Life / Wonderful Poland.......but the attitude of Polish people [150]

I think a lot of Poles are racist. I also think I know why. There are not that many foreigners here, so they are a couple of generations behind (as compared to UK) in gaining experience of living with foreigners.

Previous experience of living with foreigners in Poland involved Germans and Russians and damaged those generations beyond repair. They won't "get over it". It will disappear to a large extent when that generation dies off, but the wound will take a couple more generations to disappear from sight. My wife's grandparents all hated the Germans.

Here in the Zgierz/Lodz area there simply aren't many blacks (they're all in UK). Even the gypsies round here all have British registered cars.

The thing is though. A lot of people in all countries are racist. At least the Poles (the buraki at least) are straightforward about it and it is simply because they haven't met foreigners. My wife never got job interviews in the UK until we anglicised her name. Overnight, the interviews started coming in. (Hidden racism)

I'm a Brit, but when my grandma heard I got engaged to a Pole, her response was "she is white isn't she?" Ignorance - pure and simple. A friend of mine once dated an Indian girl. I was going to "borrow" her to take and show my gran to pretend she was my GF. Never got round to it though. :)

I do find the people in the area we have our Zgierz house to be pretty narrow-minded though. They all seem to think that we should sell our English house and move to Zgierz permanently. Yeah - right. A neighbour was telling me yesterday Angli jest za ciasno. I replied. Tak, bo za dużo Polaków. ;)

Another little anecdote to finish with. We made a new friend in the UK. She's a Pole and had recently moved from Leicester to near where we live in UK (we divide our time between Poland and UK). She said to my wife...

"It's great here. Mało murzynów" There are a lot in the Leicester area and she'd moved South.

A British person would never say something like that to a stranger on first acquaintance. There is a difference in racial attitudes. But give it a couple of generations and those who have travelled outside their own home town and village - even as far as za granice - and the attitudes will change.

Some Poles are great. Some are complete gits. But it's the same with any nation.

Now could someone please teach Poles how to hold doors open and drive considerately? :)

Life / Wonderful Poland.......but the attitude of Polish people [150]


Well, I did say to a large extent. The younger people I know seem not to be too bothered about the war. They're too busy working their butts off to have a decent quality of life. :)

By the time they have grandchildren it'll all but be forgotten about.

I've been coming to Poland for about 15 years and never once experienced any hostility because of being English. That doesn't mean there isn't any resentment, but I've not knowingly been on the receiving end of it.

Life / Wonderful Poland.......but the attitude of Polish people [150]


The logical conclusion is that the Poles don't have any "issues" with me. I can't extend that to the whole nation as I only represent myself. :) But you get the picture. ;)

Life / Wonderful Poland.......but the attitude of Polish people [150]


Good point. :)

Life / What should be done to make life in Poland better and more enjoyable? [94]

All buraki should be given a passport, a ticket abroad and £1000 spending money and be told that they WILL be shot on re-entry to Poland if they bring any money or valuable goods back with them.

This should show them that other countries have a lot to offer and hopefully teach them a bit about the perils of excessive oszczędność. ;)

Oh yeah. They need a 14 day time limit too, or some will manage to last 6 months and miss the point of the lesson. :)

Life / Place to Buy Fresh Fish In Warsaw or Poznan? [7]

Have you got a Tesco up there? Tesco in £ódź has quite a large fish section.

Law / What polish people like to eat? Need some business ideas. [17]

What Morella said LOL.

Something cheap. I'm sure it's a bit different in major cities, but most of the Poles I've met are terrible tightwads. So if you can find something fairly cheap that you can make a profit on, that might be a winner (for ten minutes until somebody else copies and undercuts you).

I've never really thought much of the "Pile it high, sell it cheap" way of business though. In my opinion you'd be better off selling a few of something expensive if you can find the right place to do it in.

A lot of Poles are wusses when it comes to spicy food though. Indian is a great idea, but you don't want to be the guy who creates the market, that's just an uphill struggle.

To be honest, I'd steer clear of the restaurant business altogether. Long hours, very hard work and very difficult to make a profit. How do I know? Mother-in-law owns restaurant in south-west Poland. She makes as much now renting out the building as she did working 14 hours a day running the restaurant. :) Go figure.

Life / Warnings about Life in Poland [71]

I think you have more to fear from Polish negativity. Bunch of miserable gits telling you all that stuff.

Wolves are scared of humans and avoid them. If you can see a wolf you'll be lucky.

If you're on a mountain bike you'll be able to get away from any animals you encounter (including rapists). The not walking alone late at night might be good advice. Do you do that in other countries?

One thing you will need to learn about Poles is that they are obsessed by fear. I remember a few years ago we were doing up our house and I was climbing up the roof timbers to take a photo. The friendly old neighbour said "nie bojesz się?" (you're not scared?) It struck me as odd. A Brit would never ask you that. Why would I be scared? And if I was, why would I be climbing up on the roof.

It happens a lot. Fears are manufactured and passed down from generation to generation.

One winter I went for a walk alone in the forest behind my mother-in-law's house. I took my £400 Nikon camera with me. After I was gone half an hour, they sent people looking for me in case I'd been mugged and had my camera nicked.

A couple of years later I brought my 2 grand laptop to Poland (I can't believe they ever cost that much - this was 10 years ago) and I was going to take the train to Warsaw to fly back to UK. My wife's gran advised me to hide it when I get on the train so that I won't be robbed.

I've been coming to Poland for 15 years and lived in Poland part of that time (~18 months). If you are aware and alert, you'll be fine. If you like mountain biking in the forest and you can use a map and compass, you'll be fine. (Or a GPS?).

For some reason I've still to get to the bottom of, Poles LOVE pissing on each other's happiness. If you like doing something, someone else will try to stop you doing it or spoil it for you. If anyone can tell me how it came about, I'd love to know. But it's probably something to do with WWII - which is the catch-all excuse for all Poland's mizeria.

In the words of Nike. Just do it.

Life / Warnings about Life in Poland [71]

LOL - now that made me laugh. :)

Life / The strangest things in Poland [468]

I've read right through this thread and a couple of things have been omitted.

What about the fact that people spend so much time and effort sweeping the street in front of their house? Particularly before Christmas and Easter and at weekends.

The proliferation of drunks (although they seem to be mostly old and dying off in the Zgierz area).

The fact that in shops you can buy a bottle of beer and drink it on the premises in order not to have to pay a deposit (kaucja). I often feel sorry for the shop assistants that they have to put up with the pijaki hanging around all day.

Everything has to be done the cheapest possible way (najtańszy) - even if it takes ten times as long - particularly in house construction (this is changing now - thank God)

15 years ago I found it very funny that when you go to a museum you have to put funny outer shoe things on your feet so as to protect the floor. Do they still do that? I haven't been to a museum for a long time in Poland.

Having to wear plastic shoe covers when you visit someone in hospital. (The hospitals I've visited in Zgierz/£ódź are so grim, you'd think a little bit of dirt would improve them) :)

The fact that I was told it was a bit rude to talk about money and Poles never seem to talk about anything else. In fact I recently bought a bike and the neighbours on both sides were dying to know how much I paid for it (as with anything else you buy). "Ile kosztował?"

And then of course there's the "if you give a Pole an inch, he will ask you for a kilometer"

Poles seem to have absolutely no sense of personal shame and have real problems self-limiting.

Oh - here's one I remember from driving UK-Poland before Polska joined the EU. Used to be such things as border queues. When in a border queue, many of the Poles would push their car forward 5-10m instead of starting it up. I assumed it was to preserve the battery on an old car. In fact, I was told it was to save petrol/gas. PMSL.

Oszczędność - whilst the rest of the world could learn something about frugal living from the staropolski folk, the lengths those people go to to save a teeny sum of money astonish me. They'd rather live in a rubbish dump like Mr Trebus than ever throw anything away "bo może czegoś przyda" (maybe it'll be useful).

The traffic system simply doesn't work at complex junctions with traffic lights because pedestrians are allowed to cross when people should be turning right. This screws up the whole traffic flow. >:-(

Very few fat people and no fat kids. (although, sadly fat children are appearing now as the "coke and crisps" culture develops. This is a disaster. I hate to see fat kids. :()

I find Poles a lot louder than Brits.

I'm sure I will think of more. But that should be enough to be going on with. ;)

Thought of some more...

Workmen not owning the correct tools for the job and expecting you to provide them.
(When we had our house built I was astonished that, in some cases, my hobby tools were of higher quality than the "professional" tools used by the builders)

Workmen using the wrong tools for the job and making it take a very long time and hard work to do.

Workmen being extraordinarily creative in ways of doing stuff. (My father-in-law was a world leader in fixing things using inadequate tools and materials because no others were available).

The whole "quality" thing (wszystko jednakowy) attitude. This applies mostly to the generation who are 40-50+. Complete inability to look at an item and judge if it's quality or shite - end up buying the cheapest and kidding themselves that they're pleased with it. I think the reason for this is simply that this generation had no choices when they were growing up. If you wanted ser, it was żółty or biały, not Camembert, Brie, Roquefort, cheddar etc.

I find Poles generally quite generous with their time.

The whole "build a house over 25 years" and not move in until it's completely finished concept. (This is disappearing though)

Poles will not guess or estimate anything - EVER! Drives me up the wall. I think the school system is to blame. If you get penalised for guessing wrong you will stop guessing.

If you ask someone "how long will this take"? You can bet your arse you will get a "nie wiem" (don't know) answer. So you have to ask another question. "3 hours?" then you start to make progress

"no. More than that".

"5 hours"?
"na przykład" (for example)

So you only had to ask 3 questions to get a ball-park figure.

They hate being wrong - same as the krauts. ;)

Life / Why do People spend half their lives complaining about living in Poland? [55]

To compare experiences? To vent frustration? For entertainment? To wind up Poles? Who knows?

I find the "what is different about Poland?" threads extremely interesting, full of generalisations, prejudices, preconceived ideas of "how things should be"...

FANTASTIC :)

Lots of fun. Obviously anyone with a brain can tell that not all people or towns/cities/villages are like the one where certain things happen. But humans cannot help but extrapolate their experiences to the "whole country".

If you had a bad experience on your first trip to Poland, that means Poland sucks and the people are all scum. Of course this isn't true ;)

It takes quite a while to acclimatise though. It's great to note the cultural differences. I bet the differences between old villages and Warsaw centre are almost as great as those between UK and PL.

There are quite a few things that suck about living in Poland. In fact there are also things that suck about living in other countries. The point is that they are, by and large, different things. That's why they're worth talking about. :)

Life / Why do People spend half their lives complaining about living in Poland? [55]


Agreed. I've only been on this forum a week, although I have spent quite a lot of time in Poland over a 15 year period and I speak the language (more or less).

The other thing I just thought of though is that Poles don't like to hear criticism of their country (who does?) so ex-pats (always makes me think of cow-pats) get together on here to have a moan instead. No harm in that? Might be boring after a while. But you're not seriously going to try to put the case to us that Poles don't whinge are you? ;)

Life / Why do People spend half their lives complaining about living in Poland? [55]


I dunno. I think the ex-commie nations would give us some stiff competition. It would be a photo-finish for sure. ;)

Life / Why do People spend half their lives complaining about living in Poland? [55]


The key is to treat it as a game. Let the idiots be idiots, but foresee it and keep yourself out of trouble. You don't get three lives in this game. ;)

Life / Why do People spend half their lives complaining about living in Poland? [55]

What the heck is horion? Never heard of it and google doesn't play ball either.???

Life / Why do People spend half their lives complaining about living in Poland? [55]


I only asked you what horion is because I've never heard of it before. How am I supposed to know that it's heroin? Your spelling wasn't even close.

Good to see admin's doing a good job. Well done :)

Life / How is cancer treatment in Poland??? [17]


My wife's dad died of prostate cancer about 18 months ago. We moved back to Poland for 18 months to see him through. He wouldn't have coped alone. The system here is pretty poor :(

Doctors spoke to the family and not the patient (like something out of a 1960's film).

Dad was diagnosed at the stage when the cancer had already metastacised to the bones. They gave him hormone therapy and strontium radiotherapy. The strontium helped the pain and he was great for about 6 months. He had two of those. Hard to get because it's expensive, but dad had a good connection who lobbied for him.

In the end they gave him aredia (pamidronate) monthly infusion to protect the bones from breaking. Once it gets to the bones, it's only a question of time. :( But the time might be 6 months or a few years.

What we found though was that even the consultants don't always know the procedures for getting the best drugs because the rules keep changing all the time.

If you have someone strong and pushy to champion your cause, you have a chance to get the best help, otherwise it's pretty hopeless.

In the end, the doctor and nurses from the pain clinic were absolutely marvellous. If your friend is on morphine already, chances are he's already plugged into that facility, but if not, try to find out if there is one. They were an absolute Godsend for the last couple of months. (both in terms of care for him and advice for us).

News / Polish transfer of Family Estate in Will? [14]


Now that is a watertight way to do it. You will have to pay some sort of transfer tax/stamp duty though. (We did, although it was about 8 years ago - things may have changed).

If it's dealt with now you won't have to go through probate either. In fact, it's probably the best all-round solution as long as he trusts you. :)

News / Polish transfer of Family Estate in Will? [14]


That's excellent news for the OP. We wanted to spend money developing the "family home", which I was unwilling to do if I would then have to pay inheritance tax on it. So we had the parents gift it to us several years ago (although it ended up being their suggestion, so that worked out best).

We also got dad to get rid of his Maluch a few months (sold for 100zl) before he died, so we had no probate to deal with at all. :)

Life / More Polish supermarket griping...this time about customers [29]

If you don't like people too close and you have a trolley, all you have to do is stand in front of the trolley. It'll get bumped a bit, but hey. You can also stand in front of it to unload your stuff and prevent those behind you having access to the conveyor belt until YOU are ready to let them, and you've put a "następny kretyn" marker down. ;)

I find that Tesco in Lódź is not too bad. But then I do try to go at off-peak times. I detest queues and crowds.

News / Shock therapy for Polish prisoners. [13]

They should take them on a tour round Oświęcim (Auschwitz) and tell them "if you do it again we'll send you here". Went there once - shocking place. Truly. You can almost feel the evil presence there. (shudder)

News / WHY DOES POLAND, EU PERMIT FLOOD OF CHINA JUNK? [40]

So you like Americans then? ;)

I have the impression that Poles think everything made in China is crap. It's not true though, although a lot of it is cheap crap. Almost everything is made there now, it depends on quality control systems whether it's crap or not.

Poles love cheap stuff, and not many of the older people are able to discern quality from tat (because there was never any choice of comparable products in the shops) so they just buy cheap crap in supermarkets. The number of cheap crap toys that they bought my son was horrific. Just buy him one quality toy instead of a heap of crap please. ;)

Life / Redheads in Poland - How many? [95]

No way. 4% would be one in every 25 people you meet is a redhead. Not a chance (unless you include the old ladies with red "farbowany" hair).

I can't think of a single Polish genuine ginger that I've met. I think it must be much nearer 1% or 1 in 100. Maybe it varies in different regions, but in the Zgierz area there simply aren't (m)any.

Life / Redheads in Poland - How many? [95]

Sure, but the OP was about natural gingers, which seem to be very few and far between in Poland. :)

News / WHY DOES POLAND, EU PERMIT FLOOD OF CHINA JUNK? [40]

Yeah, but there's plenty of cheap crap available in the UK as well. Some of the cheap tools you can buy are ridiculously poor quality.

News / WHY DOES POLAND, EU PERMIT FLOOD OF CHINA JUNK? [40]

It only really matters if people are unable to distinguish crap from quality though. Unfortunately for the Polish market, the older generation (40's +) seems to fall into that category.

If there were no market for cheap crap, it wouldn't be imported. One of the things that amazed me in Poland was the availability of very poor quality chocolate. (I call this czekoldowopodobny). Chocolate flavoured candy bars, rather than actually containing chocolate. I only fell for this once though, and now stick to known brands like Wedel, Wawel (not as nice as Wedel) etc. or foreign stuff. (I think Wedel is owned by Cadbury these days anyway LOL).

The reason I was suckered into buying this czekoladowopodobny shite is that, brought up in UK where that sort of crap wouldn't be considered good enough to sell, I had never come across it. Now I always look at the cocoa content. I lacked the skill to discern quality chocolate and fell for the low price. I think many older people in Poland lack the skill to judge quality in many many different areas - hence the influx and purchase of cheap poo.

News / Shock therapy for Polish prisoners. [13]


There's certainly one near Wrocław - I've driven past it.

News / Shock therapy for Polish prisoners. [13]

Sweet ;)

News / Shock therapy for Polish prisoners. [13]

Perhaps the criminal element bunked off on that day? ;)

News / WHY DOES POLAND, EU PERMIT FLOOD OF CHINA JUNK? [40]


And nobody moreso than the Poles. ;)


The hard thing there is you can probably pay €10 or €20 for the same T-shirt being sold elsewhere, but the slave still gets the same, just the seller makes more profit. It's a tough game to play.