USA, Canada /
The proper behavior an American should show when visiting Poland [159]
What you're saying, Rich, is to avoid precisely those people most worth talking to in Poland!
Younger people generally speak a low-level variety of English, focus on only the most superficial, material of topics, and as with youth throughout most of the world, particularly here in the States, have precious little to say.
Older, non-English speaking Poles generally will know German, at least Russian, fluently, and if they have studied a foreign language, will have learned it with far greater care than those under forty.
This has been my recent experience with younger Poles I've met in Greenpoint, here on a visit to see family.