What does Poland mean to you?

All I can hear at my home is birds singing <hundreds of them> so living in London is not all that it is cracked up to be then <s>

Well I never lol.

:)

Nah - London rocks!! well, my neighbourhood does at least :)

It does here as well. You'd be surprised at some other areas in the UK actually and how we live.

Quality of life here is better no doubt about it. London's fine in small <er> doses. It's dirty, busy, noisy, can be unsafe and very expensive to live there too.

It's ok for visiting, shopping or going to stay with friends for a while but nothing beats good clean, fresh <er > air and we have all the buzz and facilities here as well !

Mind you the housing isn't too cheap here either atm hahahah <s>

And before you reply, I know London well, extremely well. I've done my stints there over the years <s>

Well, enough to say again that polish food is the best!! Ok, lebanese and italian are fighting for the first position as well ;) Brazilian is in second and english... LAST!!!

Agreed London does rock! So does Poland - knee-deep snow, homemade wodka...though my memories of it are all tied in with a girl..(cue violins)... no I'm not crying, it's just been raining on my face! ;)

Just got from the Baltic coast this evening - Poland does indeed rock :)

Was your choice of attire appropriate?

Awww... well remembered :)

Yes, everything went well - though I did have a bit of a heavy head the next day.

I don't remember what you said you were going to wear. The mention of fascinators switched my brain off (watched too many Ascot news reports)

Ah, so London rocks and Poland rocks too. Is that the whole of Poland then ?

:)

lol. that what I hear when i talk to my sister in New York. I have to explain the sounds on my side, like...birds chirping, a dog barking, kids playing in the pool...screaming... Marco! Polo!

I decided to keep it simple... and left the fascinator at home. Ditto the faux bling and the evening gloves.

A fun night - lots of dancing (though I seemed to be the only lady who kicked off her shoes to dance... my feet were killing me!).

Young Poles seem fairly trendy and sophisticated. Many even know English quite well for foreigners. Yet still a rather polarized country, so it appears to me; there's the upper-middle class who send their kids to the UK or France and return speaking excellent British English or French. And then there's everybody else; those from the less advantaged countryside with rural manners and practically zero knowledge of foreign languages.

An accurate assessment, don't you agree?

Don't quite a few of them go abroad to find work? Living in another country must be one of the best ways to pick up a language. The number of times I've heard thing to the effect of "I drive a tractor like this on my uncle's farm" or some sort of Polish or Polish-English hybrid.

Poland means alot to me.My fathers parents came from their prior to 1906.i only wish I could visitthere and find answers to my family.I have been in search for many a year but keep hitiing a brick wall.Poland is my heritage.I am just now starting to learn more about life there.

what Poland means to me is something that I left behind and someday might be able to revisit as a welcomed and anticipated arrival.

To put it more simple, I would like to be to Poland what Obama is to the USA. I would like to be what Hitler was to Germany before he started doing drugs.

Poland,
respected in faith,does not faith incite to property of place and mind?
immigrants do not give any help to Poland?
I do not think,,,

hhahahahaa nice lol

I think its right to say many of new Polish migrants don't try to integrate. In my County (Somerset) there seems to be so many, that always stay in groups, don't talk or socialise with British people and try to make it like "mini Poland". I think that this will be counter-productive in the long term, because they don't speak with a clear accent (When they speak English) becuase they always speak Polish and it may take another 10-20 years before they are fullly integrated into Brtish society.

I would like to see a better relationship between Poles and British personally, without this "clicky" society. If you have seperate communities, especially in small towns you get re-sentment on both sides and some of the English are actively ignoring Polish migrants altogether.

Some problems are quite deep rooted though. There is quite a mentality difference between many Brits and Poles.

What does Poland mean to me? A place to live

Poland means to me;
my wonderful grandma and the rest of my family that lives there; lots of history, beautiful buildings and countryside; pride; great food and even better beer!; awesome parties (New Year's parties begin at midnight and end in the late morning); the mountains ( I love visiting Zakopane);

Poland means a great deal to me and maybe, just maybe I may end up living there.
Zosia

it`s just the birds of a feather thing. look at the brits who moved to spain etc they all seem to live and socialise together.

it`s well documented of some who have lived on the costas for twenty years and still cannot speak spanish.

Good reasons, Zosia. If Poland could only raise the standard of living for the przyciętny Polak, it would attract a lot of people back. Unfortunately, many Poles aren't prepared to settle for less money in order to receive many of the benefits you have outlined above. Pity that!

I hope things get better though. I don't think its the fault of either the Poles or the British, as you imply - the British don't understand the Polish culture. When I have spoken to Polish people they seem very wary and not too talkative. They need to trust the British more because after all the Brits don't have a [very] bad reputation for stealing peoples wallets etc in my area. I haven't heard of any British people being biased towards Polish people and virtually none have said they don't like them in my area.

Britain has more than its fair share of thieves, bias and xenophobia, trust me.

You haven't watched enough videos then, or read enough accounts. Many Brits are fed up with being swamped. That's just what they say.

Yes but in the paper it was saying many are comming back due to the fact they never really integrated properly.


Its ok. if you have some areas with just Polish people, but they are comming to nearly every town in the UK, becuase it is a small country. Even in my town of about 10,000 people I have noticed alot of Polish people in the shops. Its getting to the point you cannott just ignore people and live seperately. Thats why Britain has to change quickly

Britain has to change quickly? How?

Well for start English people could do alot more to help migrants, like with jobs etc and Also they need to invite them out on social occassions to get to talk more. I think the Polish Society in my near by town, is doing alot to try and promote integration, but the people here are not used to change and its taking alot longer than expected. As I said its not easy becuase sometimes the Polish are afraid to talk with other nationalities.

It takes two to tango. There is an obligation on us to be welcoming and the migrants to conform to our way of life surely?

I think things are happening too quickly. With immigration you need to allow to happen in stages and control it. But before some migrants have had chance to settle in, new ones arrive and theres not time for integration. I think we need to restrict our borders then work on helping people that have arrived since 2004. I don't believe more people from Poland will come to the UK in the next few years becuase its getting so much hard to get work. So I think it will be a good time to concentrate on helping the exisiting migrants.