[Icarus]

(06-21-2014 06:33 PM)turkishcandy Wrote:  

History isnt equal to culture. I've been to 6 other EE countries and Poland is relatively culture-less in my opinion.

Dictionary definition of culture:

Quote:

culture ˈkʌltʃə/ noun: culture; plural noun: cultures

1. the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively.
2. the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society.

So, do Poles have no ideas and customs of their own?

[turkishcandy]

(06-21-2014 06:41 PM)Icarus Wrote:  

(06-21-2014 06:33 PM)turkishcandy Wrote:  

History isnt equal to culture. I've been to 6 other EE countries and Poland is relatively culture-less in my opinion.

Dictionary definition of culture:

Quote:

culture ˈkʌltʃə/ noun: culture; plural noun: cultures

1. the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively.
2. the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society.

So, do Poles have no ideas and customs of their own?

Nothing special. Or as Roosh said in Bang Poland, ''no distinctive culture''. Except for its history, which I agree is very interesting.

[Icarus]

(06-21-2014 06:47 PM)turkishcandy Wrote:  

Nothing special. Or as Roosh said in Bang Poland, ''no distinctive culture''.

What European countries happen to have "distinctive cultures"?

Albania and Chechnya with their multi-generational blood feuds?

[turkishcandy]

(06-21-2014 06:53 PM)Icarus Wrote:  

(06-21-2014 06:47 PM)turkishcandy Wrote:  

Nothing special. Or as Roosh said in Bang Poland, ''no distinctive culture''.

What European countries happen to have "distinctive cultures"?

Albania and Chechnya with their multi-generational blood feuds?

In EE, I was most impressed with Serbian and Ukrainian culture. Romania also seemed like it had a lot to offer, but my stay was too short. In WE, German and French culture stroke me the most, but it would be a mistake to compare these 2 to Poland.

[Booyah]

Could you just explain me what do you mean writing 'culture' ?

maybe im wrong but I have this feeling you just confuse a term

[turkishcandy]

(06-21-2014 07:02 PM)Booyah Wrote:  

Could you just explain me what do you mean writing 'culture' ?

maybe im wrong but I have this feeling you just confuse a term

Firstly and most importantly, customs, habits and interesting but true stereotypes of the local people. Stories, music, beliefs, food, DOs and DONTs, rituals, drinks, interesting facts about the country and the people, basically anything that is UNIQUE about the country and its inhabitants. If that's not what culture means, then sorry I confused the term. That's what I meant by culture. And I meant no disrespect. I'm someone who really enjoys observing and soaking in a country's culture, then I write about it on my blog. Despite all my attempts, I failed to observe much in Poland, and what I observed was mainly those negative things I wrote above.

PS: I lived in a flat with Polish people, and I stayed away from foreigners, tourists and Erasmus students. So my experience was close to 100% Polish.

[Icarus]

(06-21-2014 06:59 PM)turkishcandy Wrote:  

In EE, I was most impressed with Serbian and Ukrainian culture. Romania also seemed like it had a lot to offer, but my stay was too short. In WE, German and French culture stroke me the most, but it would be a mistake to compare these 2 to Poland.

If by "culture" we mean the set of values and ideas that live in the minds of a given population (i.e., the "software" of a population of humans), then culture merely is. Its existence is never at stake. If a country's culture is very different from one's culture, one would call it "distinctive". If it's similar, one would call it "not distinctive".

What is Polish culture? In my humble opinion:

• The clash between Catholic indoctrination and Slavic pragmatism.
  

• The trauma of the period between the early 1790s and the early 1990s, which included three partitions of Poland, several bloody invasions, loss of considerable percentage of the population (serious impact on the gene pool), and the humiliating Soviet colonization.
  

• Wounded pride stemming from the fact that Poland was once a proud regional power capable of defeating all its powerful neighbors, and it has suffered humiliation and tragedy repeatedly in recent decades. This is found mostly in men and older women (who lived in Soviet times), since young women live in the present and are generally utterly uninterested in history, even the history of their own country. Yet, I have met Polish women who told me they would never date a German man, since it would be disrespectful towards their ancestors.
  

[JJ Roberts]

[Vicious]

spalex I've been on you before regarding your attitude. Can you not see yourself that you're really focusing on things that are ultimately unhelpful. All this energy spent on getting annoyed at things when you should be having a great time. 99.9% of men everywhere (including this board) would love to be in your position of having a flexible base.

You cannot get out of your own comfortable bubble and expect the comforts of home.

[seb]

turkishcandy.
Ukraine having more culture than Poland? LOL how long have you LIVED in Ukraine? Poland is a country with a much longer history. customs? the 2 countries share a lot of customs but a lot of Ukrainian customs are originally from Poland. and what rituals you mean?
what did you expect from your Polish flatmates? to do the rituals in front of you ? and yeah you complain about the holidays and then say there are no tradition even though most of the traditions in EE are associated with religion
Ukrane has no Nobel Prize winners in literature (in fact it has no Ukriainian nobel prize winners at all).
"Poland has no culture. No traditional music, food, customs, traditions. There is nothing special about this country to begin with. And, like that wasn't enough, it's getting more and more westernized everyday."
you sound really ignorant. it looks like you didnt even make an effort to get to know this country.

[zuma]

Regarding the changes when you pay something, just get a credit card - for free - and you can pay bypass everywhere without pin (amount below 50pln). Problem solved. It took me 5 minutes and a passport to get my card (sent 2 days after).

I've been from Krakow to Wien by car and highways were better quality on Polish side, especially from Krakow to Katowice. From Krakow to Wroclaw, 3hours by bus, 15pln; What else ? You want to go to Gdansk for a weekend to escape from busy Krakow ? Just take the plane, 1 hour.

Poles don't like Russian but I haven't seen so much animosity towards others countries/nationalities. We do joke with my polish friends towards black and arabs because I'm French and they laugh about how many africans there are in France. From my eyes, in 6 months, I've never witnessed truly racism against someone. I don't speak very well polish so I probably missed what they said sometimes about some people, but no actions like assault on a black guy in the street or club.

Poles are very welcoming and proud to show you around and invite you to parties and other things. I can't even count how many times they helped me with basic stuff when I arrived here in Poland. My manager coming to my place at 9 pm to bring me a small heater during winter because mine was not working anymore; a colleague coming with me at 7 in the morning to tax office to deal with taxes papers, a colleague brought me strawberries from her Mum's garden, and so so ... I have hundred of stories that you cannot even imagine happening in France for example. Just get some interest to their culture and learn some basic language and it will open the doors.

Regarding butterfaces problems, I think there is a misunderstanding. The fact is 99% of the hottest polish girls stay with polish dudes. It means, you barely never see a foreigner with a extremely cute polish girl. That's why some people may complain because they don't get the hottest girls.

The "slut" behavior of polish girls that I read here often is not the reality. I would say most of polish girls are not what it is described here. You have a small minority of girls going to clubs and trying to find a guy for a night. In a city like Krakow it seems that there is a lot of this kind of girls but it's just because it's a student city and you have more young girls in this mood. I have many friends - mostly from my work - who are girls between 20-26 and none of them behave as a slut. Even if they dress with short skirts and heels at work it doesn't mean they are slut. They just like to dress this way.

[XXL]

(06-21-2014 07:10 PM)turkishcandy Wrote:  

Firstly and most importantly, customs, habits and interesting but true stereotypes of the local people. Stories, music, beliefs, food, DOs and DONTs, rituals, drinks, interesting facts about the country and the people, basically anything that is UNIQUE about the country and its inhabitants. If that's not what culture means, then sorry I confused the term. That's what I meant by culture. And I meant no disrespect. I'm someone who really enjoys observing and soaking in a country's culture, then I write about it on my blog. Despite all my attempts, I failed to observe much in Poland, and what I observed was mainly those negative things I wrote above.

PS: I lived in a flat with Polish people, and I stayed away from foreigners, tourists and Erasmus students. So my experience was close to 100% Polish.

I know what you mean. It goes a little something like this..

People of age 40+ are enjoying their freedom and recovering from bad past experiences, either war or communism period. While they appreciate newfound freedom they already got used to that after 20 years so now they live comfortably enough to have no motivation to fight for their dying culture. So they just don't care. And when they look at their children or grandchildren they lose all hope. Which is understandable.

Younger generation, born around 1980 and up have huge insecurity issues. They were born in a free country but feel sooooo below fellow Europeans that they desperately try to catch up with the west by impressing them how progressive and "modern" they can be. Polish culture/tradition is still alive in their hearts but the rat race they participate in makes them slowly forget about their national identity.

And then there's the latest "Internet kids" generation, born around 1995+ that consists of ignorant little fucks entitled to everything who don't give a flying fuck about anything boring or sentimental such as tradition or native culture. They just eat up everything that west feeds them and shit on their parents wisdom thinking they are independent individuals. The bigger the city they live in the more confident they look. But in the end it's all smoke and mirrors pose that allows them to be cool. Once you strip them of validation they turn to useless crybabies with no spine whatsoever.

Girls have changed a bit too. Sure, most of them are still somewhat nice but if you dig deeper you WILL meet bunch of bitches with an attitude "cheering to the freaking weekend, having ray bans on feeling hella cool that niiiiight"

[InternationalPlayboy]

Actually I find warsaw to be as close to western comforts as possible while paying a much cheaper price. Albiet the girls are a bit uglier then other cities but plenty of hotties if you want to play the long term game.

After reading tons of posts about hot girls not hitting on foreigners. This is obvious. Regardless where you go, top talent will almost always stick with the local guys who can speak the language. This is a fact in mostly homogenous countries: Poland China Thailand Argentina Croatia yada yada. If you don't know the local language you'll always be at a significant disadvantage. That being said its not impossible but takes a lot more work.

Fyi weather sucks here. Last night was freezing my ass off and its middle of June! Can only imagine how crappy it is in the winter.

[Doc_J]

Culture shock is a bitch.

In any case I've to Poland several times and there is nothing that would make me stay there.
There are nicer girls nearby in Czech Rep., Hungary, Estonia, etc...
And yes, weather is shit, nothing to see worth notice.

That being said it is still a great place to spend a week's holiday.

[Greek kamaki]

Polish culture is hardcore slavic and thus amazing.I am always feeling great when in Poland even if there are no women around.We talk about slavic comfort a satisfaction of the senses.Poland has so many advantages one cannot start to begin with.I cannot think of any disadvantages except the beggars and then again they are discreet somehow.
Of course weather is a thing on the negative side but it is not much worse than in Germany although a little worse than CR.

[Greek kamaki]

Warm drinks:Yes,but you can buy them from Zabka all the time without having to overpay like in Scandinavia or Germany where you always overpay in mini markets and off time.
Roads:Roads are a bad thing if you fuck roads.In case you fuck women you will not be disturbed.
Polish pizza,polish kebab,polish gyros,polish goulash:You can be reassured it is not the original.It will not have the same taste.For gourmeteers who come to Poland to taste polish gyros I suggest come to Greece instead.
No change:Not a problem if you pay in euro.Then everyone gives his zlotuwky as change.
Low wages:If you immigrate to take advantage of the polish job market then sth is seriously wrong.How many women emigrate to Poland?
Nationalism:You will seldom see polish flags hanging from windows or cars and you will see many Poles drinking Russian vodka.No Jaruzelski or Valesa tatoo.

[Greek kamaki]

Advantages of Poland:
1.Super service especially by women with traditional clothing and big decoltes who always bow with a smile to get the extra tip
2.Clubs open every night
3.Shops open very long hours.If you are hungry you can get sth to eat ASAP.The same if you are thirsty there is no way you will have to drink your urine or overpay.
4.Taxis everywhere.In case a drunk girl collapses on your lap a taxi driver always comes to save the situation.
5.Extra cheap public transportation with hotties inside.
6.Tasty polish food and very cheap even in good restaurants
7.WiFi everywhere to communicate with dziewczyny
8.Gallerias and clubs in close distance so that women do not complain
9.Women smoking approachable everywhere
Try to find all of the above in the West.In fact Westerners think Poles are suckers for providing so much for so little cost.All the above are part of the slavic comfort which takes excellent dimensions in CR.(there is efficiency and talent there).
Slavic countries are heavens for drinkers,fuckers and eaters.This means that if you travel to eat,drink and fuck you will be successful.
They are not so good for people who like dogs,handicapped,elderly,tatooed fat women with green hair,gays etc.

[seb]

(06-22-2014 09:25 AM)Greek kamaki Wrote:  

Roads:Roads are a bad thing if you fuck roads.In case you fuck women you will not be disturbed.

[bulldog]

Saying that Poland has no culture is like saying that US doesn't have any fast-food addiction.

[Booyah]

The funniest part is that it was said by an American, as if they have any culture.

The biggest disadvantage are siginificantly lower wages than in the West, but again, Spain, Greece, Portugal or Italy were not corrupted by communism and now the living standard are comparable to polish ones, it only shows how the economy is getting better and better.

[sheesh]

Poland does have some culture...

[rudebwoy]

Lol Greek Kamaki tells it like it is.

Come to Canada, you will get cold beer but we also have shitty roads.

[Greek kamaki]

Special polish things that many foreigners enjoy:
1.Zurek.Special polish soup with an egg inside
2.Kabanosy.Small pieces of pleasure which likely would end in the wrong end in many western and Mediteranean countries
3.Koronkowa bielizna.The kind of underwear polish girls prefer
4.Sexy names like Lubuskie,Wloclalek,Czestochowa etc.One cannot fail be excited by the volcanos of hotness these places probably hide.
5.Industrial cities with character like Katowice

6.Romantic lights in the buildings in cities like Warsaw,Wroclaw and many others
7.Slavs pissing discreetly on the streets.As everyone knows slavic piss does not have the same penetrating smell as western one.This means it seldom insults your nostrils.
8.Sexy lights on the street where girls always appear gorgeous
9.Concrete pavements with small stones to listen to the classic klap klap of polish girls heels a sound producing certain Pavlov effects to the forwalking male
10.Lots of pijalna where instead of bald guys with beer bellies you see hotties excited by the smell of vodka

11.Sense of terror sometimes but real terror.However it lasts only seconds in Poland.
12.Girls dancing all the time erotically to proclaim their assets.
13.Potatoes with real earthy smell.
14.Top quality ham.Excellent beer.Premium wodka.
15.Everyone wants to party 24 hours a day.
16.Not noisy children.Not noisy guys.Generally everyone is talking with low voice not putting themselves in the foreground.

[spalex]

(06-22-2014 04:11 AM)Vicious Wrote:  

spalex I've been on you before regarding your attitude. Can you not see yourself that you're really focusing on things that are ultimately unhelpful. All this energy spent on getting annoyed at things when you should be having a great time. 99.9% of men everywhere (including this board) would love to be in your position of having a flexible base.

You cannot get out of your own comfortable bubble and expect the comforts of home.

Yeah man, there are countless things that I love about Poland (I am actually moving to Poland this Sunday).

But I left them out because they have already been covered and this board has started to get a bit repetitive.

It's not like I was saying all this stuff with so much hate behind it (which was probably confusing because of the way I talk about Norway).
It is purely just observations and I am shocked that nobody else has a subjective / non-biased opinion on the stuff.

[Brian Boru]

I would disagree about the younger Poles not giving a fuck about their history and culture: