Sad life of a Polish migrant in UK. Ch. 1 - Staring

It's bad.

First of all, people accuse you of staring all the time. In the Merchant's last time there was a guy taking to my friend Kasia, I turned around to take a look at where the voice was coming from - and the chap was outraged! He 'retaliated', I think: "Someone who spends an hour putting make-up on can't look at other people like they were mad!"

OK, first of all, it has taken me 5 minutes, second of all he was obviously mad as hell because he was talking to me like that. Can't I look at who is pushing their way past my bench in the pub? What is wrong???

Or in London, I was walking down the Oxford street, touristic-wise, taking my good ol' time but avoiding looking directly at any person, when this large black gentleman in a beautiful grey suit shouted towards me: 'averted eyes! averted eyes!' Well, of course I was averting the eyes, as I wanted not to stare at anyone and have some privacy touristicating.

I was shocked, but did my best not to let it show, lifted my eyes to the fist floor window and sailed away. But I decided to test it. Next day I went to Camden Town and this time I was taking good care to check all the people out up and down, paying attention to look at their bodies, especially legs. They loved it. They immediately started smiling at me, showing off their clothes. But I can't help thinking that it's rude.

weird, makes you think people these people are quite shallow

Get out of London.

Edit - That doesn't sound good ! What I mean is, cities like London are often not the best places to be sometimes. If you dont like it - move on.

Hm, pardon me, but I have no clue what you are talking about here. I am in London pretty often and I look ppl in the eyes quite a lot. Never had ppl getting angry at me or ppl shouting at me in the street. And I am not English nor am I Polish. So, what are you trying to say with this?

M-G (just wondering)

I guess sheeple will be sheeple, no matter where you go..

:)

*shrugs*

Why must I try to say something? I'm telling a story and posting a thread. It's fun.

Actually I think you must be doing something wrong, because Ive never in all my born days had anything like that happen in any city in the UK and I've visited many of them, London a considerable amount of times, from what I remember people are generally too busy to notice other people or too busy admiring their own reflection in windows!

So you are either lying or a complete freak who attracts this kind of attention.

Yes Polish people do and its bloody annoying.


Polish people push past people all the time and generally have no respect for other people its just other poles accept this lack of general manners from other people, Brits are generally more confrontational when people are rude dude to the fact theyre not used to it.

Sorry but London is an absolute dump and wouldn't wish living there on my worst enemy, horrible place, rude shallow people and everyone is obsessed with impressing similarly shallow people with how much cash they spend on day to day items.

Also the amount of non EU immigrants trying to change the way Brits live their lives annoys me.

Poles in the UK are great as they fit in well, don't try to force us to live by their set of rules, are generally hard working and easy going and don't blow up our buses and trains. From what i've seen the polish idea of a good time doesn't involve blowing up an airport or wearing a backpack full of explosives in a public place.

You talking about freaks? figures!

That's the thing - I noticed that I'm annoying people. I also read about it on this forum. The point is that I was not trying to annoy - I normally look at people this way. I don't think that I look at Poles any differently.

So if it seems that we have this trait of staring like only Poles can, then do you think that it can be overlooked as a trait? I mean, when Japanese people come to Poland, we can never guess what their facial expressions mean, so we just think that 'it's a Japanese thing'.

I also noticed that people on this forum are afraid of 'starers', like it was a hostile, racist, or nationalistic activity, while it might not be at all an activity. Just the way that our faces look.

Oh, ok. But anyway, I never had this in the UK and I like to look ppl in the eye as well and they all look me in the eyes too.

M-G (hm, beef stroganoff with mushrooms)

I've grown to enjoy the liberal approach the mods have but little sh*ts like you who aint even Polish keep trolling on it gets bad, you're not Polish you cant speak Polish so gtfo and stop producing these idiotic posts.

Pricks who come to troll here pretending to be Polish and spouting crap ought to be banned.

Ksysia you really are a magnet of insults ;)

be patient and forgiving Ksysia though

oh and that's me who called you a naive girl, remember ;)

oh and Ksysia I have no doubt you are Polish

Come on! respect a lady, state your point without going to those extremes.

Dude he/she/it is not Polish, chances are its some guy posting for the hell of it.

Hm... noted...

'be patient and forgiving Ksysia though'

this will earn me a crown in Heaven

'oh and that's me who called you a naive girl, remember ;)'

no, I've forgotten ;)

'oh and Ksysia I have no doubt you are Polish'

you are most kind


Thank you, mvefa


I am Polish. I'm not sure how can you tell since you are Turkish, but I'm disappointed. Are you not a nation of fierce warriors? Not any more, is it?

U're welcome sweetheart!

You've got to be kidding me. It is hard to take a ride on a bus without being forced to hear some chav's 10 Greates Hits broadcast from his mobile, or see a group of kids shouting most vile abuse at each other. No one ever reacts in any way. And why should they? Reacting to this means being beaten up/stabbed by the chavs and then arrested by the police for assault.

I won't even mention what's happening on each Friday night. I can just tell you that people in Poland would be absolutely horrified by the level of barbarism that's on display.

As to the "staring" thing - no idea what that was all about. I've never heard about anything like that.

Sorry Ksysia - I thought you were serious.


Your story sucks.

I'm as Turkish as you're Polish now gtfo.

You get just the same sort of thing here in Poland. Very similar.

About the staring, it doesn't seem rude here - people stare much more than they would in the UK.

Krysia seems to have met the wrong people though. London can be very unfriendly.

Things like this never happened to me even once, in nearly 15 years of living there! :)


Of course she's lying - if it was a black Londoner, they would have said "Oi blud" at some point, but clearly he didn't. :)

Looks like ola123 has returned though, doesn't it. What's up ksysia, can't get your hands on "the English land"? haha! :)

I have never heard of a Polish chav who would actually kill someone for telling them to shut up on public transport (or any similar story for that matter). Please compare with the unfortunate bloke who told a guy to stop throwing chips at his girlfriend (London bus, upper deck) and got stabbed to death for it. There has been a similar more recent incident happen along the same lines, but don't remember the details.

But he had a nice suit on, maybe he'd had a bad day in court ;0)


Her council flat has just been demolished, she's upset!


Not quite true, we have our share of rude people in the UK...Also I dont think we are confrontational...we'll just generally moan if some barsteward does something wrong, or say "Excuse Me" or "Do You Mind" in a rather high pitched voice...


Totally agree with you, but do you really agree with the OP? Or do you think she is a bit of a liar?

My immediate reaction to attractive Polish ladies staring at me in the street or on the tube is that I must have left my flies open.....must be my age I guess.

@ Magdalena, I really wish that were true.

The night bus to Bródno or Gocław can be hair raising. The tabloid newspapers here pick up on some horrific stories from small towns too, often involving alcohol. Not long ago someone was killed after being thrown from a moving train near Otwock. By two chavs who were stealing his mobile.

That says it all you looked and then looked away he picked up on that, his statement was trues as a birds song.


What the foooockkk, you oogled him and complain about the response..


Man thats one fcuked up ideaology.... You didnt catch the London vibe at all. you wanted too but you well JUST didnt.


Polish women do that, ive had it its not nice.


If you dont know im not gonna tel yah

Sorry its basic skills.

lol, maybe :)


Oh noez! "Hands off the English council tenancy" doesn't quite have the same ring to it, does it? :D


So true... there's plenty of Polish idiots, but I must admit I've never been threatened by gangs of hooded Poles who will "shank" me, or "draw for the strap", simply for committing the utterly heinous crime of daring to "disrespect" them. Not even in Ealing.

Then what are you good for???

Walk and stare the polish way and write them to your testes.(to the place you have for personalities).I am a total balkan abroad.