It’s sad to see how disrespectful some of our youth can be

Recently my Polish class was asked to translate a poem by Jerzy Harasymowicz, “Orchard, January” and it made me feel homesick for Canada.

I wrote the original Polish on cue cards to study on the bus, and on a Sunday afternoon, sitting near a Polish family, I took them out of my bag.

A noisy gang of Scottish boys got on the bus, and a few raced each other to the upper deck. One nabbed the seat beside me, and his hefty pal crowded onto the edge. The first boy looked at my cards.

“Is that Polish?” he demanded.

“Yes,” I said, not surprised at his correct guess. Poles are the largest ethnic minority in Edinburgh after the English.

“Are you Polish?”

“No. I’m Canadian.”

There was a stunned pause.