I'm English , I never realised how much I use " are you alright ? " and " How are you ? " until it was pointed out by a Polish friend at work .
Thinking about it , I only use them if I actually like the person I'm asking . If I'm not interested I generally just say hello and move on . I know that some English people think that I am a bit rude because of this . I personally don't like the "falseness" of asking if someone is "alright" when I don't actually care .
The same Polish friend says that she finds it funny when English people say thank you to bus drivers when we get off the bus . She finds it odd that we thank some one that we have paid to do a job for just doing the job they are being paid to do .
I think a lot of these things are just so much part of how we are taught to behave that we don't even think about what we mean by them .
Hello to All! First off I'll try to keep this simple. Rudeness is not a cultural issue, it's global. It affects kids, teens, young adults, middle aged folk and the elderly. I have witnessed several forms of rudeness and can almost put a scale to it.
People in or from Poland have a country that has been a kingdom, in wars, zoned(the Galician experience) & rezoned, under naziism, communism to the point that they have lived in fear. Identity held A key factor that led many to their deaths. With that they have learned to repress their feelings(sort of an internal security measure). By not letting anyone in to get to know them, they have kept the norm. They are secure in the fact that no one else knows who they are or any of their secrets. A good quantity of people given the same situation will react primarily the same.
Me, I believe that I can show compassion without fear or guilt. I also am now in my 50's, lost my job due to physical situations that I cannot control. I filed for Social Security before my time. I live alone most of the time. Most of my friends are too busy with work or family so we are not in touch much. In our family, out of 6 kids my Dad trusts only me. Over the last 2.5 years I have physically lost the ability to maintain my yard & some housework. I own my own home and vehicle w/o mortgage or loan. I could look at life in fear of losing my home and being put in a nursing home, but I choose not to. These are things that normally would provoke rudeness in anyone. I choose to go on no matter how painful it could get. A house and a vehicle are possessions that come and go. Family and friends cannot be replaced. I have tried to find an english speaking E-Pal from Poland for 3 years. I have just about given up.
Rudeness to me is a choice not a Cultural right. Take Care!
Giving up a seat on the bus might be the only gift they received in a long time!
I was out shoppin last friday ,and a lady in a rascal who had hard time getting up just out of the blue stopped me as I was shopping and said young lady can you get me two boxes of cereal, if I get up, I cant get back on this very well..
I said sure,, no problem :) thus my good deed for the day.. even though I became cranky waiting in a long line to pay for my groceries..so I was the cranky pants that day,, but with good reasons.. it was hot, I hadnt been home in hours. and its my female right!!!
so to be honest.. we all have a bit of rude and cranky pants living inside of us.. it just depends on the day /and or mood your in and how much sleep deprivation too :))
and dont lie and tell me that NONE of you have even had a cranky pants day cause your nose will grow as long as the vistula river and then some!
what do poles actually think of brits in general iam a brit and have respect for the polish so do most britts i no at least they come here and work most of the other a----holes here abuse the privalege ,i am of the age that the britts were having hard we did what most poles are doing now work there way out trouble is other foreigeners are try to tear there ass out with there rent s
Did I mentioned phenomenon called `Polish stereo system`?
Well, considering Polish strategic position between Germany-Russia and `cooperative` attitude of `loyal` allayes Britain and France, Poles are OK- they aren`t rude that much.
My congrats to them
We Serbs from Balkan understand them because hire we have phenomenon `Serbian sub-vufer system` where, you know, Germany is vufer and we have rare and front speakers.
The same Polish friend says that she finds it funny when English people say thank you to bus drivers when we get off the bus ..
This is clearly provincial behaviour, we certainly don't do this in London. :)
I am always taken aback in Poland by the old and not so old ladies who seem to think that they have every heavenly right and privilege to sit
However, we could do with much more of this in London. Here, no one dares challenge bad-mannered passengers in case they threaten to "stab you up blud" or whatever. :(
I have to agree!! Obviously like everywhere you get a few nobbers, but I've found Polish both over here and over there to be warm friendly and more than polite!!
i agree that north americans use words like please and thankyou too much. this can especially get annoying in resteraunts. "how is your meal"? "excellent thanks". would like a warm up on your coffee"? no i'm fine just the bill please. "alright, well let me know if you need anything else". aw man is that ******* annoying. sometimes i catch myself talking like this in resteraunts but i don't do it so much out of wanting to be polite, but more out of a unwanted feeling of obligation or something. i think we could all learn alot from our polish, indian, and chinese brethern if we used please, thank you and the like just a little less. on the other hand if i hold the door for someone and they don't say thank you, that can get me pretty pissed.
Well, I don't see anything wrong with using or overusing of polite words.
I agree with that. People in Poland say thank you lots of times, maybe they don't use it much in grocery stores or dealing with public, but when they talk amongst themselves, they always say"dziękuję ślicznie" "dziękuję pięknie". They are very polite, but when working, they have this tendency not to say it.
