Poland: The Things That Make Foreigners Lift a Brow

I didn't know! I think we should stick to it!:)

Being a foreigner in PL, I don't find the toilet symbols to be confusing at all. It's a rather simple concept :)

I always thought the triangle was for women....

So, I guess you had to figure out how to stand :)

No it's not true that People in Poland do not celebreat their birthday.. :) I live in POland and I celebrate birthday.. I kdon't know from where you found infos like that.

best wishes
Marta from Poland :)

I did notice that women wore a little bit too much make-up, personally I perfer the natural look, but I suppose it depends on if you have good skin how confident you are about showing your natural self...

yes poles do! celebrate there birthdays my friend is from toruń in poland and she celebrates her birthday and so do all her friends and family

In Poland they can celebrate either their names-day or their birthday.
In America nobody even heard of names-days. Thay don't have a choice.

bossie or Wroclaw, I have a friend that lives in Wroclaw (24 yo. girl). If either of you know Polish language and want to give her a huge hug from me(she's not drunk or in the alley) yell back! :)

But you probably are!!!!

Can anyone tell me whay there are so many duplicate name days in Poland? If your name appears several times in the calendar, how do you choose which is your name day?

from what I remember you choos the one closest to you birthdate, however I am not 100 %sure:)

Paul,

I would say that you choose a name-day that doesn't clash with December 6th or December 24th.
Your parents may have other ideas.

My name-day is too close to Christmas for me to gain from it.

There are duplicate names because of the many Saints. Polish people are named after these Saints.

What's so strange and exclusively Polish about shaking hands? Don't they shake hands in USA? I know this custom might seem a little bit exotic in some countries, but a handshake is a very popular and almost universally recognized greeting gesture.

Looks like the author is not a foreigner, but perhaps some adolescent Pole who's never been abroad. What is "the West"? That's a typical Polish misconception about the world West of the Oder River, that all the people accross the Western border are the same, sharing the same "Western" views, opinions, values, habits and religious beliefs.

You think Poland has a drinking problem? Go to Ireland or UK, take a good look at them crowds of zombies locked out of their sane minds, pouring out of pubs and nightclubs at around 3 a.m. each weekend. Fail not to notice the shocking number of youths stumbling down the streets on their way home, slurring curses through their oozing gaping mouth and unashamedly indulging in acts of teritorial pissing. Observe these disgraceful girls in their early twenties, so desperately looking for some fun and love that at the end of the night they end up as sad, miserable slightly overweight ferrets standing in their far too skimpy outfits, holding their expensive high heels in hands for quite reasonable fear they would fall over to the ground, face-first and loose several teeth if they tried to take even the smallest step wearing those.

I think that's women in general. I've been desperatly trying to find out this girls age (she looks about 30) and in the end I just said cant you just tell me and she always says "Polish girls don't like to tell" so I said "well thats ok, for all you know, I could only be 15!"

I live in a small university town in the US, and about 99% of the students go out to drink every night. The downtown alone has about 15 bars, there are more bars on the side streets and other areas. They close them at 2:00 AM and you can see all the people walking back to their homes. There is a stiff penalty for drinking and driving, so they have designated drivers if they need to get home.

But they drink a lot in the US too, and many people drink at home.
Like my "X" who had a keg of beer in basement and had friends over to drink.
I don't touch that stuff!!

in


that were very

all the Polish people I know celebrate both birthdays and Saints days... seems good to me, you get two good excuses per year for a party and presents instead of just the one.

I like the hand kissing thing.. and I think Polish guys buy more flowers.. my boyfriend wouldnt visit my mom without taking flowers, but Ive never met an English guy who would even think of doing that.. although Im sure there are plenty.

I brought my ex flowers when i was in Poland, I must admit though I felt like a bit of a dick walking through town with them. People kept laughing at me lol

Celebrating birthdays and namedays depends on the area of Poland or where you or your parents come from. In the western part it's more common to have a party on your nameday while in the east it's rather birthday.

Polish girls are beautiful and she not looke like prostitute! Kowalski you must go to Poland and see realy Polish women! You musn't offend Polish girls. This is terrible.

Kaczor,
Kowalski lives in Poland:)

Polish girls are beautiful. They are very natural and they can good wear. I like when girls have soft MAKE UP - like polish girl.

that's true that polish roads and grasses are full of rubbish and dog's shits.

Not sure why... I see people carrying flowers all over the place...especially in the clubs celebrating someones name/birthday. Sure they were laughing at the flowers :) ?

so what that he lives in Poland?

look..


polish grils are natural and lovely..! they wear normal and cool clothes..they don`t look like prostitutes!

you should buy glasses if you can`t see without them!

see yaa!

crooked,
see ya.......

From my limited experience Polish girls are a little bit too thin, BUT Polish women Mmmmmmm. I think this applies to most of the world though, just that I have a liking for the Polish ones. If I am much the worse for wear from Polands national drink I will sometimes kiss the hand of the lady that I have been looking at all night. It is also an old fashioned way in England, as is shaking hands. In England shaking hands is a formal thing (buisness meetings and that sort of thing or meeting someone for the first time). Its not unusual to see friends shaking hands.

On to the road signs... England is pretty well layed out... Poland is not too bad, but easier if your local... The criminals of Europe have to be the Germans. I will not be allowed to use the words that I want to about the German road signs... I will say to any Germans that may be out there STOP CHANGING THE ROAD NUMBERS (E.G. E40/ E34) to whatever you feel like just because you can. Thanks!

Also I love the melted roads that you get in poland (main roads used by lorries) very very amusing. Bad to drive on but the laughs out weigh that problem.

One of the things that I think make foreigners lift their brow is not knowing where in the world they will find the handle on the toilet??? It can be in anyone of a number of places in Poland. Here in the US - you just know where it is and can find it in the dark if necessary!

There were quite a number of things that I found different when I was in Poland. I found the customer service to be very, very good when it was good and very, very bad when it was bad. I found queuing to pay utility bills a royal pain in the a**e but I know that is changing quickly now. I loved the hand kissing bit. It is so old world and romantic. Being older I could get away with it more which meant I got to kiss loads of hands whereas my younger colleagues couldn’t quite carry it off. I found the friendliness to be almost overpowering at first. Having to stop and talk with comparative strangers when you were in a rush was quite off putting. It could almost be seen as an invasion of your personal space at times. I loved the attitude to life that I saw. It was great to be in bars and talk to all sorts of people of all age groups about all sorts of subjects. The formality of conversation before the friendship came was strange. I lost count of the times when I was initially met with a polite but unsmiling response. We smile to be polite, Poles seem to smile when they are amused. Pushing and shoving in queues was a bit extreme sometimes (but no where near as bad as the legendary Paris equivalent). Finding people’s apartments was sometimes a challenge as the numbering was a little strange in parts of Warsaw. Some of the business practices were radically different. I particularly liked the time I offered to take the Marketing Director of my client out for a meal one evening and he kindly invited the whole of his department and their partners out too. Don’t suppose this was the behavioural norm – he probably just recognised a soft touch. There’s loads more things I could say but this post is long enough now.

I think you weren't in Poland. This is beatiful country where ladies are most beautiful and they wear normal, not as prostitutes in USA.