Food / What is your favorite Polish Vodka? [653]

brushed over the surface analysis...
I think it's like with any other drug, you don't really like it at the beginning, but since you need an escape from your life (or aspects of it which you can't deal with - like talking to girls heheh :)) and since we all love to be bad... (sorry, not all)... you finally get addicted and start needing it, you think it's 'liking it'.

Food / What is your favorite Polish Vodka? [653]

I see how it goes :) heheh

Life / Why are Poles always so miserable? Why do they never smile? [512]

Hello everybody,
As you can deduce from my name, I am Polish, and although I never felt very patriotic (that's not one of the things we are taught at school, unlike other nations, which I think is good anyway), there definitely are many things I am proud of about my origin (some very valuable things I was taught that kids growing up in the cheerful countries will never learn). However, since I moved to the US I saw some things more clearly. First of all, I think that Polish people ARE a little bit grouchy and negative about life. They complain so much and about so much that it really makes me depressed after a while. I never noticed that when I lived there, but right now, it's pretty obvious. Depression is a national epidemic I think. However, the younger generation is not so much like that, they are doing much, much better (sorry, you won't see the 'made in the US plastic smile' though).

It has definitely to do with our past with communism, it was hard not to be pessimistic and angry at those times! Those were horrible times to live in!

I visited this summer and I am happy to see that things are overall really improving. Yes, unemployment makes people really desparate - hard to blame them for it and the government is useless, but overall people are doing a good job adjusting to the new situation. I've seen people being really nice and friendly in stores and coffee shops, although they still push each other while waiting in lines... but even the office workers are nicer these days! - that is REALLY a huge milestone. I think that as long as people have jobs, everything will be only getting better.

Life / Why are Poles always so miserable? Why do they never smile? [512]

yes, I agree... :( not all are like that though.

Life / Why are Poles always so miserable? Why do they never smile? [512]

Yes, as a businessman, you have a different view on these things and I completely agree - the laws about hiring and firing in Poland are probably quite ancient and don't live up to the demands of today's market economy. That might be one of the reasons why they have employees that get away with inappropriate attitude to the customers.

Customer Service if probably like a completely new idea there. They are just learning what the word means... to be sarcastic :). These are quite turbulent times in the changing market structure in Poland, I think, but maybe you can teach us more about it.

Life / Why are Poles always so miserable? Why do they never smile? [512]


Geeeee.... here we go again. Antimonopole - I think you're very angry about something in your life and stuff completely unrelated to you bothers you more then it even matters. First of all, you're saying you're Polish but lived in Uk and now in Poland... whatever. You have control over your life and SHOULD actually change it instead of bitching about it, if it's so terrible. You are actually making all of us here miserable with your depressing, over-generalizing, exaggerated, negative attitude.

By the way, whatever your nationality or origin is... I wonder if you know what's going on in China these days (hopefully you know, since you never mentioned being an American).

Life / Why are Poles always so miserable? Why do they never smile? [512]


you need help man, seriously. your condition is getting worse every time I hear you. I'm sure there are good doctors in the UK, why don't you talk to one. maybe we need help, but you do too, big time.

Life / Why are Poles always so miserable? Why do they never smile? [512]


it's you who has a narrow mind because of your anger and hatred and even at this age you still don't know that this is not the way out of it.

Life / Why are Poles always so miserable? Why do they never smile? [512]

you are largely underestimating people and show complete lack of empathy. maybe you have a point about some of the things you're saying (I think that underneath you are an intelligent and interesting person) but your attitude is only good for making enemies. nobody will empathize with you and nobody will care about you. this is why everybody reacts with ager to your hatred-filled posts (yeah, looks like that includes me too). in a life like this, I see how you can be so miserable.

maybe I do lack depth of thought, but I still have some time to learn, you should be a little bit ahead of me.

Life / Why are Poles always so miserable? Why do they never smile? [512]


I bet it's a real part of you, it would help to work on it, but of course it's not the only side of you.


You won't prompt any constructive responses to change anything around you by the way you're asking for them. You're angry because of something in your life, not exactly because of the external things, although I know how stupidity of some people can make you angry, they make me angry too. But if you're so smart, and really want to change something, you'd express your ideas in a way that would actually work. Plus, I know very few people who are completely stupid and ignorant, most of them are selectively stupid, and just lazy or don't know what to do. If we start generalizing everything, who knows where you'd end up yourself.


I have a hard time believing that you're only angry here, in this forum. I suspect that your neighbors also see that. It just looks like you can't make the right relationships with people. If you think that you are better then everybody else, and the rest is a bunch of idiots, then how are you expecting that anybody will appreciate you.

Life / Why are Poles always so miserable? Why do they never smile? [512]


Things are definitely not good. The worst of all is the huge unemployment rate, but there's many more. The government is useless I think, they waste all the money they get from the EU, I haven't noticed anything that got better in the infrastructure despite the fact that so much money was invested by the EU. This is infuriating.

However, if you look at things in the large scale, things did get better since the end of communism and with the backward and foreward motion hopefully eventually it'll get somewhere. If you look at other countries, Poland is a relatively good place to live. Of course, if we compare ourselves with countries that have always been rich and powerful, we rank pretty low, but if we compare ourselves with the ones that have also been struggling out of misery, we made it pretty far.

I wouldn't attribute all the evil in Poland due to some intrinsic characteristics of Polish people. People are almost the same everywhere, and if you look at the British of US government, you can see how much shit is going on there, pretty universal thing.

Part of the reason why so many Poles complain about Poland, is the simple fact that Poles are complainers.

Life / Why are Poles always so miserable? Why do they never smile? [512]


You had to start it with a patronising tone, didn't you.

Anyways, I don't have time to discuss this, but the main reason why they won't come back is that UK is financially a better place to live, as we agreed on already. So if you step up on the ladder of financial comfort, you won't want to give it up (which is also the reason why you won't move back to the UK). Obviously the people who went to the UK are the ones who couldn't make it in Poland. There are many poeple who won't go anywhere.

As far as culture goes, it's because of lack of money. However, in the so called culturally richer countries, culture has become business, so I don't know what is so good that you see in them.

Life / Why are Poles always so miserable? Why do they never smile? [512]


practice what you preach, actually you are a manipulator.


This is very poetic but it would be even nicer if you were this sophisticated in understanding your own behaviour/attitude. Rationalizations are screaming at my face.

It also looks like you have never been to the US.

Language / Your perception of the Polish accent [145]


This kind of sexist attitude makes me sick - nothing personal Arkady - just in general. Women are "sexy" when they seem stupid and immature, while men are "sexy" when they are in control and deal with serious stuff. Anyways, thanks for your honest opinion. Now I know that I need to try to speak with less accent.