Poles start to feel arrogant and superior to Southern Europeans

@pawian
I can tell you're Polish by the fact that you replied with a personal attack, from the get go. I am sorry to be blunt about this but you leave me with no other choice since you Poles simply don't get subtle hints: Poles are Europe's butt of the joke and it's only a secret to Poles, apparently. During my life, I have met hundreds of Poles and almost all of them behaved like neurotics or were plain rude, especially in social situations. Almost all Poles I met claimed Poland was a Western country, which is quite bizzare, considering the aforementioned rude and clumsy social behaviour. I manage quite a few people and some of them are Poles. I am sorry to say that I wouldn't trust a Pole with £10 to the chippy on the other side of the road.

@equiti, are you British? 🤔


Where is that "personal attack" by pawian?

Don't be sorry, anyone needs his or her prejudices, and you should say it all, by all means, I would say that English in general like to flaunt their xenophobic urges whilst other nations are more subdued and subtel about it.

Maybe a weekly pride parade !Foreigners OUT ! would somewhat console you.


I must confesess that I wouldn't put much trust in the ability of your avarage Englander to find that chippy with or without a map.

I think it's pretty obvious that he isn't sorry at all :))) He probably thinks he's being all "polite and not clumsy" by saying how sorry he is ;D


I'm not even sure if he's English/British or if he really met that many Poles... He just wrote too much nonsense. I mean, I realise that British people can be stupid and prejudiced too, but it looks like he's making stuff up.

For example:


It is bizzare indeed, because I live in Poland and I've never met a Pole who would claim that :) I myself was taught at school that Poland is a Central European country.

I have, though it was online. She didn't like it when I pointed out that I could see an onion dome from my window and the local shop was full of vodka and tinned herring.

@jon357, there's a difference between one person on the internet and "almost all Poles" as he claimed.


You were in Sweden?? ;D

But I say that: Poland is geographically located in Central Europe, but mentally in Western Europe, and this saved us from Russification and also from Germanization.

@Alien, I watched once on YouTube a reaction video of an American guy watching "Geography Now: Poland" and while watching it he concluded that if Germany and RuSSia had a child it would be Poland lol It cracked me up, but in a way he was right. I don't think we have an entirely "Western mentality" - we're in between Western and Eastern, imho.


Nope, being Polish saved us from both :)))))

No, however I do feel sad sometimes when I'm in small town Poland and see the amount of vodka on sale in the poorest places.


I'd say it has a foot in Eastern Europe and a foot in Central Europe however some people do look west.

For someone from the U.K., it's still like using a Time Machine coming here and although the buildings and shops look shiny and new in Warsaw, the attitudes here are those of 40 years ago,

You're right, Poland has still some catching up to do in order to reach the UK level of drug abuse and become more "Western" thanks to this :)))


Do you mean of 40 years ago in Poland or in the West?

@jon357
@Paulina
Poles are compared to the French rather than to Germans or russians and France is located in western Europe.

@Alien, compared by whom?

@Paulina
Write in Google "Polacy są jak Francuzi". Unfortunately, I can't post a link.

And much else besides, not that recreational use of beneficial herbs is a bad thing like vodka and tobacco.

As I say, it's often like being in a Time Machine.


Not a high bar...

I did and nothing like that comes up... Where did you hear that Poles are being compared to the French?


I think you know that's not what I was talking about.


It's not always a bad thing :)))

What are you referring to? Nasal delights? Although that's a bore, it's still much preferable to vodka which has no positives at all.


I'd agree with that on some levels.

I was referring to this:

health.org.uk/news-and-comment/podcast/episode-17-tackling-the-drug-problem-in-the-uk-and-portugal

"In the last decade, heroin-related deaths have more than doubled and cocaine-related deaths have grown fivefold. The situation in Scotland is even worse - now the drug death capital of Europe."

That's the key word


Nothing new sadly. Especially on the east coast.

Though it's worth mentioning that seeing heroin addicts begging in central Warsaw is an everyday thing. As is finding needles outside apartment blocks

@Paulina
Well, even de Gaulle has said it. Poles, French, we are so similar to each other.

Why is that?

Btw, years ago - when I was in high school, some of my classmates went to some small town in Austria for a kind of organised plein air painting thingy where they would stay with local families. My classmates would go out to the local club. They would dance and have fun in the foam, but they were the only ones on the dance floor for quite some time. The Austrian teens wouldn't start dancing until they got high. So, I guess even back then taking drugs in the West was already like drinking alcohol in Poland.


That's not an everyday thing in Kielce yet then, fortunately.


I don't know about that... I can't say I've heard that being said in Poland...

In Scotland? Particularly bleak weather and a population physically close to several major ports. One good thing is that there, they've stopped stigmatising it and are adopting an increasingly liberal approach.


Not so much in the U.K., however alcohol is traditionally frowned upon and is comparatively expensive, no bad thing at all.


The last couple of times I've been there, the binge drinking round the Rynek has shocked me. The quieter bars I used to go to all seem to have vanished now. Perhaps the student population has something to do with the rise of the new shot drinking places. About Warsaw, the smack heads in town seemed to be getting fewer for a while but are now back more and more. I'm not sure how the issue is being managed.

That's apparently something the British are famous for, so you shouldn't be so shocked :)))


During the day? o_O


There seem to be more students coming to Kielce in recent years, even foreign ones from what I've noticed.

I've never seen it there on the same scale as I have in Poland over the last decade. Nowy Świat in Warsaw can be quite an eye opener at weekends, and of course alcohol use in the U.K. is plummeting, especially among under 30s. I'd like to see the same in Poland too, however the vodka/strong beer lobby is so strong that they do their best to market as much as possible.


Hard to know what your oO is about however no, drunken youths right through the evening. Day drinking does certainly happen in PL, and seems to be less socially unacceptable than in many other places.

Alcohol is a distraction though (although it's certainly a problem). I'd say there are other ways that PL seems dated, especially its media and retail cultures.


No bad thing. The ones I've seen have more of a small town look about them. Hopefully many of the overseas students will settle here long term.

Is it though?:

theguardian.com/society/2022/jan/17/millions-in-uk-drinking-harmful-levels-of-alcohol-at-home-experts-warn

"alcohol consumption have soared during the pandemic."


Judging by the fact that we are at neighbouring spots on that WHO list, it can't be that much worse in Poland though :))):

worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/alcohol-consumption-by-country


Which doesn't happen in the UK? :))

Btw, here's live camera directed at Rynek in Kielce - looks calm to me :):

kielce.eu/pl/dla-turysty/przydatne-linki/kamera-rynek.html

Yes.

Remember that you're frantically googling whereas I've lived in both countries for roughly an equal amount of time, 30 years in both. And prefer actual experience to the negativity of t( press.


And I'd be sceptical of the way stats are collected in the respective places too, although yes, certain demographic changes post-2004 may well have led to increased sales of Tyskie.


On a Tuesday night during the summer vacation?

I'm not "frantically googling", jon357. The British simply do have a certain "reputation", not only among Poles :)) And I know what a British snob you are, so I always take what you write with a pinch of salt :)))


Well, the press is simply presenting the facts - statistics - how can you argue with that? In Poland alcohol consumption also increased due to the pandemic (according to the "negative" Polish press lol), not only in the UK - I see nothing surprising in that.


Wow, so stats are bad if they don't fit your agenda :D

Reputations are sometimes right, sometimes wrong and sometimes in the middle. If we're talking about national reputations and alcohol, Poles certainly have one that is known far and wide.


Very easily when you see how the media cherrypick. Newspapers are what they are.


Don't be daft...

So do the Brits :)))


So what did The Guardian "cherrypick" and what did it left out, according to you, in that article?? :))


Don't be rude :D

Yet I just don't see that when I'm there. I do here.


Do you deny that Poland has a serious problem with alcohol abuse?

@jon357, of course not. But substance abuse isn't something "non-Western" (the UK and the US have serious drug abuse problem, for example). That's why your comment about the local shop being "full of vodka and tinned herring" cracked me up :)))