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Uptight Poles [262]
Magdalena, i think your response sums up exactly what i said.
Well, don't then. Hold the door for people who care about you and whom you care about, and they will thank you for it. Strangers are exactly that in Polish culture - strangers. If you shower them with attention they don't expect or want, they have the right to not thank you for it.
I do it because it is the courteous thing to do. Many times i have said to myself that i wont hold the door open becasue of the reaction, but then i would be lowering my standards to theirs and i refuse to do that. I have had many experiences of doors been left to close in my face and i would not like to do that to someone.
If you were in their way in the first place, you are expected to be doing the apologising. Polish people will not say sorry for someone else's blunder or fault. That's a typically British thing to do. If, however, they were in your way, they will say sorry - and these are probably the "exceptions" you speak of.
Your response to this is childish. If it is ever my fault, i will apologise. I am sorry to inform you that most polish people do NOT say sorry if they bump into you or it is 'their fault'. Your reponse to this is also a typical trait...'there has to be someone to blame and i have to be in the right.' Again, if someone bumps into you, or vice versa, i think it is courteous to say sorry regardless of who's fault it was. No need to aportion blame. Sorry it was just the way i was brought up. You obviously were not.
