Not proud of my Polish heritage

@Lyzko
maybe take a trip to the suburbs or to a small village, 'Polish Pride' does not extend to picking up dog-****, cigarette packets or beer bottles/cans. My local church has an enormous amount of fag ends and beer cans littering the grounds. I live not very far from a major city that receives thousands of pilgrims during August, the suburbs of there are full of rubbish, the lack of pride in the environment is shocking.

Ahemm, German cities, even the capital as late as the early 2000's, were often littered with dog poop, particularly in the public parks.
Poland surely has no monopoly on that score.

Case in point:

twitter.com/AndrewHammel1/status/1042366053848899584

Right. roll eyes


You're trolling.

Well, only one that isn`t aware of proportions of its Polish heritage may not be proud of Polish heritage. Somebody failed to explain to you.

What are your other options where you live?


To be honest Johnny I'm surprised that you're shocked, seeing as you've been coming to Poland for 20 years. There isn't much civic spirit in Poland for various reasons. Maybe a Tidy Towns competition with ten thousand euros cash prize would do the trick!


He could well be. His Irish is a bit peculiar for somebody whose family comes from the Gaeltacht :)

Ní dhéanfaidh aon ní cearr le mo Ghaeilge, an bhfuil tú líofa sa Ghaeilge? ye cheeky ballax!

Home schooling is the only option, but there is a Montessori too.

TBH, doubt we'll stay here too long, 2 months has been a long time, and trying to re-register a RHD car, christ on a bike! this country is not in the EU, it is still stuck somewhere in the past, it only appears to be in the EU for the cash.

@Ironside ...Hole and ten foot pole mean anything?

please stick to the topic

A true Gaeltacht man would say his family were from Tír Chonaill ;) I wouldn't say I was fluent but I'll tabhair cabhair duit if you have any more problems :D Your family is 'as' not 'ón'. We come 'out' of a place in Irish, not 'from'. If you haven't guessed by now, I'm a teacher :)


Forget the home schooling. It might be ok for a short time but it's not sustainable in the long run in a foreign country. It takes a lot of time and energy and research to do it properly and if you're not a trained teacher, you need some kind of support group or network of other home schoolers who are experienced. The few people who homeschool in Ireland generally don't do it in complete isolation.

It won't do the kids any harm to attend a Polish state school for a year or so but it's a bit late in the day to be thinking about whether you want to raise them in Poland. You'll have to accept that if you settle in provincial Poland there's a high possiblity that they will grow up more Polish than Irish in outlook in many ways. If you don't want that, then give them a year here for the experience but don't settle here permanently.

Btw I'm a Montessori teacher myself, but I trained to teach 3-12 year olds so after my training I pretty much always taught in mainstream Irish primary schools. Montessori, if it's done properly and authentically is second to none as a system of education but it's a relatively new thing in Poland and the standards are very variable. Also if your kids are attending Polish primary school, they are at least six years old and that complicates matters because the authentic Montessori curriculum for that age (if you can find a school that runs it and isn't just nursery level) works on the basis that your child has already completed the three year programme preceding it. So without the foundation at 3-6 years it can be difficult to adapt. Very often what you'll find in so-called Montessori primary schools is a half-baked mish-mash that's neither mainstream nor Montessori. Finally you need to consider your childrens' literacy in English. Will that be catered for in a Polish Montessori school to the level it needs to be for their age group considering English is their native language. So there's a lot for you to chew over.

I presume your wife is from the area of Poland where you've settled? Would you be willing to share what motivated you to bring your family here and how old are the children?

A true Gaeltacht man would say his family were from Tír Chonaill ;)

Google translate fails again?

As for the rest of your post (takes off hat, bows low)

Actually his Irish isn't too bad, not Google Translate level but not colloquial. Sounds like rusty 'school' Irish with a few typical errors/confusion and a bit of dodgy spelling. Maybe his parents were from Tír Chonaill.


My sister says that talking to me is like listening to a senior barrister summing up the case for the prosecution :D She also says that when people come to my house for Christmas I should just hand them a script as they come in the door! This was on an occasion when I felt that people weren't being 'Christmassy' enough in their general demeanour. I'm kind of over that at this stage :)

The OP sounds very young and a bit scatter brained for a middle aged man with children in primary school. Hard to believe he's old enough to have been coming to Poland for twenty years. I've only been coming to Poland for 12 years and I can see how many superficial changes there have been for the better, even the customer service and bureaucracy nightmare are much improved but the underlying thinking hasn't changed much and I don't know what would posess a sensible Irish person to relocate here with a young family, at this time in Poland's political life when the country is slipping into a right wing, authoritarian, quasi-religous regime. Wow, that was a mouthful. I need my oxygen mask.

No, you are very very far from being Polish. You are a genuine Soviet man (homo sovieticus) who can't stand any criticism of his views just the way the Soviets did. When you hear that your angry manifesto is compared to a manifesto of the Bolsheviks, you resort to personal abuse. That is why you are an i..hole.


And we will surely entertain ourselves observing yours.

You're an ass. I apologised for lashing out at you. What more do you want? should I send you flowers? pm your address than.


No, the pure laziness and stupidity of such a response has made me to leash out at you. (for which I have apologized)

I see you don't understand. Let me make it simple for you. I'm not responsible for the way you think. your mind. your associations or obsessions.

IF you think that by putting out there that nonsense you made same kind of an argument. You're wrong, you haven't.
If you have an issue with what say, just say it, or refute it. Rather that writing stupid crap like - oh in my little sissy mind I found it what you say similar to what Bolsheviks were saying or a Nazi or whatever damn nonsense you pulled form your ....!

Really is that all you got? Is that what passes for an intellectual conversation amongst Polish 'elite' nowadays. You sure are dumber that I have though watching political discourse in Poland. That takes some doing.

After all most of you 'wanna be elite' are depended on a state for living. living off the taxpayers as a self-glorified pen pushers. A small wonder that you are good for nothing yappers.

Here is my response to the leading points. Why is Ireland not England? Portugal not Holland, or Philippines not Japan? Cant you see that it all boils down to "that" Religion? Our Polish religion makes us an instant target for worlds best schemers, and a vast political handicap. Don't forget its was the catholic nations of Portugal, and Spain who first conquered the planet all the way round, before the clever people you praise cottoned onto it, and took over by force.You say you have a large family, right? Well, think why your family are close and big! And where would you run if your life up-ended one way or another? That has some value, correct? Well, its our Polish culture that gave you it. And your folks bravery to traverse the world to put you in a better place. Now, couple that with our country being stuck geographically where we are, with one heathen and one 'religiously doctored' nations on either side, and you get what we have: the age old battle to free ourselves from influence from one or the other. Given all that, the fact that we exist and are doing well today, IS something to be proud of. If it were not for our catholic faith we could be another Ukraine, Chechnya, or Afghanistan. And be a mere plaything to fill in news bulletins, in the hands of big money. Poland's centuries long struggle to defend itself from foreign influence has brought with it the social and psychological traits you have marked out, with it. It has been the cost we had to pay. And, I do understand why 2nd generation Poles in the West, have your kind of reaction to their homeland, cause their leaders made sure your were educated to follow only their prescribed thought paths. So, while there are rational arguments to support your vision, and your writing makes for a good read, the bigger picture says that the world is not yet over. So, relax and watch this space.

smutno mi że mowicie tak o polsce, ja jak musiałam opuścić polske to płakałam bardzo i prawie byłam w depresji. jak jestem w polsce czuje sie jak w niebie (wiem żę sa te inflacje itd.) ponieważ polacy nigdy sie nie poddali (123 lat bez kraju i zobaczcie jak nam poszło) nie rozumiem poco patrzycie na niemców i mówicie że oni to ''example and role model'' przecież nas próbowali germanizować itd. NIGDY NIE ZMIENIE ZDANIE O SWOJIM KRAJU DZIEKUJE PO PROSTU KOCHAM KRAJ BO TAM CZUJE SIE JAK W DOMU

translation:
its sad for me that you are talking about poland like that, when i had to leave poland i cry so hard and i was almost in depression. when im in poland i feel like in heaven (i know there is inflation) because the poles never gave up (123 without a country and just look at our progress) i dont understand why you lot looking at the germans in awe calling them an ''example and role model'' because they tried to germanize the poles etc. I WILL NEVER CHANGE MY MIND ABOUT MY COUNTRY THANK YOU SIMPLY I LOVE MY COUNTRY BECAUSE I FEEL THERE LIKE HOME

also the polish food is epik

If you loved Poland, you would write Poland, not "poland". You know how to capitalize since you wrote BECAUSE and THERE.

@Novichok
I don't know if she really know how to capitalize. I presume she is a very old Polish woman in Germany.

@asdfgjkluyfvsw

Please ignore the nasty posters on this forum.
I understand what you have said, in Polish and in English and I fully understand what you are saying.

Hello all. I'm new to the POLISH FORUM. I've been looking around and decided to read this thread.
Naturally this thread caught my eye. It took me a while to read the entire thread and one thing shocked me.
I belong to a couple other forums. A couple deal with history. I was shocked in reading the thread because it allowed NAME CALLING, i.e. personal attacks on a poster. Rather than counter point an opinion/view point of a person, certain posters will call the person a name. This leaves a bad impression.

For someone new it sounds "childish". Worse is that the moderators don't do anything about it.
If you play these games on other forums the poster is warned. Oftentimes their comments are removed. If they keep it up they could get banned from the thread, maybe suspended from the forum. If they persist then they're totally banned forever.

I'm debating if I should re-read this thread to make better sense out of it or should I move on to another thread.

@marion kanawha, welcome! :)


This forum is not like other forums... It's "special" (meaning - not normal lol) with "special" rules which sometimes are applied and sometimes they aren't based on... often noone knows what exactly... lol


If you stick around more will shock you, I promise lol

I'm afraid PF is all about the survival of the rudest or the most thick-skinned. It's "Lord of the Flies" in the form of an internet forum.

I thought you should be warned :)

Yes, welcome.


Yes. It's a shame really.

It's usually best to avoid threads in the off-topic section. They quickly become nasty.

Only a real brainwashed azhole may think so. Most Poles are kind, caring, gentle, friendly and intelligent.

Hey, wait!!! Now it has just occured to me you might have encountered ritard PiS party or far nazionalistische party voters. Then, your observation could be true. You might be not so brainwashed after all as I initially thought.

This forum is based in the USA and, to a degree, upholds their right to free speech.

When I read this I laughed and cried at the same time. OK everyone. I've been warned. I should stay away from these off-topic threads. I will do that.


Attacks on the person (ad hominem) rather than their position is not free speech but rather just plain rudeness.

Not proud of my Polish heritage

Pride goes with personal achievements, not what others did. I never got a free cup of coffee because I was born in Poland.

@Novichok
I would spend you one just because you was born in Poland.

Not even from your Polish wife???

I'm glad that I made you laugh :))


This won't be the last time you did that on this forum ;D

Agreed unless it's "banter" (a British, Aussie, NZ thing) where we insult each other in amusing ways.

It can get a bit of a swamp here though, but there's good stuff and nice people too.

In some parts of the US that's called "breaking balls" or "busting balls" .... but it can go too far.... one minute it's fun and games the next someone is being repeatedly stabbed with a butcher's knife....

youtube.com/watch?v=vc1wSceMx7s

African American "the dozens" is similar (though usually phrased through "yo mama so...." jokes

youtube.com/watch?v=Yn5pbHxvChU

"Yo mama so fat she sat on a quarter and a booger came out of George Washington's nose...."

I agree, but that is how the Yanks like ir.
And this is a Yank forum.