The Polish Language Café in Pankow, Berlin

It all began in 2008 in a kindergarten in the Berlin district of Pankow which was attended by the children of Agata Koch and Marta Kiszka, the two women who later founded the language café. One day, the mothers were asked by one of the kindergarten teachers whether they had an idea for games in Polish, in order to help a new girl of Polish origin to forge a relationship with the rest of the group. The games made it possible to communicate with the child in her native language, and made it easier for her to get used to the group and integrate with other children of her age. This led to regular Polish-German meetings, during which Polish fairy tales and legends were read out loud and art and dance lessons were offered. Often, the people who came would prepare strawberry dumplings together afterwards. 

The initiative was a big success, both with the children and their parents and grandparents, most of whom did not speak Polish. As a result, the two women decided to organise other activities of a similar kind. One important goal was to encourage and develop bilingualism in their children, not least because very few such opportunities were on offer in Berlin. It was also often difficult for the children to make use of the leisure activities offered due to the long distances that needed to be travelled between the various different districts in the city. They therefore decided right from the start that the new project would have to be locally based.

In 2012, the first Polish Language Café meetings were organised in the “Stadtteilzentrum Pankow”, a neighbourhood community centre. In her blog about the beginnings of the language café, Agata Koch, a graduate of German studies and a teacher and translator, wrote: “That’s exactly what I was missing at the time: an environment in which the diversity of every individual person was recognised and appreciated, in a free, independent and respectful way, and also in such a way that their individual personality was strengthened and appreciated”.[1]

Over the past five years, countless other activities have been organised. Nearly always, the focus has been on encouraging bi- and multilingualism. The language café offers courses for adults as well as for children of all ages. Other offers include Polish-language pre-school, play-based lessons for infants who are just learning to speak, and tuition for older kindergarten children and school pupils. One important activity on offer are the holiday camps, “A-Ą-Ä – tak zaczyna się mój alfabet!” (“A-Ą-Ä – that’s how my alphabet starts!”), which are held for a week in Bad Bevensen in Lower Saxony during the summer holidays. In workshops led by specialists in bilingualism, parents learn how they can help their children learn Polish in everyday life in Polish or multilingual families. Events for children include games and activities that are led by experienced teachers. This enables children to develop and further improve their language skills by means of the immersion method, which aims to immerse them in the language. The language teaching in the café is accompanied by readings and puppet show performances.

Adults also have the opportunity to improve their language skills in the café. Here, the focus is not just on Polish or German. Anyone who is interested can form a language tandem and learn another language that way. Every so often, “speak dating” is offered: a German-Polish language exchange based on the concept of “speed dating”. The language café also offers courses in Polish as a foreign language, which attract the interest of, for example, partners of Poles living in Berlin, or Germans who themselves or whose families have roots in Silesia, Pomerania or Masuria, and who were forced to leave their homes after the end of the Second World War.