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SherryCurp
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| Posted: Jan 25 2007 at 9:48pm | IP Logged
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If all goes according to plan and the funding comes through (big ifs, I know!), our family will be spending a year in Poland beginning sometime summer of '08. Our dds will then be 9, 6, and 4, and if God grants it we may have another infant as well. My husband will spend several hours on weekdays in archives doing historical research, but should be relatively leisured otherwise. We will have one in 3rd grade, one in 1st.
I seek wisdom, advice, and shared experience on:
- Living in a *very* small space.
The apartment in Warsaw that we'll probably be renting is just shy of 50 square meters, with two bedrooms, a kitchen with a table that seats three, and a living room. (We could get more space for the money by living farther out, but this apartment is in the heart of the Old Town, a couple of blocks from Castle Square, was recently renovated, and has a fast Internet connection and an English-speaking landlord.)
- Language acquisition
My husband is reasonably fluent in Polish; I'm just a few lessons into Pimsleur Polish (and Slavic grammar intimidates my socks off  ). We have no ethnic connection, and speakers of Polish are not exactly thick on the ground in southeast Ohio.  The kids will be young enough that language learning should work pretty naturally for them, if we can manage to arrange social immersion for them. We love homeschooling, but are wondering if we should consider placing them in Polish school, even for just a few months, to give them the opportunity to really learn the language. Legally, as expatriates, we would be free to homeschool without needing to jump through local bureacratic hurdles.
How much language immersion is enough to do the trick?
And if we begin Latin next year (or maybe this summer), will it help or hinder learning Polish?
- Culture shock, family style
Any wisdom, advice, or experience you can share will be welcome!
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"The fundamental objective of the formation of the lay faithful is an ever-clearer discovery of one's vocation and the ever-greater willingness to live it so as to fulfil one's mission." -JPII
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Mary G
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| Posted: Jan 25 2007 at 10:22pm | IP Logged
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Oh, lucky you and the family! We did something similar when we went to Austria for 2 years. We'd go overseas again in a heartbeat! We loved it. The travel and just different culture are so good for the kids -- so much to see and do and live and remember!
I wouldn't try and learn Latin at the same time as trying to learn Polish -- probably stick with just one .... also, don't try to do American history or something from there -- just soak up all the wonder and splendor there! We homeschooled ours when we went over (which worked out as there were others there who also homeschooled). I'd rather try to hook into the language immersion a different way -- I just don't know anything about Polish schools and bad influences.
If you're only going for a year, I'd suggest being as flexible as you can so you can travel, explore, hit museums, go to other countries, get on the trains and just travel.....talk about real learning!
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MaryG
3 boys (22, 12, 8)2 girls (20, 11)
my website that combines my schooling, hand-knits work, writing and everything else in one spot!
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Mary G
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| Posted: Jan 25 2007 at 10:25pm | IP Logged
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Oh, and we had 6 people (and then JP was born) in about that much space and we were fine....ours were 18m, 2.5, 11, and 13 when we went over. When we first were there, we even housed another student with us as his room wasn't ready for about 2 weeks.....
Small space was fine as long as I had internet connect ... 
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MaryG
3 boys (22, 12, 8)2 girls (20, 11)
my website that combines my schooling, hand-knits work, writing and everything else in one spot!
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MaryM
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| Posted: Jan 26 2007 at 10:36am | IP Logged
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I have no suggestions, but wanted to say "wow" - what an opportunity. I am so jealous. I'm half Polish and would love to be able to do something like this. My parents and one brother have gotten to visit at least, but to be immersed for a year - amazing.
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Mary M. in Denver
Our Domestic Church
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Paula in MN
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| Posted: Jan 26 2007 at 11:16am | IP Logged
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I'm jealous too! My family is Polish -- all the grandparent's moved here around the turn of the century. What an experience for all of you!
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 Paula
A Catholic Harvest
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ladybugs
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| Posted: Jan 26 2007 at 9:12pm | IP Logged
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No advice here - except, "Have a totally awesome time!"
Does Poland have homeschooling laws???
What a cool opportunity! Wish we could tag along...but then, you'd really be cramped for space!
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Maria P
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guitarnan
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| Posted: Jan 26 2007 at 10:13pm | IP Logged
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You know, I would be reading everything I could about Poland...and then taking it all with a grain of salt. I remember well when I was worried about the wedding of our French exchange student (dd, then 3, was a flower girl) and I read in one of those Culture Shock books that French people never, ever, sop up gravy or sauce with bread because it's vulgar...
...and guess what??? Dh still teases me about the wedding reception where EVERYONE sopped up sauce with bread. 
Having said that, it's always good to ask around and read.
My best advice, for what it's worth, is this: You will go through an initial euphoric stage..."We're here!" "We made it!" "Everything is awesome!" and this will be replaced around Week Six with, "What the *%$& have I done to myself?" This is normal, normal, normal. Hang in there, try to tackle the things you need to, and it will get better, I promise! (Even things like getting your phone activated are hard when you're doing it in another language, and Polish isn't very intuitive.)
Don't give up, especially at that Week Six moment.
Also, remember that it gets darker much earlier in the winter in Poland than it does in most of the USA...this can be a shock, and also quite depressing, especially if you are from a sunny state. You may find yourself dealing with Seasonal Affective Disorder if you grew up in the South. (Again, knowing ahead of time will help you cope.)
Latin and Polish aren't very related at all. Having said that, there is no reason to toss out Latin...maybe concentrate on Church prayers and very traditional hymns to start with, as you may encounter those at Mass. (And...you could travel to Rome, where you'd need them!)
I didn't put my kids into Italian schools when we lived there. I'm still happy with this choice; no, they can't speak much Italian, but they did learn what they needed to (American style, at home) while we were overseas. The main thing I wanted them to take home, the idea that Different And Bad Are Not The Same Thing, they learned very well. Now they are homesick for Italy. I figure they can learn more Italian later if they want to...we did some Latin basics there, and now we're studying German together.
Living overseas is a great opportunity and a very frustrating experience, all at once. Almost everyone hits a spot (that six week thing) where they wonder why they're even trying...it's just too hard...no Wal-Mart...you name it. It's tempting to just jump on a plane and bail out. Sticking it out is much more rewarding in the long run, really. You will know you can survive under amazingly challenging conditions. You will learn the basics of another language. You will learn to get along when you and the other people in the room don't have any language in common. Your children will discover that all kids speak the language of Play. And...wow...you can go to all the historical sites in Poland, just as Pope John Paul II's beatification case begins the process of (inevitable) approval. How cool is that?! (Can I fit into your suitcase?)
Have a family member ready to send weird food items that you can't get there (pudding mix, cake mix, Bisquik, stuff like that).
Toss extra dishes in favor of books and sports equipment (sports is a universal language, esp. for kids).
It gets COLD there. Bring winter gear, blankets, etc. There is no guarantee that you can get the sizes/quality of jackets you would like to have. (My dh is 6'7"...trust me on this one.)
Buy a hair dryer and iron when you get there. Plugging these appliances into transformers Does Not Work Well. The hair dryer will eventually burst into flame or die, and the iron won't heat well enough to iron your cotton clothes. Get a 220v. iron.
If you can study the Mass readings before each Sunday, you will be able to understand more of the readings and homily, which will help your language comprehension. Attending Italian Mass was nice, because I knew the readings and could then work on picking out words I didn't know. (And all Italian homilies I heard involved stories about meals! Too funny!)
I wish I could go with you...can you tell?
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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Tina P.
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| Posted: Jan 26 2007 at 11:18pm | IP Logged
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Mary and Nancy have wonderful advice for you already, but I just wanted to add that if you're living in a small space, you might consider storage of all items you don't need for a year. Sometimes smaller spaces and simpler living tend to bring knit tight families even tighter.
The language barrier might be challenging, but it could be fun, as well. When we were in Germany, I used a lot of gestures to relay my meaning when I spoke with my landlord, the man at the Metzgerei, or the ladies at the Patisserie (of course, that was easy. I just pointed to the rolls, pretzels, or cakes I wanted ).
We homeschooled all the way through our overseas travel. In Germany it was heavenly. We took long walks, studied nature, studied European castles when we could get away, ...
In England, I really hadn't even considered putting the kids in school. Friends of ours were beat up in English Catholic schools because they talked funny. The only other choice I could see was to put them in school on base ... not an option for our family.
I think I had more culture shock when we lived in England and drove on the wrong side of the road and traveled through traffic circles (they have no lights!) than when we lived in Germany.
Oh and Nancy, telling Sherry to toss the extra dishes now is an EXCELLENT excuse for her to collect Polish Pottery while she's there.
Europe is so rich in history. Can't wait to hear all about it.
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Tina, wife to one and mom to 9 + 3 in heaven
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chicken lady
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| Posted: Jan 27 2007 at 9:56am | IP Logged
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OH SHerry how wonderful! NO advice but I am envious [;)
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SherryCurp
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| Posted: Jan 27 2007 at 7:50pm | IP Logged
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Thank you for all your suggestions and good wishes!
I guess I should have mentioned that my husband spent 13 months in Poland a few years ago (researching his dissertation), and I was with him for 6 months of it, beginning in an unusually cold January.... so we've dealt with the cold/dark/culture shock thing ourselves. (And we lived in Seattle for 9 years.)
He has been back for shorter stints several times since, and will probably be going for a month or two this summer, even staying in the same apartment in Warsaw. So we have a great opportunity for reconnaissance. 
What we haven't done is done it with children. Any suggestions about helping kids with culture shock?
My mantra lately has been "Less Stuff is easier" -- to clean, to organize, to keep tidy, to find, to use.... and so I'm taking lots of babysteps toward decluttering. Some stuff will be stored while we're away, but a lot of it we'll just get rid of and replace (or not) when we return.
My instinct is to go as minimal as possible, including with "schooling", and allow a maximum amount of just experiencing it all. Notebooking will probably be a major way of recording it all, along with perhaps a blog.
Keep the suggestions coming!
__________________
"The fundamental objective of the formation of the lay faithful is an ever-clearer discovery of one's vocation and the ever-greater willingness to live it so as to fulfil one's mission." -JPII
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Tina P.
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| Posted: Jan 28 2007 at 10:09am | IP Logged
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SherryCurp wrote:
| What we haven't done is done it with children. Any suggestions about helping kids with culture shock? |
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Kids are surprisingly adaptable when they have the security of *you* being there with and for them. I have one who is ordinarily inflexible and likes status quo. He ordinarily does not like to travel. None of us actually liked the trip to Germany. The airplane ride was enough, we thought, but then we had to be taxied to our base 1.5 hours away. Some of my poor kids slipped right through their seatbelts onto the floor, wiped out. But the new sights and experiences kept our love for Germany alive.
SherryCurp wrote:
| go as minimal as possible, including with "schooling", and allow a maximum amount of just experiencing it all. Notebooking will probably be a major way of recording it all, along with perhaps a blog. |
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I did that very thing when we went to Germany. Since we moved to England from Germany, and since I had pulled out a bunch of schoolbooks that were shipped to us, I just kept adding things for the kids to do in England. Once you are established, it gets easier to pour on the school. However, I must say that my time with the kids in Germany sans school books was our best homeschooling experience yet.
God bless,
Keep the suggestions coming![/QUOTE]
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Tina, wife to one and mom to 9 + 3 in heaven
Mary's Muse
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Jordan
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Tina, I am curious about where in Germany you lived? I live in Germany now.
Jordan
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Mary G
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| Posted: Jan 31 2007 at 2:14pm | IP Logged
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SherryCurp wrote:
What we haven't done is done it with children. Any suggestions about helping kids with culture shock?
My instinct is to go as minimal as possible, including with "schooling", and allow a maximum amount of just experiencing it all. Notebooking will probably be a major way of recording it all, along with perhaps a blog.
Keep the suggestions coming! |
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We went to Austria with a 7th grader, 5th grader, a 2-1/2 yo boy and a 1-1/2 yo girl (we had our youngest while we were there). Kids ARE very adaptable and quickly got into the whole thing. Of course, it helped that we were in a small village with a couple of other American families who had kids the same ages.
But we would have so much fun traveling around and just reveling in being over there (it coincided with my bro/SIL and family being in England -- so we went over there a bit too).
Minimize the school stuff to maximize the chance to steep yourself in culture and history. Poland has actually been heavily involved through the centuries -- more so than I knew before going over (and I'm part Polish!).
One day my dh took our 2 oldest and their 2 friends into Vienna (on the train) to visit the Science museum and then to go see LOTR on the big screen -- those kids still talk about that particular expedition! It's so cheap and easy and your kids will make lifetime memories!
Can I come, too? I could be the governess
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MaryG
3 boys (22, 12, 8)2 girls (20, 11)
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Tina P.
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| Posted: Jan 31 2007 at 5:02pm | IP Logged
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Jordan, we lived outside of Kaiserslautern in a little town called Queidersbach. We lived south of and between two Air Force bases (Ramstein and Vogelweh). And equidistant to the west (?I think) of us was the Army base with the hospital on it. It was a very nice setup, especially as I had a baby within a couple of months of having lived there.
I loved it and I completely miss it. 
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Tina, wife to one and mom to 9 + 3 in heaven
Mary's Muse
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St. Ann
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Jordan,
I live in Germany too! Near Münster. Where are you?
Sherrycurp - I spent a summer semester in Poznan Poland when I was 21 years old. It was still a communist country and Solidarnocz was outlawed at the time. I learned the language well enough to get around and took courses on history and culture (in the English language). It was one of the best expieriences I ever had in my young adult life. Coming from a well to do family it opened my eyes to a totally different world. Yes, I stood in line for bread. Yes, I used newspaper for toilet paper. Yes, I expierienced the lack of the most basic items...because there was not one store in the city which sold a cooking pot! ...but the month after, one could only get cooking pots! I expierienced darning my first nylons (don't you just throw those things away and buy new ones???? wrong answer!). ...don't forget the black market!!! I expierienced my first festive, faithfilled Corpus Christi procession with so many YOUNG religious men and women. (of course the procession also had a political component to it, but not to outdo the faith behind it.)
I tell you these few stories of a time that is past. I really don't know what you will find today, but I can't imagine that the hospitality and vibrance of the Polish people has decreased. They were very welcoming of myself then, and I really didn't deserve it.
There is way too much culture and atmosphere to take in...I doubt you will find time for phonics and such.
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Stephanie
Wife and mother to Hannah '96, Maria '99, Dorothea '01, Helena '03
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Contemplating a year in Poland
