"Pan" or "Ty" - how people address each other in Poland?

When I address my dog, I only use "Ty":-)

Merged:

Asking questions in a shop, would you use "pan / pani" ?

In this video: youtu.be/WPt8Fn8TLZc he gives examples such as "Czy masz lustro na sprzedaż?" (Do you have a mirror for sale?) To be polite, would it be preferable to use a construction with pan / pani?

Address an adult stranger always with polite PAN/PANI. Unless you are an easy going reporter, but even so some people will take an offence.

just because I clicked randomly into the video: at 49:15, there is no porzyczyć, it's pożyczyć.

How about they are speaking about rzyć?

Two separate verbs, two separate root forms, "rzyc" vs. "zyczyc"!
:-)

No, Lyzko, I was speaking about rzyć as a noun. Do you know what it means in Silesian dialect?

Possibly related to "rzykac" = modlic?
I'm not conversant with Silesian, although I'm able to recognize it when written, not spoken.

No, rzyć is a Silesian synonym to another famous 4 letter noun. You should know such things as a linguist. :)

If it's a vulgarism, then I'm certain to steer clear of it:-)

When you meet a Polish person first time always address them as Pan/Pani. In time they may allow you to call them by their first name.

If someone addressed me (a lady pensioner) as 'ty' I would be very displeased and would wipe the floor with them using the Polish vernacular which they may not have even heard of.

What about a student age person learning Polish and meeting Polish student age people?

Here, as in most other languages, I always used "Ty".
Curiously, a Polish colleague once confided that if a contemporary introduces themselves with their diminutive in the familiar form, e.g. "Czesc, jestem Romek!", that familiarity should be maintained.

Unlikely therefore, that a Pole would ever 'slip', and revert from "Romek" to 'Roman" and not draw attention from the other person.

Love it!!!

Nobody I have ever met speaks Polish more formally than I do. This is because I decided pretty early on I was tired of half of people who were forced to acknkwlesge my existence acting like dealing with one foreign man was a chore.

Common situations in which I have managed to pick up an upper-intermediate spoken level of Polish and a practically fluent level of understanding after 38.5 months in Poland (I came to Poland to learn Polish, and after realising-around about the 12 month mark- it is a good country for work but not a very fun or overly friendly place , but that this language is very useful and will come in handy in future around Europę, well I decided to do the only thing I am good at, use ridiculous situations to pick up the language). You do not need to be very rude, nor friendly nor very sociable to improve the language this way.

1. Making supermarket workers help you 100 thousand times. They will be pissed off but will help you. You will pick up hundreds of words and phrases doing this alone. I did this Every weekend during my first 18 months in PL.

2. You will get sick and you do have to pay taxes. Use those situations. Complain about Poland artificially to get an explanation of why some procedurę is how it Is. The old office workers and doctors will enjoy it as the older people actually show you respect in a normal public encounter where your presence is expected.

3. If you are like me you will eventually stop going to places Young people hang out. They have no time for you whatsoever unless you want to give them free English lessons for nothing in return or unless ITS 5 am and ITS some equally depressed man on his own who needs a drinking buddy. Look locally and find an old man pub where you can practise both formalny and nieformalny. They have no doubt equally sad lives, ignored by society and will welcome the Company for a short while. Over a football game is a great way to do this.

4. In formalnie public situations if im in a not ok mood and someone is rude make a point to complain and stand up for yourself, even if other foreign men are happy to be told to shut up. Male service staff can be particularly obnoxious even in the better restaurant s. A good example was in my local restaurant recently, I asked the waitress to bring me a sauce grom the fridge which she had forgotten yet again but i always ask beforehand and have to ask again. This time, the busybody Young bar manager more or less told me to sit down and shut up , theyre busy. I replied; Jeśli już zamowiłem coś i wy zapomonaliscie to, nie mów mi co mam zrobić. ' The situation wasnt even involving him and took 3 seconds to resolve but he made a point to leave his work station, walk past the customers and come to my table and about PRZEPRASZAM at me, and at this stage the whole restaurant is watching this ridiculous attempt to put me in my place for complaining(obviously it must be my fault as hes too dumb or ignorant to accept my comment i had already ordered this and was not going to q ten minutes for sauce id ordered 30 mins prior while my food got cold). So im on my own with 6-7 people looking at us. 'Czemu masz pretensji o mnie pana? Już mówiłem co się stało, nie oglądaj mi jak to był moja pomyłka, tak ty mówisz przepraszam w tej sytuacji, nie ja. Daj mi spoko(jeszcze przepraszam, louder this time) , i co, muszę czekać w kolejce dla sos który zamowiłem pół godzina temu? Czy mam wygląda że urodziłem wczoraj? Koniec dyskusji. I do not know why this little man needed to make a big deal out of that but they do this thing where they very formally act the bollocks to save face. He shut up as soon as I stood my ground though- the same will happen in many cases where they see you as a challenge to their public authority.

4 If someone is rude, speak very formally. When a shop worker refused to say dzień dobry to me twice i say Szczęść Boże until they reply then explain why. The trick with using formal Polish is understanding formal language is as much a sign of disrespect sometimes as not saying hello. Use it to benefit you but also to show youre not going to take horse manure from people just cos youve an accent. You have to be charming with some people but with others you need to be a D1ck to get things done quickly. They will literally do nothing if you let them as 11 zł an hour makes them into pretty angry people. Reward good behaviour with tips and kind words, punish rude people of any age by challenging them in public to explain their behaviour.

You will soon realise formal Polish is to be used in Every real life situation and you can use ty at work where people have to pretend they like foreign men and do not think hes the s on their shoes. Above all, realise this language is so useful cos one day in Gdańsk, Warsaw or outside PL you will meet actual friendly Poles and youll be able to laugh about this nonsense.

Sorry about the spelling mistakes. I do not really have an outlet for such stories so may have written that a little too eagerly.

Ty is used with friends where they can be found, old men in a pub, or for plastic fakery type niceties at work(yes, I do actually speak Polish at work). The rest of them deserve formal Polish in my view, they do not even pretend to be friendly, at best you may get in different politeness. Nice formal Polish for normal zamknięte Polacy, rude but not obviously rude formal Polish for those who are rude.

Thats a lot of anger about a bottle of sauce. Ever worked in a busy restaurant ? Its not easy and everyone working there is just trying to get by, pay for college or look after their kids.

Take a chill pill - poles are not the most outgoing but generally great company on a night out

At work i dont think its fakery to use Ty - you have to spend 40 hours a week with these guys

Some people are just simpletons with no manners,. I wouldn't be able to work in a field that would require dealing with all kinds of rude and obnoxious morons on a daily bases. I hope that they have had served that sauce with a healthy dose of saliva.

I did actually. If someone forget something and a customer asks the waitress casually as she passes his table it please bring X which you forgot to bring, and she agrees and does it right away and some guy 15 feet away who is supposedly busy with 2 customers comes over to me to shout at me, well sorry guys but he can f off. I dont pay money to be shouted at and why should anyone q up for something the waitress forgot 30 mins prior and which she agreed to bring anyways and apologised for.

I also worked for **** money in bars and shops. Boo hoo. You dont shout at customers especially when you dont know what the situation is cos its not your table.

It happened two weeks in a rów that part PF my order was forgotten. Last week i said nothing. I think just asking for something your waitress forgot again isnt that rude. IF you want to kiss a 26 year old bar managers behind and q for 10 minutes for something they shouldve given you, or let them shout at you for asking for something, be my guest. I dont pay money to be shouted at and I did not shout at anyone even when that one person tried to make a scenę.

The point is you do not go literally put of your way to shout at customers in a situation in which you were not involved. It is called being a jobsworth or a busybody. The waitress knew it was a forgotten part of the order from 40 mins prior and the guy just wanted me to q cos he didnt know what was in my order.

Men are not particularly suited to waiting tables and should stick to pulling pints, not screaming at someone over a small complaint when he was 15-20 feet away.

In any normal job you get disciplined for rudeness, especially unprovoked rudeness to customers. This situation in the tech sector is the equivalent of me taking my colleagues headset and telling the customer to stfu ive other customers to deal with and i dont believe him that x or y made a mistake so stfu.

Boo hoo. Me heart bleeds for the poor busybody.

You are quite right to complain. It does not matter whether it's fast-food or slow-food establishment. The people serving you, waiters, baristers, managers and everyone else (all jobsworths) must remember that if they upset one person, that one person will lose them at least 20 customers. If customers don't come the staff will in time lose their jobs and the business will close. There are thousands of places to eat and enjoy yourself and the staff must do something which will get you back there rather than you going to the competitors.

I had a place (bar) where I had been going for main meals for about 10 years. (This is every day for 6 months of the year when I am in Poland). The owner of the place then changed and once, after being given the soup, they forgot to give me the cutlery and I reminded them politely at least 3 times they totally ignored me. I got my cutlery when the soup was stone cold. I ate it, but complained to everyone I met that the place, once they have your money, does not give a xxxx about the service. They all agreed as had experienced similar episodes. I never went there again. Not only that, but about 10 people went with me. We were all too polite to formally wipe the floor with them and voted with our feet.

Now there is a new owner and we've returned. And I still get 'Pani' each time I come and I call the owner 'Pan' to his face.

that's amazing - I actually thought this is nigh on impossible

When I was first in Poland during the mid- to late 90's, I had absolutely zero problems with supposed "bad Polish manners"!

Only thing I remember, undoubtedly merely a holder over from the recent demise of Communism, was that when I went to a relatively bourgeoise-looking establishment for lunch, I noticed that even during a weekday, the place was nearly empty of customers, save for a few regular types.

Moreover, I could've sworn the menu stack had a thin coating of dust on ㅑㅅ almost as though they were barely used except for display purposes, and when I called the waitress' attention to my table, I was barely greeted and was gawked at for a second as though I had two heads:-)

They spoke no English and so I naturally was only too pleased to speak Polish, ordered my food and that was it.

I suppose a lone walk-in diner was a novelty for them.

Was that the time you spent three days there and learned how to speak the Polish language proficiently ?
I'm sure you posted that you were in Poland for just a few days.

A few weeks, actually, but ahh, who's counting:-)
The menus were still just as dusty, the service just as unsmilingly Commie-Era,
and the offerings just as satisfying! Didn't have to eat much for at least a day or so
after that lunch.

So you learned the Polish language in three weeks while in Poland ?


Me as I am sure you said a few days in an earlier post.

So I exaggerated the brevity of my stay.
Fact is, I already had studied Polish for at least four years prior to visiting Szczecin and her surroundings.
My Polish teacher, Pani Jola, let me stay with some friends who spoke almost zero English, however, fluent
German, and so my sojourn wasn't a total loss:-) Pretty historic quarters (Stare Miasto, Stettiner Altstadt)!