| Now is the time to switch to a new language. Not Polish or English. That is not why Nowy Czas are publishing this column in the “original” (I was born in Poland, but grew up in the UK, therefore my “first” language is English). I am writing “in” the language of a New Europe. A continent which has given up on internal warfare, on pointless borders, on much that was never real in the first place. Meet people in Slask or Catalunya or Transylvania, and you find nations not on the map, languages you’ve never heard of, stories not available in school history books. Europe is far more complex and diverse than maps allow for, and so are its inhabitants. Before you moved to a new country, how often did you consider your nationality as the characteristic which defined who you are? Drinking with friends, negotiating with colleagues, choosing a gift for someone or discussing a film you’d just seen, how aware were you of your “citizenship”? It is only when we travel, when we move countries, that we begin to seriously consider our roots. This in itself is good, but there is a catch. As outsiders, struggling to adapt to a place and a people we don’t yet know or belong to, we are at a disadvantage. Working strange jobs, speaking an alien tongue, surrounded by new experiences and cultures, we feel lost. Culture shock is painful for most, though not everyone. In the twenty-odd years I’ve lived here, I’ve met migrants from all corners of the world. As an ESOL tutor in community colleges, as a librarian in a prison, as a cultural coordinator for the Home Office, I’ve worked with refugees, “illegal immigrants” and simple, run of the mill foreigners. Some came from war zones, others from wealthy empires, all united by one characteristic – the strength or weakness of their personalities. This is the key to understanding who someone says they are. The sense that no matter what colour your skin is, how imperfect your accent or how far from the office which issued your passport you may be, you are who you are meant to be. Migration is a litmus test of character. Do you only feel confident in your own back yard, like a plant which doesn’t re-pot well? Or are you destined to move and discover both yourself and the world around you, comfortable in your own skin, no matter what colour it may be? As an individual, an independent intellect, a free person in a free world? In my experience, Poles ask this question with fear. Sure, we’re good at solo actions, “sabre in hand” we can meet any enemy and survive any challenge. But can we “win the peace”, as well as any war? Can we, in our own over-developed sense of individuality, also come together? This is the question I am asking, the language I want to speak. Not the tongue of endless introspection, but one which will answer a simple question – can we, in this new time, become at one with ourselves and the world around us? Now that our “papers” say we are citizens of a new Europe, can we, in our minds, live up to this fresh challenge? |
| all site design, art work, photography and words are mine |
| all site design, art work, photography and words are mine |
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