Life / Question About Polish Attitudes Towards Non-Polish People: [23]

I see no problem with expecting someone who's come to visit a country to have at least a rudimentary grasp of the language. Even if it's just using a phrase book to translate, I'd say that the effort is appreciated. As for the smiling thing, that's a cultural difference. Poles find feigned pleasantness to be off-putting. As someone who was born there but raised abroad, even I find American 'faux happiness' to be a little creepy.