Stereotypes about Polish people
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Every one of us have heard some stereotypes. According to me, the most popular are those of people of different nationalities. I've heard opinions that, for example, the Italians are good lovers, the Russians did not shun vodka, the Greeks do not work etc. And what about stereotypes about Poles?
Stereotype #1 Poles don’t know foreign language
According
to recent studies, only 8% of Poles declare knowledge of at least one foreign
language (in the case of young people this figure is much higher). The
situation is not as dramatic as one might think. The younger generation knows
English, while the elders are often able to speak the Russian language
compulsory for many years in our schools. Learning foreign languages, more
recently, exotic, eg. Japanese, is now popular as evidenced by the numerous language schools
and the popularity of language studies.
Stereotype #2 Polish people always complain
Let’s face
it – we love to complain! In the communist past the Poles complained about the
lack of basic commodities. Now our
favorite topic to complain are politicians.
Stereotype #3 Crimes in Poland are on the agenda
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Poland is
generally considered a country with a very high crime rate, and foreigners are
warned against it. They forget that the problem
of theft exists wherever tourists are. And in
the era of global terrorism you can’t
feel 100% safe in any country.
Stereotype #4 Poles like vodka
Yes, we
like to sit with a bottle of good wine, vodka or beer ... but definitely no more than foreigners. Just read newspapers, go on holiday abroad or watch a foreign movie to find out that not only Poles like
crazy parties until dawn.
And more and more stereotypes…
Which of these stereotypes are true? Or maybe you know other stereotypes
about us?
I never heard the first stereotype. In fact. I think it's mostly because english is fairly "new" language to us, as russian and german languages were as you pointed out - compulsory, and people really weren't that much into learning 3rd one. However I have no idea when that weird 8% comes from, it makes no sense to me, like, for real, I really doubt that only 8% people said that they can't speak anything but polish.
ReplyDeleteI generally agree with other 3 though. Not much to be said in this regard.
I also doubt in 8%.
ReplyDelete"According to recent studies, only 8% of Poles declare knowledge of at least one foreign language"
I think that polish people are dishonest and probably 8% of them would say that they know every language on the world + at least 30% know English.
But yes... we like vodka and in a list of countries by alcohol consumption per capita we should be much higher.
In the seventies on the label of the Danish vodka appeared the following inscription: "A lethal dose - 4.5 per mille of alcohol in the blood! This does not apply to Poles and Russians".
Maybe that's because we drink a lot in one day and in other days the consumption of alcohol is smaller ;)
DeleteAs said before, the first Stereotype is false (is it really a Stereotype?). The Young people know English, the elders Russian and maybe German.
ReplyDelete1. "Poles don’t know foreign language"
ReplyDeleteI heard formerly about this stereotype in relation to Poles. However, I think that it is already long outdated.
2. "Polish people always complain"
Of course it's true! Nowadays for Poles complaining is something like national sport. A good example can be "hejting" on the Internet.
3. "Crimes in Poland are on the agenda"
I think that in the context of serious crimes is not true. But considering it in terms of car theft is really a problem.
4. "Poles like vodka"
I can't disagree with that.
I think that it is a stereotype from before a few years. Of course, there are groups people, which aren't good at foreign languages, but most people are know foreign languages.
ReplyDeleteOf course! To everything and nothing. Poles must always stand out.
Hmm... burglaries, thefts, robberies, they are every day.
Of course, that is yes. a meeting without alcohol? i don't think :P
As for 2), we love to complain and it's a standard thing many foreign recruiters say. And as the author noted, it's somehow a leftover from the times when there was not much in the shops and we lived under something similar to occupancy. The russians left, the bad morale stayed with us. In general poles are taught not to believe too much in themselves. We are learned from our early years that great success is something out of our reach and we should mostly focus on smaller, reachable goals. That makes many of polish people complain about others success. When our neighbour is succesful it's just easier to laugh at them and complain that they had to be lucky to get what they achieved, and that while living in other country, we could work on similar results.
ReplyDelete3) It's a known thing that there are a lot of countries where the theft is not something normal, where people are leaving things on the middle of the road and noone touches them. I traveled a lot, I've seen places, and I can guarante that is the case. It's mostly connected with the belief, that many polish people think, that if they leave something, someone else will steal it so why shouldn't they. It's a self powering movement and I think it won't end any soon.
4) The vodka stuff comes back and back and it is funny that people are still pretending that we're no different from the foreigners in alcohol drinking. It's easy to go to other countries and compare how the normal living looks like there. It's mostly connected with the culture of drinking, that people are difficult to see drinkinh strong alcohols in public places there, that it's much more difficult to meet heavily drunk people on the street. People from other countries can drink more, but they're often drinking beverages with less percentage of alcohol, or splitting them in more smaller portions, drinking some to dinner, supper and so on.
1. Poles don’t know foreign language
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, with this statement I have to agree. I don't mean generations of parents or grandparents because when they were study it was only the Russian language and few people on their own have studied other languages. I'm talking about young people who have in schools two or three languages and they don't even the simplest of phrases in English even though that it is an international language. Well, but what we should expect from the people who don't know how to speak correctly or how to use their native language.
2. Polish people always complain
Well, I agree with that in 100 %. Always in Poland is too cold or too hot, I don't have a job or I have frustrating job. Polish people always complain...
3. Crimes in Poland are on the agenda
I agree with that. In Poland are a lot of people who are dishonest and thinking always about their goods, money and themselfs.
4. Poles like vodka
I agree, but I think Poles likes other alkohols too, not only vodka but beer, wine and every drink with some power.
YES, YES and YES. To be honest I also haven't heard about first stereotype.
ReplyDeleteDrinking culture is that what makes other countries think about us "Poles like vodka". Second word I usually heard from people from other country when they recognize I'm from Poland, after an obvious curse, is "wódka" in different configuration. It's not because of them. It's because of us. We can't imagine meeting without an alcohol, we can't imagine party without an alcohol. It's normal to us to see drunk people in the street or in the government, homeless begging for money for alcohol. It's deep in our minds. When someone say something that we agree with, common response is
"Dobrze gada, polać mu." Free alcohol in pubs, clubs is what usually brings the most clients to that places. "Let's go to that club, we would have free shot there." To summarise, when you steal, you are thief. You are thief in any place. When you are rude and boorish, country doesn't matter, you don't even realize that you're behave like that in places that you shouldn't. And people, generally, develope their opinion usually at first sight.
And what I've done in the previous paragraph. Even here I can't express my thoughts without complaining.
Nevermind, we are center of the Europe, we are center of the whole world. Poles are the best. Jesus Christ is the king of Poland. His mother is polish, isn't she? Every scientist, most famous actor, actress, the greatest people of this world had polish ancestor. We want to be the best, at everything and mean something, to the world. So we think and let other think about us, that we complain the most, drink the most, steal the most. Yes, we complain, drink, steal. Perhaps every nation has the same problem.
I doubt in first steorotype, beacuse generation of our grandparents knows russian or german, our parents generation knows russian language or english and our generation is using(probably some times a week) english and lots of people is learning second language.
ReplyDeleteSecond steorotype is true, it's very hard to not complain. Weather is always bad, politics are bad, traffic jam are bad.
Third steorotype for me is not true and not false, in every country are crimes.
The last one is true, who does not like a vodka in country where all complain?
As for the languages it's really not that bad comparing to other countries. Almost every young person is able to say something in English which allows them to communicate when in some countries it is almost immposible to even order a meal in a restaurant.
ReplyDeleteConcerning the fourth stereotype many foreigners associate polish people with drinking a lot of vodka which is not necessarily true. Some people don't drink it at all and some others drink it only occasionally.
There are stereotypes about every nation - it is unavoidable. I must say, however, that the opinion about the Poles has improved over the years - as more and more foreigners visit our country, they can see how the bad stereotypes (the worst kind, those created by our closest neighbours) have been misleading.
ReplyDeleteI strongly disagree with the #1 - from my experience, the stereotype is exactly oposite, and it comes from many centuries ago - when it was the Polish nobility that was one of the most educated, Latin-speaking in Europe.
1. For sure you right with that , but i think that's gonna change and nowadays we can see that younger knows other languages better,becouse they have more place to meet with others language eg.internet or that we have more foreigners
ReplyDelete2.I Don't have opinion on it
3.In Poland there isn't many serious crimes like in US and i think that Poland is safe in most
4.😼
1. I don't think this stereotype is popular, although looking at online games where Poles really can't speak English, this might be true... I wuold rather say that French or Spanish people don't speak any language but their own.
ReplyDelete2. I guess every country can relate to this stereotype. Everyone complains, we are not the only one.
3. This one is true, but less and less. We have normal commodities now, but few years ago it was common for Polish people to steal Germans' cars etc. :)
4. This stereotype is so well known it hurts. When I told my Swedish friend that I don't drink alkohol he said that Pole who says she doesn't drink is like a Christian who says he doesn't believe in Jesus. :)
Generally, Poles are considered savage drunken people who smell like onion and say "ku**a" a lot. Sometimes it's hard to break this stereotype, since many Polish people are in England, Ireland and they assure foreigners that stereotypes about us are perfectly true.
1. I think this stereotype match to every people on the world. It is impossible to communicate in France in English. Most of elder polish people can speak in German or Russian.
ReplyDelete2. All people love complaining, so I completely agree.
3. Countries like Russian or England have statistically much higher percent of crime. So i can't agree with this point.
4. Poles like alcohol like every other nationalities. The best example are english tourist in cities like Kraków. They drunk a sea of alcohol, which later end up many unpleasant situations.
I love talking about stereotypes :)
ReplyDelete1. Poles don’t know foreign language.
This is very complicated.
There is English Proficiency Index from 2014
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EF_English_Proficiency_Index#2014_Rankings
According to this ranking Poland has the sixth place in the world with Very High Proficiency level. During playing video games I met a lot of people around the world.
From my observation, the Dutch, Swedish, Finns were very, very fluent in english language, but Polish people were speaking poorly.
2. Polish people always complain
I strongly agree. No discussion :)
3. Crimes in Poland are on the agenda
I disagree, Poland is very safe country. Of course there are places where it is better not to walk late, but this applies to every country.
Crime index for country 2015:
http://www.numbeo.com/crime/rankings_by_country.jsp
94th place, not bad :)
4. Poles like vodka
It's hard to disagree :)
This wiki page is about consumption of alcohol
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_alcohol_consumption_per_capita
But if we talking about vodka, here we have some information:
http://qz.com/179708/map-where-the-worlds-biggest-vodka-drinkers-are/
Proud second place :)
In all stereotypes there is some part of the truth. Usually we like drink alcohol not only vodka. It's true that we like complain, but also foreigners. It depends from our education and mentality, not nationality. Crimes in Poland are comparable to Western countries. Most of us are quite familiar with English. Maybe we don't talking fluently, but can communicate without major problems.
ReplyDeleteComplaining is definitely the most frustrating character trait in Poles, every one complains about everything. So I totally agree with this stereotype. But I have a negative approach to the stereotype that Poles don't speak foreign languages, because I don't know a person who doesn't have at least basic knowledge of one foreign language. Poles drink a lot of vodka so the stereotype about it is in 100% correct. You mention crimes but I don't think they are on the agenda.
ReplyDeleteI do not like stereotypes, although I must admit that some of them amused me greatly. Regarding Poland, there is also a very nice belief that we are a very hospitable people - is not that nice? Of course, there are also some worse ... for instance, that we go only German cars (and it's not about the country of manufacture :))
ReplyDeleteThe first stereotype can be true. Yes, I think that it's true because the level of language education isn't very high. In Poland have many private schools but the public education isn't the best quality. However young people know, first of all, english language. Why? Maybe that why they go for the private lesson. They haven't problem to communicate with foreigners.
ReplyDeleteSecond stereotype is popular but I don't meet people who like complaining all the time. I don't complain, I don't like it.
The third, is it true? I think that it can be true but Poland isn't only one place in the world where we can be, for example, robbed. Some countries are more dangerous, the others - less.
And the last one: Poles like vodka. It is true but no more than foreigners. Three years ago I met people from Australia and they really like vodka. So alcohol brings people from all over the world.
Can say only about "Stereotype #2 Polish people always complain" - oh yeah, its true. Poles like to do it, and its strange :)
ReplyDeleteYeah we like to drink vodka, it doesn't taste good but I always have in my mind that alcohol cannot taste well, because if you like it then it might be great problem. We do complain, it is just our nature, but I don’t think it causes any problems, not for us, nor for foreigners. There are some other stereotypes which were not mentioned here:
ReplyDelete1. We are very proud country, we put great mark on Europe history, we like to remind about it.
2. We are very friendly, especially when we have visitors. Many foreigners are amused that in the reality when they come here they don’t see robbers everywhere, but just friendly and helpful people.
3. …and many, many more!
We have to remember that our actions also have impact on how we are perceived, especially during meetings with any foreigners.