Posts by red

red_devil

23 Jun 2009

Life / Are foreigners welcome in Poland? [267]

Thanks guys! I have actually only ever been to a Polish village twice. Once to drop of our Polish friend and the other to spend Easter with my English friend's girlfriend's family. It was a rather big attraction when my English friend and I started playing chess. The whole family of 15 or so sat round and watched us as though it was a major tournament final. Eventually the drunk uncle slammed the chess board shut and all the pieces went flying. We spent the rest of the day getting drunk with the family.

Going back to the point of hooligans in Poland, they ARE very rare and most of them are just wannabee hooligans and wouldn't push themselves around. Lublin is a very young, friendly city with five universities (130,000 students) so, overall, I feel pretty safe as a foreigner here.

Which is different to the experiences of the 100 Romanians leaving Northern Ireland right now.

P.S. Thanks Bzibzioh for the correction. :)

red_devil

22 Jun 2009

Life / Are foreigners welcome in Poland? [267]

My personal experience of living and working in Poland has been a fantastic experience. I am honestly made to feel more welcome here than in my home country of England. Of course, I have experienced a bit of racism (I'm white by the way) but it is usually confined to parts of two groups of Polish society.

1st group - Polish hooligans (or Dresse - did I spell that right?) who usually become quite dangerous when drunk, as with other nations. Being a foreigner around drunk Polish hooligans can be a dangerous place to be. I was on a trolley bus in Lublin and six or seven well-built teenage football hooligans got on and I found myself trapped in the corner. I had just seen them beat up an innocent guy at the bus stop and I was praying that they wouldn't start talking to me as they would have detected that my Polish wasn't perfect and my situation could have become stickier. In the end, they got off at my stop and walked the other way. Close call!

2nd group - The elderly. The usual reaction I get from old Polish people when I am speaking English on my mobile or to my English friend is that they stare at you as though you have just beamed down from Mars. I suppose the last foreigner that some of these people heard were barking orders to them! But is their reaction due to distrust of foreign people or just bewilderment?

Please let me know what you think and if you have experienced any hostility due to you being a foreigner.

Thanks.

red_devil

19 Jun 2009

Life / Do you think that Polish people are rude? [951]

Haha! And remember that in the west 'good day' can also mean goodbye! Maybe the Poles are secretly wishing it was a farewell instead of a greeting. :)

red_devil

19 Jun 2009

Life / Do you think that Polish people are rude? [951]

Seanus
lol - I know exactly what you mean. And also how they mumble 'dzien dobry' with scowl on their face as if you have just insulted their mother.

red_devil

18 Jun 2009

Life / Do you think that Polish people are rude? [951]

Wroclaw: One might expect that twenty years without communism would reverse the trend.

LOL, yes but I kind of find the lack of politeness rather funny in a perverse way. In England it's 'please' and 'thank you' every sentence, which is not bad at all. But I just love how some Polish shopkeepers have absolutely no sense of customer service! It's like watching Fawlty Towers. lmao

red_devil

12 Jun 2009

Life / Do you think that Polish people are rude? [951]

Amathyst
I agree that Polish people are not naturally rude as a whole but they are rather reserved before they get to know you and this can come across as slightly 'rude'. Also, 60 years of Communism didn't encourage people to be polite. You just had to get what you could when you could.