Feeling ashamed of my Polish heritage.

Well, thank you. What a pleasant surprise!

Sebiatian P.M me if you like,maybe we'll go for a beer Scarborough fella,and discuss about this Forum eye to eye.TALK TO LATER BRO.

It is good to see you are self aware and not embarrassed to deconstruct yourself. Maybe there is hope for you to shake the Polish pride complex yet.

To Sebastain:

I am Polish American. My ancestories came here from Poland (cracow) in 1900's. Yes, back then it was Austrian & Hungarian Empires. Which mean I might be Austrian & Hungarian too. I do have blue eyes which mean Sweden people have blue eyes too. My father's families lived in Germantown in Waksmun. So I may be German too. Now people are telling me our langauge is Polish & Slovia. Seem like I have all nationailites. I would like to know more who am I.

I never did DNA. Maybe someday. Now we are in 2010 and why it take so long to find out where our ancestories come from They do travel alot.

Krystal you said live in the US and seeing as your ancestors went to the US a long time ago I gather you have your whole life? I am asking because your English sounds like it's not your native language. Did you not grow up in the US?

Actually I used neither. Forgive me for not treating the forum like an essay

Sebastian - not sure how old you are but I assume you're pretty young, correct?

I'm very surprised you feel "ashamed" of being Polish but I think it simply boils down to your relatives being very negative - you equate your relatives' behavior with being Polish.

If you open up some books you'll be amazed at how this tiny nation managed to survive hundreds of years of oppression, numerous invasions and wars with Sweden, Austria, Prussia, Germany, Russia, etc. Read about the Warsaw uprising, about the Katyn massacre, about generations of Poland's non-existence, about Poles abroad fighting for independence of other countries hoping and dreaming of the day their own country would once again be free - and you'll be amazed and proud of being Polish.

I spent my whole childhood and teenage years in Sweden (and Norway on & off). I love Sweden and think it's a great country but Swedes probably feel more patriotic about hockey than about their own country (with the exception of the Aryan Resistance morons who turn patriotism into xenophobia, ignorance and stupidity). I also love the US and have served in the military here but I'll never be "ashamed" of having Polish roots. Instead I'll always be proud of it.

As all countries, Poland is not, has not and never will be a perfect country - however, open up your eyes to the past achievements of Poland and you will be proud sooner than you think.

I also agree 100% with Tymoteusz's

I understand what you are saying. Maybe I should crack open a history book or two. Sorry if I sound ignorant lol. But thanks for your advice.

to me it's not so strange, i sometimes feel ashamed of being polish, but it is due to the behaviour of my compatriots and inferiority and negative features of the nation, generally i don't feel so ashamed, it should matter what kind of person you really are without influences your family have on you

It is usual for North Americans to publicly display ignorance, especially in regards to history or georgraphy. The thread tittle should have been: Feeling ashamed of my complete ignorance of Polish history. Sokrates will quizz you later, so be diligent.

Don't worry you've already fufiled any Poles greatest dream, feeling ashamed of their nationality and then fleeing the country. Just look at the other posters not a single patriotic bone inside of them. International citizen psh wtf kinda bull **** is that? What people seem to forget is that Pienkna Polska is being judged evrey single day by the masses of the world and Poland could have the most amazing history in the world(which it does),if internationally nobody knows or cares about it, then it is near worthless. The people who post" open up a history book" lack the courage and the will to do what's right. They'd rather feed off the accomplishments of those long dead. Nobody cares about history ,what people should care about is making Polska great now. Anyways away from my crazy rant if you truly love Polska then youl find a source of pride, if not your undeserving of calling yourself a Pole.

'Pienkna'? What language is that? It surely isn't Polish.


'Ojczyznosc'? What nationality are you and why do you pretend to be a Pole living in Poland?

I never said you did. It's not my quote.


Check your posts 29 and 31 and you will see why the initial quote was made.


We all make mistakes matey.

All in favor of "I is" or "I's", please speak up.

Quite right, the OP is not a moron. A moron is a person who claims that a city which has 1,012,000 tourists (i.e. Krakow) has more tourists than a city which has 8,762,000 tourists (i.e. Paris). Which moron here made that claim?


Yes, that is the problem. In this post you use "I' am not" and in this post you use "I'am". You need to use either "I am " or "I'm".

I be thinkin I's be better.


Start with The Polish Way by Adam Zamoyski.

Also add "God's Playground" and "Rising '44" to that list, both by Norman Davies.

Osprey Military also has a number of books on Polish military history from all eras.

Thanks for the back up beelzebub, that Tymoteusz is some kind of fruitcake, lol.

The people who go on and on about "Polish Pride" are the same ones who get drunk and sing those stupid football songs while waking everyone up and bothering people on the trams and buses shouting out how Poland is the "greatest nation on Earth!!!". Pride is an ugly and dangerous thing.

I have noticed in my years around the world that the smaller or less powerful the country the more often their people say things like "Yeah Armenia is the greatest nation in the world and our Army could kick your arse!!!". Give me a break.

I can't stand empty blustering and quite frankly wouldn't mind Poles so much if it weren't for the constant whining, arguing and blustering. I don't think a day went by when upon being known as a Yank I wasn't engaged in some "verbal challenge" or bragging about how great Poland is compared to the US. You are your own worst enemies.

We can't help it. Polish superiority over all the other nations of the World is perfectly
obvious but for some reason most foreigners are just not willing to acknowledge that
fact ;)


Oh, come on now - it's just banter. I don't think anyone takes all that talk seriously :-)

Well that's where you are mistaken. This builds up a reputation for you as a people and frankly it's not the greatest. If you want a better international reputation then stop with the bragging and nonsense. The "stupid" reputation of Poles comes from the stubborn unwillingness to do more than the bare minimum or admit fault. If Poles don't know something they will lie or blow it off rather than admit it and find out or fix it....people don't like this.

I can go on for hours with fellow expats about the "Polish way" and we often have each other in stitches because there is so much that is "different" in Poland and it's rarely "better".

If you want to be respected start acting in a way that deserves it.

Agreed with your last statement. But I find it quite ironic that an American is bashing patriotism, hahah are you serious? Look at your nation, evreything on evrey corner is draped with an American flag( not an exageration) a person can't even seem to be a respected if they don't kiss the flag evrey single day and cover their hearts when the anthem is playing. Americans are OBSESSED with patriotism and your bashing Poland? Reality check!

I think you're generalizing and exaggerating a little bit, Beelzebub.

Oh, well - maybe there is some truth in what you say after all. Next time I feel the urge
to brag about Polish ways to some foreigner I'll just bite my tongue and keep quiet :-)

You see - you reformed one Pole, so maybe there's hope for us all ;)

What why torque? Why shouldn't you feel pride? You don't think there's over 300 million Americans saying the exact same thing about their own country? Besides sometimes I think the American government is more corrupt than the Polish one. Just watch the Young Turks, it makes me feel good about Poland lol.

I know exactly where you,re coming from beelzebub. This guy absolutely endorses what you are saying.

I didn't say I'm not proud to be Polish - sure I am. We are a great nation
and we will sort things out in our country... eventually. However, I can see,
after what Beelzebub has said, that our being too cheeky and bragging too
much can be annoying to foreigners sometimes :-)

So, what's the deal Orzełek - are you getting some good books to learn proper Polish? I'd recommend...

...for a start.

We have a beautiful language and a difficult one too! Nothing better to show your
patriotism than speaking and writing in beautiful Polszczyzna :-)

Define 'great nation' please, Torq. You trust the politicians to sort things out? Please give me what you think is the Polish word for cheeky and I'll see if you used that word correctly.

Have you lived in the USA Orzel? I have lived in both nations for a long time so before I bother replying to you in detail I want to know if you even have the actual perspective. I am doubting you do based on your above comments.

And Torq...you are the kind of person that keeps me from being able to say in all honesty that all Poles suck. Just like in any place there are good and bad people and reasonable and unreasonable people. You are fairly reasonable not because you claimed to agree with me but rather because you are willing to consider the view.

Sadly for Poland the national reputation is not a great one...some of hat is undeserved and rooted in the past and some is well deserved and current. Nobody is criticizing the Poles who fought and survived the occupations...nobody is saying Polish genes are defective...what we ARE saying is that modern Polish culture has some huge changes it will have to undertake if it want's respect.

Naaah, couldn't be arsed. We are a great nation. Period. ;)


They will sort things out or we will sort them out. Peoples' patience is wearing thin.


Zuchwały, pyskaty, impertynencki, z tupetem - is that correct?

Poland is the only country in Europe that has a positive growth of BNP now.

What does that mean? It means that Poland is the country that handled the global economic crisis best of all countries in Europe.

Things are going better and better. That is something to proud of Sebastian.