Is there something like a "Polish culture" or Polish national identity?

Hi,

I'm doing some research on Polish culture, which I am more or less interested in and would like to find out more about.
So it would be interesting to hear some of your thoughts as living the Polish society (or anyone else who may have a opinion, or know anything about the matter), so feel free to answer=)

what to you think about the matters:

Is there something like a "Polish culture", or Polish identity/a national identity? (as every culture has their own).
How would you define it? What is typical Polish? (I'm not looking for adjectives such as "Pride", "honor", etc. but more what values and

beliefs that could be identitfied in a Polish culture/society today). What values can be found in the Polish society today?

What would be the "Polish" public opinion seen in the society today, on matters like abortion, same-sex marriage, etc.? What about gender-equality? Is there any laws in Poland to promote gender-equality?

Is the society more liberal and open on these matters, than the Polish government (or juridical) is? (when it comes to juridical law). Is there a contrast between the law and the public opinion? What do you think?

And what other question is discussed in the public and is of importance, when it comes to political matters that concerns
the society and the individual? is these questions regulated in the Polish law (same-sex marriage, etc.)? How do people bring forth their opinions (ways of influencing the public opinion/or government)?

And last question, do you know any site or source where I can find more information about issues/questions
that's is of imporance for the politicans today (how the legal law looks like in Poland, or what issues is brought by the Polish government :S).

So finally, is there a contrast (or contradiction) between Polish society/public opinion and what politicans bring forth?
Would you see that the opinions of politicans is more old-fashioned compared to the polish society today?

What about catholic values, can they be seen in the society today in the public opinion, or are they more "old-fashined",
or do they influence the public sphere and the legal law today, in the legal context (public law)?

I would be glad if you had the energy to answer some of the questions, thanks in advance=)
and sorry for bad spelling as I'm tired when writing this =) maybe some stupid questions, but as a outsider is hard to know or have

some insight on these questions (as not living in Pl.).

Oh, I don't know, you seem to have pretty good idea already. So cut the crap.

And BTW those questions you have, are not about culture but sociology.

Well, it would be thankfull to check the dates. Every one has good/bad personal experiences and should not be judged overall, or judged for your personal experience, in my opinion people change. And earlier post, was one experience I had while I was living in Poland (and overall not the best experience with some people), although, I do not generalize this to "all" Polish people, or Poles, and I do not have anything against polish people as I am half-polish myself, therefore in that sense this crap could be generalized to myself too, in the sense one doesnt want to distinct personal experience from general experience, if thats your perception of the matter. Although, that was not what I was looking for, as I am more interested in the polish culture and society, how polish define themselves, and my earlier post was more related to my own "bad", personal experiences, and has nothing to do with Polish culture, this post, polish people overall or in general.

And yes, I did have some personal experiences, good or bad, doesn't matter, but that (those) has nothing to do with Polish culture or polish ppl overall. Everyone has good/bad experiences, and my experiences has nothing to do with this matter.

Some of them seem to have a fanatical need to trawl back through peoples previous posts just to score cheap points via a bit of b!tchyness.....

Legal law? as opposed to what... illegal law perhaps? Had a good laugh indeed :-)

Otherwise... google should be your friend. Don't expect others to do work for you.

Polish culture and traditions are bright and prosperous. However, it will be wrong to try and figure out our traditions by looking at the urban population. The urban have a distinct international urban culture, and traditions really don't find enough space in their busy lives.

The best would be to search in books and if possible live in some countryside with a traditionally motivated family for a year? ... Perhaps then you will know Poland in its origins.

Culture is a very interesting thing ... it consists of subcultures which are distinct and very dynamic. Hence, to study the entire culture, one needs to know the traditions first, and then look into the cultures of the various socio-economic groups as well as various groups of people living in different environmental settings.

Hope it helped.

Surprise me and say something constructive for a change.

Many people come here and ask questions while they know the answer already, so they are wasting our time and effort. And you have classic example above. Why don't you try to answer her, Mr. Polish expert, if you really care so much?

As an outsider I was surprised to discover the Warsaw village band(orchestra?) the folk group,a bunch of city boys and girls trying to keep Polish countryside music alive as those in the country tend to be too busy trying to make a decent living to play old songs on old instruments....

Polish culture is slavic culture.

All these experts on Poland and no one has an answer to her simple question. Strange. Come on Delphi, you've been here two years, help her out with her research, she is really "more or less interested" in [blank].

Bigos,Zubrowka,Zywiec I would call that typical polish.Today I saw some beautiful people in the train.I knew they were Poles since they looked Slavs and laughed all the time,girls were wearing big earings and the boys grabbed them from behind close to them.

Nope ... they do play them. Its just that you don't get to see those in stage on a more "international" or "palatable" or "visible" way.

But ofcourse, I am proud of those guyz who bring it out for foreigners to see, as well as the locals in the urban places to enjoy. I remember somethings done in my university too ... its all good.

I wish things like these happen more :) ...

I think you already made up your mind about polish people...

Ile qoute you from another thread



Kinda fun though since you are 100% Polish yourself ;)

first hand experience...

i don't get some people's intensions at times....

Google guardian.co.uk + poland + new europe

You may find some answers to some of your questions there. If you open up the data sets, 1000 poles as well as those from UK, Germany, France and Spain have been polled on a variety of different issues. Next week, the paper will be focussing on poland in-depth as it has done with the other countries in previous weeks.

So might be worth checking out and re-visiting.

Good luck

Before I begin, I would like to say that no matter how general or non-general anyone's answer is, it is going to be solely based on their own experiences, and where they are from.

As a Polish-Canadian from BC, I know that the way we perceive and do things here (in BC) are very different from say, Alberta or Saskatchewan. Same goes for people from Northern England vs. Southern England, or people from Washington vs. South Dakota for example.

Please defy your idea of culture, what is culture to you?

As for Polish values, I can only say this based where I grew up in Poland, I think that Polish people value family more than anything.

Education and family prosperity were of high importance as well - which should not be interpret as teaching anyone to be a leach, or a gold-digger. People like that were and still are looked down upon; same goes to anyone with poor education. It would be embarrassing to be associated with someone like that.

This may only be my opinion but, I think that's fairly normal for any large city with good secondary, and post secondary schools. *I guess this would also be dictated by the status of the neighborhood you are in, like anywhere else*

When I went to elementary school back in PL, lazy kids who didn't apply themselves in class were often ridiculed, but that doesn't mean that kids with learning disabilities like dyslexia had the same treatment; some of our top students in class were considered to be "gifted with a learning disability" and received proper support in school to counter that."


As a girl, growing up in Poland I never felt like I was treated in any way that indicated that women were not equals by any polish man, and that's true to this day. If anything there were some small biases against boys - mainly due to a weaker performance in school.

un.org/News/Press/docs//2007/wom1591.doc.htm

Same sex unions.
There are few countries in the world that allow same-sex marriages, as for Poland, it does recognize same-sex relationships as common law,
One should also understand that for any other type of marriage recognition this would be dictated by any official religion/church laws of that country since it would influence the opinion of general public.

This should answer it better: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recognition_of_same-sex_unions_in_Poland

Abortion.
While many of my friends from Poland would not chose to have an abortion they wish Poland allowed women to have the choice rather than not.


This would be heavily dictated by the overall prosperity of the area you were in, like in any country around the world. Poor area = poor education, less work, more biases/fears, etc. Rich area = higher education, better understanding and awareness of the world. You get the picture.


How are matters like this brought to public's attention in your country? I'm pretty sure it works the same way in most Western countries. We pick the political party that reflects our views. If there is an issue we want to raise we write to our politicians/governing bodies.


Have you tried looking it up online?


It depends which political party. I'm sure that it varies between conservative and liberal parties, as well as younger vs. older citizens. In general, younger people are more liberal than the senior citizens of Poland.

Not sure what country you want to compare this against.


I'd say most of our religious traditions are widely practiced everywhere in Poland, like Easter or Christmas.

Hi Kasia24, what you need to do is to get in touch with delphiandomine, he is a very knowledgeable Scottish person who surpassed many Polish people in their knowledge of Polish society, national identity and culture.

What made you pick Poland for your school project? Why Poland?

Sucks,give me one of theose big family Gorale bands any day :) Just love those "out of tune" violins,so happy and so sad :)

Misiaand others
for those who had took the time to answer... thx a lot!!! I think it gives me a lot to think about, and yes, I assume it all depends on what political party is governing, and if it either will reflect younger populations values or older ones (more conservative). As I'm half-polish myself, I do want to find out more about the polish society, etc, and how it looks like today, therefore my pick of choice. And as a catholic country it would be nice to know how much influence it (catholic values) has on the on the society/public opinion today and if younger generations identity themselves with these values more/or less, than older generations does today; and if there is a gap btw younger and older generations values and in what sense.

But yes, I know there should be a lot of sources on the internet (newspapers) etc., but as I don't speak polish it will be hard to find info on the polish newspapers. Thought maybe someone may know a good source of where to find more info about the law in Poland.. but ye, I may just google it..

and I guess the governing political party of Pl today may reflect the values of polish sociiety/public opinion, as nobody has argued against/towards this assumption so far. So I dont know, do you identity yourself with the ruling party today ? (PO). Does it satisfy the /or give an enough good representation of the public today?

I was in PL a few years ago and it did seem like the church had a lot of influence on people, minus the crazy people you read about in the newspapers, it wasn't bad though. I don't think many people wanted to mix church and politics. That's area dependent of course.

I do admit, we have a mix of some really great and some really bad stuff in Poland. I can be very overwhelming.

When I wanted to get in touch with my Polish roots a while back I joined a Polish club and got to meet some Polish people my age. They're a great bunch and present very good "Polish" qualities that sometimes get lost between all the crazy stuff you hear about, like here on the forum.

If you do want to find some documents regarding laws in PL etc. I find that there are plenty written in English, and if not, Google does offer translation. If something really doesn't make sense, I'm sure some people here would help you decipher certain things too.

Yes, I believe so, I am still looking around so should be able to find some :)
News.pl seems to offer polish news in english, so I guess that's the (newspapers) source where to start!
But still looking around, but thanks a lot for your answer!

You're welcome, good luck.

But, also, what I'm looking for is how people would define a "Polish nationality" or "identity", how do you in general define yourself as a Pole ((in cultural sense). And that's individual and a answer that wont be found in the media or newspapers, but only from people themselves, as I am looking for a more individuals answer for that question.How would you define a "polish culture" or a "polish identity", its hard to answer, but I guess its individual and everyone has to answer for themselves..

Being polish is a state of mind.Many times I laugh when I see Polki at how polish they look.They have this expression like always laughing secretly it is fun.

As a Polish American, one of the qualities of being Polish I feel, is having the underdog fighting spirit to overcome huge challenges and odds.

I feel many great atheletes of Polish descent have had this mindset. I know it helped me when I was in High School sports.

Oh thank you very much. I think so as well.


southern, haven't you ever thought that it might be you who makes them look like that? I always laugh secretly when I read your posts... .... :)

I totally agree.

a) Is there something like a "Polish culture" or Polish national identity?
b) Is there something like a "Polish" culture or Polish national identity?
c) Is there "something like" a Polish culture or Polish national identity?
d) Is there something like a Polish culture or Polish "national identity"?

The quiz.
:)

If you are a Polish - pick the most offensive and arrogant version.

:)

Spot on.

Ok, fine so maybe I dont express myself that well then, the question should be "how would you define a Polish culture or a national identity"? Why is this question so offensive? :S or the other one :S thx