What are the things which cause culture shock in Poland?

The tasteless place was building pyramids when most of us lived in shacks and caves.


It works the same everywhere: Chicago, NY, LA or Paris just to name a few.


Cards are a passé, but some people still go through the trouble of sending them and I appreciate one when i receive it.


Yeah, I agree. There is a market for a variety of international restaurants and exotic spices to be used in food. I wouldn't spoil the taste of bigos with curry, but why not bake some chicken with curry or turmeric?

100% agree with that

Yes, why not? Especially that we do have access to these mythical spices and condiments you speak of:

I must admit I was pretty shocked when I took the Eurostar to Paris - I lived in a very divided London area (Battersea) at the time, but nowhere round there looked as bad as those north Paris suburbs. it reminded me of films made in the South Bronx in the 1970s. You read all this **** about beautiful, romantic Paris, then you see that the reality is very different. Even south London had nowhere as bad as those areas. East Manchester before they started doing it up was probably the nearest thing we had tom it over here.

But it's the same round here, really. Just going to the dentist makes me realise how divided many British cities are. Where I live is like a paradise compared to Lower Broughton, which is where the aforementioned dentist has his clinic, yet it's only a couple of miles away, if that :0


Depends what kind of "identical houses" you mean. Some of those "identical" streets are really attractive, and sought-after. And even many of those which aren't quite so aesthetically pleasing are far more attractive than concrete-slab Polish blocks!


Absolutely. There must be literally hundreds of Polish dishes I haven't tried, and I grew up on Polish food, although I'll admit that we ate plenty of English, Italian, Chinese and Indian food too : ).

The fact that I have three Polish cookbooks, but only one Indian, says something about the alleged lack of diversity of Polish food ;)


It would if all you had ever tried before that was plain kluski śląskie or plain Chinese congee with no added flavourings :D


I'm sure I'm not the only one on here who is fed up of people knocking England, the English, and English food.

The English are an ethnic group, and therefore English food is also "an ethnic cuisine". It may not be as diverse as "Chinese" cuisine, but that's hardly surprising - China is as large and diverse as the whole of Europe.

And you may not realise that Britain even has (shock horror) its own regional dishes/specialities - Yorkshire pudding, Cumberland sausage (Cumbria), Melton Mowbray pork pies (Leicestershire), Eccles Cakes/Chorley Cakes (Lancashire), Faggots & Peas (Birmingham/Black Country) to name but a few... all of which are pretty good.

Oh, and that stuff which Scousers eat (but we won't mention them too loudly, will we ;) )

And just to make sure the Scots don't left out, I love haggis as well :D

Yea well my civilisation were building burial grounds that still survive to this day too...so what?

anyway, if you've actually been to Egypt then you'll know that it's a tacky dump, what amazes me even more is that in recent years the only people goin there are from central and eastern europe, everyone else has realised its a sh1thole.

anyway we're gettin off point here.

I've though of another one, the cheese here is pretty bad, 'cept for the one that you use in pierogi, that one is nice, but there's a real bad choice you can have rubber guada or plastic emmantal, where's the cheddar, or the blue cheese, if I'd a farm I'd be gettin my cheese on and selling it around poland coz the cheese in supermarkets sucks ass

don't confuse polish with communist style.


we both know that's not what i meant.


still not convinced but glad to know that you have faggots and r proud of it.

Communist-style... built by Polish builders :p


This kind of "faggot" means klopsik not pedał, lol

like they had a choice there. r u dumb or polish? :)


oh really! u don't say me old chap! i never knew that - not. i'm just a stupid pollack, ya know.
it makes me all warm inside knowing that faggots are english sole claim to having a cuisine.
guessing that fruit cake is also an english response to creme brule & how 'bout fudge buddy?

So you be proud of it and don't mock the Egypt, or Incas, or the Greeks for the ruins of Parthenon. No, it's not about living in the past, really. It's just the appreciation of the past.

BTW, ipods are great, but I don't think tourists will be flocking to some digital museums to see them 'eeky little devices' thousands of years from now :)

i'll tell you something that's causing shock right now, that stupid jingle every 30 seconds on TVN in the morning. MY LORD, how many times can you play that stupid 5 second jingle in one morning? i'd bet that from start to finish, they play it 50 times.

Really sorry but you must have been dragged up, because the first thing you learn is, using bad language round your elders is wrong and dissrepsectful.


I know what you mean, usually the middle finger is given by the arm pointing up :D It's not something that's used so much these days if at all in the UK.

I would say queuing is the thing that springs to mind the most. I remember reading a book by a Eurasian called Rex Shelley called 'Culture Shock: Japan'. Contained within was a mass of examples of where one might encounter culture shock. When in Japan, I adapted quite well so didn't feel it much. In Poland, standing in a line is the real thing that stands out. It's not that bad in many places but the lack of it in some places is astounding!

well actually i thoght that poles can't stand in line. They just pachać się na chama! ;D

They can, believe me. It all depends on the shop and its layout. Some even give you the sign to go ahead of them which is nice. Old people are the worst offenders but you can see it in other countries too. Old people are a law unto themselves.

Many Poles are laid back and are in no rush in shops. It's the old codgers that think they can skip to the front of the queue or, worse still, start ordering when you are halfway through yours.

The workers of Biedronka always dives me nuts. Its always like one cash point is open. I think they must count to the 20 queuers then they ring for another cashier... and then are open 2 cash points. But only when the queue grow small to amount of 5 ppl queuing each cash point they close the cash and again...

Some of the starkest things for me in terms of culture shock, and that remind me I'm a foreigner even after six years here, are the attitudes towards Religion and Patriotism.

The Church and the Nation are absolutely above any form of criticism; a tiny throwaway comment will spark an enormous debate and lengthy lecture on Polish history and the role of the Church. I can understand why Poles are so defensive of these things;* they've told me why, thousands of times, but the vigour with which they well defend these establishments can be scary at times.

Coming from England, where no institution is beyond criticism, and where bad taste humour has become an artform (check the sickipedia website, if you like), these rigid social taboos still amaze me. Sometimes it's charming (I wish the English could feel genuine pride for their nation, rather than that awful mix of sport-based arrogance and colonial aloofness), other times its infuriating, but this undying attitude of Polska Polska still has the power to shock me.

The other thing I still don't get is to what enormous lengths the women will go to to look beautiful, so that they can hang on the arm of a Polish man with his shaved head, Nike t-shirt, shorts, white socks and black trainers.

* a semi-colon on a forum; who'd have thought it.

Zetigrek, it's the same here too. They should always have 2 tils open.

Rich, that gets me too. How such beautiful ladies can chase such cocky losers in their socks/sandals sacrilege!

I can show you that's not only polish thing:
https://polishforums.com/work/poland-usa-hard-study-45600/
in the half of thread some Americans have started the discussion about american education and see what has happened... ;)


Poles also critisize a lot. Its just they don't like when a foregner do it. They read it like a foreigner don't understand fully the situation or even don't want to understand and still critisize... or read as some foreigner trying to be superior towards Poles. Mind that each ppl have its own view, and as for me being agnostic I don't give a sh about Cstholic Church for example.... ;)


Oh, some say not beauty is important but the inside ;D

Deflection again :) He was discussing the Polish side of it, Zeti.

Very true and we agreed on that. A foreigner's view is not to be countenanced most of the time.

If beauty was on the inside, many Polish guys have some work to do :)

Guess who pays for them to look beautiful.

Their mothers :)

I remember when I was first time in Poland when my gf pointed at some polish guys to show me how unlucky polish women were and how much they suffer to have such a limited choice.I didn't see anything wrong with polish men to me they seemed nice Slavs.

My current gf also dislikes polish men tendency to drinking and I try to portrait them in a positive way.

Why the constant reference to ethnicity, southern?

Other aspects of culture shock? Getting bus tickets in kiosks. In Britain, you buy them on the buses themselves and this ensures that they are checked as you pay into a slot, then get a ticket after talking with the bus driver. So many here don't have their tickets checked as it costs to hire conductors.

and how long bus stay on the bus stop each time? 10 minutes?

Not really, no. You hop on, state your destination, the bus driver calculates it and you agree on the fare. It's quite a swift operation for those that don't dither. People usually know their fare, state their destination and pop their money in. Many Poles are in too much of a hurry and you can lose money that way. Best to let the driver check as it only takes a moment. To hurry things and pretend you are important is only egomaniacal. Jesus didn't teach that anywhere I saw ;)

Here in Greece you also buy bus tickets in kiosks or in automatic machines.What is the problem?

This book may explain the reasons behind this
"Free to hate" written by Paul Hockenos
I read it a decade ago and it still spring to mind when i hear Slavic nationalism and other forms of ethnocentrism.
Has anyone one here read this book, Seanus maybe?

I didn't say there was a problem, southern. I just found it surprising, that's all. To have the bus driver tell you that he doesn't have tickets is odd for me.

slavic nationalism? such thing doesn't exist except southern's mind ;)

If you know polish I've already posted a quite good interview with some sociologist about it in other threat.

the seciologist named such behaviour as patriotyzm kibica ;)


that ppl don't buy tickets

Free to Hate? I can't say I've heard of it, tbh. It would be interesting to see what he came up with.