Kindergarten

[imomus]

There's a kindergarten just around the corner from my new flat with lovely folksy decorations. This morning I snapped a few pictures of them.



I was going to give you some spiel about how pre-school decorations like these are a direct route to national particularity, and how much more interesting I find the rooted, quirky imagery here than the "rebellious" (but in fact monocultural and conformist) imagery showcased by the trendy shops slowly taking over storefronts here with their denim and trainers. I was going to talk about how, along with the dress-styles of the elderly, the kindergarten was an exemplary reservoir of "Germanness", reproducing national identity as a series of values to its multi-ethnic pupils at their tiny desks. And I was going to state again that while I'm all for the preservation of national flavours, I'm not for rigid links between national flavours and ethnic groups. Anybody can be the "guardian" of these national flavours, not just an ethnic German. Anyone can go in and rewrite the code.

But then an interesting man came along and told me that his daughter had gone to this school, and that the person who runs it is Polish. So these decorations might be "reproducing Polishness". Suddenly the owl and the little grey woollen kitten looked incredibly Polish to me. Had I got my national stereotypes wrong?

Perhaps not; the putative Polishness of the school didn't contradict my thoughts about the arbitrary nature of national identity. If "anyone can go in and rewrite the code," if national identity is "open source", why shouldn't German imagery be disseminated to the next generation by a Pole? And why shouldn't there be a certain amount of Polishness in Germanness? The border, after all, is just an hour away.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

My wife's Polish, and as soon as I saw those pictures I sensed something Polish about them. In Kazimiersz in Krakow there was this really nutty children's garden this guy put outside his flat, with a sign saying "the children are asking for fish". Unfortunately the property developers have moved in, and it is no more.

In spite of the bad historical relations between Germany and Poland, I notice a lot of Germans have telltale Polish surnames ending in "-ski". A few of the German football team players have Polish names, for instance.

London is rapidly developing a Polish flavour, in response to the sudden influx of Poles coming to work. Asian corner shops now stock Polish beers and sausages, and there are posters in Polish advertizing gigs in London by Polish hip hop acts. Apparently it's quite similar in Dublin.

[(Anonymous)]

haha, maybe they'll start looking like American cities, where you can find a frosty Żywiec on every corner.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't know about other areas or regions, but in the last few years sharky polish entreprenuers have underpinned the budget lettings market in large parts of West london, to mainly provide low rent shared accomodation for their countrymen making what now must be the rights of passage economic gap year jump. Hammersmith seems to be the epicentre of this cultrual explosion - every other business is a polish deli, cafe or information centre.

[ksta.livejournal.com]

you wouldn't believe how sharky - sadly, poles here are all too happy to thoroughly exploit their fellow countrymen, offering deals to get work and taking the money and running.

Today I found out that some are being literally treated as slaves by gang masters.

[ksta.livejournal.com]

London is overrun with poles! It's brilliant, because lovely polish food is now much much cheaper.
Plus I get translating work :)

I also now have family living somewhere in Ireland, and in Plymouth.

[ksta.livejournal.com]

sorry to go on about this, but my P.S.:
on my way home from work I passed a hip-hop poster, as you mentioned, advertising a polish night in BRixton. All in polish, of course.

[(Anonymous)]

There's much of a moan about Poles coming over to England to take 'our jobs' in the building trade, but there seems to be a counter-consensus within the industry that they turn up early, do a good job, and get it finished on time. Polish builders are also reputed to be highly-skilled and adaptable in their work capabilities, unlike their English counterparts who don't have the apprenticeship thing going anymore.

[ksta.livejournal.com]

there was a brilliant Private Eye cartoon a few weeks ago. It was one of their 'scenes you seldom see' cartoons, and had a woman telling another woman - 'We have a Polish builder in. He is rubbish. He doesn't turn up on time, works lazily, charges a fortune, then leaves the job half-done!'

Other ones include a person on a packed tubed platform saying to the people squashed inside, 'No, don't worry, I'll wait till the next train comes along.'

etc

[hook-and-eyelet.livejournal.com]

Podolski, on the German team is Polish, not German.