Wonderful Poland.......but the attitude of Polish people

I was appointed to work on a project in poland earlier this year, I was located in Katowice, I work with strategic planning and development for coal mines...

Poland is got to be one of the most beautiful, cultured countries that i have been to(i've been to many) MY experience of poland is quiet confusing though...I lived there for 9 months, for the first few months it was great, I am a Asian male of 27 years old and loves to socialize and enjoy the beauty of nature. The people I worked with were some of the best people i have ever met, they were absolutely helpful and caring, and so was their families...I enjoyed every bit of that part...

Unfortunately....when I used to go out with my friends from work, alot of people who did not know me used to be very ignorant to my presence and also started to offend my polish frineds for being with me, there was alot of times when there was a fight after an evening out due to a buch of drunk guys wanting to pick a fight with me becuase of my colour, I was born in Australia and lived there all my life, neither me nor my parents have any family or have been to india before, as far as i am concerned, I am Australian who belongs to the asian etnicity, however its a shame that so many people have become so tabloid and are tempted to interfere with someone of a different colour because they believe that I should not be in this country. it got so bad, that I was even afraid of going into shopping centres on my own, i experienced many assaults and was quiet supprised that when reported to any higher authority, I was always looked upon as the criminal and even interigated as to why i was in poland. I felt it was not safe for me to live in poland any more as even my close buddies decided to want to leave poland becuase of the attitude of other human beings,

My company used to purchase in the region of 1 million metric tons of coal per month which was good business for poland, however I was forced to leave, my company now purchases its coal from indonesia as this is where i am based currently,

Its a shame as i really do love poland and would love to go back, but unfortunatley it swwms likw it can take a long time before the majority of the polish people opens their minds to the rest of the world...due to my experience, the coal mine in poland has lost majority of their export trade and had to make 450 people redundant, i wonder if this is the reason the unemployment rate is so high in poland, is it the attitude of the people, or is it the foriegners who should stay away???

I hope things change in poland as I said it certainly is one of the best pieces of land in the world....

It's good you liked Poland, but your unpleasant experience is what happens, unfortunately, in Poland. Call it "Polish jelaousy" - if you are a little different than your mates or hand out with people who are "better" than the other people's friends, you can expect unpleasant comments indeed. When I go to Poland I don't even take my best clothes as I don't want to be an object of people's jealausy or gossip. Polish police is somewhat corrupt too - by default they will value the native Pole's word more than the foreigner's.

I hope this is only one-time episode of such behaviour in Poland. But again - you are not the only one, I notice it too.

Some people have bad experiences, some have good. There are jerks everywhere in the world. Including the USA.

They say "Pole becomes wise after the damage is done". I bet the 450 people who were redundant stay now by the liquor store and don't know what to do with their lives.

or worry how to provide for their families....much as I have my opioins, in the UK its a real mixed bag and for the most everyone gets on, a dark skinned person wouldnt get treated badly in a bar in any region in the UK...

Very true, I have been to the uk many times, I even lived their for a while and will be going soon, everyone slags the British and the uk, however when you travel alot and go to many parts of the world not on holiday but for a long period in time you will notice what the community in that place is all about. The uk really is one of the best and safest, modest and free spirit places to be it, I would really like to extend my appreciation to the british people as they really are a great nation, no wonder why they are accepted in any country....

There were many concentration camps through out Poland, horrible experiments performed on people, millions of people died. Poland can't forget those easily. They are a proud nation, they are proud of who they are, they bravely fought during the war and maybe they don't trust foreigners too much yet?

hey, i'm a caucasian male from Canada. I'm 50% Polish and 50% English by blood. I get scowls from guys. they look at you like they might want to fight. babies look at me wierd, the girls/women know give me interesting looks.

my GF said its because I look different.

I guess i dont have that Slavic male look. short buzzed hair, beady eyes set close together, work out only the upper body and wear tight fitting shirts.

I'm me.

I can sympathize with you and your experiences. PL is a very homogenous society, and don't have any experience dealing with ethnic differences. There is no ethnic diversity in PL unlike other countries of the world.

I'm an ESL teacher here in PL and i start off the classes with a question/answer session with the students. One male in his 40-50's asked another male student, what he thought of black men. I was so shocked, i made him ask the question again. the answer btw, was "i like them."

I used to teach English in Poland. I am from POland myself, back in Canada now. My friend used to call such people 'stare masters". I didn't know what she was talking about, becuse for me it was part of the culture. There is hardly any eye contact in Canada in public places. In Poland it's natural. I can understand why it makes you uncomfortable. You are not used to it.

Poland experianced a lot of harship from hands of foreigners in the past and some habits die hard.
As for racism - there is still a lot of "quiet" racism in Canada.
When one visits another country -there are challanges and perhaps it's better to be open and not take anything personally.

can sympathize with you and your experiences. PL is a very homogenous society, and don't have any experience dealing with ethnic differences. There is no ethnic diversity in PL unlike other countries of the world.

that is not true we have quite big community from Vietnam in Krakow.

experience dealing with ethnic differences

When I see how it looks in Uk- hidden racism, aggresion, streets full of ethnic minorities that any "stranger" is not welcomed maybe I prefer our homogenous Poland...

ok what is your perception of "big"? in a town of 780,000 (2004 count) give me a percentage. "big" for me is a definite visible minority. that being you would see a member of that community at least every 5-10 minutes.

not it is not very big comparing to UK ethnic minorities but it exists and I didn't heard about racists behaviour towards them.

But what is wrong with being homogenous?

did i say there was anything wrong??? umm no.

there is nothing wrong with it at all. Where i come from in Canada there are loads of Chinese, East Indians, Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, Mexicans, South Americans.....

one thing i like about living in PL is that i only hear 1 language that i don't understand that well yet.

Unlike back at home... where there is such a mix of cultures, all with their quirks and quarks. Well you live inthe UK so you know all about the mix of cultures.


i guess you didn't hear last week about the 2 black soccer players for a Polish team (in Warszawa i think) were beat up stabbed and robbed. Now being black in Poland, in the city where i live, you are def a visible minority. I hardly think if they were caucasian, that would have happened. but who know what led up to it.

I heard about it.

Unfortunately racist behaviuors happen everywhere and we can't help it.

Not much time ago black boy in Uk was killed because he was black ....
White boy was killed by Asian racist as he was white....

Sounds like you're made of chocolate - or Marmite / Vegemite?

what a dumb as **** thing to say, are you asian too or something


anymore info on this one i never heard this story even

Sorry I dont buy it.
You firm stoped whatever was doing in Poland due to some jerks you have met,pls.

yes i agree, proberly he was trying to use this as a way to try and make people feel nationalism holds them back from jobs of 450 places, great propaganda, indonisia was proberly cheap as crap and came with slaves for cheap digging

But some of the people who died in those camps also had dark skin. It doesn't justify racial intolerance... in fact it makes it worse.

It's good that you liked Poland, and good that you notice the bad sides as well.

Pesonally I will take this non-PC pleasure to tell you something: we are all taught in liceum on geography that Indians are really white. So I'm sorry to break this to you, but you are white.

I know exactly the problem. My boss in the Finance department was Narinder, a woman who loved being rude to people. When confronted she would start talking about how she 'is the wrong color'. And she looked very pleased with herself.

Also, when you are calling yourself 'Asian', you are using a Britsh abbrevaition, that is very incorrect. India is on the Indian Subcontinent, so you can't be the general 'Asian'. There would be no room left for Mongols, Kalmuks, Czukcze and all the many peoples of China.

I agree that London must be a very metropolitan city, but the Enlgish countryside is openly racist. Even to Polans, even though we are white, or Christian, or whatever other argument the BNP usually has against 'immigrants'. I live in the Midlands, and I even get shouted at on the street.

So to sum it up: you post is a little on the line, very nice country but full of those Poles. It's hard to like this. But OK, it's your opinion.

The stare problem is evident, the Brits stare completely differently, but that is not reason for us to change and be British now.

And as to aggressive people - some are not really aggressive, they just are seen as such by you, because of short hair or exuberant poses. Nothing to do with you.

I write about how Polans see the UK here: polkaontheisland.wordpress.com

I think that racism comes with the "narrow-minded approach" to life, by all nations. It may be generated by people who have travelled to host countries, for periods of time, but may well have refused to integrate, because of either low-self esteem problems, superiority illusions they have, especially in countries that they percieive to be sub-standard to their own. (ie they become king of their empire because they are able to employ people to do the menial tasks, normally undertaken by themselves in their own country).

Others may undermine a country, and people less fortunate than themselves to make themselves look good.

All in all racism is not good for any country, as it achieves nothing, absolutely nothing.

Shut up! Im a country boy,I can see nothing but miles of open fields from where I sit now(or would if it wasnt night ;)) and your talking out your bum chum.

That is strange, as I am looking at the english open countryside and time is 22.21. Maybe there is a slight time difference in your english countryside of l hour. Which english countryside are you in?

North of yours,deep in the heart of Yorkshire, maybe you have more light polution,or are in a "townys" idea of the country side,ie ,no macdonalds it must be a village:)

Im sorry,I dont recognise your view of the countryside as rascist. Its no more rascist here than anywhere,sure a few old bigots dotted around ,like everywhere. Then again,if you are in Derbyshire I do suspect you may be right, or at least unfortunate to have met a few ignorent peasants,Ive met some nasty little worms in some places there that are openly rascist from the start but Ive also travelled extensivly around the country in the company of people of all colours and in my opinion small towns and villages tend to have less hostility or suspision against people due to skin colour or passport colour,and maybe just a little ingrained suspsion of "strangers/outsiders" in general..

interesting blogs Ksysia


cant beat a country bumpkin

you can,distract him with a pretty ewe;)

Oh yes the time on the Polish forums must be in Polish. Sorry.

Yes I agree with you those nasty worms can can spread malicious gossip around, especially as they travel around so quickly. Generally people in the country are less accepting at first, but very sincere in the end. I suppose that they just do not like change of any kind, or any new people in the village. Are you in North Yorkshire? a beautuful part of the world to those who have never been.

Is that you looking at the ewe under the yew, or was the ewe looking at you or at the yew?

Funny you say that my friend lives in a Village in Derbyshire - very posh, one little pub, small private school and a shop - so yes it is a village, I once asked her if there were any ethnic minorities living there, she just laughed and said that they'd be a lynching mob if anyone even came to view a property....So Ksysia was indeed correct that at least some of the English countryside is rather racist. You see they see the state of inner cities and how the rot has set in and don't want the same for their little pieces of paradice and are happy to be openly hostile (of course in a very polite manner) with those they don't see as being worthy of living amongst them.

Places where they have no experience of people from other countries always shows more racism. If descent people come there they usually get used to it and accept it. But if there are uncontrolled immigration with not-so-descent people the hostility and racism will remain (or even get worse).

In general, people (esp. outside the big cities) are afraid of everything new that is unknown to them. Time usually solves these things.