Do you think that Polish people are rude?

I think they are nice.

It is this garbage that I am talking about. Some are great, mannerly people and some are rude, simple.

Go to some airport queues and you will see rudeness but go to a nice family for dinner and you will see true decency :)

Well, I think that people dont try hard enough to put theirselfs in the shoes of others.

you can change someone elses reactions just by your reactions.

an example.. if someone is having a shytty day, they woke up and spilled coffee on their lap, then they went into
work and the boss was yelling at everyone, then they were sent to the register that didnt work properly..

hence, you will have a extremely upset cashier who doesnt want to help you, she just wants to go home, and soak
her feet and scream.. not everyones day goes as planned..

if you work with people, you notice these things.. its same in a hospital, you can change that mood if you really want to
but if you respond the same as the person who is talking to you, you wont get far.

one example for me was a lady confused, she was ready to kickbox all of us.. I lowered the tv volume, then talked softly
to her, in ten minutes she was calm, she was smiling and she started to even talk normally like she knew her surroundings

even simple changes can make a difference in every encounter. I can say, I have had to check myself in my own
reactions and sometimes its more self discipline rather then out bursts that make the difference in the reactions of people
around you.

:)

Good post, Patty :) :) Our perception varies and we might just be experiencing temporary rudeness in some. We are all human, we have lapses.

Why on earth are Polish woman put in customer service roles, shop assistant roles and god forbid nurse roles when not only are they rude (like many fellow Brits I admit) but are extremely unhelpful and treat you with contempt? How can it just be a culture difference when the only time a Polish person is polite is if you swear an undying love for everything Polish. I have had terrible treatment by Brits and Poles but on a ratio the Poles rate far worse.

yes I think that many polish waitresses and bar staff and often a bit rude here in England.

probably because of the 'gentlemen' guests ;)

How are they rude? Do they flash their boobies? I wouldn't call that rude but exciting :)

no just a bit dour an miserable, in in the bars and cafe where iv'e gone.

exactly.

Americans took that further and made a brand of it. hooters. ;)

So dour and miserable is rude?

So all those miserable musicians are rude or just allowing us to tap into emotions that are worth experiencing?

one should not walk round with a face like a smacked arse!

The Poles tend not to be red-faced folk.

i refer to people in general. A smile costs nothing and can light up a dull day.

But are you rude after smiling or do you smile all the time?

It may take more facial muscles to frown than it does to smile. So... keep smiling :)

I would call this customer service.I like this open decolte service with strict expression and no smile.

That is what I usually hear from my clients (and friends). Smile per se, can according to some behaviorists improve mood temporarily, via facial muscle movements that trigger further reactions, but the other branches of psychotherapy see that more as some kind of hysterical phenomenon.

It is not easy to smile constantly while working, people who's jobs require smiling, like costumer service, are subjects of emotional labor that can cause a burn out or severe emotional exhaustion.

I understand rudeness, if emotional prostitution is not rewarded accordingly.

So, Poles and everybody else, be rude, if you are payed less ;)

Genuine feelings expressions are the sign of emotional maturity, and that is the healthiest reaction possible. Mechanisms used to overcome anger, sadness, fear are payed later. Expensive tricks.

I noticed that Serbs seldom smile too (except of course when an Albanian is burning).For sure this unsmiling image aka Milosevic played a role for the western convinction.

For sure slavic politicians like Putin etc do not share a lot of shining smiles.

Stereotypes, schmereotypes. I observe personally that people are as helpful as they are in any country--been lucky I suppose.

A very fun afternoon at the lake just outside the centre. Virtually no rudeness and fun was had by all. One prick tried to ruin it but everyone ignored him. The obnoxious git type.

Russians are way more rude than polish.Especially the drunken ones.However we like them since they are slavic.

So it doesn't matter if they are rude because they are Slavic? Want to meet some rude Scots and Irish folk??

Mallorca??? :)

For example Magaluf, yes.

Unless you work behind some counter it is uncommon. If displayed by a man it often signals servility, which is not among the most desirable traits.

Too much smiling coming from a woman, means she is either going thorough manic episode or she wants few good men. Now. Like NOW.

Perhaps also because we have awful teeth like the complete East Europe, some thread exists with that thesis.

And maybe because we smile usually like this:

Sticking to original question: I think we are not... unless someone is rude to us. At least this is for me. When someone is nice to me, I am nice to him/her too. If someone is not, sorry, but I will either ignore this person or won't be nice.

Few days ago, some article appeared saying that 85% of Polish people live in stress - in Polish if anyone wants to have a look). This may be a reason why sometimes you feel that someone in the shop, on the phone etc. is rude to you (these poll said that 15% that don't feel stress are mostly people over 50 years of age, pensioners or unemployed people). I understand such people because I work with Polish clients as customer service person for 5 years now. Now I am happy from my job, but in the past I had a bad boss and plenty of clients who did not understand something and blamed for everything etc. Stressful life did not make it easy for me and sometimes I was rude too. Another thing is that customer service people are not paid well so they are annoyed that they are coping with a lot of stress, work a lot of hours a day (sometimes people in cash desks work for like 12 hours a day or more), and can't afford to live a normal life because of their salaries. I think if you met such people when they are, for example, on holidays, you would see they are much nicer than at work :)

As many as 85 per cent of Poles feel daily stress and anxiety. In this group, 60 percent . people are trying to unload it , but not always in a way that is beneficial to health - studies have shown TNS presented Tuesday in Warsaw.

The survey , "How Poles care about the heart" was conducted on 16-19 June at the request of Bayer on a representative sample of 1000 people aged at least 18 years of age. The results were presented at a press conference " Heart Academy ."

The Poles are not rude, on the contrary some men will kiss women ' s hand, offer to carry your heavy bags, people give their seats to pregnant women or to old people in trams etc, they are in general very gracious.

However Customer service is one of the worst in Europe, appalling, one can hardly exchange any item at a shop even with the invoice, one cannot get a refund for anything(One day at a hardware store in Galeria Kazimierz I bought among loads of other things an accessory which i discover I did not need and they made it extremely difficult to take it back even though it was still in the package and with the invoice! Same thing with a Polish friend who discovered that the dress she had bought did not fit, she went back with her invoice and the dress the following day and the shop keeper would not take it back!)

I have tons of examples like that the last one being at Aster in Krakow queuing for ages in the most messy organization in the world until some Polish clients started screaming at the incompetent staff who replied they were just employees and not responsible for the lack or organization at their headquarters!

So No the Poles are not rude andYestheir Customer Service is pathetic but they suffer from it too and are starting to rebel!

Kiss a woman's hand? I've never seen that and if I tried it myself, I'd get a slap ;)

Offer to carry your heavy bags? Haven't seen that either.

Give seats to pregnant women? I'd hope so as that's just common decency.

I've only once seen sb give up their seat to an old person in a tram.

What's wrong with needing an invoice? It provides a security to them and gives purpose to a transaction. It's sometimes hard to return goods in Scotland. In places like Argos maybe not but in some other shops, yes.

Your friend should have gone to the changing room and tried it on first. I can't believe such a shop wouldn't have one.

Then you need to hold people to account, LK. Don't let them pass the buck if they are responsible.

So yes, some Poles are rude (queuing is often skipped altogether in Żabka) and the customer service varies. I've never had much of a problem in various places when getting service.

How long have you been living in Poland , Seanus?? And where do you live? This still happens quite regularly in Warsaw...