....u shouldn't have to explain it.......

I'm a polish american, born here, for all intents and purposes, raised there. Why am I proud to be polish? The answer is simple. When you walk into my house, or when you see me out on the street, u see this........a young man walks up to a friend, smiles, looks them in the eyes, says hello, and greets them with a hug and a kiss. Every friend of mine is an extension of my family. They're there for me when I need them and don't stab me in the back. Being Polish means that you're hard working, caring, dedicated and you stand up for what's right. But you can have fun while doin it. My heritage keeps my family together. How many Americans can say that? How many americans do you know can greet you and look u in the eyes? Americans trust no one. Europeans trust each other cuz they know they can. So maybe this paragraph just applies to Europeans. Just a thought.........btw.....how do you join a community???? I'm new to the whole community idea........

Mariusz Pudzianowski makes me proud to be polish.

he is awesome!

How To Say Give Me Kiss???

Does anyone know how to say "Give Me Kiss In Polish?" I wish my father would of forced polish on to me. But he never tried to and he is never willing to help me speak it. If anyone can help me say this email me at SmAsHy1983@hotmail.com