Tag Archives: polish

Ukrainian WW2 Joke

Informant’s Background:

The informant, in this case, is my father, F, who was a first generation immigrant born to an Ukrainian/Scottish family in Canada in 1950. His family was poor and working class, and he lived in Canada for many years before attending schools in England, and eventually moving back to Canada before moving with my mother to Los Angeles, in the United States, so she could take a job as a university professor. My brother and I were born a few years after.

Context:

My father told me this joke at dinner once. He asked me if I wanted to hear a Ukrainian joke and I said sure.

Performance:

F: “You are a Ukrainian soldier in the trenches, the Germans coming from one side, the Russians from the other. Who do you shoot first?
Answer:  The German.  Business before pleasure.”

Thoughts:

I think this is probably considered an offensive joke. It has a certain historical context, I suppose, but my father never provided any of his own thoughts on the joke, so all I can really do is to provide the joke in it’s original form. I do not think my father learned this joke from his father, I think he probably picked it up somewhere later in life. I tried to search online for traces of this joke, and I was able to find it but with the Ukrainian soldier replaced with a Polish one, so I guess it is re-told in that way and adopted by different cultures with a similar wartime history.

Sto Lat

Main Text: 

Sto Lat 

Background on Informant: 

My informant is from the United States of America, however identifies with her Polish heritage. While she has embraced her culture in several ways, one of her favorites is the traditional Polish song “Sto Lat”. 

Context: 

She explains: 

“Growing up my mother always wanted me to embrace my Polish identity and one of the ways was through the Polish song “Sto Lat” 

It goes like this: 

“Sto lat, sto lat

Niech żyje, żyje nam.

Sto lat, sto lat,

Niech żyje, żyje nam,

Jeszcze raz, jeszcze raz,

Niech żyje, żyje nam,

Niech żyje nam!”

Which roughly translates to: 

“100 years, 100 years,

May they live!

100 years, 100 years,

May they live!

Once again, once again,

May they live!

May they live!”

Sto Lat means ‘one hundred years’ and my family usually sings it to me on my birthday every year as a way to wish me good health and a long life. 

I personally don’t speak Polish but I’ve loved hearing it every year and its become a tradition in my household so that we may prosper for next 100 years of our lives.” 

Analysis/Thoughts: 

Before this interview, I had not heard of the traditions of “Sto Lat,” but afterwards I was intrigued. I love the simplicity behind the message and how while the translation may not directly say it, it is meant to be a blessing of heath and luck. 

I love how connected the person I interviewed was to her cultural identity, and how even though she doesn’t understand the language, it has remained an integral part of who she is. I love the subtle hint of proverb in the song and admire how it’s continued to be practiced in the culture as a form of wishing someone a long life and as a birthday treat. 

Annotations: 

Here is a more modern version of the song: 

Kupala Night – Polish tradition

Intro: The following is a transcribed from my informant, P.

Main Piece:

P: This is something you do in Poland with your lover. You strip down and hold hands then try to jump over a fire. If you’re still holding hands jumping naked over a fire, then you are truly significant to each other. If you aren’t holding hands, then the relationship is doomed. It’s called Kupala night, sometime in the summer.

P: I heard about it from my mom when I was little, but I think it’s one of those things that I wasn’t supposed to know about, so I don’t think I have the full story.

Background: My informant is an old friend of mine who I once worked with. Both of his parents are Polish and he learned Polish before English, but he was born in America. He has a rocky relationship with his family as he had a difficult childhood and by extension does not currently connect much with nor seek out his Polish identity, even though it was at the forefront during the formative years of his life.

Context: We got dinner, and I asked if I could also interview him and if he had any folklore to share.

Thoughts: P recalled this as a scandalous practice and one of the few things he remembers about his mother, though he never asked his parents if they did this which I found odd. Funny enough, P didn’t have the full story– I looked up the tradition, and it’s part of a larger festival that involves this as one small component.

See https://www.inyourpocket.com/warsaw/Midsummers-Night_72214f to learn more about it as a summer solstice festival.

I think it is interesting how the story can change through generations and a willingness to remember.

“spoko” Polish Slang

Pronunciation: spôkô

Context:

The informant–MF–is a 39 year old male who was born and raised in Zagłębie, Poland but has lived in the US since 2016. This is a slang term he remembers from childhood. The interview from which this word was collected was conducted in English.

Definition:

It means all right. All there is no problem. Everything is alright means spoko. So for instance, uh, if you know somebody is in trouble or somebody is very sad. So you can say oh don’t worry, everything is spoko. Everything’s gonna be all right. So we can say like that.

Analysis:

This term has multiple variations in Poland, including “sponio” (pronounced spōnyō).

A Polish Wedding Joke

Main Piece

QJ: “Can it be a dirty joke?”

Collector: “Yes.”

QJ: “A lot of the jokes I grew up with are kind of dirty…most Polish ones are…I think one that my grandfather would say asks what is long and hard that a Polish bride gets on her wedding night?”

Collector: “What?”

QJ: “A new last name.”

Analysis

This joke seems to be fairly popular among Polish people, and I have heard it beyond my informant. In fact, I have heard it outside of the realm of Polish culture, and have seen different ethnic backgrounds attached to it. It seems that many prideful Slavic people make light of their often long and hard to pronounce last names through jokes like these. Given my informant’s background for the joke and explaining that he heard ones like these growing up, I would also assume that his culture and family have more of an openness to tell dirty jokes in front of younger audience. Generally, it would seem that older people have more of a relaxed ability to tell jokes that otherwise would not seem appropriate. This joke also implies a patriarchal society, where a woman would receive something from her husband in any interpretation of the joke, but no jokes suggest the woman giving the man anything.