The strangest things in Poland

Me too. I mean I also didn't receive a warm beer in the UK, not that I'm English.



LO in Opalenica. Great times. No pressure at all. All were good people. Well almost all.

a pint of nice cold ice cold larger shouldnt be served at the same temp as a pint of real ale... which isnt exactly served warm... but isnt exactly served ice cold either... especially when sitting in front of an open fire on a chilly winter's day...

bless.

Sorry maati, could you explain what you mean?

I agree that the polish "babcia" now plays a more low key role than before, "babcia" is better remember as the one handing out sweets and money for a ice cream

Ok.This one is really, really strange. But it's all over Europe, not only in Poland. When writing a date down, they put the day of the month first then the month.
Or the number 7 gets crossed in the middle.
Or when writing a name, they put last name first. In US you put your first name first.
A week starts from Monday, in US from a Sunday

yeah, when you see a seven crossed, you say to yourself they must be polish!

Polish men are generally very polite and well mannered, most still maintain the traditon of kissing the hand when greeting a female

Sorry not read all the posts in here so might be repeating.
The things that gets me most is the absolute obsession with getting as much change as possible out of your pocket and into the tills. If something costs 1.99 zloty the person at the till will ask if you have the correct change then "do you have the 99 zloty " and then even "do you have the 9 zloty"
Sometimes it is just to the point of completely illogical extremes. It also just adds that little bit longer to a queue formed by 10 people with 2 items each..

This send me crazy and I find myself deliberately giving large notes just to see the panic caused....

I feel I am close to needing therapy on this

This custom generally stop being proceed some time ago. It's only present among elderly people now. Very rarely by people in their 40's and 50's.



Never saw anything strange in it until I went shopping in the UK. For a moment I even thought to offer the cashier "końcówka" but I'm glad I didn't. I can only see the surprised look on his face with the eyes of my imagination.

Yeah, it can really be annoying.

"Sorry maati, could you explain what you mean?"

no work=no money=no food for your kids...

communists times are over...

nothing we get as a gift "from the state" anymore.

we have a wild capitalism here right now.

pseudocapitalism.

being a "matka-polka" means that:
a. a woman is unemployed without chances of getting any job...

b. her husband is a president of a company and she does not have to work and to worry about the money...

c. if he's not the boss, both of them are in the UK having 2 s*** jobs while grandparents are taking care of their kids here.

d. money is sent through western union.

and i really know what i'm talikng about

i have 2 daughters

my parents are quite young.

they work average 10-12 hrs a day in the hospital .

they will be retired in about 15 yrs. when my daughers are nearly in their 20-es.

My mother couldn’t afford not to work when I was little, because it would be very difficult for us to get along. I never had any "Lego", "G I Joe's", "Transformers" and other stuff like that, but I also never run hungry nor never had any problems with lack of clothes, etc....

My mother is a working woman but at the same time a typical "matka polka". She didn't had the opportunity to have a higher education, nor never had time to develop her own hobby. She contributed her whole life to the family. She would skip buying anything for herself just that her children could go with the class for some kind of a trip, etc...

I must confess that I'm a very lazy person when it comes to doing some house work, but when I saw that woman coming back from work and immediately starting cleaning the house, washing the dishes, etc it really made my heart bleed. These days TV is promoting more self-centered life style, where number one priority is "I" rather than "you". My "matka Polka" showed me that giving more to your family and friends can also be very satisfying.

Some say that people search partners that have very similar traits to their parents. Actually I never thought about it until recently when I found out that my girlfriend aside that she is very intelligent, independent, and beautiful woman also has the best "matka Polska" characteristics. Those two women really motivate me to be a better person, and I wouldn’t want the “matka Polka” stereotype to vanish entirely. There is a side of it worth keeping.

PS: And I agree with iwona that they still exist here, predominantly among the poorer and less educated part of our society.

I have the same experiance.
Matyjasz - you make people cry.

I know... I'm not even trying to read this post again as my eyes water , and boys shouldn't cry!

Matyjasz,

I really like what you wrote about your mom! It's really touching!

Glad you enjoyed it VladG2... It came out a little bit to melodramatic… I didn't want to make it sound that way, but "alea iacta est"..

reminded my mom, too

And these are the best statements I have seen on the forum since visiting....The first because I look for someone that is hard working (my father and my mother) and look for someone that is thoughtful and funny (my mother) and someone who I feel safe with (my father) and someone I could spend the rest of my life with (my parents)


The second statement because my mum always worked and my grandmother looked after us, simply because they couldnt aford not to have one out of work, we didnt do without toys, but I understand that things were a lot more difficult in Poland...

And the third because, doing things for friends just because ....is what life is about...no pay back, you do it just because they are your friends...and as David Brent said there is no I in team....



but it makes sence to put the day, then the month and then the year...why put the month before the day.....

I forgot to mention also about my parent they have the driest sence of humour you will ever come across, thats what I also look for

Matyjasz-I would call your mom a TYPICAL POLISH MOTHER not Matka Polka.
Matka Polka is like a dumb "kura domowa" to me. You know what I mean?
And education has nothing to do with it.
My grandma is not well educated, because of the war etc. and she is one of the most intelligent people I met in my life...

mine was like that too -experiance baby, experiance !!!!!

Maybe I used wrong expression in the first place.... when I started it.

My mum also worked ( she had to ) was independedent and at the same time was the best mum on the world.

I meant about these women who don't have much of their all life, interest, who devot themselves too much for children and don't let them to grow up as they always want to look after them, always help financially.... Maybe better expression would be "kwoki"

I've forgotten something. I find it strange that I couldn't find a clothes dryer anywhere. So much for the last min cleaning and drying.

they are not very popular in Poland. I don't know why? Mayge because of the cost of electricity?

My cousin who lives in USA always moan about it in Poland.
her dryer is great you don't have to iron clothes.

Yeah...they come in very handy at times. I hear that not may other countries in Europe use them.

no, maybe it is just culture and....I suppose room for it.

In USA houses are in general bigger with basements so there is more room for dryer.

The rings get me confused.
OK. when engaged in Poland, the ring is on left hand on the woman. But when she marries it gets moved to the right hand?
And do guys wear their wedding band on the right hand?
is that correct? Do all Polish people follow that rule?
In the US everything is on the left hand.

Right hand for wedding rings. Men and women

So, when a married Polish woman comes to America, guys will think she's single, because she doesn't have a ring on her left hand.
Confusing!