2025 Week14: Language #52Ancestorsin52Weeks

My husband Martin could have been a fluent Polish speaker given that his father, Jan, was Polish. However, Jan made a conscious decision not to teach any of his children his native language.

He had come to live in Scotland at the end of the Second World War, having been given a grant to study in Glasgow. It was while there he met Teresa his wife to be. She was Scottish from an Irish background. Jan had lost so much through the war - his father, his mother, his home and the independence of his homeland - and being unable to return to Poland, he had lost everything. As a result, his focus was entirely on building a new life in Scotland and becoming "Scottish" - though his accent never changed! So his children were never taught Polish, something Martin regrets. Polish was only heard in the house when Jan's sister Danuta or other Polish friends came to visit, and at Christmas time, when Jan was on the phone arranging presents for the children from Poland.

Martin's father had two sisters - Danuta and Zofia - who had both settled in Britain. However, they married Polish husbands, and, as a result, their children grew up bilingual.

Martin is now belatedly trying to come to grips with the Polish language via Duolingo!

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