how to say hello and goodbye in Polish?

i am english but want to say hello/hi in polish and goodbye/bye,how would i pronounce them as well? i though do widzenia was goodbye but have been told it isnt?what does do widzenia mean?(pronounced dough vidzenya!!!!) thanks tessa

that is correct - goobye
dzien dobry = dzien dobree - hello
czesc =tsheshch - hi

Czesc can be hello as well as dzien dobry for hello or good day. There is also 'witam' from the verb 'witac' and even an old form 'serwus', meaning my servant. Good bye is usually 'do widzenia' or 'czesc' in less formal settings. See you soon is 'na razie'. Sorry that I do not have the accents on my computer key board.

Another informal expression in the sense that 'I have not seen you for ages' is 'kopa lat' literally meaning sixty years, though this may be a little old fashioned now.

i thought "bye" could be "papa"?

I was told that papa is goodbye for close friends & family. You can also say "no czesc" for good bye.
KT

I thought 'serwus' was borrowed from German 'servus'...

Is serwus pejorative?

serwus (also sługus) as a person is like a servant, i'm not sure if it's a pejorative, but judging by the ending -us and the whole condescending sound of it it might as well be. serwus as hi is weird and old-fashioned, nobody speaks like that anymore.

The football lads said it to me and it just sounded wrong. If these cretins can be condescending and patronising to me, what would they be to a black man? I'm nobody's servant

did they say serwus as hi, or did they call you their serwus?? these are two different things!

They said it as Hi

well thats ok then. a bit old fashioned but its not an insult. so calm down mr. sheep.

I was told that it has quite a childish sense, like the English 'tata'. My Polish friend gets her little daughter to say it when she waves goodbye.
I had an interesting discussion with the same friend just today about saying hello, and she said that she finds it strange that people here ask 'how are you' whether they are acquainted or not, as this is just not done in Poland. Interestingly, she says she quite likes it...

i'm not that keen on "how are you" or "alright?". i dont really like small talk, i only use it when im in a good mood lol. i mean how annoying and useless is this:

-hello
*hi
-how are you?
*i'm fine thanks how are you?
-good, thanks
*good

and thats it. whats the point?

A bit old-fashioned? Hehehe, sums up many aspects of life here

You failed to mention the exciting part - the bit about the weather :)

Spierdalaj huju = good bye.

It's so easy to mistranslate if you're a foreigner.
Primo it's:
"spierdalaj chuju"
Secundo it means:
"fuck off you dick"
It may be interpreted as "bye" but definitely not a good one.

dzien dobry, would I offend someone if I greeted them with witam? and is this considered formal or informal?

No...

Witam is simply welcome. My landlord always shows me the utmost respect, bless him, and he used witam a lot. It's polite and nice to hear