It is thought, that every nationality has their own, typical attributes, from which they are known. For example we know that Germans are self-disciplined, Scotmans are mean and Hungarian are Polish's friend for fights and drinking. I would like to make closer to you, what Polish people has inherited from forefathers, and what our mentality really is.
I would like to converge at few things, that in my opinion we are known for. I think we are:
1. Pesimists - we only can see in grey. For us, everything is boring, absymal. Polish people really like to see world in the worst possible way. We love to complain at ourselves, i think that this is our national sport, not like everyone thinks football.
3. jelausy - in my opinion, polish people are really jealous. When someone will get some well paid job, his mates will tell, that he probably had some connections, or paid a bribe. When someone will buy a new car, we wish him, that his car will broke. We don't like to help each other, to advice each other, but we are first to cheat someone.
4. lazy - Polish literally do nothing, they don't make plans, they don't want to do anything to change something in their lifes, to fulfil ourselves. We prefer to complain all the time, how bad i am, how bad is my job, or how unfortunate i am.
5. WE STINK - we are dirty. You don't need to look for it really that far away from you. You have to face it every single day in your life. When you ride by bus, you can smell sweat and see greasy hair. But also our country is really dirty. We don't respect public things like bus stops, stairways in blocks, or trains.
And what are your thoughts on our mentality? Are we really that bad? Do you know any more our characteristics?
Sources:
http://bi.gazeta.pl/im/ec/e6/b5/z11921132V,Polacy-goraco-dopingowali-swoja-druzyne-ze-strefy-.jpg
http://cdn.zmescience.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Pessimism-vs.-optimism-350x262.jpg
http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/wysiwyg/image/jealous.jpg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM7Wze3eKUzF0C1Kn1pM9YRsfL-kMF6pBhY6gyMB1g3Y6h_fSRIN9Oa9xUOx62bvs00748kjsL0ASVT-FjKTifMeQI9SgXHoMdgDuXYEtHIfDHlppRe5VjJbiUGldwB1SOLyjhLl2IUrU/s320/link_fsY8NBf3TbAmYnWEDcuy511sTpSZJnnR,w300h223.jpg
http://www.bubblews.com/assets/images/news/955414692_1383639778.jpg
I think that it is just old stereotype about Polis mentality,that we are mostly lazy and we complain about everything. In my opinion,it has been changed. Especially,among young people.They are ambitious and hard-working. We are developing our skills and knowledge. Of course,there are still some people which suit to that stereotype but they are only exceptions
ReplyDeleteI think it's bad to generalize. Everybody has a different personality. We can only talk about a tendency. Maybe most of us like to complain, but I wouldn't connect it with a pesimism. People very often are a little bit egoistic from their nature, so it depends on a situation. However, I suspect, that lazy are 90% of us ;) I hope our nation is not so jealous as it's said...I've never been, so I even can't understand a sense of it!
ReplyDeleteI don't think that above characteristics are appropriate. For me, we can't talk about everybody because everybody is different. It depends on person.
ReplyDeleteI can't agree that Polish are lazy- most of my friends are hard working and they want to change something in their life. What is more it isn't true that we are dirty! Most of young people grooms, Polish women and men usually are pretty and clean. Polish aren't so bad:-)
I don't want to abuse anyone, but Poles are snooty. I can't understand why everyone believes that he or she must to get through the entire passenger compartment pushing apart everyone on the way, or why men don't cede a sit to a pregnant women or oldsters (usually young women do this), thereat they don't shake women's hands (because they are not their equal).
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I do have an impression that Poles are lazy. But I can be mistaken, since I judge by polish students.
Nevertheless, in general people in Poland are very nice and not stinky.
First of all, I hate stereotypes and generalization, because I believe that everyone is different and I do not think we should take a responsibility for other people's behaviour. It seems obvious that the author of this post is an pessimist, because I completely do not understand why did he write only about negative aspects. Poles are also famous for their hospitality and courage. When I am reading this discription of Poles I cannot believe that we live in the same country. I agree that sometimes people in a public transport do not smell nicely, but it is the problem of almost every country! Some cities of Southern Europe are much dirtier than those in Poland. In my opinion one of the main feature of Poles is being ambitious- we learn foreign languages, study and work hard.
ReplyDeleteWell i hate topics like this.. These are just stereotypes.. There are many kind of people, we are same like Germans etc. We all are just people, some stinks, some are sad, some are lazy. That's why I have nothing to say about this topic. Stereotypes are bad, we can laugh from some of them e.g. that German girls are ugly, but they are not true
ReplyDeleteI agree with Michał, this characteristics is just stereotypes. I think it depends on specific person. I think we shouldn't talk about it but try to be better people. This features fit to every person. In every country people divisible by bad people and good people. In Poland or in Germany there are alcoholics. And in other countries are ugly people. If you want to know other nations, you should talk with them and meet with them. You can be friends with various people. And we should try to show other in the best light :)
ReplyDeleteI think that we are not so bad. :) Yes, I must agree, we like to grumble at everything like weather, money and more, but our mentality is depends of our defferent characters. I do not think that all Poles are pessimists. I know a few people and they are rather optimists.
ReplyDeleteWe are jealous, dirty, egoistic ... I strongly believe, We are not like that! This is just a stereotype, nothing more.
There are some good points about Polish people in this text like that we are lazy and pessimistic, but I think it rather refers to the past. Our mentality really has changed during last years and there are more and more young active people, who do their best to make their life better and also to improve life conditions of our society.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn’t be so pessimistic. A lot of this weaknesses of our nation is strongly overstate. At first place I can’t admit that we are lazy. I knew a lot of people who are working abroad and all of them ensure that most of oversees employers are pleased with diligence and earnestness of Polish employees. It is a lot of true in a statement that “We don't respect public things like bus stops, stairways in blocks, or trains”, but I think that the same we can say about English hooligans or resident of Madrid or Rome covered by rubbish, I have never seen something like it in Warsaw or another Polish cities. But I have to admit that we are very pessimistic nation and love to complain. What is more, I totally agree with statement that we are jealous and mean. I have read somewhere that as a percent of our wages our donations for charity organizations is the smallest in whole European Union. Someone may say that there is nothing to feel ashamed because we are just poorer and it is more difficult to find even little money in this situation but, what terrified me, even resident of poor Asia country are more generous
ReplyDeleteWell, I think these are just stereotypes. It is common that the Poles are lazy and complain all the time. Interestingly we forget the positive stereotypes, such as the Poles are hospitable and very attached to tradition. I think that we shouldn't generalize, because everyone is different and it all depends on the characteristics of the individual.
ReplyDeleteI do not agree with that. In my opinion it is only kind of stereotype. We just can't generalize and say "This nation is very lazy, and the another one is very brave". But if I have to say who we are, I think I can find a lot of positive things in Poles. For example we are the nation with great history, we had a lot of experience, so I think it made us that we are very brave and strong nation. If we have to we can unite and solve some problems or help each other.
ReplyDeleteOf course this is stereotype but it isn't completely without fundation. We have that attributes because the main part of our culture is similar but I think we are changing our behaviour trying to be more independent and couragous. Young people in Poland trying to make our mentality more happy and creative.
ReplyDeleteI believe that in every stereotype there is an element of truth. Of course saying that all Poles have the same character is a misunderstanding, but some types of behaviour are more common than others and we should not pretend that we do not see the problem. I think that Polish are sly and clever - we have a lot of ideas how to make our life easier and more convenient (so we can have many inventors in our country), but unfortunately, some people go too far to get what they want without too much effort. We are too concerned about ourselves and this is our major disadvantage - many people claw their way to the success and do not notice that meanwhile they hurt other people. In East Asia common weal is more important than good of an individual, in Europe usually people first care about their needs and then, eventually, think about others. In Poland many people are even worse - envy makes them wish others bad luck or even ruin others' happiness. I believe that thinking about oneself is natural for people but we have no right to make other people suffer.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, we, Poles, have also some advantages - we are outgoing and hospitable. EURO 2012 was good example of it - our guests were happy even though not everything was perfectly prepared (for instance roads).
Currently our society is changing fast, new generation is more open-minded and there are a lot of educational campaigns which should make people more responsive to problems of the world. I believe that Poland have a chance to change its reputation for the better.
In my opinion a part of this is stereotype but not everything. I think that Polish people aren't lazy but hardworking and many employers abroad notice it and they want employ Polish people. I think that young people in Poland don't complain they are optimists and have a lot of good energy. They make that Polish people look better in the other people eyes.
ReplyDeleteOf course it is just a stereotype but when I think about all these characteristics I reach a conclusion that I really know people like that, but our society is changing and I hope that in couple years we could say something better about ourselfs.
ReplyDeleteOh I completely disagree. This are just stereotypes nothing alse. The worst one for me: DIRTY! Why?! I thing there are hundreds of nations much more dirty than us. To be honest I can't see even one point wich I could accept. Of course if we talk about some typical situation meaby Poles have some negative sides but it happens everybody and nationality doesn't matter
ReplyDelete.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot of to say about polish people, but honestly I really think that the things are changing. Young people for example doesn't really fit the stereotype that we complain about everything, we don't know other lenguages or that we are lazy. Actually I am observing the tendency to hire polish people in the companies abroad because we are young, hard working, well educated and we know at least two or three lenguages beside of Polish.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion Poland is a country with many phobies, and yes lots of people are jealous about things that other people or nations have. Of course it doesn't describe everyone, cos there are living fantastic people, but all in all Poland is "dark" country. For me we also have some prejudices about other countries.
ReplyDeleteI think we are amazed people, but we have some bad habits like complaining etc. In my opinion we have problems with national division and we have aspiration to be from extreme to extreme. Good example is our history. Part of polish people don't respect it, but another part think and talk about too much. I think we should learn using our mistakes and problems from history and try to make our country better.
ReplyDeleteI used to hear Polish people saying similar stuff, so I am not surprised. Mostly these people haven't seen anything else but their native Poland. But once you try and spend time in other countries, live amongst foreigners, be it Germans or Brits, you will find that were are not that different.
ReplyDeleteMy husband is Polish and we lived in Poland for several years. Some of your points are definitely very accurate, but some are not. The young generation is very intelligent and most speak several languages. In fact, they put most Americans to shame when it comes to linguistics. They are also generally very classy, dress elegantly and are very hygenic. I rarely encountered an unhygienic person in Poland, but I have in many other countries.
ReplyDeleteWhere I do agree with you is related to the jealousy in Poland, which is honestly like nothing I’ve ever experienced or seen living in other countries. Frankly speaking, this is what makes one miserable living in Poland, especially if you aren’t from there and this mentality is literally foreign and strange to you. While many Poles are confident and not jealous and deflect this is a pressing issue in Polish society... those that are jealous, make up for it and triple the drama and irritation for everyone. There is also a lot of nationalism and xenophobia. Maybe less now, but certainly not when we lived there. The love in the nation on a whole is very strong. But the hate can definitely be just as strong and many times outweighs the love, which is really sad and makes living there extremely depressing. To be clear, I’ve never experienced so much jealousy as I did living in Poland. Especially if you are attractive woman with talent coming from another country... you might as well just turn around and leave. Sometimes I found the nationalism hilarious and other times, a quite sick and twisted mind game and that gets old very quickly being that the general mentality can be somewhat shallow when the national pride is their women. And while some are cool, many others will do everything to knock you down to try and keep their own on a pedestal and that would be... so you don’t upstage them. So while many don’t mind and enjoy foreigners... many more do not like any competition in their territory when it comes to foreigners. And many do not like to be upstaged, purely out of jealousy and envy. So while I don’t agree with some of your comments... I do actually agree related to the jealousy and the mentality of many in Poland which can be brutally toxic, and can even be perceived as a mental disorder in normal civilization. This is one of the main reasons we don’t live in Poland anymore. The jealousy made it an overall very toxic, depressing and unhealthy place to live.