If I say POLAND, you say...?

...how about "serious"? It would help change the picture (and the mood) a little bit, and would be closer to the truth.


...how about "serious" again? I am sure if you smiled at them, they would smile back, especially if you shop there often.


I know there might lots of shops with that name all over PL, but do you by any chance mean the Kefirek in Ełk? If so, I know the ladies, have often enjoyed friendly over-the-counter banter with them, and do not find them lacking in the courtesy department. Admittedly, they are not all smiles all of the time. But hey, we Polish peeps just ain't built that way!

:-D


no different from "friends" of any nationality... as opposed to real friends...

This just to show you that the things you dislike about Poland don't really exist :-)

BTW, Warsaw seems a beautiful city to me now after 5 years spent in London.

Magdalena

Thanks for the response Magdalena. You could well be correct about me interpreting seriousness as unhappiness. Is seriousness a national trait? I work with a young Polish man whom I am always telling to 'cheer up' and to not be so miserable; perhaps he is just serious though he also seems to be pessimistic and negative. I have a female Polish friend whom I've known for a few years and she seems to have an identical personality. I am willing to accept that maybe I'm looking at things from the wrong perspective.

I go to Poland very frequently, often to Krakow, so tend to use the same shop regularly so if the assistants in that shop are seemingly miserable then my general opinion of Kefirek assistants is perhaps unfairly based on this experience. I will take your advice and try smiling a bit more myself and see if things change.

I'm sure that they are no different to 'friends of any nationality', but perhaps because they were people in a new country they were always asking for help in everything, which is understandable, and so I always did what I could and I thought we had a friendship; but then as soon as they had established themselves the only time they're interested is when they want something. It's quite possible that people of other countries would have behaved the same so again you may well be right Magdalena.

I too have no great liking for London; and to be fair there is beauty to be found in Warsaw: we spent a lovely and memorable Sunday afternoon in £azienki Park listening to a Chopin recital. However, I suppose my negative impression of Warsaw comes from being stuck in rush-hour traffic which seems to extend well past what should be the rush-hour, the beaurocracy involving my g/f obtaining some necessary documents from a government department and the long tram-ride back to the apartment in the suburbs every evening past endless same-looking apartment blocks. Perhaps if I'd been in a different location in the city under different circumstances I would feel a bit more positive about the city.

So, I take your points in the friendly spirit you have offered them Magdalena and I will try harder to see things from a different perspective in future! As I said, the positives of Poland far outweigh the negatives by a large margin and I never tire of visiting your

country. To be honest, I could probably think of an similar number of positive and negative things about my own country, it's people and my city; in fact I'd probably be a lot harder on them than I have been on Poland!

Thank you and have a good day Magdalena :-)

Yeah, I would say that Polish people are not outgoing and cheerful towards strangers - any strangers, not just foreigners. But once you smile and start chatting, they tend to become friendly quite quickly :-)

Some people are of course born as pessimists, but that is a completely different story.

Some people, again, may want to manipulate you into a feeling of compassion (and thus "assistance mode") so they deliberately mope and sulk around you. Unfortunately, my fellow Poles are not all saints and angels, and some will do that. Try to avoid people who keep coming back for more help and are always trying to feed you new sob stories. In Polish we call them "sępy" (vultures).

But generally speaking - us Poles are a likeable bunch, though we will never smile just for the sake of looking pleasant ;-)

don't even bother smiling, it won't help. Most of the PL shop assitants are the most miserable people on the planet earth, they don't know the words hello, thank you, you are welcome etc.

A visit in the nearby Lewiatan store can ruin my day....


I'm not sure about the seriousness. I guess it's a mixture of both pessimism and seriousness, but in general PL people seem more pessimist compared to other nations :(

cheer up, cheer up, cheer up people!!!!!!

Tough language

World cup qualifiying failures

nobility

If I say POLAND, you say...?

unable to critize itself, everything from Poland is perfect.

I like it :)


you must be joking .......

Sense the tone!!!

it clearly a joke ........
How can you say something like it seriously, how country can criticize itself, its impossible..
As for people some are some aren't ....but some said that Poles are constantly whining.
Its contradiction?!
Or maybe they are wrong ?
or maybe people criticize a lot but wont admit that to an foreigner?

Well, how about Dutch?
Should they bare scrutiny ?

I-S (doesn't understand what a big deal is with self-criticism it is communist thingy)

oh dear, we critize ourselves always, like about our famous stingyness, our liberalism, and all our bad sides, its much more friendly than just talking about our strong points...it gets lame when someone do that.

pomidor

polandowns
BELOVED HOME.

<southern mode>
Super sexy dripping wet horny females, all of them without exception super beautiful, in fact the most beautiful in the whole world, super friendly ppl without any prejudice who approach every ppl from the world with openess and kindness, especially black ppl and Jews, never misbehave and are well loved everywhere in the world, who never do anything wrong yet everybody else does bad things to them and don't understand why as they are all, without exception, saints and good Catholics.

</southern mode>

>^..^<

M-G (would this be correct?)

I say family, friendship and happy times in such a beautiful country (I know, like all countries Poland has not so beautiful places also) Had 3 great holidays there.

I say POLAND, you say -If people from poland are called poles then why aren't people from holland called holes???:D

haaha Mae:D lol

Im sure you can squeeze a few poles up your hole:P
*bring it on big boy*

Becaouse
1. Holland is not Holand
2. English didn't really see the difference between Dutch and Germans (Thankgod for the Wikings, or it would happen with Scandinavians aswell)
3. If not for the German kulturkampf it would been something else :)
4. Poles love to put up a Polish flag on a pole on a top of a hill (Monte Cassino for instance)

this explains everything.

Yapp, I love a Polish flag at a pole ^^

IF I SAY POLAND you say - BOMB THE POLISH GOVERNMENT AND LEAVE THE BLOODY COUNTRY!!:D

How can u anyone live on 1.50 an hour?? its beyond belief!! yeah yeah i understand the cost of living is cheaper and the exchange rates go up and down lalaallallaa

bugger that:D:D:D

If I say POLAND, you say....?

I would say Polish Sausage.

Let put this way, it do come in my mind all the time. Everybody love Polish Sausage with saurkraut. Since I lives in America.

If someone say ITALIAN, I would say PIZZA
If someone say MEXICAN, I would say TACO
If someone say FRENCH, I would say French bread

I could put more. I think it is good enough

Whopping great lallies...!

Whoa wr..you sex maniac you.

If I say Poland I mean my old country.

And how do you know i was refering to sex....?

just looking at fossils..or may know some slang.

Hey , i am not that old....?

A treasure trove for psychiatric investigation.

lovely bread rolls :)

If I say Poland you say...?

I say many things: from Stanislaw Lem (the first SF writer I read), to Boleslaw Prus, to Sienkiewicz, to Pope Joan Paul IInd, Wiszlawa Szymborska (don't think I've spelled the name right) to Adam Malysz and to me coming with an Erasmus to see Poland and learn Polish :D.