ZOOM0075

The speaker, Emma Sklarczak, talks about the positive aspects of social media and how it can help bring families together. She shares her personal experience of reconnecting with her grandfather's cousins in Poland. Emma interviews her cousin, Lucia, who talks about their family history and growing up in Poland. They discuss the importance of maintaining connections with family members overseas and how social media can help bridge the distance. They also talk about the cultural traditions and dances they are involved in. Alrighty, hi everybody, my name is Emma Sklarczak and welcome back to, is it too late to say I'm joking? On our series we really touched upon the devastating effects of social media and how it can really dictate and follow someone's reputation and really lead to their downfall in all kinds of world settings, but to kind of conclude our series I decided to talk about how positive social media is, especially when families are trying to rekindle and come together as a whole. I'm Polish, my family lives in Poland, and my grandfather unfortunately passed away over 20 years ago now, and it wasn't until a few years ago that I reconnected with some of his cousins and whatever, so let's begin. Hello, how are you? Can you hear me? Oh yeah, yeah. You're good? Okay. Tell me if I'm going too fast in English. Okay, okay. My Polish is that, not good at all, so how are you? I'm fine, and it's nice to see you. Nice to see you too. It's been, I don't know, maybe 5 years or even more since I last saw you, like on the video call. I think the last time we saw each other was during Christmas, on a Skype call, like many years ago, I could be totally wrong, but that's what I think. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so thank you so much for agreeing to do this, I thought of, I thought of many people and I was like, let me reach out and see what kind of comes to mind about this, I'm really, really glad. I'm sorry if there's coupling in the back, I'm at school, so it's kind of busy. It's okay. Yeah. So do you want to introduce yourself for the podcast? Hi, I'm Lucia, I'm from Poland, I'm MLS, let's say cousin, I don't know if that's correct. I think, so our parents are cousins, so I think second cousins, does that make sense? Yeah, second cousins. Yeah. So our grandfathers were cousins, or brothers, whoa, I'm way off. Is that right? I think so. Yeah, what's your, who's your grandfather? Wait a second, I don't know right now which, ah, Sklepczuk, Sklepczuk and your last name is Sklepczuk. Yes. We have, he's our, like, similar point. Very similar. Yeah, so my grandfather was Edward, he passed away quite a few years ago, but what was your grandfather's name? I guess on your phone. And he also passed away, yes, before I got to know him, actually. Okay, so Walter, I guess in English, I would assume. So, is Uncle Marian still living? Yes, actually he is, and he lives in the same city as I live. Oh, really? Oh my gosh. Yes, so we spend time together. So, how old is he now? My dad was wondering. Oh my God, I have no idea, but 80-something. 80-something? Okay, that would make sense, because if I do the math right, Edward, my grandpa, would be around 87. So, I think he, I don't know, I might be wrong a little bit. Yeah, it kind of makes sense. Yeah, okay, so for our podcast, we created a few episodes already, and we kind of spoke about how social media can kind of bring people apart, and kind of lead to their downfall, and how it's bad for reputations and stuff like that. But to kind of conclude our series, we wanted to touch upon how social media can bring really nice things in life, and kind of rekindling families together, and kind of finding hope, and how bad social media can be, as we kind of know it. So, Zuza, you know my uncle, Edward, a little better than anybody that I'm kind of close with, but when was the first time you met Edward, my uncle? I think it was, I have no idea, maybe I was eight years old, maybe nine, something like that, and he was born for Christmas, so that's the first time when we get to know each other. Yeah, so he lived in the United States, so just a few hours south from us, and so imagine my uncle, so Edward, the like copy and paste version of him, which is my dad, like here they are, they're the same. And we say that, well we were looking at pictures of my dad's time in Poland, and we were like oh my god, like Brian, my dad's name is Brian, Brian and Ed are starting to look like, you know, like Edward and like his brothers, like it's kind of scary, but it's funny to look at, and then you, I assume you've heard of my grandmother, Elsie. Yes. Yes, okay, so fun story is that Elsie has four kids, she has Darlene, she has Ken from her first marriage, and then her second marriage she has Brian and Ed, but Darlene, who is Yagoda, do you know who that is? Can you repeat, because I have no idea. Yeah, me neither, but apparently Darlene, she got married in the early 80s, and as she had nothing to do with her wedding dress, my grandmother had sent it over to Poland for it to be reused. Oh, can you repeat Yagoda, you mean Yagoda? Thank you. Yeah, there you go. You are my only Yagoda, so I know it. I just butchered the name really right. No, you're close. I didn't expect Yagoda to be the first. Yeah, no, Yagoda got her wedding dress, and at that time it was Chernobyl, and my grandmother flew over it, so we always say she's still alive because of the radiation, but that's I don't think that kind of works out. But tell me about your life, tell me how it's like to be, to have grown up in Poland. I think it's a lot of family, a lot of big family gatherings. A lot of it? Yeah, a lot. I live in Wrocław, and here I have only one auntie, which is Maria, and one aunt, but the whole family lives like two hours away, and every Sunday they have like the big dinner, and there's 60 people. Oh my God, oh my God. Well, they all meet and eat, and it's always very loud, and sometimes I'm fortunate enough to be with them, but it's not every week, because two hours is not that short. So yeah, that's in my family way, but in social way, I don't know if there are many differences, because I don't have like the, I have only experience living in Poland, so I don't know what it's like in... No, I find it kind of funny that, well, I don't know, but my, so my grandmother, Elsie, she's Ukrainian, so her and my grandpa had like kind of no communication, so they had to find like an easy medium of both Ukrainian and Polish, and that's how they kind of brought up their family. So here, in my community, my mother speaks French, and it's my first language, and I'm slowly learning Polish, little by little, just by, you know, kind of digging my way. But, no, it's very interesting that both our worlds are like so different, yet we're kind of connected just by a messenger, and sometimes sending a text, so that's cool. Yes, and it's impressive that you're learning Polish, because I think, not only my opinion, but like scientists agree that it's one of the hardest languages in the world, so it's very interesting that you try. Try is a nice word to say, it's like chicken scratch, like, honestly. But growing up in Poland, did you know you had families overseas? Like, did you kind of have that family history kind of rooted for you guys? I think it was somewhere in the background, always, but it wasn't like a big thing. Since Uncle Edek started coming to Poland, it was more noticeable, because he was there every year, so we spent Christmas with him, we spent holidays, but it wasn't, it was something normal, we didn't talk about it like... No, for sure. For us here, we always say, I am here, my dad is here, because of my grandpa, Edward. We are here because of that. But we find it interesting that in his early days, he never got married, he got married here when he was a lot older, in his 30s, so we're always kind of amazed how he completely started a new life, and just totally ripped away from anything that felt like home. Luckily, here in Winnipeg, we have a huge Polish community, like, an outstanding Polish community, and many more to come, like, I started doing Polish dance recently, I don't know, it's kind of something, because my dad was talking to one of his Polish friends, and it just kind of came about like that, but just because of that, I think, my grandpa, he would have loved to see it, but he didn't make it, unfortunately, but just because of that community, he was able to, like, touch base with something he's familiar with, and etc. Do you do any, like, traditional dance? Do you play music? What do you do? I don't, I used to dance, so again, when I was a little kid, we did some, like, traditional Slavic Polish dances, and I think it was adorable, but now actually, I would really like to join some kind of traditional dancing group, and it's one of our family now, it's my son, and it's our cousin's girlfriend, and Kacper, who actually was, I think, I don't know if he visited you, but he came one summer with Edek to his house, with Edek. What's his name? Kacper. Kacper, yeah. Yes, I know who Kacper is. So, his girlfriend recently joined, like, this traditional Polish group, and they're dancing, singing, and all of this, so I think it's really nice to have this tradition. Yes, absolutely. We do, too. I know that in the Polish group, I've kind of been able to learn Polish through them as they're, like, you know, they have dual citizenship between here and Poland, born in Poland, came here, etc. But I was watching, it's funny how culture can be, like, dispersed within the world. It's not that it has to stay in its own little country. But I was watching a show recently, and they were doing this dance called Spiesz, and I was like, oh, hold on, hold on. I was like, is that the Polish dance? It's like, that's a region, like, hello. Like, I had to sit with it. But I find it amazing that art can be so transmissible from culture to culture. Yes, and I think it's very Polish of you to say that, you know, that something is from Poland, and that's what's nice about it, because I think that it's, like, our thing, when people see the cinema and the movies everywhere, in the theater, in the song reference, and they're like, oh, my God, Poland! Like, it's cool. It's a good feeling. It gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling. So we are connected through your mother, is that correct? Yes. Yes. Okay, and your mother is Agnieszka? No. Yes, Agnieszka. Oh, yes! And she is from Warsaw, correct? Thank you. Which is not bad. And, like, combined with her last name, Agnieszka Szklarszuk, it's really Polish. I could do it if I was her. So, do you have any siblings? Yes, I have one older brother, and his name is Julian. Okay, okay. We were trying to piece it together at home this morning. I was like, I'm pretty sure that's where, because my dad was talking about him how, and I was like, I'm pretty sure that's where it comes from. But good to know, just for future reference. Have you ever traveled, Agnieszka? Yes, I have. Where have you traveled? I can repeat? Where have you traveled? So, two times through Croatia, Italy, Montenegro, Germany, Belgium, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia. You should have, like, a checklist. Yes, yes, I plan to visit all the European countries. Nice. You should come to Canada. Yes, I think I do have a destination. We'll take you in with open arms. Well, thanks very much.