Poland - abandon all logic

This was found on facebook and translated into English by the New Warsaw Express. One of the best descriptions of modern Poland I've read for years - do you agree?

Only the first and last sentence are correct... the rest is slightly incorrect and rather childish... however I agree with a general sentiment.

That's pretty well what I feel - somebody Polish had written it as a joke and it shouldn't be taken too seriously - but somehow there's a lot of truth there.

Not exactly so - but here are my comments.


True, and absurd. The current situation where public universities are opening more and more "directions" without any logic, just to provide more jobs and power for their own is absolutely ridiculous. Much of the blame has to lie with the employers demanding papers for everything, however. Polish people seem to be shocked that you do things "without education" - for instance, working in a kitchen. Yet - most of the top chefs in the world are completely unqualified.


That's not true, is it?


Doesn't seem to be true. Poland doesn't have much of an issue with personal debt.


And yet this is far more than most of the world earns.


Not true. Average wage is now what, around 45k a year. As for parking - I can't talk about Warsaw, but I've never had any problems finding places in Polish cities.


Applies to every country. You'd go insane if you tried to understand the German way of life.


This is changing rapidly - at least in Poznan, language skills are obligatory if you want to be hired to work in public administration.

I like the way that at Warsaw station there are tramps who can beg in five languages but none of the ticket Sellers speak anything other than Polish.

There's a great chap who works in Poznan Glowny that speaks English - gave me a hell of a shock. What's more, he also recommended better routes/ways to save money - I actually wrote them a letter of praise for the service, because it was so utterly unexpected.

Hmm aren't you the one to scream It's not true when I'm saying Poland is the 2nd world country with huge corruption, very ineffective public sector etc. ?

That must be dificult for you., Imagine the audacity, speaking to you in the countries native tongue, I hope you got the cane out and gave the native a good beating!

It's quite shameful when it's the main train station in the capital city of a large European country, actually.

Simplistic thing to say, Anthead. Go to a railway station in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, and maybe even more countries and you will most certainly find people behind the counter who at least speak English, if not also German and French.

Yes, but in Germany It's not always like that, in France, Spain or Italy It's usually not like that...

I got served in English by an elderly chap in Daventer at 6am in the morning - which blew my mind away.


In Berlin Hauptbahnhof, Paris Gare du Nord, Madrid Atocha and Rome Termini - they're going to speak English.

if you press a firearm into their side.

Or where the government actually gives information to foreigners in different languages.

It's really not that difficult, you know?

Site of the city of Den Haag, in several languages amongst which Russian

If a small country like the Netherlands can do it, then maybe other countries (not only Poland), can follow the example

lols yes, using France in the examples was a bit of an own goal....France, the country where they speak perfect English right up to the point you complain about the soiled sheets and electric wires hanging loose in your room....

Deventer! TBH You were lucky there, that neck of the netherlands is a bit of a backwoods as far as multi lingual skills go, though,the Dutch will always go out of their way to find someone who does speak your language,even if you are a poor looking student back packer type at the time.

Thing is though,using a countries rail network is not really a trail ...any half decent phrase book and a bit of pointing stops you looking like an Imperialist tw@t who expects everyone to speak the Queens English :)

That was first written by Norman Davies in his book Poland- God`s Playground in late 1970s.

For any retards who have problems with doing their sums, let me explain it is over 30 years old now.

A bit outdated as a quote about Poland of 21 century.

Come on....

There's still the shadow of truth there. How would you re-write it for 2012?

In regards to the spending habits of Poles, i dont think they spend twice what they make but i what i can say for sure is that i could never understand how they were able to buy what they did with how little they earned. I guess this is where the "polak potrafi" saying comes in;)


salaries vary for engineers. For the most part they are not paid very well, especially in polish companies. I've worked with some guys who made as little as $1800zl.

Here,s a nice equation .........

Ever heard of " secondary income ", " black economy ", and " tax evasion " ? ........... and of course " polak potrafi ".

does anyone have the original in polish?

Good catch, pawian. This quote looked familiar.

I thought so too and was scratching my head as to why. How would you re-write it for today?

Going with the flow requires certain amount of stupidity. For the ones with "Weltschmerz" life can be only bearable on the outskirts of the society.

Yea very true.. I don't know how people in Poland do it.

Yes, today, in 2020, I have to retract my opinion uttered in 2012. Poland under rightard rulers from PiS perfectly reminds the one descirbed by Davies in 1970s.