An email exchange today with my sister made me think of my fellow countrymen, their way of thinking, and why I am happy not to live in Poland anymore.
Don't get me wrong, not all Polish people are prejudiced, but quite a lot of them are. The amount of venomous comments on internet, written by Poles, is huge. I'm so glad that Polish is spoken only by a narrow percent of foreigners, otherwise we would be even more disliked.
I decided to come up with some points of what Polish actually think of others. I guess, I thought it would be fun to be a little bit sarcastic, but when I started writing it down, I became more and more depressed...
So Polish people:
-Don't like Germans - of obvious reasons.
-Don't like Russians - of obvious reasons.
-Hate Jews - that's right a simple dislike is not enough. The reasons are not that obvious and I think people who write 'Jews go back to gas', on the walls of Polish cities, don't know that either.
-Don't like black people, Muslims, Indians, Chinese, and any other people that are not white.
-Don't like gay - why? Because gays rape small children and carry diseases. Simple!
-Don't like vegetarians - because they have dread locks, dance naked in forests, and probably also rape small children. Besides, how can you not eat meat? That's just stupid!
-Think that everyone who comes to Poland should learn Polish, but a Polish person going abroad to e.g. Holland doesn't really have to learn Dutch.
-Think that Polish food is the best in the world! Someone who doesn't like Polish sausage doesn't know anything about food.
-Think that our way of spending Christmas and Easter is the best and the most beautiful and other nations don't know how to celebrate. Who wouldn't like to stuff their faces with fatty food and then spend another 3 days in front of tv, watching the same comedies as last year?!
-Think that everything is grey and depressing.
Are you surprised why I don't want to go back there?
Besides my obvious dislike for my own nation, I think we have a lot to offer. We should just stop for a second in these constant accusations and look at ourselves, because all these will turn against us one day.
Peace and love everyone :)
Oh! It is not so bad. In fact we are really querulous nation with small cultural competence but it seems to be better and better.
ReplyDeletereally? ;)
ReplyDeleteWell, this was a bit sarcastic on my part, but some of the things are still true.
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ReplyDeleteSomething about this makes me a little sad but I'm glad you shared it! I'm no nationalist and I'm pretty ashamed of a lot of things the British Empire has done but it doesn't stop me living and loving it here. Although I guess in London it's such a melting pot I consider 'British' quite multi-cultural so maybe if I lived with only 'British' people (whatever they are) I might think different!
ReplyDeleteI'm also kinda relieved about some of the things you wrote above (like everyone else should learn Polish and they don't have to learn other languages) as I see them as typical British traits! I'm glad other countries are as ignorant as us sometimes!
I think you should write a counter-post to this article about the positives of Polish people's perspectives (alliteration!!) on life so I don't feel so sad! x
Hello, I'm a Polish person and, though I don't want to be offensive (I hope I won't be interpreted as such) I consider that article as very generalistic, unfair and one-sided and would like to say (or actually write) few words from my side. It will be a little long, so I will have to do it in few parts. 1) Of course, there ARE people who dislike Germans, but stating that 'quite a lot of them do' gives the impression that most do (which is false). Many of us respect them, especially for their support and help that they gave (and in fact still continue to do so) to us since Poland joined EU. One of, let's say, 'groups' who hate Germans are people of older generations who still cling to the WWII past- people who still cannot tell the difference between what is (or rather WAS) 'Nazi' and what is 'German', but fotunately this view dies out (and whether you will trust me or not it IS visible). 2) Russians. We definitely hate their politics, policies, and politiciants, but on general, we don't pay that much attention to average people living in Russia. What may be seen as offensive in our view on them are our constant jokes about their alcohol-drinking habits/tendencies [ whereas, in fact, these tendencies aren't that much different in our countries ;-) ]. 3) Jews, well, this case is much more heavy than the previous ones. The hate for Jews are very transparent in writings such as 'Jebać Żydów!' (lit. Fuck the Jews!) on walls of some Polish cities. There are deeply rooted phrases (sorry if this part is not understandable for you, I just translate literary from PL to ENG on that one) like 'Oj, no weź, nie bądź Żyd' ( Aww, come on, don't be a Jew! / Term 'Jew' is used here as synonymous to 'greedy' ) into our everyday language. There are also many jokes about them here in Poland. But, on the same time, from my Polish-Jewish friend living in Krakow, there is a 'rising-in-popularity' tendency among Polish people to deliberately convert themselves into 'Jews' in order to 'feel truly Polish'. (As some may or some may not know, Polish culture was strongly influenced by Jewish one and greatly benefitted from it). And the overall situation is not as disturbing as it was, for example 20 years ago. I hope this prejudice will also die out (and I'm not the only Polish person who thinks that way.) There is also one factor governing this situation which I hope to mention later. 4) About people of 'other ethnic groups than white' ( I by no means want to be racist here)- the case of racism isn't any different from any other country, racism and prejudice existed, exist, and will exist, and isn't a feature of 'Polish thinking', some people hate, some people don't and it depends on person, his mentality and in many cases also on his education level and by no means, (NO MEANS AT ALL) it is connected to being of 'Polish Nationality' or not. I only pity haters, as hate tends to strike back.
ReplyDelete. 5) I will deal with case of homosexuals later (along with finishing the hate-on-Jews case). 6). Vegetarians? Do we really hate them? I personally have never heard of that one and find it rather funny and hilarious. With every case I get stronger idea that you were forced to spend time in a very surreastically-disordered part of Polish society. 7) This one is also (in my opinion) rather uncalled for, and depends on person. If one is lazy, he will refuse to learn, if he wants, he will learn. In case of temporary work, it isn't that important to learn the foreign language of a country in which you work, is it? On the other, however, the situation looks different if you want to settle down permamently in this foreign country, you simply HAVE to learn language (to a certain degree) of that country; for the sake of of everyday situations like doing shopping, or simply to cope with the society. And Poles ( at least most of them) respect that. 8) I would rather say, that a person who didn't taste Ruthenian ( RUTHENIAN not Russian) pierogis doesn't know anything about food, MEHEHE ;) Besides, I always have thought, that sausages' origin is Germany :P 9) Christmas- the same opinion as in the case of vegetarian - I have never ever heard a Polish person bragging about how Christmas in Poland is superior, especially when Christmas is celebrated in a relatively similar way in every country. (Santa figures everywhere, flashy lights, stuffing yourself with huge dose of food, and gifts :p).
ReplyDelete10) Depressive mood and complaining- FINALLY something on which I can agree with you. Polish people are very serious in their everyday life, and they LOVE to complain. I think that we would be capable of doing much greater things if we weren't so focused on seeing reality in grey colours. One thing, which you mentioned at the beginning, and with which I TOTALLY agree with you is that Poles in internet constantly overuse very strong, obscenic, coloquial and vulgar language. Many times (in the internet) we fight for the pure sake of the fight itself (we fight to fight, yes, I know that it doesn't make sense.). Let's finally return to the case of Jews and non-white people. Poland is strongly influenced by its religion - Catholicism, and despite the fact that many, many, many Poles would love to see the religion separated form politics (Because Catholicism has a huge impact on Politics in Poland) or even got rid entirely, this situation is mainained because of a wicked sense of tradition in people wielding power in this country. What is very significant about this is that there are two strongly connected (ran by the same person) Catholic media companies called 'Radio Maryja' and 'Telewizja TRWAM'- both of which are extremely xenophobiac and very very very very Anti-Semitic ( the hatred spread by them is by far beyond my comprehension) and they simply love brainwashing people, especially older (but of course not only older) generations which survived WWII and Holocaust ( 'because If you see real hell happening on Earth, you also have to believe in something (God in this case), in order survive this hell' and Maryja and TRWAM feed on that weakness). As I also suggested prejudices and rasism are connected to one's own level of intelligence and education. Dumb person will hate for the pleasure of hatred, wise person will know better than to categorize others. I felt the need to respond to your article, because, despite being of mixed ancestry, I was born here in Poland and love this country. You have written this article describing Polish people as unintelligent, close-minded, savageous haters and nothing more, which wounds me deeply, and apart from that, you have shown some degree of inconsistency, because on one hand you attack Polish people's hating tendencies, on the other however, this article is written in a hating manner itself. In my opinion, you even supported your thesis that Polish people are xenophobiac with (as they seem to me) artificial, made-up arguments. Remember that person who spreads hatred is always the first to fall victim of hatred himself/herself. Every person has to take responsibilty for his actions and spreading hatred had never ever lead to anything good. People should be judged for what they do, not what nationality or skin-colour their represent. Again, I would like to apologize for any part which might insulted you our your feelings, I just wanted to express my feeling of injustice of your judgement on Poles. If you feel like commenting on what I've written, please do. I will sure to check on that thread. I wish you the best in your life in England, and let it be as productive and happy as mine is in Poland. Rafał Krakowiak
ReplyDeleteLittle correction- the arguments which I see as entirely made-up concern the vegetarians, linguistic arrogance and Christmas not the ones about xenophobia (though as I stated with those I also can't agree entirely). And one grammatical correction, in the part about my Jewish friend, 'i've eaten' some words. What I meant is that he told me about the tendency of some Polish converting deliberately into Jewish.
ReplyDelete