What do you say in a doctors surgery to ask "Who is next in line?"

Hi

So I have made the experience of going to a doctor in Poland and I was "warned" that although you have an appointment you still have to ask, who the last person is in line for the doctor.

What is the phrase you have to use? Is it "Kto będzie następny?"?

Thanks

Kto jest ostatni w kolejce?

Thank you!

Yes, but .....
To sound more polite: Kto z Państwa jest ostatni w kolejce?????

or 'Przepraszam, kto jest ostatni w kolejce?' You're right, people can get pretty nasty in these queues, better safe then sorry

:):):):)

Yes, like here:

yep, that looks familiar ;)

Yep, those most impatient queuers are treated with tear gas for a good reason. Vandals!!!

Przychodzi baba do lekarza ...
An old woman comes to a hospital, and sees a long queue of patients there. She pushes in front of everybody else and says to the doctor: "I will die in one minute". And the doctor says: "Could not you just wait another five minutes?

It seems to me that mostly I just hear "Kto ostatni?"

For the OP: The point isn't to ask who's next, it's to find the last person in "line" (if you can call random scatterings of people a line) so you know when that person goes in you're next. This won't stop outsiders from trying to push their way to the head of the line with (usually false) stories about how they had been waiting and had to step out for a minute. It's best to let the other Polish people who've been waiting bring them to heel. You have almost no chance.

I'd say that he is correct :-)

You have to be aware of the queue-barging tactics employed here in Poland. (and polished - no pun intended - into perfection)
1. Pensioners think they have the god-given right to skip any queue because they are over 60. For example in my local pharmacy they always go in front of everybody else and start "I only have a question - do you have this medicine in stock?" and expect to get served immediately

They also go to the post office for example by preference between 16:00 and 19:00, when all working people have their slot.
2. People pushing prams. They use this as a weapon to defy any queue.They push the pram in front of them as far as possible, expecting (rather demanding) that the people patiently waiting will give way.

what I find a bit weird here is that if you are standing back say 1 metre from an unmanned counter (which is kind of the British way) then someone will come in and assume that you are not in the line, but just vaguely hanging around. Happened to me a couple of days ago buying a ticket for a carousel and my son lost his right to the cherished fire engine !

of course being pregnant is a guaranteed ticket to the front of the line in say a shop or maybe a bank, not so much help if you're at the gynecologists.

Where do you live? There are no formalities or politeness here. People will just barge right on up to the front of the queue without any shame whatsoever. If you confront them, they just spout some bollocks. Usually, it's something like "But I didn't see the queue!" or "But there's more than one cash place. It doesn't matter that everybody else is in one queue."

What frustrates me here, is that cashiers (the ones who should really be responsible for maintaining some order and respecting their customer's rights) don't interfere. Many a time, I have stepped in and said something directly to the person when they've skipped straight to the front, the cashier just looks at me like "It's not your business". It is when I've been waiting in the queue for 10 minutes and some self-entitled bat just casually waltzes over. In England, if you skip to the front, it's sacrilege. Everyone will put you in your place and the cashier will tell you to go to the back of the queue.

I always give cashier hell for not interfere.

I suppose it is not England though! :-)
In Poland I suppose you have to do as the Poles do, if you can't beat them join them. If you lose 10 minutes to someone jumping the queue you should skip the queue the next time in the same shop, don't take any notice of complaints, pretend that you don't speak Polish etc., you can't feel bad for it as you are only balancing thing out. Tell them that they are wasting more time just arguing with you, better to let the American etc. go first.

Shop assistents etc. have no time for customers normally so they are not going to care about a bit of queue skipping.

:-)

The last time you were in Poland was 40 years ago, communist times. :):):):)

In Poznań, just like you. I can't say that I think Poznanians are especially rude compared with other Poles.


We have a winner!!!!! I often say that life in Poland can be a wonderful training course in learning to be assertive (something wimpy anglophones are often not good at). I've learned the hard way how to keep people from walking all over me and I'll always be grateful for the excellent training I've received in Poland on how to stand up for myself and not take no for an answer (ironically the better I've become at it the less I've needed it). This probably means I'm deeply unsuited for life in an English speaking country anymore. But since I have no plans on moving back to the US that's not much of a problem.