The Stranger, The Other or Ours? How Are Foreigners Presented in the Polish Language and Culture Textbook „Po polsku po Polsce”?

Abstract

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The article aims at recreating the images of foreigners who appear as protagonists in a contemporary textbook for teaching Polish as a foreign language Po polsku po Polsce. The images are highlighted in the aspect of the protagonists’ experiencing an encounter with Polish culture and recognizing their situation in it in terms of the stranger / the other – ours.

THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The concept of a cultural gap is adopted as a crite- rion for recognizing the foreigners’ situation understood in terms of the stranger/ the other – ours. The research method is an analysis of the heroes’ statements, which contain information and convey their judgements and, as a result, make it possible to conclude about the occurrence of cultural distance.

THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The process of argumentation is subordinated to the presentation of particular aspects of the characters’ image. Subsequently, the following are analyzed: eating habits, ways of spending free time, attitudes towards one’s own ethnic identity, to- wards the Polish language, Polish history and culture.

RESEARCH RESULTS: Foreigners are presented in the textbook in a way that minimizes their initial distance from Polish culture to the possible extreme. They relate to it very positively or even enthusiastically, they identify with it and find themselves in it as ours.

CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: Creating a foreign protagonist appearing in a textbook for teaching a foreign language as a person who from the very beginning adapts flawlessly to a new culture does not support students’ efforts to find their own space in it, nor does it support a teacher in developing students’ intercultural sensitivity. The future textbook authors should pay attention to this aspect.