Living in Poland: 12 Things I Wish I Knew Before Coming 🇵🇱
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- čas přidán 16. 06. 2024
- I've been living in Krakow, Poland for 6 months now. It is a beautiful country and I love it here but there are a few things I wish people told me before I moved here.
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0:00 Polish Winters
1:13 Hard To Make Friends
2:54 Racism?
4:05 How Rude...
5:18 Relationship Oriented
6:42 Online Dating
7:40 Delivery Apps
8:22 Fitness Culture
8:46 Transportation
10:01 The Language
10:54 Cheap
11:45 Polish Food
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Poles do not value shallow and superficial relationships, so they do not look for such shallow friendships or some applause, and for me this is an advantage. I think that similar features of Poles can be seen even in music, where Poles are weak at making empty commercial music and are best at making some more sophisticated music that has something more meaningful to say.
As Pole, we aren’t rude, we’re just honest, in states you like to talk bs to each other, we don’t like.
About being friendly, you land in Kraków, Polish capital of tourism, people there are tired of foreigners don’t even attempt to speak Polish.
If you want to live here long term, language is required, in other situations you will end in foreigners closed communities.
I don't completely agree with this. Every time I go abroad I have a strange encounter with the fact that people are very nice, and when I come back to Poland the impression is exactly the opposite. We generally have serious faces, we want everything quickly and we get irritated just as quickly. Generally, for people from another culture this is the definition of being rude. We may not notice it because it has been constantly changing and improving in recent years, but we are still a long way from being cheerful on the outside.
The problem with your view of Poland is that you only skim the surface
It's because we have a very large Far East Asian community here - Vietnamese, Laotian, etc. And those ppl are extremely included in their own world (sauce). But Poles - at least tolerate them - but I'd move further to the saying we like them! They're quiet, not bother anyone, they work hard for their living. I do really like Asian people! I love their food, I love thieir shops and stalls, I love their culture, I ... do just like them!
Very informative as always!
I like your perspective on Poles and culture. I have traveled to most European countries and personally I don't see much difference between people in this part of Europe (plus I work with many Ukrainians). Perhaps your trip to Ukraine was very nice or the people you met influenced your opinion. I think your seasonal depression was due to the fact that you immediately moved from a hot to a cold climate. I had similar experiences returning from vacation. Overall, if you experience the entire 4 seasons a year and get used to it, it's not that bad. You just have to adapt to a different lifestyle. You can ride a bike in spring, swim in summer, hike in autumn, and ski in winter :)
A little geographical note. You said, comparing different food and speaking earlier about Polish food, that Georgian food is excellent "in this region". Well, there is over 2,500 km between Warsaw and Tbilisi (the capital of Georgia); for comparison: the distance between Warsaw and Paris is about 1,300 km, and Madrid: about 2,200 km. In Europe, you only need to travel 200 - 300 km and you already have a different cuisine, even within the same country. The concept of "region" here is quite narrow. By the way: the distance between Beijing and Tokyo is approximately 2,100 km. Would you agree when someone eating in Tokyo talked "about the region" and also meant Beijing or Shanghai (about 1,700 km from Tokyo) food?
your friend looks like a good vibe
I moved to colombia because of u and loved it there until i decided to explore other parts of latam and man i hope u visit buenos aires and santiago chile i think u will love it here currently spliting my time between argentina and colombia 6month each. Cant wait to see when u get back to latam should host a meetup with subscribers
What are your favorite cities in Latam?
@@Mo_Sofi buenos aires, slavador bahia brazil, Santiago chile, for colombia It's barranquilla love it being between Santa marta and cartagena
@@MRZE506 ok interesting, thanks
Point of view depends on the point of sitting. What is the norm in your culture does not have to be the norm elsewhere. As for the language, I believe that if you are visiting another country, it is in good taste and respect to know at least the basic polite phrases of that language. However, if you decide to live in another country, learning and speaking the language is mandatory. Language is the core of every culture, if you decide to live in another country, you adopt its rules and language, not the other way around, otherwise you will always feel alienated and unwanted . If you can't do this, you should seriously consider changing a place that will suit you better and be closer to your heart.
Nice video thank you
cheers bro, fan of your content as well.
I think number 2 is right, however you could use better words to describe it Lol. I think you said you are from LA, which from my experience people there are very outgoing and very open, so if you will have the same approach towards a Polish person who is not used to it, at first it can be off-putting. I don't know you well, and i don't know how much are you influenced by Chinese/ and American culture, i will give you an example from my subjective perspective -i don't feel comfortable when a stranger calls me Bro, which in America this is something normal that you can use in a daily conversation, i think in China this is also very common, when you can refer to a stranger as 哥哥 or 姐姐. However as you said, i think your comparsion to coconut is correct, when you manage to break that shell you will truly get a good friend.
Number 3. Is pretty much the standard for homogenous countries and every other country that is not super multicultural. Poland is one of those countries, sure with every year more and more foreigners live here and interact with the locals, but still for the most part, this country is mostly all Poles. Even though i'm Polish if i would go to China people there would immediately think that i'm either American or Russian. It's nothing wrong to have such assumption, because that's what those people are used to the most.
We need some time to open up to others, but it doesn't depend on their nationality, cuz we're like this with Poles too. Lol
Imo, what you said about polish people isn't accurate, but you can speak only from your experience, so...
Being fake nice is a waste of time and energy. We prefer to be real.
Btw- Poznań isn't a small city and there are MANY foreign students there. 🙂
People in Warsaw have to be some of the flakiest I ever seen. lol Not sure if it’s the big city thing but they would make plans then just cancel last minute. Totally agree on the 2nd point. I went out of my way to try making friends but Poles don’t seem to have any interest on hanging out with friends outside of their circle or their own clicks. Not really saying right or wrong just an observation. Which is why I am probably gonna leave soon. Just not a place for me.
I watched a couple of your videos. I must say that it gets on my nerves when you repeat: "Poles are mean", "Poles are not nice". There is a difference between being unapproachable and being mean. People from North America (not only the US but also Canada) are (at least from the outside) much more optimistic and open to other people - so they very often misinterpret the rather indifferent face of Poles. In our culture, smiling aimlessly or puzzling people on the street often indicates that someone has mental problems. Many Central, Eastern and Northern European nations behave similarly. What you say is simply offensive and comes from a very one-sided point of view. It's like a European would go to America and say: Americans are stupid, because they laugh without reason (in Poland we say: "laugh like a fool to cheese"). Greetings
If you look all over social media Polish people make jokes about it themselves. Not saying anything new here.
its one thing to make a joke about yourself, and its another for someone else to repeat it as fact
also your statement doesnt really make sense because you say the opposite of what ukrainians say about themselves.
ive noticed that americans often stereotype quickly and without much thought, and i was raised there
I think you're taking it too personally. From what I understand, he was trying to say it respectfully, not in a way that Polish people are intentionally rude. Just that our way of being may be perceived that way by foreigners. And I think it's true, if you're used to people who are overly friendly, Poles may seem standoffish. Of course, you have to consider that it's just cultural differences, but it doesn't mean you're not allowed to feel that way.
@@WheresWes, but "mean" is mean. Poles can seem unapproachable, cold or whatever, I might even after with rude, but mean has a very negative connotation and it's not true.
How long do u plan to stay
2 years, maybe more we will see.
what would they think of latinas? i’m colombian and puerto rican but born and raised in new york…
neutral, haven't heard anything bad.
So i think i have some explanation for curious ones about being rude, language with foreigners and race judging. So i think its not being rude its restraint imo because it works the same way between 2 polish people if we dont know each other its less like friendly i think its cultural thing but we are helpfull imo. Language with foreigners i think its true what u said but also its hit or miss if i see someone speaks polish but not good enough i ask if they speak english i aint saying my english is incredible but i think its good enough to help.
And about taht race judgign imo its european thing especially in our part of europe we have stereotypes abotu every neigbour and vice versa and older people tend to be even more like that because of the past and iron curtain and stuff liek that i wotn say its racist because as i said its kind of european thing i heard simillar things about poles when i was abroad but i was the foreigner one. People tend tto dig to deep when it comes to that or trying to find problems where there is no problem.
Lots of generalisation, based on not much experience and being in one place only. It's a big country and there are regional differences as well. Find it quite unfair and a bit rude. Funnily, many Ukrainians say in their videos that Poles are more nice and polite than they are. It just shows how generalisation is not valid. Wish you all the best.
In America when the weather was extremely bad I used a grocery delivery service a handful of times.
A few times some of the groceries weren't delivered.
Like I'd go through the groceries and an item or two missing.
Bro Im happy u had a good experience in Ukraine but u went there on one trip and in reality you know nothing. In terms of politeness, happiness, open mindedness and general vibe in Ukraine compared to Poland u need to divide it by two. Go on few dates with Polish and Ukrainian girls and you will see the difference. Regarding the cold approach Polish girls are one of the most approachable in Europe if u compare to Western Europe and Nordics but of course it’s not Colombia. My advice would be to grow some balls and just approach and see for yourself, there is tons of guys doing that.
Good to know
Hey bro, could you observe or see how brown guys are doing in Poland when it comes to dating? I always wanted to go to Poland and consider it for it next year.
they do fine, Polish girls date foreigners of all kinds.
@@WheresWes that awesome, good to hear
If you want to learn anything of value about Poland I would rather recommend you to visit such Yutube channels like Love my Poland or Vigo's Dad. These guys really have a grasp of what living in Poland is about and do provide much more than very shallow and inaccurate idea of Poland. In here for example I can easily tell that owner of this channel didn't manage to break the ice with Polish and Ukrainian people to really get to the core of their cultures. What he sees as superiority of Ukrainian politness for example has a lot to do with soviet union enhanced concept of " a useful idiot", very common in Ukraine and very little to do with American-like politness actually. While Poland unlike US is not limited by the rules of "political corectness" and historically has 3 main core values: unrestricted freedom of free speech and self- expression in public, respect for human life ( core value on which Polish legal system is based and which is embedded in Polish constitution) and family ( in this regard Polish people are a bit like Italians)- we have "family" as highest value declared by all Polish people in every generation from year to year in any public rsearch. Even our Vitenamese immigrants and their kids born in Poland convergate with us on this one. As for dating, due to all those values and legal restrictions coming from them- one of the most restrcitve anti-abortion laws in EU and in the world, males cannot expect from Polish women being reckless in terms of their sexual life. So yes, we do not have "high body count" in here from past relationships, women in here rather seek long term relationships, Polish women usually educate till university level so typicall age for settleing down is higher than some countries and corellates with 1-2 years after university graduation. And we have Bologne system so we have two cycles of university studies- 3 years long BA and 2 years long MA studies. We cannot repeat the first year of studies, so many women focus on education during 1-2 year of their BA and by observing stats but also lifes of my fellow students I can tell that we tend to form first serious relationships around first half of last year of those 3 years long BA studies. So women at such age are probably still free and with low "body count". As for the body count itself it's not high for females. Recent research shows for majority of Polish women it's not higher than 4 males and only for not more 25% of total population it may be somewhat higher. And yes, in Poland when it comes to getting invloved in short-lived relationships women are cerful since getting abortion is unnlikely whereas over 1 million of males avoids paying child support to their own children, so we can say women in here are aware of it and try to make responsible choices. As fo dating across the cultures- yes, Polsih women date males from all countries and cultures. Polish people learn foreign languages well and easily and are curious about the world. To blend in with Polish people well it's good to know a bit about Polish history, Polish language and Western Catholic religion in version that is know from Europe, countries like Spain, Italy, France etc. Not mistake it with American mutations. It's very European version of western catholic traditons. And in terms ov value system and ways of thinking it does influecne even these Polish people who consider themselves to be "atheists". How we know it? If we confront such people with people from Protestant countries of people like Ukrainians who were more influenced by orthodox catholic church the differences are clearly visible. As for knowing about all 3: Polish language, Western Catholic culture, Polish history- a person knowing all 3 can be easily and very warmly accepted into Polish society as if this person was born in Poland. And in here comes a stark difference between how non-racist Polish culture is if comapred for example to French culture. All our stats for over 80 years say that if someone learn about Polish language, Western Catholic culture, Polish history such person is no longer " a foreginer" to us anymore but one of us. Regardless of their own race, ethnicity, roots, religion etc.
I thought you were Uzbek, Kazakh or some other variation of Soviet. You don't give off Cali vibes.
I've gotten that quite often actually. That or Vietnamese.
You can't get to know Poland without knowing the language, and you can't get to know Poland without being part some family in Poland
Yes and no. I know so many polish people from all over the country and they all speak English so they can tell me.about it. But you're right my experience can't be as in depth
@@WheresWes Even when Poles use English, they don't feel good about it and it always creates bigger distance . Without knowledge of the Polish language you are not understood many nuances too .
@@WheresWes Generally, without knowledge of the Polish language, you dont understand many of the nuances and generally the cultural context that makes Poles who they are, and this is mainly just skimming the surface.
@@WheresWes How subjective you describe your own world was your statement about Ukrainians :))))))
@@WheresWes In fact, speaking about Ukrainians, you firstly described your own environment, and secondly, you described the reactions of Ukrainians mainly to foreigners and how they react to foreigners.
4:40 Well, you see, from a Polish perspective, I can tell you that my husband (also Polish) and I consider Ukrainians to be two-faced people and we don`t base our opinion on prejudices, but on real-life examples. Yes, it is unfair to judge an entire nationality based on the example of a few individuals, but in the case of Poland and our history, judging others is a matter of self-survival. If I had to trust one person who was German, Ukrainian, Russian... I would choose a Russian because I know what to expect from them.
Personally, I don't mind our national gloominess and the thick skin under which we hide our sensitive interior. I feel good in such an environment where I don't have to try to impress people I don't know, look for friendship where I don't need it. We only react when the situation really requires it and we can count on each other... apart from that, we try not to get in each other's way and not to disturb each other... unless we have extreme views (either from the left or right) and we don`t want to shout them out (especially after drinking alcohol). Yes, we miss activities in the community for the community... all because of the Russians and their communism who imposed force on us... now we are afraid to do something together so as not to imitate the system with which we want to have as little in common as possible.
That's why I appreciate and respect people of different nationalities who want to face our thick shell and want to get to know us from the inside ;). I think only you can crack our shell, we can't do it alone.
Fair point, I can see what u mean by the two faced thing.
poles are rude indeed, handlujcie z tym
Hmm Polish language is not useful...I have a feeling you won't stay here for long😅
We will see, if I get into a relationship with a Polish girl I will learn
Nothing satisfying you I guess go to Andromeda galaxy very weird guy 👦🤔
just another Tourist with extended visa. Not staying, don't belong and knows it.
these comments keep proving my points in the video lol
Tattoo? Yuck! We don't like even here, in Poland!