On the situation of Polish

in Ireland

Ewelina DebaeneDept. of Russian and Slavonic Studies

School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural StudiesTrinity College Dublin

Some facts about Polish:

• The second largest Slavic language after Russian - spoken by most of the 38 million inhabitants of Poland (census 2002) and there are about 43 million first language speakers of Polish worldwide.

• In 2004 Polish was awarded its status as an official

language of the EU. • Notorious for its endless consonant clusters:

W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie.

Polish in Ireland:• There are around 200,000 Poles in Ireland (PPSN) (‘Irish Times’ Feb. 16, 2007);• Polish press: 3 weeklies, 1 fortnightly, 2 monthlies;• More than 10 Polish websites;• Irish media: Polish Herald, 8-page-long Polish supplement, (Media and Multicultural Award

for its contribution to the integration of cultures);• Radio broadcast time in Polish;• The TV station City Channel co-produced by the most popular Polish news magazine

Wiadomosci;    • State exams sat in Polish, both at the Junior Certificate and Leaving Certificate levels;

Polish is one of the 15 ‘mother-tongue languages’ examined at Leaving Certificate level; • Polish infrastructure: Polish shops, bars; • Polish religious and cultural organisations; • Polish bank is set to open in 2007 in Limerick; • Polish schools in Dublin and Limerick;• Scheduled flights on 32 routes between Ireland and Poland offered by at least 7 airlines.

Polish in Ireland (contd) ‘A unique phenomenon’:

• Polish community in Ireland constitutes approximately 5 percent of the whole population. There are more speakers of Polish in Ireland than the native Irish speakers.

• Poles now constitute about 8 per cent of the workforce and are the biggest group of immigrants representing one country.

• Rise in commercial value of Polish on the linguistic market: advertisements (radio/TV), professional needs (job ads).

Polish Language Programmes -Department of Russian and

Slavonic Studies: • Day time programmes: European Studies, TSM,

envisaged also in the School of Business • Evening programmes • Extramural courses – Introduction to Polish cultural

history in the 20th century• Collaboration with the the Jagiellonian

University in Krakow (Socrates Erasmus Exchange)

• Collaboration with the Polish Embassy in Dublin

• Thomas Brown lectureship redeployed from Russian to Polish in 2007/2008

Evening programmes:

Beginners: Intermediate/ Advanced:

Total:

2005/2006: 19 18 37

2006/2007: 28 20 48

Courses offered at beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels

Student numbers:

Motivation:

1. personal - Polish spouses(-to-be)

2. integrative and instrumental motivation- response to the changing linguistic landscape

- job requirements

- investment in property in Poland

- travels to Poland

Professional groups: public services financial sector architects engineersteachers students

Support from the Polish Embassy and the Ministry of Education for the provision and maintenance of Polish language skills in Ireland:

• Patronage over the Polish weekend school in Blackrock (since 2005)

• Polish summer courses – 12 scholarships funded in 2007 (Bureau for Academic Recognition and International Exchnage: 9; Polish for the Best: 3)

• Polish language lectorship in TCD part-funded by the Polish Ministery of Education (matched funding: The Dept. of Russian and Slavonic Studies, TCD)

Longitudinal research project designed to investigate the Polish Diaspora in Ireland from a linguistic and social perspective. The main focus:

• Second language acquisition• First language maintenance • Integration into the host

community

RESEARCH PROJECT: Second language acquisition and native language maintenance in the Polish

Diaspora in Ireland and France

Launched in June 2007 in the Polish Embassy in DublinFunding body: Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences

Areas to be addressed:• How do newly arrived Polish people in Ireland acquire and use

English? • How does the acquisition of socio-linguistic competence in English

relate to their integration into the community?• What difficulties do they encounter? • Do they transmit Polish language and culture to their children and, if

they do, how exactly does this happen?• Do people send their children to Saturday school to learn Polish or to

other Polish institutions (social/cultural/religious)? • Do they pass their Polish traditions onto their children? • How does the acquisition of English take place among their children?• Do the Polish children learn Irish as well as English?

• SOCIOLINGUISTIC INTEREST IN THE INFLUENCE OF L2 ON L1 (switching between language varities), Marcelina Szumer: „Ponglish” (‘Metro’, Jan. 31, 2007)

Popularity of Polish: Possible Threats:

• Creating a hermetic babble by the Polish community (cf. ‘parallel society’)

• Hindrance to SLA • Limited integration into the host culture

• Ban on the use of Polish in the work place (SIPTU intervention)

• The issue of Polish names given to Polish children born in Ireland

Some concerns:

Łukasz

Thank you for your attention! Dziękuję!

Ewelina