the POLSKI blog

24 Aug, 2008

Cześć! Hello!

Posted by: Michał In: bits and bobs

Hi, my name is Michał, I’m a Polish journalist and I’ve been living in the UK for, well, almost 11 years now. On and off, but mostly on.

The past few years have seen a dramatic increase in the number of Poles coming into Great Britain and hundreds of newspaper articles, TV and radio programmes about the impact of this new wave of immigrants on the British economy. Polish shops and cafes have sprung up all over the country, all of a sudden everybody knows a Polish person, has been served by a Polish person, has heard some Polish, but didn’t quite understand what was actually said.

And here’s my problem: apart from charting the impact of a million or so Poles on Britain in and by various mainstream media, nobody has actually devoted much time to explaining what those people bring with them. How they think. What they eat. What they find strange in Britain.

There have been a few attempts at explaining some of the above issues, but I haven’t really seen a single place which would explain – in English – the Polish culture, mentality and the consonant-saturated language to an English-speaking person.

Hence the idea for this blog. The POLSKI blog. (The word ‘Polski’ means ‘Polish’; just thought I’d make that clear ;)

I’ll try to explain some of the above issues, bust (or confirm) some myths (we’re not just a nation of plumbers, plasterers and beautiful girls, you know), teach you some useful phrases, talk about food (must be my favourite topic) and vodka (wódka, in fact), surprise you with a few facts you might not be aware of and generally make you feel more familiar with the Polish nation.

You’re welcome to participate – share your experiences, post comments, suggest new topics – I’ll try to respond to them tothe best of my abilities.

Make sure you use the RSS feeds for posts and comments to keep up to date with the latest posts on here and share the url with friends.

So, welcome and enjoy! Or as we would say in Poland, witajcie i zapraszam!

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3 Responses to "Cześć! Hello!"

1 | MirandaNo Gravatar

November 20th, 2008 at 12:21 pm

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Living in Edinburgh there are alot of Polish people living and working here – one estimate 35,000. I was helping a new Polish arrival (18 mths ago!) to discover how Edinburgh worked etc. But it was very difficult to find any info written in Polish other than how to get housing and benefits! ie the way of life in Scotland, customs, history etc. Just in a simple form, even the Polish Consulate didn’t have any info either!

The Tourist board has free info in many languages, but not any of the Eastern European countries. These countries are possible seen as ‘workers’ rather than tourists – 2 billion pounds sent back home?

Also trying to find a travel guide to Scotland in Polish was nearly impossible – I had to go Krakow to find only ‘The Ten Best things to see etc in Scotland’!!!!

2 | HerkNo Gravatar

December 22nd, 2008 at 2:24 pm

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I’m in Texas; but can say that Polkas are huge here! Many Polish communities exist; the native music has become a staple of Texas culture.

3 | johnNo Gravatar

February 5th, 2010 at 8:01 pm

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I am posting a little late on this topic but I wanted to say I am glad that I found out this blog so I can learn more about the Polish culture. It is very interesting to learn about different cultures and to see how people live in different countries.

Comment Form


  • Michał: Glad you like it, welcome!
  • Missy: I had been to Poland as a masters student in Warsaw ( 2006-2008), travelled all over Poland. I like it there, i am glad i found your blog. :) niec
  • Nice Christmas photos | Christmas Eve: [...] Długi Targ Image by magro_kr Długi Targ, Gdańsk, 12 grudnia 2006 r. ** Długi Targ (Long Market), Gdańsk, December 12, 2006 ** Picture feat
  • Czarny kapturek: It was a good series. While I am critical about what I see as an oversimplification of Poland (i.e. that all life in Poland is in Warsaw) it is good
  • The Londoneer: I don't imagine that they've put a camera inside Warsaw's main museum have they? There's not a lot to see - now the War Museum, that I'd like to revis

Recent Flickr pics tagged Poland

    PosadzkaDSC00857DSC00845Widok na zamek w Janowcu nad Wisłą // View of the castle in Janowiec nad WisłąPanorama Warszawy // Panorama of WarsawPanorama skarpy wiślanej w Janowcu nad Wisłą // Panoram of Vistula's scarp in Janowiec nad WisłąZamek i fara w Kazimierzu Dolnym // Casle and parish church in Kazimierz DolnyDziedziniec domu partii // Courtyard of the former comunist party headquartersKrakow :: zima

About

The POLSKI blog is written by Michał, a Polish journalist, writer, one-time language teacher and linguist, living and working in London.

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