Polish News Seattle

You can learn Polish at two Polish elementary-level schools, one in Seattle and one on the Eastside. Courses for adults are available only at the Polish School in Seattle. Polish is also taught at the Dept of Slavic Languages and Literatures of the University of Washington in Seattle. The information below has been updated for the 2007/2008 school year.

The Juliusz Slowacki Polish School in Seattle is located at the Polish Home and has traditions going back many years. This is an obvious choice for elementary school children from the Seattle metropolitan area. Enrollment is about 35 kids and 20 adults. The curriculum covers Polish language and literature as well as history and geography of

Poland

for children from grades 1 to 8, although students are grouped together based on language skills. Courses for adults are also available and well attended - beginners and intermediate groups are available. The Polish School has a webpage at the Polish Home website – please note that the School is under new management from June 2006 with the new principal, Ms. Swietlicka. The School is open on Monday nights from 6 pm to 8:45 pm and in 2007/2008 season also on Saturday mornings from 9 am. Please contact Principal Krystyna Swietlicka at (206) 720-0683, vice-Principals Barbara Strutynski at (425) 746-3037 or Zbigniew Konofalski; for adult courses please contact Marian Strutynski.

The Fr. Jan Twardowski Polish School in Bellevue is a newer school which is more convenient for people who live on the Eastside, although the School also enrolls students from all over Puget Sound. The School uses the facilities of the St. Louise Parish School in Bellevue. Enrollment is about 20 kids and the curriculum is similar to the Polish School in Seattle for children from 1st to 8th grades. There are no classes for grown ups. For more information visit the School website. The School is open on Wednesdays from 6 pm. Please contact Principal Anna Cholewinska (425) 765-4935, or info@polishschoolseattle.org.

The Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures of the University of Washington requires enrollment at the UW. This requires a tuition about $1,200 per quarter, although when you are 60+ years old, the fee drops down to $5 per course taken. The Department is located on the main UW campus in Seattle. Class availability changes from year to year. The list of courses is below. Please contact Prof. Katarzyna Dziwirek, a native Polish speaker who lectures Polish courses, or Susan Westen, who is a secretary at the Slavic Department, for more info. In the 2006/2007 the department has also a Polish Fullbright scholar, dr. Piotr Lewinski who is visiting from the University of Wroclaw.

The following courses related to Poland and Polish culture are available at the University of Washington in the 2007/2008 academic year:

POLISH 404 Second Year Polish (5 credits), K. Dziwirek,

POLISH 420 Masterpieces of Modern Polish Literature (5 credits), Artur Grabowski

SLAV 470/570 Issues in Bilingualism (3-5 credits), K. Dziwirek

SLAV 223 Cinema of Roman Polanski (5 credits), G. Crnkovic

CLIT 315 National Cinémas: Roman Polanski (5 credits), G. Crnkovic

EURO 425 Europe Today (5 credits), S. Lang

HSTEU 452 Eastern Europe Since 1918 (5 credits), J. Felak

POLISH 320 Modern Polish Poetry - Philosophy in Verses (5 credits), Artur Grabowski

SLAV 490 Ironic Hero - in Search of Self-Definition in Modern Polish Lit & Film, Artur Grabowski

Bellevue Community College used to run very popular Polish beginner classes in the 2005/2006 year. These are not available in 2006//2007, most of the students signed up at the Polish School in Seattle.

Besides the Polish School, there is also a Polish Scout Troop, contact Anna Bieniek. Another possibility is a children theater group Mlodzi Polanie active at the Polish Home; contact Barbara Strutynski.

I look for a Polish church as well as religious education for my children in Polish.

Seattle and Tacoma have Polish catholic parishes that offer masses as well as religious education for children in Polish. For St. Margaret’s Church in Seattle please contact Fr. Stanislaw Michalek at (206) 282-1804. For Ss. Peter and Paul Church in Tacoma, please contact Fr. Piotr Dzikowski, (253) 272-5232.

I don’t speak Polish but I would like to be involved in Polish community, be in contact with other people interested in Polish culture.

Most events organized by the Polish organizations in Seattle are in English or bilingual. Please check our website or subscribe to the email bulletin.

You are always welcome at the Polish Home, whether you speak Polish or not – it’s open on every Friday night from 7 pm and you can eat a Polish dinner there. To get involved, you might want to join Seattle-Gdynia Sister City Association (SGSCA meets at the Polish Home on the second Friday every month). This is an English-language friends-of-Poland type of organization (Gdynia is a big city and a port next to Gdansk in Poland). SGSCA organizes Polish Film Festivals in Seattle. Other organizations and venues worth exploring are listed here; the most notable for English speakers are Polish Home Foundation and the UW Polish Studies Endowment Committee.

George’s Sausage & Delicatessen, 907 Madison St., Seattle, WA 98104, 206-622-1491,

Stores: There is a number of Russian or East European stores that sell Polish products.

This is a distributor of European beer & wine. It features the best selection of Polish beer

Please look in our Business Directory for translators, lawyers or bilingual notaries. For general comments, please see below.

First, note that services of an American notary are quite different from ones provided by a Polish notary. A notary in Poland runs an office with services somewhere between ones provided by an American notary and an estate lawyer's office; this includes preserving copies of documents handled by the notary's office. Also, Polish notaries have a monopoly on some legal services, especially related to real estate; this is not the case in the US. A notary in the US is basically a simple service confirming identity of a person signing a document; no copies are preserved by the notary. Hence, for anything more complicated you might want a lawyer.

Document translations are much more informal in the US than in

Poland

. In particular, a sworn translator is frequently not required. In many cases you may translate a document from Polish to English yourself if you are able to and know the appropriate terminology; typically there is a requirement that one should not translate documents about oneself - but then a competent friend may do it for you. In any case, the translator needs to identify himself/herself in a note at the end of the document and to add a statement about being competent and about translation being accurate and faithful with the original. For crucial legal documents or court appearances you should or might be required to seek help from a local court approved translator.

When preparing documents for sending to Poland everything depends on the type and purpose of the document. A simple Upowaznienie (Limited Power of Attorney) is typically accepted by Polish officials when the text is bilingual (such as in parallel columns) and the signature confirmed by your local notary. Typically, every bank, Pony Express, a Passport Photo service has a notary on staff. On the other hand, for many legal documents, such as marriage licenses, real estate contracts, court rulings etc, notary is not applicable or not enough. The crucial point in these cases is that the document itself needs confirmation – specifically that it is in fact a legally binding document in the US. This legalization procedure used to be performed by the Polish consulates, but the consulates do not do it anymore. Per the Hague Convention, these confirmations have been replaced by the Apostille documents issued by the Secretary of State. Finally, for Polish citizens, passport applications are not accepted by mail anymore (since August 28, 2006) by the Polish consulates due to new passport regulations in Poland and the EU; one needs to apply in person before a Polish consul.

Apostille – this is worth a separate paragraph. As mentioned above, an Apostille is currently the only legalization confirmation appropriate for legal documents between US and Poland. In the past, Polish consulates would provide legalization services; since August 14, 2005, both Poland and the USA recognize Apostilles as the legalization instrument according to the Hague Convention. In our state the Apostilles are issued by the office of the Secretary of State for the State of Washington in Olympia. In particular, no subsequent confirmation by the Polish Consulate in LA is needed. You can obtain an Apostille from the office of the Secretary of State by mail or in person.

The best chance is to use the family connection back in Poland. Trace your American data to an ancestor with known date of birth and place of birth. If you have that, the family can write to the appropriate state archives in Poland asking for birth certificates for these people or even for genealogical search on them. Depending on how far in past it is, the documents can be in the state archives at a provincial capital (appropriate voivodship) or at the central archive in Warsaw. The state archives have official state records or copies of those, as well as records or copies of records from religious institutions like parishes etc. Also the state archives in Warsaw have many records from towns and villages that were Polish before WWII and now are in Western Ukraine or Byelorussia.

The archives nowadays actually make money on this type of genealogical queries, so other than writing appropriate specs for searching, paying up upfront and waiting the first steps in this research should be fairly straightforward.

If you need advice, your best bet is Polyways Travels, (206) 634-2995, a Seattle agency specializing in

Poland

and providing very good service; they know all the connections and attractions by heart. Please look here: Business and service.

Sending packages via airmail w/ US Post Office is advised only for simple packages or with single item envelopes (a book, a CD, a medication). In particular people had mixed experiences with the Global Airmail Parcel Post. When speed and tracking number is essential, such as when sending legal documents etc, use DHL, Fedex etc; for big cities in Poland this works as you would expect in the US – except for price: the service is almost as fast as they promise but pricey; however, double check with the shipper when sending to small towns. Bigger packages can be sent much cheaper and more convenient at the receiving end by Polamer. (Note: there used to be a local company named Polonez, it does not exist anymore). Polamer, toll free (877) 544-1844 is based in Chicago, so this requires sending packages via UPS or similar carriers to Polamer Cargo in Chicago; call them to obtain their rates and shipping forms to fill. This is a bit involved but you definitely save money on the combo of sending ground to Chicago and then by sea by Polamer. They have been very reliable and deliver packages to the door in

Poland

(put a local phone contact on the form). Typically a sea parcel takes about 3-4 weeks to arrive. They also have a faster airmail service.

There are several options to send money to

Poland

. The fastest and safest way to send a big sum is a direct bank transfer or wire from a bank or brokerage account in US to a bank account in Poland. It does not matter which bank in Poland but a full bank/account number (with the international SWIFT/BIC number) is a must; also, besides the account, the target bank branch address and phone number is a frequent requirement. Fees range between $25-50 and typically do not depend on the amount; 2-3 business days can be expected to complete the transaction. For smaller sums US Money Express can be used, fees depend on the amount but they have a home delivery option. Another approach is to add a family member to an ATM card or credit card and let the family use it.

The full list is at the Polish in Seattle page. The most important organization is Polish Home Association, established in 1918; it owns and operates the Polish Home in Seattle. Polish Home Foundation is the most important public charity for the Polish community. You can donate to any local Polish cause through PHF and donations are tax deductible. Another notable organization is Seattle-Gdynia Sister City Association, producer of the Seattle Polish Film Festival.

I want to rent the Polish Home for an event, what's the price and availability?

The Polish Home can be rented for family events as well as meetings, celebrations etc. Both the upper and lower halls can be rented. For details and current rates, please check the Hall Rental page on the Polish Home site.

This may or may not be possible depending on the elections - as the polling station may or may not be available in Seattle in a given year - and additional conditions. For the most recent elections, scheduled in Poland for October 21, 2007, this is possible. However, please note that voting in Seattle (and other places on the American continent) is a day earlier, on Saturday, October 20. Please look at the election info here for details about registration requirements, deadlines etc.