Polish-American culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Polish-American culture - Essay Example The Polish population is a one of the major aspects of American multi-culturalism and a society mingled with various ethnicities and cultures. Although this ethnic group is living in America with such a huge population, there happens to be a lot of diversity among the group members i.e., the Poles. Their culture has an essence of variation in it and therefore, this fact contributes to the significance of studying this ethnic group in anthropology. At the outset, the Polish were less into literacy and education. Most of the families considered schools as a place that they feared would deviate their children from their original identities. They regarded education as a threat to their social and religious lives. 3 When these people came to America, they were highly unskilled without any education. It was very rare for any Polish American to attend any school or college and receive a higher education. However these attitudes were gradually transformed into modern views after they felt lagged behind than the other communities in America. Therefore, they started taking interest in education and most of the Polish families worked hard to send their younger generation to schools and colleges. By the year 1950, the number of Polish students attending schools, colleges and receiving degrees started to multiply.4 Now, Poles are mostly educated and widely learned people in America. Profession and Employment The major reason for the Polish immigration to America was better working conditions. Hence, work and employment were the basic concerns around which most of the Polish families spent their lives. Polish were very passionate about working, as they were deprived of occupations in original country, Poland. Consequently, they even took up low-grade occupations and lived miserable lives. Their younger generation followed the trend of their forefathers in making the employment choices. 5 The only ambition for Polish was to be hard working enough to acquire and accumulate more wealth. 6 However, as more and more Polish families began to educate their children, they took up new and respectable jobs and reformed their social and economic status. The Polish were even passionate about saving. They accumulated more money and sent back to their families in Poland. Linguistics The natural language of Polish-American group is Polish, which they brought with them from the Poland. When they first entered the land of America, they cherished their language and restricted their children from learning English language as it was regarded as infidelity to their natural language amongst them. However, the Polish were soon to realise the importance of learning the English language for the improvement in their working and living conditions. Consequently, the younger generation was permitted to learn English and go to school, which further enhanced their language skills. When the next Polish generation grew up and got educated, they were reluctant to speak Polish as they had