Can foreigners really understand Poles?

Jeeez, isn't that what graveyards are in the first place??


Hhhhmmm.... Is it normal to dig up the dead and drive somewhere into town and dump them there?
I may be confused but this is not normal today and it wasn't normal four years ago hahahahaha

I was 'impressed' how the Lithuanian's handled it, just as if it were just things. I thought that was quite mad, that people see their own dead as nothing at all, "welcome to Lithuania, it is normal"....

Edit*


Coolabula :)

Maybe this explains it
spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,527134,00.htm

So apparently graves are recycled. The body should at that point already have gone through hundreds of generations of worms. Looks like they have a problem with corpses not decomposing... I'm guessing they just dump 'em out wherever they can to make room for new customers.

So, in your opinion, why do Poles eat karp for Christmas? Do you understand that?!

Now seriously, in your opinion, how come you can understand Poles? Do you think it's easier for a Scott to understand us than it is, let's say, for a Brit?

That's just tradition :) Many Poles don't eat carp for Xmas.

Understand Poles, in what sense? A Walter Scott? ;) ;) A Scot is a Brit ;) I understand that Poles don't understand Britain very well :) :)

How about wee test?

Do Poles feel superior? Please elaborate :)

How about my standard answer? Some do and some don't. You need say no more, agreed?

If I were pushed to comment further, I'd say that many of those who go abroad and learn English fluently often do. They have the benefit of knowing English to a very high level and likely the benefit of a Polish education.

Superior to whom may I ask? Without a frame of reference, it's worthless. To Ethiopians for sure ;) :)

hahahaha, yeah that's for sure!


Oops I did it again.
What about Scot & English - do you think a Scot would get along with Poles better/easier than an English man would?

It depends on the Scot and English person in question. Pick a fiercely nationalistic (NOT patriotic) Scot and an open English gentleman then it's obvious.

However, descending back into the world of generalisations, I'd say that Scots would get along better with Poles than English folk, yes.

That's what I thought.

Ah! Right question! Can you answer that? And I'll grant you profound understanding of Poles:)

In general I agree. With the one rider that England is a very diverse country, and the people in the suburbs of Dorking are a whole different kettle of fish to the people in, say, the North York Moors.

Well, after having many discussions with Poles on this point, they feel superior to Russians, Ukrainians and basically all other Slavs. Wojna Polsko-Ruska subtlely shows that.

When it comes to the West, Poles know that they do certain things better (I prefer the word 'different') like bread making, making best use of food and also being hospitable. However, the head sometimes rules the heart and they then know that Poland is still a little behind in many respects. My personal view is that they aren't as far behind as they say in certain respects. Poland has the technology of tomorrow and some highly skilled workers coming through. Take IT, for example. Poland is right up with the best.

I think that Poland does quite a few things really well, IT isn't one of them. I completely blame the schools on that one.

I beg to differ. Poland is at the forefront of some new developments and also attracts handsome grants from the EU who believe there is vast potential here. If we are talking about internet technology, Poland is really making inroads.

****!!! Are you sure you are Scottish?

Well, OK I guess you understand Poles.

What kind of internet technology? On the service side, there is a huge lack of competent network engineers in Poland. On the R&D side, is anything coming out of the universities?

I thought I was at the elementary part of the test. Where are the hard questions? ;) ;)

I can attest to the fact that I'm a Scot, yes :)

All right! You asked for it!

Names and address of collaborators of the communist secret police who are holding prominent positions, now.

:p

Aw, shucks! The only one I've heard of is Oleksy. Kaczyńscy nie byli chyba. For privacy reasons, Oleksy's address has been withheld ;) ;)

That issue doesn't really interest me tbh, it's muck raking and a facet of Poland's past.

I find Poles impossible to comprehend.It is better to stick with Russians in my opinion.

So you understand them?


Poland has traditionnally had a strong mathematics school, which is generally a good background for all matters technical

well... :-)))))))))) what is your nationality? Reading about 'suppressing' I bet you are British... Anyway it's hard to understand why normal or natural reactions are perceived as unexpected :-) For example I laugh a lot, someone tells me an absurd, I will laugh - and that is So horribly unexpected for Brits. Worse - I do consider all people equal - this is absolutely unimaginable for most Brits. Discussion is not something a Brit would pursue in many many situations, they would shut up just because they would consider someone who they have conversation with The Authority. Shops, post offices, banks, surgery, hospitals, pharmacies, you name it - this kind of craziness is everywhere. Once I asked a guy whom I was having a chat with if this is because Brits consider themselves Better Than Others, he said no; ok perhaps they don't consider themselves better (as individuals), but they may consider that their *culture* is higher developed than other cultures - they used to inhibit other countries in the past and have imperial tendencies. I believe the guy said truly what he thought, an individual is different from a group or nation, British individual wouldn't dare to discriminate me, but a group - this is different, they do it without consideration :-) I bet groups of Poles do the same (for example Poles have serious issues with antisemitism). Sometimes I go to see what's on YouTube and Poles upload videos how they 'try' to teach Brits few words in Polish - what is horribly embarrassing they all laugh but comments from Poles are: 'what an idiot' (in Polish) - about Brits for example. Of course many Brits don't even understand what they said in Polish, most of it will be swearing.

Of course foreigners do understand Poles, and it doesn't matter Europeans or not, all this is about is how people communicate with each other, and if they are well educated, they will understand each other easily.


Ohohohoh I will not agree at all. Or otherwise, every distortion of any system (including monarchy) is damaging to people's minds. Such argument was brought here because it's just so obvious, so much different from British system for example. If you label a country post-communist as equal to a *very wrong and bad system* you won't see what is wrong with your own system, because *it is so good and righteous superfantastic system*.

'if you interpret communism as an invading force or occupation you can see that people don't respect the law so much as there seems to be a feeling that it is not their law.' - you are very wrong, because the codified law which constitutes Polish law stems from French system and has nothing to do with communism. The law wasn't just given by communists :-) this is much older 'tradition'. Legal system in Poland is entirely different than legal system in England and Scotland. Law is law in Poland, the executioner of law - that is and was the point. Of course no system is perfect, but codification is very very good - you can always check in the code what you can expect. This is good because gives you a reason (that is why you are punished for example), judges have to act within codes. And what I read here in England, a judge is giving a sentence to a mother who murdered 3 of her children: you are being sentenced for [...] because you didn't give us a good reason why you murdered your children. Excuse me, what would be a *good* reason for murdering your 3 children? Which system is better for a sentence, codified or entirely up to a judge's own decission? Polish system = not too much power for one person, for 1 judge for example.

Wherever Polish law today, or under communism stemmed from is faitly irrelevant.
You are confusing law with the interpretation of law and how that law is used. Too often these are entirely two different things. It's one thing to disobey the law and quite another to disobey the government abusing the law. If you read the constitution of the USSR it was actually a pretty good one. How it was used sucked.


I very highly doubt it that any judge in England, or in any somewhat civilized country would use the term "good reason to kill children". There may be mitigating circumstances though.

You lost your bet. He's Greek sex addict.


What is that you disagree with again?

Back to the topic of the thread from which it is obvious that some people certainly can understand Poles. Those who want to, that is.

A little story that happened a few years ago.

A couple from Europe (not Poland) came for a visit and stayed in my house for about 3 weeks. They wanted to take a ride to NYC, just to spend a day or two in the Big Apple, "to check if off on the list of places they visited. We drove about 9 hours and spent two nights there. I showed them a little bit of Manhattan, some Brooklyn and a bit of Queens.

At one point we stopped at a small bar in Astoria to have a bit to eat. I ordered a burger they zoomed in on a New York steak. They waitress came and a little comedy started. My guests started dicking around and asked the waitress whether the steak could be done that way, not another, if she could add this and that. I observed the scene smiling to the waitress. She smiled back and said to my guests: by the time we're done customizing your steak it won't be a New York steak anymore.

There are probably thousands of posts here, in which visitors would like to customize Poland to the likeness of their respective countries. Well peeps, such heavily customized Poland would no longer be Poland. Stay at home and keep on having the same meal just the way mom always made it.

Well said Sean. I was told the other day by a Glaswegian that since I'd left the UK I could f-off and never come back there's too many of your kind here. Well, I am half Polish so I can only assume from his response of stereotyping that there's a stereotype hatred of Yorkshire in his part of Glasgow (warning for those with no sense of irony, I am making a joke here though what was said is true and that particular guy was a moron).

Agree actually Dariusz :)

Very well said!

You are making a huge assumption here, I was not saying that "my system" has no problems because an ex-communist country is *very wrong and bad system*.

It is not the topic to point out problems we have, although I did anyway here as an example of how long it takes for my people (Irish) to get over some of the problems we have faced and still face.


You make it sound like there is no difference between communist times and now.
And I never mentioned the law, that is something else, I said communism as a social structure.


Again you are comparing apples and oranges, you are talking about law systems I was talking about communism, how governments are run.


Good point, I find that this has everything to do with being a product of our upbringing and environment. The "right" way to fry an egg is only relative to what you are used to and like.

From the opposite side, I had a friend come here from Ireland, we went to galeria-krakowska.pl a new modern shopping mall.
He said he forgot he was in Poland because in most other European countries the same shops, the same adds, the same styles etc could be found.

Europe is being homogenised more and more, this of course has pros and cons depending on what is being changed.

What a dumb and racist question it is?!Let me explain it to u.SOME ppl can understand SOME ppl.and it does not matter what their color etnicthy place of born or nationality is.however one of the parties must speak a lenguage of the other one,at a level allowinng him or her fully express itself.that simple it is.

No I don't, that's why I wrote: 'Law is law in Poland, the executioner of law - that is and was the point.'


If you doubt then you doubt.


Not true, you were writing about the law that people under the law weren't convinced that it's *their law* because it was given by communists, and that supposed to be why people had no respect for that law. You were talking about law system - how people relate to it accoriding to you, or according to I don't know, publications about communism you had read. Fragment I wrote about english sentence is entirely secondary in here, just an example to compare with polish system.

'You make it sound like there is no difference between communist times and now.' - what do you mean exactly? That there is no difference in which aspect?