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Polish vs British vs American - Clash of cultures


pawian  219 | 24635  
25 Aug 2012 /  #1
I mean Polish culture versus British and American, but other are also welcome.

I am going to use multimedia aids, if you allow.

Let`s start with symbolism in films.

British

If you have seen Full Monty then,that scene where they are stuck on the car in the middle of the canal and ,when a man walks past instead of asking for help they just nod and say hello's,no akward questions from the passer by,just an acceptance that strange things happen.....sums up part of the Yorkshire spirit better than any sociology essay ever could :)

youtube.com/watch?v=kLeddqhaao8

Polish

I guess in the end its as hard to explain as the bits in the three colours films where my Polish friends just look at my blank face and say *Oh,thats just so Polish/Varsovian * . and I just nod politely :)

You probably mean this scene: from 1:15:
youtube.com/watch?v=8YVqKiZCkrk

Ashes and Diamonds is rich in detail and has several memorable scenes. One is where Maciek and his superior officer commemorate their slain brothers-in-arms by setting fire to half a dozen glasses of vodka.

homevideo.about.com/od/dvdreview1/fr/Ashes-and-Diamonds-DVD-Review-a.htm
PS. Isthatu, I also liked this scene from Full Monty
pip  10 | 1658  
25 Aug 2012 /  #2
Three colours White is not Ashes and Diamonds.
OP pawian  219 | 24635  
25 Aug 2012 /  #3
Hmm.. I thought that Isthatu talked about black and white and grey films...

Fishing:

Poles angle and take fish home to cook (mostly). Law allows it in Poland because registered anglers pay annual fees for fishing, which start from about 200 PLN.

pzw.org.pl/pzw/wiadomosci/lista/63/skladki

Brits release the caught fish back into the water (mostly).

Hence, such signs in Britain:

assotiation

brit

Aren`t Brits weird?

British double taps vs Polish single taps.

Aren`t Brits peculiar? :):):)

LONDON (Oct. 31, 2002)-During a wartime visit to Moscow in 1942, Winston S. Churchill discovered a marvel of modern technology: hot and cold water flowing from the same faucet.

"It's very strange to me," says Ayelet Langer, who moved to London from Israel last year and found two faucets mounted on the newly installed bathroom sink in her apartment. "I thought I couldn't really cope with it at first, but now I do." Worried that the water from the hot tap will scald the fingers of her one-year-old son, she washes his hands in the kitchen sink, which has a single spout.


blogs.warwick.ac.uk/mhillebrandt/entry/british_peculiarities_i/

Last week I attended the blessing of married couples due to our August anniversary. Connected with renewing wedding vows.

Poland mission

Churches are still full of believers in Poland.

In Britain empty churches are turned into museums, clubs, discos, sports centres and are also full of people. :):):):)

Even supermarkets:

Tesco Poland

Shops

byzantinearch.blogspot.com/2010/11/unholy-conversion-as-church-becomes.html

In US, they become bars

Church

Amazing Poles

Aren`t Poles amazing?
Zibi  - | 335  
26 Aug 2012 /  #4
I think discos look ok in disused churches, just because dancing/flirting is also a kind of a ritual, but Tesco? Disgusting.
PlasticPole  7 | 2641  
26 Aug 2012 /  #5
Interesting! A Tesco in what was once a church. It looks mighty fine though.
teflcat  5 | 1024  
26 Aug 2012 /  #6
I wonder what Polish churches will be used for in the future.

I haven't been to the United States but I've seen sinks with two taps in several hollywood films. It's not just a British oddity.

On the clash of cultures, one thing I'll never get used to here in Poland is not being thanked when I hold a door open for people.
PlasticPole  7 | 2641  
26 Aug 2012 /  #7
It's not just a British oddity.

I haven't seen a double tap sink in quite a while but my friend did see a lot of them in Britain where she lived as a foreign exchange student. She made friends and went back to stay a while so the double taps didn't bother her too much.
OP pawian  219 | 24635  
26 Aug 2012 /  #8
US, UK:

Races

school

Poland:

Poles
grubas  12 | 1382  
26 Aug 2012 /  #9
And lets keep it this way,if you don't mind of course.
(I was being sarcastic,it doesn't matter wheter you mind or not we gonna keep it this way.
PlasticPole  7 | 2641  
26 Aug 2012 /  #10
Pawian, the Polish class reminds me of my grade school. There were no blacks in my school.
OP pawian  219 | 24635  
26 Aug 2012 /  #11
we gonna keep it this way.

By using remote control, sitting in McDonald`s outlet in US? :):):):)

Pawian, the Polish class reminds me of my grade school. There were no blacks in my school.

It is still like that.

In my eldest son`s primary school there is one Korean girl. Among about 200 kids.
Meathead  5 | 467  
27 Aug 2012 /  #12
Churches are still full of believers in Poland.

That's what's wrong with it.

America has the largest church attendance in the industrialized world, and that's what causes most of our problems. Churches are a control mechanism, it's how you get good people to do bad things, especially if you're Roman Catholic.
PlasticPole  7 | 2641  
27 Aug 2012 /  #13
it's how you get good people to do bad things, especially if you're Roman Catholic.

Okay, what bad things has the Church gotten people to do lately?
legend  3 | 658  
27 Aug 2012 /  #14
America has the largest church attendance in the industrialized world, and that's what causes most of our problems. Churches are a control mechanism, it's how you get good people to do bad things, especially if you're Roman Catholic.

I think you have no idea what you are talking about :)

youtube.com/watch?v=KZMOebAUzeI
Polonius3  980 | 12275  
27 Aug 2012 /  #15
I wonder if they closed all the churches in America but kept all the guns in circulation -- would it really become a better world?!
kondzior  11 | 1027  
27 Aug 2012 /  #16
Poles angle and take fish home to cook (mostly). Law allows it in Poland because registered anglers pay annual fees for fishing, which start from about 200 PLN

In Poland, someone releasing fish back into the water is usually seen as some kind of weirdo.

It is worth checking, for me it explained some very confusing exchanges I had with British people.
Ant63  13 | 410  
27 Aug 2012 /  #17
Poles angle and take fish home to cook (mostly). Law allows it in Poland because registered anglers pay annual fees for fishing, which start from about 200 PLN.

And English anglers pay a license fee also. £27.00 I believe. Our money goes back into fishing mostly. Where does the Polish license fee go?

Fishing is considered a sport in England and to sustain the fish stocks we don't as a general rule eat them. We would prefer some fish to catch. Mostly they don't agree with the English palette. I believe the last time freshwater silver fish were seen for sale in a fishmongers in England was way back in the 80's. I'm sure if you tip buckets of salt in with them they taste just fine (of salt), but we don't do salt like you do in Poland.
kondzior  11 | 1027  
27 Aug 2012 /  #18
Fishing is considered a sport in England

As it is in Poland. Still, angler that return home without a fish for a supper is an object of (friendly) ridicule.

And English anglers pay a license fee also. £27.00 I believe. Our money goes back into fishing mostly. Where does the Polish license fee go?

It is a bit complicated. First thing you need an "Angler's Card" (Karta Wedkarska), you pay for it once in lifetime, but you must pass an exam as well - you must know what fish is protected in what season, size' and amount' limits, and so on.

Having "Angler's Card" you must buy a license for choosen region. All the regions have their own version of the rules and regulations. You may buy the license for one lake, or for the couple of neighboring ones, for angling from the shore, or from the boat, for a day, a week, for a month or a year - and all the combinations of the above.

There are also private owned sites, with its own rules, some of them do not require "Angler's Card".
delphiandomine  86 | 17823  
27 Aug 2012 /  #19
US, UK:

Funnily enough - we would regard every single one of them as being British. Poles just don't get this :P

it's how you get good people to do bad things, especially if you're Roman Catholic.

To be fair, the RCC is nowhere near as bad as some of those loony churches in America.
Polonius3  980 | 12275  
27 Aug 2012 /  #20
Multi-culti is the penance today's Brits have to pay for their ancestors' evil and greedy colonial past. The French too, to recall only the Arab (North African) immigrants going on a rampage torching cars and looting shops across France a few years back. Black riots and high-crime districts are no stranger to Americans who are paying the price for those who imported African slaves. Turkich and Kurdish and otehr Muslim Gastarbeiters have giving the Jerries headches for decades. It's the old story of: Coś za coś!
jon357  72 | 22786  
27 Aug 2012 /  #21
What a strange thing to say. Apart from the fallacy that colonialism and imperialism are somehow immoral, you seem to consider all immigrants to be of the same low character. Odd.
delphiandomine  86 | 17823  
27 Aug 2012 /  #22
you seem to consider all immigrants to be of the same low character

And yet he's descended from them. How odd.
Polonius3  980 | 12275  
28 Aug 2012 /  #23
Not strange juar the voice of experience and observation. The original Polish immigrants were very backward and largely illiterate in the late 19th century and early 20th, but they worked hard at menial jobs so their kids woudl have a better life. The 1st US-born generation was already known for their clean and safe neighborhoods. Some preened their lawns as if to out-.Anglo the Anglos who've got this obsession with lawns, shrubs and hedges. They pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps, there were no welfare handouts or even social security pensions back then. Black neighbourhoods were and contiue to be the opposite. Even when they were given ncie, new council flats, within months the place was a dump. Trash all around, old fridges on the porch, broken-down cars at the kerb, boarded up windows, metal bars on shop windows to prevent break.-ins. Go see for yourself. All minority groups are not the same..
f stop  24 | 2493  
28 Aug 2012 /  #24
it's threads like this one, exactly, that make me too embarrassed to share this forum with normal people around me.
rybnik  18 | 1444  
28 Aug 2012 /  #25
on the contrary, it's threads such as this one that fascinate me. It's an interesting window into our forum member's points of view.
Meathead  5 | 467  
28 Aug 2012 /  #26
Okay, what bad things has the Church gotten people to do lately?

Hello? Where have you been, lately? Like molesting little kids and allowing them to do it again and again. The whole Church was involved, the priests, bishops and cardinals.

Who was the latest that got convicted in Philadelphia and has been sentenced to prison, bishop or cardinal?

The RCC was involved in the fascist movement in the 1920's and 30's Europe. When Pope Pius the XI was a priest he was kicked out of Poland in the early 1920's for political meddling. Pius the XII was the Vatican's Secretary of State in the 1930's and he was heavily involved in Germany. Opus Dei constituted Franco's Fifth Column during the Spanish Civil War. After Franco took over Catholic religious clerics forcibly took kids away from their parents if they were of the wrong political persuasion and gave them to fascists households.

To be fair, the RCC is nowhere near as bad as some of those loony churches in America.

See above, nothing is comparable with other looney churches.
legend  3 | 658  
28 Aug 2012 /  #27
Your statements smell of Zionist and WASP propaganda. The whole Church was involved? NO IT WASNT. Most priests and clergy are actually decent people who never did that any such bad acts. I can find rabbis, pastors and other idiots who molested people too. It doesnt mean all Jew rabbis or protestant parrots I mean pastors are guilty. But of course the media wont touch that.

What options do you think the Church had when Hitler was there? If they didnt go along they might all have been slaughtered. Poland was Catholic too. You saying every Catholic was guilty? Ridiculous.
PlasticPole  7 | 2641  
28 Aug 2012 /  #28
Like molesting little kids and allowing them to do it again and again.

Yes, there were crimes committed and cover ups but the Church has learned from this experience and doesn't do things the same way. In fact, there are so many scandals and accusations of wrongdoing in the recent past, this is the best time to be a Catholic because everyone will be doing their best to behave.
OP pawian  219 | 24635  
2 Sep 2012 /  #29
It might be really disturbing for a Pole to go to London or New Your and get lost in the underground/subway system. And if you get annoyed and show it, the police will tease you with their paralyzers. To death.

In Warsaw you can`t get lost. Life is so much easier here.
f stop  24 | 2493  
2 Sep 2012 /  #30
that's pretty funny.

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