My old polish grandfather has come to visit us in America and can't speak English. How to entertain him?

He's old and had half of his leg amputated so can't really exercise too much. He still will walk a couple of blocks but i wouldn't recommend more than that. He only speaks Polish. He's going to be staying for the next 6 weeks
Everyone in my family is busy most of the time, either working or running around doing things. And I feel bad that he's alone alot of the time.
So what can we get him or do to entertain him when he's alone or bored?

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 24th, 2010 at 7:00 am and is filed under Polish Written and Spoken. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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5 Responses to “My old polish grandfather has come to visit us in America and can't speak English. How to entertain him?”

  1. G. B. J., Md. Says:
    July 24th, 2010 at 7:00 am

    One useful tool is right here on Yahoo (http://babelfish.yahoo.com/ ) and some others like, (http://text-to-speech.imtranslator.net/ ), and (http://translation2.paralink.com/ ) or through Google.com at(http://translate.google.com/translate_t?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&rlz=1I7GGLL_en&q=online+free&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sl=en&tl=pl&ei=EVElTJuyH4Wdlgfv2ZTRCg&sa=X&oi=clir_translation_intent&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBsQrgYwAA# ).

    If he is not familiar with using a computer, politely sitting him down beside you, or another caring family member, and taking him to one of the above Websites, and demonstrating in real-time, how this device can help bridge a language gap, may do wonders toward assisting him with getting to know the computer, and his younger family members.

    As someone also alluded to; DVD movies in his native language could serve to augment his daily activity, and provide entertainment. If no Polish DVDs, then both Netflix.com (http://www.netflix.com/ ), and Blockbuster.com (http://www.blockbuster.com/ ) have movies, documentaries, and animation in their libraries, and some of those can be streamed down to a PC, and/or TV via a PS3, or XBox, or Wii for a small ($8.99 a Month or more) Monthly Fee.

    This is a great opportunity (http://www.revolutionhealth.com/healthy-living/relationships/friends-family/inlaws-extended-family/knowing-grandparents ) for all of you, filled with lots of anticipation, surprise, fun and historic and personal knowledge! Best wishes, and I hope this helps…

    GBJ

  2. twistedtart Says:
    July 24th, 2010 at 7:00 am

    Photos! I’m sure he’d love to see as many pics of the family as you can show him since he doesn’t live here in the states.

  3. Liberty F Says:
    July 24th, 2010 at 7:00 am

    youtube.com There’s plenty of videos to keep him busy.

  4. Jessminda Says:
    July 24th, 2010 at 7:00 am

    I agree with previous answers. AND

    Keep talking to him in english so that he will pick up on the language and gestures .

    He may be old, but he’s not stupid .

  5. R B Says:
    July 24th, 2010 at 7:00 am

    Mmmm, lapdance?

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