What Makes You Polish? [Kult America]

Special thanks to my dear friend Włodek Markowicz for editing this video! Perhaps the soul of Podkarpackie is in us both!

only heritage makes u polish not identity not will not living in poland as imigrant only blood do

My Busha was born in Texas but her first language was polish. She married my papa and worked as a nurse and never really spoke polish after she grew up, and she never taught me or my mom anything other than “pośpiesz się!”. I miss her everyday and I wish she held onto her roots to give me some to hold onto too.

Mateusz Witkowski. Proud to be Polish.

Sto lat😂😅 !!

One thing that has and will always keep Poland united is the faith in Chirst through the Catholic church.

I can't claim to be Polish, but some of my ancestors came from there 7 generations ago, by long ship journey to New Zealand. I do feel affinity for the imagery, the colours, the clothing... also the faces of the people feel quite similar and familiar, so I wonder if I travelled there would I feel like I blended in a little? I've been curious about this for a while now, and I really would love to wear one of those beautiful embroidered vests to go with a long skirt

Zajefajny film pozdrawiam

My dads side is polish and I was born in Australia. I am 34 and I never looked into polish culture before. I have never been to poland because it is so far away from me. I think I should look into my culture to see the ancestry.

Papa Jan Pawel? Lol

You're on the whrte Path "

bro"

I may not be answering your question at the end of the video directly, but I can tell you that, I was born and raised on the outskirts of Los Angeles, Ca, My father is Fully Polish born in Missourri, U.S.A , my mother and half sister are from the center of Poland, and she is Strongly Polish but also of a unique backround, she knows Old Polish sayings, poetry and songs, that most other Poles dont know, she was born near the end of the War and spent time with grandmother who lived deep in the woods and was somewhat of a mystic, and knower of the Old ways, I grew up wth very few Polish friends, but I have a deep dose of Polish Culture, Still dont speak fluently at 45, but I can sing some songs very well. Thanks, Nice Video. ✨🤙

The definition of nation is not territory, and yes culture. Therefore, the word nationality does not refer to being born within the territory, and yes referred to holding ones culture. 1. If a man loves a country deeply, perhaps even more than a man who was born there, if this man would give his life for this country, what is he? Say, a man adores Poland, prays for the safeness of Poland every night, is ready and apt to give his life for this land, sings the anthem every mourning when the sun rises, knows the culture as any one who was born there, speaks the language, knows the history, in other words, he is a Polish man at full except for his blood- Yet posses no findable trace of Polish blood- Is he Polish? Would you deny his Polishness only for the lack of blood? 2. The three levels of Nationality: A. (He hath been born and raised within the land, he loves the land and would give his life for his land) B. (He is as the man described in [1], he posses no blood, yet if you did not know of it, you would find him to be as [A].) And C. ([C], he hath only been born within the land, yet oh! How he does not love it! How he disgraces it! How he dislikes it...). I copied this from my philosophy journal, a friend wrote it. Say, I agree- He [my friend] has no recognizable trace of Polish blood, but if you did not know that, you would call him Polish. Do you deny one only for his blood? "My heart is no longer here, for I let it fall in the land of the white eagle when I was coming to be born, my soul is Polish, the only thing that is not is this wicked blood" He spoke. Thus, do you deny or do you accept?

Saying was Polish in the house, parents argue in German, English outside the home

Proud to be a daughter of a Polish immigrant ❤️🇵🇱 I was born in the US but has been surrounded by Polish culture all of my life. I am hoping in the future to visit my mama’s homeland in Poznan ☺️ Proud to have Polish blood!

I was born in the USA to a mother who has access to immigration documents from her grandparents coming from Poland and settling in a town with a name that was familiar to them, Lublin. We've researched the familial names as far back as we could. The evidence is minimal as every time the Polish people were conquered their oppressors destroyed documents. As far as we can tell my maternal surnames are dead ends. That being said the traditions and understanding of my heritage have been handed down in the maternal line.

My father is half Polish, 1/4 German, and 1/4 French/Gaelic genetically. His mother adheres to the German heritage, but my paternal grandfather was of the Polish culture of Lublin, WI. However, grandpa died before I was born and Grams never speaks of anything remotely heritage related.

As for language, I feel I missed out as my maternal busha was the only one left in the family who spoke Polish when I was young. She took her knowledge of the language to the grave insisting "we are in America where we speak English" when ever someone begged of her a lesson in Polish language. That being said, I have learned some but not all phonetics based on surnames for my hometown. I struggle with language learning computer programs as I feel they spend too much time teaching obscure and useless information instead of conversational banter. (No, I don't want to know the cookie is round and painted blue. Yes, please give me directions to the bus stop.)

As for me, I've been to Poland, and brought home more understanding of the history and some really cool souvenirs including painted eggs, a Krakowian style folk vest, several religious trinkets, and amber jewelry.

We Poles are stubborn in the most beautiful way. We've been invaded, genocided, and scattered to the winds. Even where we fled we were told to leave our culture behind and become Americans or become British and so on.

Yet here we are. Our suffering only brought new aspects to our culture.

lol all the comments are from Americans or other Europeans who have Polish ancestry. Actual Poles are eerily silent here because they don't want to put down Americans' fantasy of belonging to another culture.

From the Canadian School of Warsaw in Warsaw we are in grade 3. We enjoyed watching your video and would like to share our comments. We have many friends who are not Polish here in Warsaw and they celebrate our traditions with us. (H.D). We speak English and Polish and we communicate with our international friends in English. (H.A) it is true that speaking the language makes being Polish more realistic (K.P). Some of us were not born in Poland but we now speak Polish and our ancestors were born here so I feel more Swedish because I have more relatives in Sweden, even though my mother was born here (L. A). I have most of my family in Poland and of course I have family in different countries and I speak with them in Polish (A.K).I was born in Switzerland, I have most of my family in Poland and no family out of Poland my grandpa is Polish and my whole family is Polish so I feel very Polish, even though I speak excellent English at this school (L.T). I was born in Russia and lived a lot in New Zealand, I speak Polish but I feel more close to New Zealand culture because I have more memories (until now) of there (A.S). I feel Indian because my family is from India and I am here with my family for work, but I am also learning Polish, but I have a supportive community and we keep our Indian traditions (B.V). I don't really know, I was born in Russia and lived there for 3 years but I am 6 years in Poland, I speak Russian and Polish and English and some French, I feel mostly Polish because my mother is from Russia and Ukraine and my dad is from Russia - it's complicated. (A.R). I was born in Poland but I have more memories in Saudi Arabia (2 years) but I definetly feel Polish even though I speak only English with my parents. (B.K).

It's good to be a Pole almost everywhere, but still not in Germany: curse this country, once and for all!

Polacy i Polska mają coś w sobie :)

Even though my mom was born in America both her parents were full polish so I consider myself 50%. My dad's side is mainly German and Pennsylvania Dutch. I always appreciated my Polish side. My mom grew up speaking fluent polish but her school forced her to start speaking English and she since forgot. Even though we don't follow the traditions I still feel a part of the culture Even never having been there.

I was born in Canada.. My father was Polish who came from Ukraine. My mother is German and she came from Lithuania. My parents met in England and then moved to North America.

Your not polish cuz you dont have polish accent

W sumie to dopiero pomyślałem, że 1/3 Polaków żyje za granicą i w sumie to mam szczęście że żyję w ziemi ojczyźnianej.

kochani Polacy rodacy ! 😊 serce rośnie jak na was patrzę 😘
pozdrawiam bracie!

20seconds and I see Rzeszów <3

What makes you polish easy, shout at hungarian brother then Kiss him, and both look with disgust at the german or russian in the bar. Oh and dont forget to casually mention wodka is Polish and pierogi to and then change to a rant about how we took moscow as only power ever and how we will always love the czechs but joke friendly to them.

And always add a Slowak and slovenian because why not. Sums up a big part.

Polish/hungarian here!

In one short sentence you have explained why so many Poles were noted by imigration office as Germans. They emigrated forced by Bismarck's Kulturkampf policy and lost their heretige.

My grandfather, John Berlinski, came to America on an Austrian passport, also.

My cousin Piotrek from Calgary🇨🇦 was visiting the states and when crossing the US border it turned out the border guard was also Polish (upon seeing his Canadian passport with 🇵🇱surname) they spent a half hour sharing their life's stories as nobody was in line behind him!

What? No mention of Brazilian Poles? There are (surprisingly) several million of them.

I am of Polish and German descent born in the USA. I was ashamed of my ethnicity as a young person. I now am proud of my heritage and wish I could go to Poland to visit where we came from. God Bless Poland.

3 generation polish american and my family has always kept the tradition alive well and i plan on keeping it that way with my children 🇵🇱🇺🇸❤️

I cannot understand first-generation immigrants who neglect to teach their children the native language and just fully assimilate into the new nation. My Polish aunt moved to Croatia and had children with a Croat. I asked her if they spoke Polish and she said no, who would have taught them? What on earth. She regretted her negligence later. I cannot imagine speaking to my newborn in a language other than Polish, you cannot really 'feel' the foreign language, the most emotion is always in your mother tongue. And on the other hand, there's Polonia and their impressive dedication to maintaining the connection to the old country.

My great-great grandfather Paul Kaczmarek was one of the first permanent Polish settlers in the US in 1855. My 96 year old grandmother is the last to speak the language. I feel a deep sense of connection to my Polish heritage but little has been passed down to me by my family. I feel both connected and yet so far from a true association with Poland at this point.

Rzeszów...moje miasto :)

I'm born and raised in American, my Grandfathers Daddy came from Poland. I am proud to call myself polish american.

Very Nice

Truly beautiful. I’ve been studying the history of Slavic groups for about 2 weeks now and it was crazy how I could identify the different polish folk costumes even though they never likely been to said areas. It’s heart warming to see the love of the community

I am part Polish.

It's DNA, not language. Nature beats nurture every time.

Guessing you have Polish 4 skin.

I live in Canada - my great-grandparents were immigrants from the war, who came here to avoid the danger in Poland. The language and all the culture was lost, I really want to continue to learn more about it...I'm a bit over a third Polish, I don't know if it's Polish "enough" to consider myself a Pole so idk if anyone has any thoughts I'd love to hear

Am not Polish but live in Greenpoint Brooklyn and really dig it. Very Polish over here and I'm happy to run into off-the-boat Polscy ludzie. Chain migration is still healthy here so this neighborhood will remain Polish for a long time.
It's one of the nicest neighborhoods in NYC, and it being Polish has a lot to do with it.

Zapraszam was wszystkich do Polski. Bycie polekiem poza naszymi granicami jest bardzo proste. Bycie polakiem żyjąc kim na naszej ziemi nie jest tak proste (mazowieckie)

I was born in Milwaukee Wisconsin. My grandfather on my fathers side immigrated here in1917 from Germany but was Polish. On my mother's side my ancestors came here somewhere from a Polish town controlled by Russia. Our family considers us Polish Americans. Genetically I am 53% Polish

This was fantastic to watch. I’m half Polish, but I grew up more with my (other half) Okinawan side. I would love to learn more about my Polish side, (great grandparents I believe came here to mainland US)
Growing up in Hawaii, I noticed we didn’t really celebrate the European side as much as the Asian / Pacific Islander.
Here’s to a new year of new discoveries, I’m hoping my Polish ancestry and the culture and traditions are something I can incorporate more into my life.
Much Aloha for making this!