My bad experiences with Polish neighbours in UK (not meant to offend)

@Rozu: why are you surprised that Poles can afford bus fares? I have never checked but probably a bus ticket to UK from Poland may be below 100 euros. Not a fortune in Poland and if the guy who wants to travel doesn't have this kind of money, a relative or a friend helps. They also travel by car with 2 or 3 buddies and they share the expenses. So no need to be rich to travel to UK ;)

I really don't think I said that, inPolska! :)

@Rozu: maybe I read too much between the lines ;) but your said something re the cost of the bus fare but nevertheless if you look at official statistics you'll see that MOST Poles moving to UK are among the poorest/least educated.

not what I meant at all!
I think we might have to agree to disagree, depending on what 'most' means....:)
but actually yeh there are a lot of quite 'rough' types.
I remember once I was sitting on the tube in London and these real Eastern drunks were pointing at all the women and shouting 'nie ladznie!" When he pointed at me I told him to zapknisze and shadaj (pardon spelling) you should have seen the look on his face, it was a real picture.

Its a local meat processing plant where I come from originally that fired all its British staff and now only hires Polish and the Polish live in the estate where the men drink in the streets at weekends.

@Ryouga: this was the idea when opening market to Poles and the like. Poles work for 3 coins and Britons are unemployed

I have a friend in Belgium who told me a few years ago that she + family and the other neighbors were scarred at the arrival of Polish construction workers in their area. They were scarred to be attacked, raped, burglarized...

All those Poles give Poland a very bad name. My husband when in western Europe avoided contacts with Poles. These people's vocabulary is most limited and most often around 2 words 'k.." and "sp....".

In every country we have this "kind of people" but in the West, they stay home since they can receive welfare so they are not seen abroad, contrary to Poles.

I'm wondering if average Brits differentiate between Polish immigrants and those form Lithuania, Hungary, Slovakia, etc. Are any differences detected or are they all lumped together as Eastern Europeans?

@Polonius: most probably they don't

Personally, if I don't know, I can't recognize a Pole from a Czech from a Slovak from a Russian from an Ukrainian ;). On Saturday, my (Ukrainian) cleaning lady called her (Ukrainian) friend in front of me and when she hung up, I said to her "Oh, you talk to her in Polish!" and she replied "no, in Ukrainian". So a Briton in UK does not hear any difference betwen Polish, Hungarian and Estonian ;).

I used to know an English girl here (Wawa) and once when she was in England for a vacation, some one told her "Poland was something like Russia". It's true for most western Europeans, all these Eastern countries are all the same ;).

Or Czech, Finnish, Slovakian, Dutch, Portuguese and Greek. For Britons foreign language is foreign language as they rarly know anything else than English.

@Wulkan: you are probably right! Polisn, Swedish, Spanish or Greek, all sounds alike to most Britons. 'lol"

I would find it quite disappointing if anyone, even if they are not often exposed to foreign languages, could not hear the difference between Polish and Hungarian. I hear Hungarian every day and it sounds nothing like Polish or any other Slavic language.

I would class the sound of Hungarian as Nordic, possibly Finnish.

actually you are wrong ...:) I can identify Greek/Polish/Spanish/Italian/whatever as soon as I hear them.
In some of these languages I even know some short sentences! Incredible I know..:)
In fact if its Swedish, I usually know what they are on about, even though I dont know that language. It is incredibly similar to English/German.

That would be quite surprising, Polish and Hungarian/Estonian are very different languages and they sound very different, even to an uneducated ear (Hungarian is closer to Turkish or Finnish)

Estonian, Finnish and Hungarian are said to be of same family. I had a friend in the USA whose parents were from Estonia. She went to Finland to study and as she knew Estonian, she could learn Finish very quickly.

It's obvious that it's difficult to recognize Czech from Polish, Ukrainian from Russian, etc etc ...; but Wulkan meant to be funny.

Nevertheless, it's obvious that most Britons back in England cannot tell those guys from Eastern countries apart and it's normal. I can't either ;). I can tell a Russian from a Pole though.

it's OK bullfrog, many people in Europe just want to be spiteful about the British....and make sweeping statements about them...

anyway I know if someone is speaking Polish because it is usually in a high pitched whine and they say 'dziesiec (spelling bad, sorry) pfund' a lot and weeping about 'pinonza'....oh sorry Wulkan, just joking...:)

In fact, Hungarian is not Nordic (ie unlike Danish or Swedish) but has the same roots as Finnish, Estonian or Turkish. Attila is quite frequent a name in Hungary, which is logical since Hungarians and Turks share common ancestry (Huns)

@Bullfrog: Yes, that's right! Turkish is said to be close to Hungarian, Finnish and Estonian.

@Rozu: when Wulkan said "Britons", I doubt he was refering to only you;).

lol I know, but I am horribly egotistical...:)

Besides national stereotypes are so annoying and need to be broken.

YOu agreed with him and said " Polisn, Swedish, Spanish or Greek, all sounds alike to most Britons. 'lol"

I can assure you that is not the case. Well maybe for some really uneducated minority, same as any country.

It is like me saying 'All French people eat horse and snails for breakfast'...:)

I know, that's why I suffer from schizophrenia.. My French half wants to make such sweeping statements (and no, I don't eat horse but I do enjoy the occasional snail or two!) but my other half, the British one, resists it!

of course, stereoypes are completely stupid and false but Wulkan meant to be funny. I sincerely doubt that a lot of Europeans (not to talk about others) can recognize let's say ... Lithanian from Latvian ;) and can tell a Slovak apart from a Pole for instance and it's normal. Since topic is England, it's normal that the huge majority of Britons cannot tell Eastern Europeans apart.

I know a lot of Poles who cannot tell a Spaniard from an Italian or from a Portuguese and here too, it is NORMAL.

Don't be paranoid! People don't know.

The only way to get rid of (stupid) stereotypes is to learn languages, to travel and to meet people and we can realize that we have a lot of common.

Yep, that is why I referred to the sound of it only and not the heritage of the language. That would be too much to get into in this heat :-)

To be fair at most I notice a little similarities in words in the ex Soviet countries but I have travelled places like Hungary and Romania and had Ukrainian and Russian friends so unless someone is speaking fast and I get confused I can pick up individual words.

This is part of reason why I want to learn basic languages and I want to visit Poland because of my link to it

Not quite the same but when I was in Europe people quickly said I was English when I am Scottish, and even people like American tourists were assumed to be English due to their main language.

What was funny was a few months ago I was on holiday in a part of Scotland and noticed a shop worker called Agnes, I noticed she had a foreign accent so asked where she was from and she said she was Hungarian and its a common name there!(its was common in UK especially Scotland and Ireland till recent decades)

Now this is something that I find more concerning than the ability to keep languages apart. " Ex soviet countries" and giving Romania and Hungary as an example is simply ignorant.

Actually your comment was more ignroant as I never said Hungary and Romania were ex soviet countries, I said I have travlled to places like Hungary and Romania not that they were ex soviet countries it was to imply I had been to different European countries.

Also I am disabled so my wording is not the best, I am a little offended you assumed something from me.

But for your information places like Romania and Moldavia are basically seen as the same by Romanian people I know(at least the young)

Well, in that case I would like to apologize. That's one of the things we can not estimate over the internet.


There is such a sentiment in Moldova. And who can blame them seeing that Moldova is still the Somalia of Europe while Romania is now part of the EU and doing better and better. I don't think that the Romanians are carrying as much love for Moldova as the good people of Moldova do for Romania.

@Ryouga: now in Moldavia they speak Rumanian (latin and not a Slavic language - when knowing another latin language, not hard to read/understand Rumanian). Before its independence, of course the official language was Russian. I know a woman from Moldavia in Warszwa and she only speaks Russian

Hungarian is completely apart....

There are still parts of Moldova where the official language is Russian.

To clarify what I originally meant was 2 seperate things, that I meant Eastern European languages sounded confusing if spoken too fast to process compared to Western Europe where in general its easier to notice differences between languages like French and German but its easy to assume if someone sounds French they are French(or Belgian) if they speak what seems to be German they will be German, but when I travelled to places like Hungary and Romania and the further I got towards the ex soviet countries I found the words stronger and similar but still able to tell them apart as I know a few random words of different languages such as greetings.

I did read in past about Romania and Moldavia having tension but every Romanian person I have ever spoken to has claimed there is none and they are the same people.

This thread is wandering badly - please stick to the topic

@Ryouga: it is normal not to tell apart languages we rarely listen and to tell apart languages we often listen ;).

As to French, not necessary from France or Belgium, but also from Switzerland, Monaco, Luxembourg, Quebec (not to mention exotic places) and as to Germany, could also be from Switzerland and Austria ;).

I have a disability that makes me listen, its called autism I am quite obsessive over little things.

Thought I would update as I think my Polish neighbour is trying to harass me, I didnt mention a few months ago I reported him for noise and dog waste as he kept bringing it around my garden multiple times a day, his girlfriend is fine and when she walks the dog it never barks but it always barks with him, and after I complained the noise increased though its only 2 or 3 times a day for a few minutes.

Tonight it barked for 5 minutes which sounds like he was doing it on purpose, and in past for 14 days I was awoke around 2-5am every morning when he takes the dog for a walk in my garden before work.

I think its more ignorance than him being a bad person and I think he thinks he is the victim and got offended when I reported him despite him ignoring me before claiming he spoke no English then after I complained suddenly speaks English, don't think I mentioned yet that his friends on the estate now park their vans beside me on street and say swear words in Polish.