FUZZYWICKETS: comparing transportation in america vs. poland is laughable, and because you tied this comment in with relative convenience of a country, i'll approach this response like this: literally everybody in america, in their late teenage years, gets their driver's license and a car to drive.
And this is good for the environment how?. Most Europeans see the Americana system of driving absolutely everywhere as being incredibly bad for the environment. There's absolutely no doubt that such a car-reliant culture is bad in the long run.
EVERYBODY drives in america. if you live in a major city, plenty of public transport, but again, many people even in the cities own cars. what could be more convenient than having your own car with big parking lots in every place you want to drive to?
Ah, so destroying the environment with fumes, combined with destroying the environment to look for oil (Alaska, anyone?) is fine, just because you can? Of course, sitting in gridlock is a most pleasant thing to do.
And I'd like to refute the point that there's public transport in major cities. If you live near a mass transit line, sure - but apart from that? It's all but non-existent.
if you prefer to stand in the cold waiting for a filthy smelly tram or take those dreadful polish trains, prosze bardzo.
Been on EC/IC/EX trains lately? Ah, probably not. What about a sleeper train? Ah...again, probably not. And given the fact that most European cities aren't particularly designed for cars, the tram is often the much quicker option. I can be in the centre of the city from my local tram stop in 12 minutes. If I drive, it takes at least 20, even 30 in rush hour. Tram wins.
Trams here aren't smelly and filthy - are you sure you're not mistaking Poland for somewhere else?
FUZZYWICKETS: prices......YES, other countries in this world are different. enough said.
Let's look at three major European countries, shall we?
UK - virtually everything is imported and expensive. Eating heathily is very expensive, and public transport is incredibly expensive. Owning a car is also hideously expensive, with taxation on a car and fuel being absolutely astronomical. Insurance costs are also huge.
Switzerland - amazingly, hideously overpriced. It's a beautiful country - but when they have draconian restrictions on what can be imported, many Swiss have to resort to illegally importing things just to get round the high prices. The cost of living there isn't comparable at all to the wages, especially in Zurich and Geneva.
Norway - regular protests against the price of food, alcohol and cigarettes are absolutely unbelievably expensive. Public transport is through the roof - with a cheap bus between Oslo and Stavanger costing over 50 pounds for a 'cheap' ticket. Again, plenty of wealth - but plenty of costs, too.
FUZZYWICKETS: customer service: i can't believe you would even suggest that polish customer service is quality, and your example essentially is a worthless statement.
It's no worse than in many other countries. Have you tried to get served in France by speaking English? Not going to happen. In Poland, they'll at least try to understand what you want instead of giving a sneer. It might not be American-standards, but most Europeans despise the "HOW CAN I HELP MY NAME IS HANK HAVE A NICE DAY" Americana standard, anyway.
FUZZYWICKETS: english menus??? wow, you are really starting to make some assumptions here, and you know what they say about assuming...... regardless, the fact of the matter is.....the only good food in Poland is Polish food, whatever the reason for it may be.......and it's a reason for a tourist/expat to complain about the restaurants. when you go to an Italian restaurant, you don't want to eat crappy Italian food. This is the point that is being made.
I know plenty of good Italian restaurants. Harry on here is a big fan of a particular Indian chain in Warsaw. There's much more - I know for 100% fact that there's an excellent, Japanese-run Sushi bar in Poznan. Sure, ethnic food is hit or miss in Poland, but what do you really expect from a country with no real history of immigration?
FUZZYWICKETS: I can't learn the language? Again, an assumption. Have you ever spoken to me in Polish? Fact of the matter is, you have no idea what my level of Polish is, and for what it's worth, it's most likely leaps and bounds beyond 99% of the other posters on this forum. With that said, I still reserve the right to say that Polish is a royal pain in the ass to learn, and this would fall perfectly into the criteria of this thread. Why is that so difficult to see.
I'm going to ask you again - do you speak Finnish, Icelandic, Chinese or Japanese? Even Welsh is incredibly difficult to learn and it's tough to assliminate in some parts without it. But I can't help but think that you'd prefer everyone just to speak English to the rude American.
FUZZYWICKETS: Lekors.....UUUHH....again, what a non-statement you made. Listen up everybody, turn on your TV, get to a movie other than a Polish one, and tell me if there's a Lektor. What? There is? Ok. Let's move on.....
Maybe you should consider paying for a better TV provider? I can certainly obtain the original soundtrack through my cable package on all premium channels and quite a few non-premium channels - maybe you simply haven't looked? :)
FUZZYWICKETS: Public transport again.......and of course, yet again, a wrongful assumption from you, my dear. I have been living in Poland for 3 years, and STILL do not own a car. That's right. My horse is left foot/right foot, trams, buses, trains....you name it, I've ridden on it to get to work/friends/family/etc. I know what polish public transport is like, I don't need to try to convince anyone of it otherwise.
Where on earth are you living that has such a lousy system? It's not the Poland I know - apart from Lodz!
FUZZYWICKETS: weather......are you even attempting to suggest that Polish weather is not total crap? Your basing this argument on an unseasonably warm November? I'm almost embarrassed for you at this point.
I sat in the mountains this summer for two weeks of blazing hot sunshine, +30c virtually every day and well above 10c in the evenings. The whole summer was warm - even July was beautifully warm during the day and rainy in the evening, which was no issue because - who's outside at 2am?
Polish weather is nothing compared to Scottish weather, that much is certain.
FUZZYWICKETS: and as for business sense........not worth it, it's way off topic, and again, your evidence of this is not only inaccurate, but not applicable. even if it were true that most cars on the roads in poland were new, it has nothing to do with the country's business sense. honestly.
If they didn't have business sense, why is there new buildings everywhere, combined with many old buildings renovated and general wealth to be seen everywhere? In fact - if they didn't have business sense, why is Poland intact economically whereas many Eastern European states were/are in all sorts of trouble?
Maybe the business sense just isn't what you think it should be - which is oh so typically American. Remeber, you're dealing with Slavic people here, not WASP's!
|
![Start a new thread in [Society, Culture]](http://www.polishforums.com/img/poland-thread.jpg "Start a new thread in [Society, Culture]")