how do Poles treat foreigners

[pa-nika-ra-1]

I'm a student and I have to conduct ethnological research. I would
like to know how Poles treat foreigners living in our country so I
search foreigner who want answer my questions

[shics]

bad English ale nie szkodzi bo oni tu piszom, ze moze byc po polskiemu
zapytaj sie jeszcze raz po polsku, moze i po polsku odpowiedzom?

[margotje]

shics napisał:

> bad English ale nie szkodzi bo oni tu piszom, ze moze byc po polskiemu
> zapytaj sie jeszcze raz po polsku, moze i po polsku odpowiedzom?

I assume yours is excellent...... what an attitude!

[marcus_anglikiem]

margotje napisała:

> shics napisał:
>
> > bad English ale nie szkodzi bo oni tu piszom, ze moze byc po polskiemu
> > zapytaj sie jeszcze raz po polsku, moze i po polsku odpowiedzom?
>
> I assume yours is excellent...... what an attitude!

that's funny because "shics's" Polish is bad, never mind his English!

[usenetposts]

It depends what foreigners you mean and what their status is.

A blanket query like that is meaningless.

As a British person, I have no trouble: at even the slightest hint
of xenophobia, I merely have to remind the other side that there are
100 times more Poles in England than Englishmen in Poland, and that
we were the first to play fair and welcome you (along with Ireland
and Sweden) and they nod and friendly up. Although I might get the
usual nonsense about Churchill.

I expect that if I were a labourer from some third world country,
and of another race, I might get a slightly less easy time of it.

One thing I think we can safely say is that Polish people's image of
themselves as being highly hospitable to foreigners is not borne out
in reality in Warsaw, although hospitality increases in other areas -
not so much Poznan and Krakow either, but certainly in rural
Poland, Silesia and East Poland.

I remember at the start when I got here mocking the way the English
or Americans would invite people to go out but everyone would split
the bill (actually I don't like that either) but when it comes to it
the birthday invites to go out anyway are not as common as I thought
they would be when listening to the Poles boast at how when they
invite the person who invites pays. It simply means they cannot
afford to invite, and so they don't, whereas they might be able to
afford to socialise the Anglo-American way.

[amcapol]

Usenetpost...I found your response very interesting and I do agree
with you 100% .

I'm Polish living in USA for last 20+ years.
I've problem communicating with my countrymen.
I can't say anything good about USA..All what is acceptable with my
friends from the past is to listen and politely agree.
Well, I go to my motherland only b/c of family and my old mom.
Interestingly enough I love Brits, I felt better in London then in
Warsaw.

[usenetposts]

Interesting. I do think that the British are more easy-going and
hospitable than people often make us out to be.

Where are you living now, then?

[ciotka-ltd]

You're awfully easy-going, even too much. I live currently in the
Midlands and I'm surprised how easy-going and even slow-going you,
the Brits, are. Including local buses

[jeanie_mccake]

But to be fair the lack of hospitality in Warsaw doesn't just apply
to foreigners. It’s a city with a troubled past, and hopefully it’ll
have a troubled future too, because it’s inhabited almost solely by
obnoxious pompous twats who feel smug because the provincial
shitehole they live in is so much bigger and more expensive than
other provincial shiteholes in the area. Krakow's slightly better,
so if they're fed up with the working class tourists that their
kulturalne city attracts with its cheap beer, castle and whatever
the other thing is that folk go to Krakow for, their tourist board
could use the slogan "Come to Krakow - We're Marginally Less
Arrogant, Rude and Pretentious than Warsaw".
The hospitality in rural areas is pretty much the same as the
hospitality of grinning in-bred hillbilly cannibals in horror films,
for obvious reasons, and as far as I know they eat (sorry, treat)
Polish townies in the same way. I once spent a miserable couple of
hours in a village called Proszowice, surrounded by foul-smelling,
welly-wearing zombies who all had exactly the same ears and stared
at anyone who wasn’t covered in mud or didn’t have a chicken under
their arm, but fortunately I had a shiny key-ring with me which
scared them away.
It’s better in the mountains, where folk are generally friendly,
both in tourist-infested places and in the zadupie.
The rest of Poland is fairly normal.

re: how do Poles treat foreigners

[marcus_anglikiem]

so Poland is OK apart from Warsaw, Kraków and the countryside? Exactly what is
the extent of your experiences of the above-mentioned places? Where are you from
by the way?

[jeanie_mccake]

The question was about Poles, not Poland, and I'm not denying that
Krakow is well worth spending a day or two in, and I'm not blaming
the locals for being miserable and pretentious. It's a tourist trap,
so they're sick of tourists, and historically it's the cultural
capital of Poland, so there's always the temptation to be arrogant
and boring. It's a nice place to go for a stroll once or twice a
year with friends. It says a lot that they keep writing to their
local paper complaining that foreign devils pee in the street, but
rarely moan about having to finance cops who don't stop foreign
devils peeing in the street.
Warsaw has all the disadvantages of a major European capital and all
the disadvantages of your average provincial Polish town, but none
of the advantages of either and all the complexes of both. Londoners
and Parisians don't have to ask if you've been there, folk from
Edinburgh or Copenhagen pretend to be pleasantly surprised if you
know their home town, but in Warsaw they get offended if you haven't
memorised how many times their grandparents were victims of This
and/or That.
The only good thing about living in the countryside is that you've
got stuff that civilised folk haven't got - mountains, fjords,
tigers, slightly bigger castles, a better choice of priests to be
molested by, amazing cheese, whatever. In practice, the Polish
countryside is mud and chickens. Flat boring landscapes, no
bookshops, ugly pensioners who think anyone that's not related to
them is a Jew.
Since you ask, I'm from Greenock (a provincial shitehole on the edge
of the known universe) and Glasgow (a normal city where your average
Warsaw or Krakow punter can't last 2 weeks without writing a blog
about how scary the real world is).

[kitty.s]

please go back to real world in Glasgow and never ever leave again. Like most
ppl in Glasgow. Youre an amazing douche.

[jeanie_mccake]

Your insight and wit have completely changed my mind - the Polish
countryside is clearly full of sophisticated types who are too busy
driving mercedes and eating sushi to shag their cousins, and Warsaw
is so great that in my many years of living in Poland I've probably
heard someone somewhere saying "ale tak naprawdę Warszawa jest nawet
OK" but I just somehow don't remember it...
And don't dis the real world, you might have some contact with it
one day.

[kitty.s]

Glasgow?! Youre calling glasgow "the real world"?! Buahahahaha
I didn`t know that sophistication and level of cultural development should be
measured in amount of mercedeses per countryside (obviously every farmer in UK
drives M-Benz and eats tempura for tea). Jeanie, please, go back to Glasgow
already, before your self - esteem will dissapear completely, and leave Warsaw
to civilised foreginers with no self imprtance issues because they grew up in
the counttry (as You lovely Yourself call Your hometown - "asshole of the world
or something like that? ).
Kudos from
Warsaw - Sydney - Singapore (but of course dreaming about the real world and
"Paris of 21st century" - Glasgow, im so bored by these shitholes
Get a life
Kudos from

[askazbielan]

Warszawa, Krakow - let's try so called Poland No. "B" Olsztyn,
Torun, Gdansk - that's the real Poland. Ordinary nice people and
slow cities as well. I would recommend Poland No. B than noisy,
dirty, expensive Warsaw. Cheers, Jo.

[kitty.s]

Warsaw really aint that bad, you must`ave real bad luck to meet such a bunch of a..holes. but i do agree with you - one of my grandmas was from lublin and i always liked this city, besides, in highschool, my dad travelled with me through whole Poland mountains, mazury, sea side - we did it all - and since we knew english we were always very nice and helpful to all foreginers. on the other side we didnt meet any foreginers who would think that our country is a nest of pedophilia and all people are dirt!
cheers

[centaur10]

Your Lublin provenance explains much of your anti-Polish attitude. I know what
nationality you are, but it is illegal to mention that nationality in Poland.
That explains your hate.

[usenetposts]

Not ... Atlantean?

[jeanie_mccake]

usenetposts napisał:

> Not ... Atlantean?

You'd better hope it's not... after all it's illegal to mention them.

[sopel1000]

Wow. Generally I would summarize this strange discussion using one abbreviation:
WTF?! I could agree with these opinions about Warsaw and Krakow (or - their
citizens) but to some extent. I was born in Poznań and I've been living here
since then, and I am a local partiot. I speak english, german and a bit of
spanish and it has always been a pleasure to help foreigners. I do not know
exactly why but there is something in jeanie_mccake's responses which makes me
feel offended as a Pole, but it also makes me feel good not to live in Warsaw.

Do not forget - Poznań also used to be the capital city of Poland. Proper name
of our city is "Poznań The Capital City".

Regards,
Jakub

[centaur10]

That way you enhance the picture of xenophobic Polish people. Danzig, Thorn or
Allenstein are by no means provincial. Never confuse poverty with meanness,
Poland has been robbed of its goods for the last twenty years with keeping the
appearances of free trade and prosperity.

[centaur10]

You are a false fox fur, aren't you?

Glasgow - British capitol of crime

[ciotka-ltd]

I didn't create it myself, I found this title in The Sunday Times

[centaur10]

You don't look like a foreigner, anyway. You are a girl from Warsaw who
depreciates Kraków, that's all. Nevertheless, your English is pretty good.

[centaur10]

Your Glaswegian provenance explains your xenophobia. You are provincial and
intellectually biased.

[jeanie_mccake]

centaur10 napisał:

> Your Glaswegian provenance explains your xenophobia. You are
provincial and
> intellectually biased.


What xenophobia?
I've heard a few stereotypes about Glaswegians, but "intellectually
biased" is an interesting one. I must make a note of it and mention
it to my Glaswegian friends, I'm sure they'll laugh as hard as I did.

[centaur10]

First of all, Proszowice is not a village, but the head town for the poviat
(administrative unit smaller than the voivodeship). People in Poland are very
sensitive and easily guess who treats them like shit, you being a pretentious
bloody foreigner were the most likely to be an easily recognized anti-Polish
jingoist. Polish girls shave their armpits, so your idiocy is still more
offensive. We have the same deodorants and of soap as you have, people start
their day with a shower and they have no lice, which is frequently the case with
the British. There is one thing that definitely keeps driving you mad, we have
practically no ethnic or religious minorities, especially in rural areas or in
smaller towns. The drunk zombies you mentioned are not numerous and they behave
like lords in comparison to British working class tourists who puke and piss in
Krakow Market Square. There are crappy districts in each town or city, but for
you they are the ONLY ones. It,s hardly possible to find as crappy and
depressing an area as the bus station in Manchester, where British Brits ask you
for a couple of pence. Your zombies are more smelly and dirtier than ours, our
zombies are at least WHITE.

[jeanie_mccake]

centaur10 napisał:

> First of all, Proszowice is not a village, but the head town for
the poviat

It's got a population of a few thousand, so it's not a town.

> People in Poland are very
> sensitive

All of them?

anti-Polish
> jingoist. Polish girls shave their armpits, so your idiocy is
still more
> offensive.

I'm not anti-Polish, I'm not a jingoist, I'm not an idiot and I've
never denied that Polish girls shave their armpits.

There is one thing that definitely keeps driving you mad, we have
> practically no ethnic or religious minorities, especially in rural
areas or in
> smaller towns.

Who does that drive mad, and why?

The drunk zombies you mentioned are not numerous and they behave
> like lords in comparison to British working class tourists who
puke and piss in
> Krakow Market Square.

They are numerous. Does it not bother you that middle class tourists
puke and piss in the Rynek too? Or are you a snob as well as a
pretentious racist?

There are crappy districts in each town or city, but for
> you they are the ONLY ones.

No they're not, otherwise I wouldn't live in Poland, would I? Why
don't you think about what you're writing?

It,s hardly possible to find as crappy and
> depressing an area as the bus station in Manchester,

I've never seen it, but I bet I know far crappier and more
depressing areas in Britain.

Your zombies are more smelly and dirtier than ours, our
> zombies are at least WHITE.

A zombie is a zombie.

kompromitujesz sie angielskim dziewojo

[wybitniemadry]

a jak ty traktujesz obcokrajowcow? jestes niedorozwinieta czy szukasz meza?

[kitty.s]

whoa!
her english is 100% better than yours as you don`t speak english at all nyah
nyah))))))))))))))))))

[miniatur]

Is there a chance of getting back to pa-nika-ra-1 's original point ? Though I
guess he/she must be a bit cheesed off having waited since 18.1.09 for helpful
comments. Though some have been useful. I guess that pa-nika-ra-1 's absence
from the “discussion” speaks volumes. Talk about highjacking a subject. Cheers

[usenetposts]

@miniatur, I should say that you get quite a lot of folk who ask questions and
then don't hang around for an answer. I has quickly asked this person to be more
precise, and since that person didn't respond further, I should say that the
rest of us are free to make of this topic what they like.

[centaur10]

Your "nyah" is the most moving question tag I've ever read or heard. By the way,
'English', not 'english'.

[msands]

what's so special about 'nyah'? haven't you heard it before? haven't
you seen 'south park', heard voice of the prophet cartman?

and it is 'english' if we damn please... nananananana... english!
eeeennnglliishh

I'm afraid she's a very poor anthropologist

[ciotka-ltd]

This is the real problem, apart from her 'continental' English.
She's lucky I'm not her university teacher