Speaking the same language

EWA ANDRZEJEWSKA
Editor

The mistakes of our youth - we all make them. I have to warn you, this is going to be nostalgic. I grew up in Poland during the communist era. In primary school it was obligatory to learn Russian. The language of our eastern neighbour was relatively easy to master, even though the motivation at the time was rather... different. Then came secondary school, and with it the fall of the Berlin wall and changes to the education system. Russian was replaced with - in my case - German, which I had to learn in secondary school. As a result my Russian has been completely forgotten as it has been a number of years since I attended primary school, and the disliked language of our western neighbour has since also been permanently driven from my memory. These days I would give a great deal to be able to speak both the languages of Goethe and of Pushkin and Akunin (my favourite author of detective stories, of Georgian origin). German - if only because the final "wall" came down on May 1st, when the labour markets of Germany and Austria, among others, finally opened up to workers from Central and Eastern Europe (a topic which is covered in this issue) - and Russian, because the Russian investment market has recently been attracting increasingly large groups of investors. These include companies from the Middle East (a fund has even been established that complies with Sharia law) and China, which are now making more and more room for themselves on Central and Eastern European soil. So perhaps I should consider enrolling on a Chinese course? As everyone knows, unfulfilled ambitions are best passed onto our offspring. This would mean that my first born is destined to learn Mandarin from the cradle... I will still be thinking about this, holding the May issue of the magazine in the one hand and my baby in the other - as by then I will have become a mum. I have a new challenge ahead of me, a new role to fulfil, so I will next be seeing you ladies and gentlemen when it gets closer to the Euro 2012 football championships. The last two sentences refer to my current baby - as we tenderly call the magazine - which has gained a new ?Photo Story' section. In the first such feature we focus on Warsaw's Central Station, revealing some of its hidden secrets to our readers.