Researching Words without Speaking Them. Language as Care Practice in Multi-Lingual Care Environments in Poland

Being able to speak and understand local languages is regarded as an important prerequisite for conducting fieldwork. In this article we reflect on fieldwork in which we did not speak the local language - Polish - but in which we could still learn something about a central practice in our field sites: how language was implicated in practices of care. Hanging out as linguistically constricted researchers propelled us to research situations in which care was done through using words as sounds and practices, rather than relying on meanings, and to relate to not sharing a language in new ways.