Why are Poles always so miserable? Why do they never smile?

Sorry not you Frank, Mr.Antipole

Giles...don't worry the old hide is holding up.............have you had your diaper changed in the last 2 hours....lol

Sorry Giles....I gotta a bit of cyber steak here...you'll be ok in a while.....

that hurt...

Sad.. I agree with Giles, what are you doing here then?

if you dont care, why do you think we would care to hear your pathetic
rants?

BUH BYEEEEE.

Hi Giles,
I enjoy your posts on this forum - one of the very few reasons I occasionally pop in here.

Yep, agree with you that Poland has not had a healthy history. I spend a LOT of my time pondering over such problems.

I also think it's a good thing that the young Poles are trying to improver themselves. But unfortunately I'm also a NIMBY, I don't like it when someone plops a motorway "In My Back Yard", or for that matter 600K (or 2 million, which I agree may be more accurate) Poles in my backyard which is what has happened since 2004. The UK is a tiny country. Two million Poles has made the whole country rock sideways in the water. It's just too much. 100?200K would have been OK, manageable. But with towns like Southampton and Slough now having Polish population in excess of 10%, it's just too much. The Brits themselves are starting to resent it.

As for hating my own race. Yup afraid I do. I can't come to terms with it. Which is why I'm posting here to try to make sense of it all... If I was happy with it I wouldn't waste my time here.

I loathe the lack of innovation, and lack of originality of Poles. The fact that people like the fashion designer Arkady get run out of Poland for daring to be different. And that there are so few Poles with the balls to stand and up and declare they are different.

Not a bad thread... 277 replies to date. Guess I must've hit a soft spot!
Still maintain my question: Why do Poles never smile?

It's not just bad dental hygiene (btw, Poles have MUCH worse teeth than Brits, so don't get me started on that one!)

On Saturday, I dropped in at a Polish wedding in a beautiful wooden church in the open country near Bialystok. There were perhaps 100+ people in attendance. Yet bizarrely, when they all came out of church after the ceremony hardly anyone was smilling, or cheering the newlyweds, or greeting old friends... It was stony faces all around. Quite completely incomprehensible and bizarre.

All I could good figure out was these folks were all peasants who rarely saw other people and so had inadequate skills for dealing with intense social situations. No doubt they started smiling after a few vodkas...

Perhaps smiling was banned under communism? (under Dziennik Ustaw of 1956, Civil Procedure Code, section 7, item 204)??? Boy you Polaks sure love quoting the Dziennik Ustaw, it's quoted everywhere, even in public toilets!

Well then you as an Anglopole perhaps could be someone to help bring some englightenment to you fellow kin. I do understand that the large influx has been a bit of a shock for certain sections of UK society. However, part of the reason the UK is doing well financially is because of this huge influx of Poles. They are the ones w
ho are helping keep the inflation rates down. Secondly I think the Poles integrate well into multicultural Britian. Given that the new wave Poles have been here for less than 5 years, I think generally the UK and the new wave have blended well.
Imagine if the UK had received say 1 to 2 million Somali's or another racial group with a none European heritage and a non christian religion, I'm sure there would be a far greater problem with integration and acceptance by the UK populace.
Many of the traits you dislike within the Polish culture are the residues of a communist legacy. These are issues that will take a few generations to wash through, but they will. The UK and Poland are now (whether we like it or not), involved in a very symbiotic relationship which will continue to develop.
I can also understand why certain attitudes towards sexuality and race are harder to justify, but these attitudes are born out of ignorance. Finally you have to remember that Poland has been not only under the yoke of communism but also of catholicism. the UK is very much a secular country, which means the prejudices and misinformation and lies that are perpetuated by organized religion have not infected the UK mindset the way they have Poland.

There are many things which are very positive about Poland and Polish people. Their work ethic here and in Eire, is one to be admired.
Their sense of family and tradition and cultural heritage is one to be admired. Most English people, are eitherr ignorant of their heritage of embarassed of it.

My interest is because of my other half, who is a blessing. Having dated many English girls and few other nationalities, i've found Polish women to be a breath of fresh air. not to mention generally far better looking than their English counter parts.

Anyway, don't be ashamed of these people, they have been to hell and back and their foibles should be understood within the context of where they are coming from.

Well you're lucky with your other half. My congratulations. My other half who is also Polish is a nightmare. Like many Polish women she's a total control freak. She puts her nose into all our mutual business... She MUST control anything connected with the flat, holidays, even my friends. Yet she freaks out if I start advising her what to do.

I've had far better experiences with non-E. European gals: Swedes, Germans, French, Icelandic, Americans, Brazilians, Aussies (oh, those sweet sexy Aussies, for whom sex is just a sport...) even British lasses (a small, but significant minority of which are not at all bad looking, even if the bulk are horses). Being with them was exciting, like being alive; being in Poland everything is certainty, mapped out ahead, preprogrammed...

People here in Poland have so little joy, so little energy to share. So little spontaneity, so little originality... It's all just making ends meet and keeping up with the Jones's (or Kowalskis); economics - nothing else here seems to matter. (Or perhaps they're all just painfully shy....)

In fact, I'd say life here was a living death. I know that I'm being utterly selfish, but since I'm a devout pagan and believe that I have only one life to live, I resent the misery of everyday life in Poland, the fact that people never smile here, no matter what the post-Communist history and suffering of the "brave Poles".

Like many Polish women she's a total control freak. She puts her nose into all our mutual business... She MUST control anything connected with the flat, holidays, even my friends.

er..yup. Great means I have to think less. To be straight, I don't care where I go on holiday and if she wants to book it fine. Controlling all household buisness, excellent I'm off down the pub. My friends, well she like some, hates others. But remember if they get up your nose, just tell them to shut up and walk off...go to the pub.

See controlling they might be but loyal they also tend to be, as long as you don't **** other women, you can get away with murder, give you can handle the ear bashing afterwards.

As for the Pagan thing buddy I'm no fool either and I'm hyper ware that it is one life and nothing more, but remeber we are in the minority most people believe in a higher being or force. Don't worry about it.

Hey i've just been reading this and am inclined to agree with much of what you have written. I am an american with a full-blooded polish pedigree I have been living in Poland 2 and a half years now I have 2 kids and a great wife who is Polish. I find I too must work far too much to support everybody in the family and find my face contorted like my fellow Poles here too at times. It goes beyond Poland being an abused-child nation with a tragic past. I can't answer the question about smiling and who can? But it is also the ridiculous Government and a illogically run country. My friend visited last year and all he kept saying was "This defies logic" and man is there a lot of work to be done at least America despite its vast flaws has an understandible and much more efficient means of conducting itself and a sense of humor and fun. Americans do also work a lot and struggle to make ends meet its a commom misconception here that America is a promised land, I warn everyone it is not, but it is far easier to find a decent job especially if your qualified. I wish and I say this truly and sincerely I could give Poland a big hug and say come on everything will get better. But some days I just want to jump off my fourth story balcony, but my family saves me from doing so. Lets keep up the talks and perhaps we can keep each other from going further into depression.

totally understand what youre saying

my time in poland seems to be a stark contrast between thinking what a great place this is and thinking what the fuk are you guys doing!

Oh yeah gentlemen I believe organized religion is simply a way of controling the masses
I call it a superstition I.E. the Christian Superstion: pray, and God will help you. It seems like if there was a God "it" is more interested in kicking humans collective ass (or worse) But that is another thread. But if we are "made in his image" what a scary thought imagine God is like one of us ? so he has no clue what he's doing, or what if he's like Bush? an incompetent boob with a god complex.

Really, I left the house at 07:30 this morning and got home at 19:10 this evening and when I left the office at 18:00 there were plenty of people there that wouldnt be leaving until at least 20:00 so you see, you are wrong in your comments, very wrong.

Amathyst, you're overworking yourself.
I always struggle to catch the 17.11 bus, so that I'm home at about 17.35

Hmm.. left the house at 6.45 am, at work by 7.50, early night so got home at 8pm.... yep, I'm a lazy SOB.

Don't tell the eurocrat in Brussels who administers the Working Time Directive.....

Back to the thread: when I smile at girls here, they don't smile back. So what's the point of all of this ?

i dunno, I find most girls do smile - less your in Dublin yeeeesch, its SOOO commom for them NOT to even look at you but PAST you (its called the 'grafton street stare' after a high street' Frank, Ani, you hear of it?)

I just think they don't smile much because thats the Polish way.........similar to France, smiles are reserved for family friends, close ones..........

In the USA smiling is for everyone...........

I don't think Polish people are any more miserable than another nation.....but they maybe have to learn to be less up tight.....be less suspicious......enjoy themselves more......

i dunno, i go to poland and smile all the time! the younger generation smile back! (its when you say dzien dobry some older generation think your cuckoo!!)

France? - we must be visiting different parts man, ive found them to be WAY to easy on the smiles

or maybe its just me i must be 'special'

But I'm in Glasgow, mind you.

eeemmm...the jury is out on that one Daffy...but maybe to your mum....lol

inverted comma special doesn't mean special, it means awwwww your 'special' k, take some money and go away :P

hey...Daffy........you wrote it..I read it...........so you're breakfast cereal.......gee....

now that made ME smile its a curious topic though, I mean, do you remeber that poll that said Irish were the happiest in Europe (they never asked me!!)

Where did Poland place? I must admit I see much happier Polish (and foreigners in general to Ireland) in Ireland!

Not really sure Daffy......but its all relative, plus what you know, how you've been raised, expectations etc.....

Poland has a bit to go....but sure as hell they have more to smile about now than they did in 1949,1959,1969,1979,1989(just)..........

prawda, prawda, prawda. AND more to smile again this summer...when i visit again

If only there would be a way I could help you I wouldn't hesitate. Really.

I've read your posts about Britain and it's inhabitants as well as about Poland, and one thing that springs into my mind is that you are a one miserable fella. The biggest problem isn't post-commie Poland, Kaczynski Twins or British halfwit chavs but it's you. You’re like a giant magnet that attracts all things that are miserable, plain and boring. You would find something to complain even in a bloody paradise, because it's just who you are, the worse essence of polish and British moaning habits taken to infinity. Of course, changing your last name and trying to forget about your polish roots won't solve your problem, but maybe at least we won't have to suffer from your presence. Actually, it’s exactly what I would wish to you. I hope never to see you again. Bye