Myths About Poland And Poles. What is Poland and Poles really like?

[michal3141]

[Zohor]

I like the idea for the video but it was just saying "it's not truth, if you visit Poland you will see" or basing on statistics but generally there so many different statistics that you can use to fit your narrative

In case of technoligcal advance there surely could be found some names of Polish brands and so on
Also some myths are actually true, most of Polish roads suck, come out of any highway and you will have not only bad roads but also absurd road sign combos, openess is also very debatable, it's more a thing we have in sayings than in reality, but I base here just on my life so it's not so objective

[Jana]

Nice. Speaking of Polish brands, just recently I learned a streetwear brand "Cropp" I like a lot is in fact Polish. Awesome.

[Cybele]

openess is also very debatable, it's more a thing we have in sayings than in reality, but I base here just on my life so it's not so objective

Also from a subjective viewpoint, to me Poles seemed more approachable and open than other Central Europeans. At least at the first sight. Or maybe they happen to be friendlier with tourists than others.
When I arrived with a group of friends in Krakow, we asked a guy for directions; he ended up walking us to the hostel we were booked, as he said he was walking in that direction anyway. We kept in contact a long time after that.

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

Myth 1: I don't think Poles drink the most but they certainly drink more heavily than most nations in Western Europe. Portugal and France drink more per capita but that's overwhelmingly the traditional glass of wine on every meal or the occasional beer, not liquors and spirits. There's a difference between drinking one glass of wine a day and drinking one bottle of vodka in the weekend; the chances of developing an addiction in the future are also higher with the later.

Myth 2: Polish diaspora has usually been associated with manual labor so that stereotype is understandable but nowadays Poles are more educated and diversified than they have ever been.

Myth 3: It is definitely not as poor as they used to be but despiste the tremendous growth in the last decades there's still margin for improvement to become one of Europe's major economies. Add more ten to twenty years and it will likely have the same weight as Spain in the EU or at least surpass Netherlands in GDP.

Myth 4: Even in 2010 the internet speed I had in Poland was astonishingly good.

Myth 5: Polish products are good, never had a reason to complain. Biedronka (the largest chain of supermarkets in Poland) is owned by the Portuguese group Jerónimo Martins and sometimes some Polish made products end up in our shelves. Their gastronomy is also the best out of all the places I have been in Eastern Europe.

Myth 6: In the cities Polish roads are the opposite of narrow, they have many lanes and are wide. This is mostly due to the Communist era and its architecture that always favored "grandiosity" and also because most historical cities (which indeed had narrow streets) were torn apart during the WWII and rebuilt differently. However, in the country side the roads were terrible at least when I was there but I have heard since then from other colleagues that a lot has changed to the point I wouldn't recognize many of the places I have been. In 2010 there were already a lot of highways being built because Poland was indeed lacking on its highway road system, especially for a country of its size.

Myth 7: That's a classic one, before I moved to Poland I was warned multiple times that people there were cold. All that I found for the most part was the exact opposite.

[Mopi Licinius Crassus]

Fact 1: Polish women are on average considerably better looking than British women. Loads of Poles in the part of the UK I live, so I can say this with some knowledge. Shorter, broader faces, higher cheekbones, more even features, higher degree of neoteny

[Lucas]

Interesting point of view from French of African descent living in Poland. Change subtitles to English or your language if needed.

[michal3141]

I like the idea for the video but it was just saying "it's not truth, if you visit Poland you will see" or basing on statistics but generally there so many different statistics that you can use to fit your narrative

In case of technoligcal advance there surely could be found some names of Polish brands and so on
Also some myths are actually true, most of Polish roads suck, come out of any highway and you will have not only bad roads but also absurd road sign combos, openess is also very debatable, it's more a thing we have in sayings than in reality, but I base here just on my life so it's not so objective

Regarding the roads I would say in my area they were improved a lot compared to like 20+ years ago. Not only newly built expressways (autostrady & drogi ekspresowe) but majority of roads both main and local were improved/repaired.

Below is the map showing the quality of main roads in Poland. Green means very good or good quality, red is very bad/critical, yellow usually slightly damaged etc., you get it. You could click to zoom-in for better resolution.

http://ssc.siskom.waw.pl/mapa-nawier...wierzchnia.png