[Jefferson]

Here in northeastern Pennsylvania, there are a lot of Poles, and I too am Polish, so naturally I’ve grown up hearing Polish jokes. The reason I’ve heard them has to do with Polish being a very different language from English. That makes it hard for us who speak English to learn Polish, but it also works the other way – Poles have an extremely difficult time learning English (as do other Slavic-speakers, which is why German is more popular in East Europe). So, these immigrants from Eastern Europe (who were all lumped together as ‘Poles’ because Poland contributed the highest amount immigrants to the United States) could not speak English and were here in America. Here in Pennsylvania, typically, the two main jobs a ‘Pole’ would have were a ditch-digger or doing dirty work in the coal mines (there were mules in the mines) – all jobs others wouldn’t take. They would go to get work and be given one of those jobs because their employer needed them filled, and there was no arguing about doing this sort of work because neither could speak the other’s language. The other miners, townsfolk, etc. started saying Poles were stupid for accepting those jobs. So I suppose this difficult language of ours was the root of all the problems, as it is for just about any other immigrant.

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Name : Jefferson, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, City : Wilkes-Barre, State : PA, Country : United States, Occupation : student, 

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