Today we have another report from our fabulous guest blogger – Barb from Canada.

Enjoy!

I recently returned from a short trip to Poland with my head (and heart) bursting with impressions and perceptions. Since my last trip occurred over 25 years ago, to say things have changed would be a little bit of an understatement.

It was a trip that mixed both business (confirmation of citizenship- stwierdzenie posiadania obywatelstwa polskiego) and pleasure, so the types of interactions with native Poles varied quite a bit. I would like to write a post about the citizenship aspect of my trip (with Anna’s permission of course – yes, please!!! Actually, no, not “please”, you MUST!!!) at a later date, so this post will be a little more general.

Język polski: With the sole exception of a teenage girl working the counter of a Subway sandwich establishment, I managed to interact in Polish with enough mastery of the language that no one felt compelled to switch over into English. I felt like this was a huge accomplishment. It still rankles that the Subway worker had the gall to ask me “big or small?” I naturally ignored her and asked that my sandwich include: pomidory, swieży ogórek, sałata, i musztarda. My proficiency with the language varied/depended with the time of day (feeling tired – zmęczona), emotional state (a heightened emotional state – podekscytowana) and of course the amount of alcohol consumed. My efforts were warmly received and my interactions were all very pleasant and sometimes brought smiles.

On one occasion, I was taking a commuter train to Sulejówek from Warszawa and was on the phone with my uncle. I was trying to convince him to meet me in the courtyard of a nearby church. It was the end of the day and I was struggling with the proper declension (przy kościele, koło kościoła, itd). As I was the only one speaking accented Polish in a rather crowed compartment, many people tuned into my conversation. As I valiantly tried to get the declension right, I noticed many folks starting to smile, and to hide it unsuccessfully.

People were kind/helpful (uprzejmi) everywhere I went, including dreaded institutions like the post office (poczta) and Urząd Stanu Cywilnego. I lead a rather charmed existence, it seems.

Polish pride: It really is challenging to interact with Poles in their native land and to successfully navigate through the minefield of making comparisons/comments about your own country without inadvertently triggering that prickly Polish pride. After a while, I learned it was best to confine my comments about Canada to two subjects: legal blood alcohol limit (0.08 grams versus 0.02 grams in Poland) which was met with resounding approval and the universal appeal of Canada’s small woodland creatures, namely chipmunks. For anyone not familiar with the charm/cuteness of this creature (urocze stworzenie), please view the attached link. Another neutral topic was the similarity of our coinage (monety). How can you offend anyone with more cuddly Canadian animals, namely engravings of loons or polar bears?

I must confess to developing an affinity for some strictly Polish “wildlife” i.e. wściekły pies, but that is an entirely different story. 🙂

Old town in Warsaw, photo by Barb

PS. Barb, so are you officially Polish now?