More than 1 year ago I devoted one entry to a problem of language barrier and absolutely enormous majority of Polish emigrants who couldn’t speak English at the comprehensive level. For more than 1 or 2 years Irish employers were mostly tolerant to that lack of easy communication between them and their employees, or even between their employees and their customers, but now it seems to change.
For the last couple of weeks I have been getting some news about groups of Polish employees who were banned to speak Polish at work. Usually those people are shocked and they can’t understand decision of their employers, but I since my arriving in Ireland I have been underscoring the language issue, and I have been warning my compatriots against the devastating language barrier.
I have always been of the opinion that while our staying in Ireland or UK, we should speak English at work, or always when there is a non-Polish person in our company. It is a matter of good manners, a mater of respect our friends, colleagues, and which is most important - the natives. I think it is very bad when Irish, English, Scottish or Welsh (whatever) can’t communicate with the shop assistants, bar tenders or whatever, beeing in their own homeland. I know we would be very pissed off if we couldn’t communicate in Polish, being in Poland, or when the majority of the staff was non-Polish (Ukrainian, Belarussian etc.).
Unfortunately the problem is still unsolved. Polish community is cut off from Irish, and spending most of the time between compatriots is not good opportunity to learn English at all. Many of us can’t see the point in learning English, since they can communicate in Polish mostly, and they regard their stay in Ireland as a temporary. In fact, a couple of years, or even more is not a temporary. The situation leads straight into a creation of Polish ghettos in Ireland.
Being involved in the attempts to activate and integrate Polish community (using my service - Carlow.pl) I am now thinking how to connect and integrate both communities of Carlow (Irish and Polish). Apart of persuading people to learn and to speak English, I think there is a need of some efforts from the Irish society. Unfortunately a great and very good tolerance of Irish people is also an effect of keeping out of the Poles. I mean - apart of some exceptions - there is no real socialisation attempts. Irish people are going their own way, and Polish people are going their own way, and don’t want to learn and to speak English.
The situation won’t be good nor for Poles nor Irish.
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