Hannah has discovered a love for Kaszubian folk music. Imagine polka music mixed with the Wednesday audiences of the late Pope John Paul II and you're more than half way there.
She arrived home today from school with the CD in hand - a gift from her Kaszubian teacher, Karl, who has headed back to Polish pastures. I suppose that such a gift is the equivalent of a Newfoundlander in Poland handing his English students a Great Big Sea CD as a parting gift. I envision young Poles jumping around to Old Black Rum much as Hannah is attempting to step dance to Antologia Posienki .
Kaszubian is the Polish dialect around these parts; although, I am told by native Polish speakers that they can't understand it for the life of them. I don't know who to believe. But, I do know that, before meeting Dave, I had met exactly one Polish person and now I am surrounded by skis of all sorts.
I said jokingly to Jacob, as we half-heartedly listened to the CD that his sister was blasting from the other room, "Wouldn't you like to speak that language?" Obviously not grasping his mother's mocking tone he looked up and said, "I do." Apparently Silent Night at the school Christmas concert counts as fluency.
Humour aside, we are rather impressed with Karl as the kids fluency in Kaszubian excels their mastery of French. They have been learning French over the past four years on an almost daily basis and still screw up their brows in confusion whenever I conjugate a verb. Karl, on the other hand, has been with them since September of this year and they can ream off numbers, body parts and Christmas carols in a dying dialect. Karl might not have afforded them easy access to this country's public service, but they sure have one of those obscure party tricks that sometimes come in handy.
3 comments:
I just love when Rebecca says "Kashubian." Don't know why but it's the cutest thing ever. She really liked the lessons too.
I guess part of the humour lies in the nearly ludicrous fact to this earnest student of Latin and Greek, who lives in a (somewhat) bilingual country, and has devoted a great deal of effort into learning that other 'official' language, who wants a good education for his kids, and having in mind what that means, and what it might not mean, and then finding that a language he had never even heard of four years ago (despite his fifteen year university education) is being taught to his 6 year old!
I can't imagine anything more irritating than listening to polka blasted out of my kid's room. But Hannah is so adorable, so I guess that makes it less irritating?
I like the way Jacob thinks - now I can go around talking about the ten or fifteen languages I know! How is his Kashubian spelling coming along? He reading Kashubian Hardski Boys yet? You know, the stories of the Bronis and Jerzy Hardski.
badaboom - you have the gift of tongues, colin.
the kaszubian thing cracks me up because the kids who are really loving it seem to be the ones with anglo-saxon blood coursing through their veins.
i laugh each time i think of these maritime kids discovering that stoppa means foot and skoonk means skunk. guess what pizza is? pizza.
Do the kids know "Sto Lat"? My Dad is Polish, but we never spoke it at home. Every Polish family birthday a rousing rendition of "Sto Lat" was sung, the loudness of which was in direct proportion to the amount of vodka or kirsch (shudder) consumed by my dear late great-uncle.
When we were at St. Hedwig's in September, and Mr. Milan started singing a Polish hymn at the end of Mass, something stirred in me. Guess it was my Polish genes recognizing something...
I think it's really neat that your kids have had this opportunity. :)
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