Polacy na Viadrinie. Sytuacja kontaktu kulturowego ze studentami niemieckimi na przykładzie Europejskiego Uniwersytetu Viadrina.
Poles at the European University Viadrina as an Example of Cultural Contact with German Students

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the paper is to study cultural contact between Polish students at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder) and their German counterparts, from the perspective of the Poles. The research issue may be worded as follows: what meanings do the Poles feel characterise the specific nature of cultural contact between Polish and German students, since they study in the same institutional, linguistic and cultural space? The thesis put forward is that obstacles of three kinds play a dominant role in this cultural contact: linguistic, those arising from the dominance in numbers, and those caused by institutional measures. Analysis reveals that subjective perception of the differences between the two groups is frequently more important than their actual existence. Neutral coexistence of the two groups, characterised by reserve and contact devoid of integration, is the everyday experience at Viadrina University. Such an atmosphere in this Polish-German encounter confirms the thesis postulated here. Closer relations between Poles and Germans do occur alongside these prevalent trends, but tend to be the result of individual initiative rather than the institutional measures adopted at Viadrina University.

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