If you are enjoying my Polish Reaction Videos, why not go check out our vlog channel where we have visted poland! th-cam.com/play/PLw4JaWCFm7FeHG7Ad5PtaZzoYd1Vq5EXW.html
If you take a map of Europe and connect the westernmost point with the easternmost point you will get one line then take the northernmost point and the southernmost point and you will get a second line and both of these lines will intersect in Poland which means that Poland lies in the very center of Europe as a continent
But, also, it was (and still is) a narrative that's pushed to show people that even if we may not be a western European country, we are also very different from Russia, the ultimate eastern european country, and it's politics, and we should be seen as a different category. Personally I'm not offended, In many ways we are closer to the East of the continent than the West, but I appreciate it if people recognize that Poland is not In the same block as Russia and Belarus. And I hope Ukraine will join us soon, In the virtual "yeah you are In the East but separate from Russia and share quite a lot with West so Central is perfect I guess" team.
So apparently, it is you who haven’t been educated. In Anglo-Saxons world, Europe is divided to only four parts - south, west, east and north. Centre is not distinguished. Poles seem to not understand it. Pozdro
The thing with Eastern/Western Europe is not at all about the geographic location of the country (although, keep in mind Europe does not end on Ukraine, and reaches as far as Ural mountains in Russia which makes Poland real center of the continent). The true meaning of being Central Europe is the fact how much this country, and of course few others like Czechia or Slovakia is blending both worlds together. They are Slavic countries but use Latin alphabet, are catholic, historically have closer ties with Western Europe than with Russia, adopted many western customs and traditions, while at the same time preserving eastern Slavic ones to some degree. They are constantly a bridge between Western civilization and the East, which we can especially see now with the strong voice Ukraine and Belarus (democratic opposition I mean) have in the West being primarily the Polish one. And it also feels wrong when we're being called Eastern Europe because of the past meaning it is still carrying, the one in which West is describing Eastern Europe as poor, underdeveloped, wild even, which is no longer the case.
@Julia Poland you realising that any country located in that region is taught that the geographical centre of Europe is at their location. Polish, Germans, Czechs, Slovaks are all taught that- you just need to take different corners of Europe to make your country the centre part of Europe. 🤷♀️
Jest jeszcze jedna bardzo ważna sprawa o której nikt nie mówi. W momencie kiedy straciliśmy niepodległość zniknęliśmy z map świata ale Państwo podziemne cały czas istniało (sądownictwo, szkolnictwo, kultura etc.) Dlatego udało nam się zachować naszą tożsamość. ;)
For people that didn't understand the above and would like to: "There is another very important thing that nobody talks about. When we lost independence and disappeared from the maps of the of the world, the Underground Country still existed (judiciary, education, culture etc.). That's why we managed to hold onto our national identity." Well, there's a lot of people that actually talk about it though, seeing as Poland is the only country in history that managed to achieve that. But yeah. It is a big thing in maintaining the heritage and culture.
@@kikixchannelJe constate qu'à force de vouloir accueillir tout le monde avec le sourire, vous allez devenir ce que la France est devenue. Si vous voulez savoir ce que je veux dire, venez à Paris... vous serez le seul blanc dans beaucoup de quartiers, mais attention à vos filles, à vos affaires et à votre vie.
@@XXIVVIII First, I don't understand French. I threw your post into Google Translate, but that's not exactly reliable, so yeah. Second, what Google Translate showed me suggests that your post has zero relevance to anything I wrote in my post. It's a completely different topic.
@@kikixchannel Spróbuję sam wytłumaczyć, ale niestyty mój poziom w polskim języku jest teraz bardzo niski, bo już od bardzo dawna więcej nie mówię po Polsku. Jestem Francuz z pochodzenia Polskiego urodzony w Francji. Co chciałem powiedzieć to że coraz więcej otworzyliście kraj do całego świata, i navet arabom i murzynom, wszyscy musulmani rozmnażają się jak .... , i wołają całą plemię do was. Są takie filmiki TH-cam po francusku, w których czarni mówią że u was jest życie tanie, łatwo się zorganizować, kuchnia dobra, dziwki łatwe itd. U nas za póżno, ale wy nie dajcie się, nie poddajcie się. Warto zwiedzić Paryża i tak zrozumieć co was grożi.
@@XXIVVIII Ja wiem o co Ci chodzi, ale to nie na temat. Poza tym Polska i Polacy nie lubią kiedy im się mówi co mogą a co nie mogą robić w swoim kraju. Nie lubią też jak inni przyjeżdżając do Polski robią co im się podoba. Francja przyjmowała obcokrajowców a potem chodziła na paluszkach wokół nich. Dlatego skończyła tak jak skończyła. Obcokrajowcy byli chronieni i pielęgnowani. To samo się teraz dzieje w Hiszpanii. W Polsce nie zapowiada się by tak było, chociaż niektóre grupy polityczne...pewnie by to wprowadziły. To jednak prawie na pewno doprowadziłoby do strajków i problemów wewnętrznych. To rozróżnienie na kraje w których "Gość musi się dostosować do narodu" a nie "Naród musi się dostosować do gościa" ma duże znaczenie.
0:58 I will quote Ronald Reagan: "The distances from Warsaw to Moscow and from Warsaw to Brussels are identical. The sign says that Poland is neither in the east nor in the west. Poland is the center of European civilization. She really contributed a lot to the formation of this civilization. It does so today in a significant way, refusing to be oppressed." If someone does not know where the European continent ends and where the Asian one begins, they can of course be wrong to say that Poland lies in Eastern Europe.
While living in Cyprus, I worked with one Czech woman. Sometimes when we talked, I spoke Polish and she spoke Czech. The Cypriots could not understand how this was possible
Czech and especially Slovakian language are much closer to Polish than Russian, when I meet Slovakians in England where we all gone for work, we could understand each other
1. Yes, I feel offended when being called eastern european 2. Łódź isn't the 3rd biggest city anymore. Wrocław is 3. "Laccucia & subsribuccia" literally killed me XD 4. We like English songs even if we don't speak English, because the language is melodic and enjoyable to listen to for us 5. Yes. Chopin, Copernicus AND Maria Skłodowska-Curie (Curie being her husband's lastname) were Polish 6. No, we (nowadays) do not understand russian language. Maybe there are few similar words, but overall it's completely different. Our parents/grandparents had to learn it in schools hovewer. 7. Polish people are often afraid to speak English because they think they do not know it well enough and that they will be laughed at or misunderstood. That's our mentality. We have to be able to do something very well in our opinion in order to show it to someone else. Great video! Greetings from Poland :)
Rob, Joseph Conrad, famous british writer was a Pole. His original name: Józef Konrad Korzeniowski. Born in Berdyczów (today Ukraine) in noble polish family in 1857. His father was deeply involved in independency movements, especially during January Upraising in 1863. Korzeniowski family was sent, in frame of russian repression after upraising , to Siberia. In 1873 young Józef Korzeniowski escaped from Siberia to Western Europe.
Copernicus wasn't "technically German". His mother was from a German speaking minority (his father was Polish) and he was born in the Royal Prussia which was a province of Poland (unlike the Dukal Prussia which was a Poland's fief). He was a Polish citizen and a loyal subject of the Polish king. He was born in Poland and lived there all his life with the exception of his studies in Italy (after completing his studies in Kraków). He also negotiated with Germans on behalf of Poland, and at some point he even led the Polish army against Germans.
Similar issue with Chopin and Sklodowska-Curie- in Western Europe known only by her French surname, Curie. Not to mention case of cracking the Enigma cypher- there was a movie a few years ago that only briefly mentioned Marian Rejewski. When you have money you make history.
Copernicus . "His mother was from a German speaking minority." His maternal background is H4a, which is haplo subgroup H. H4a Poland posses 5% of population that is the biggest concentration in Europe. Second is Ireland 3% of population. That's why there's so much controversy if she was Polish or not. I posses those genes and my maternal ancestors came to Europe 9,000 years ago via Caucasus. In central Europe they lived around 5,000 years ago. BTW, he was my distant cousin and his family lived relatively near my family. Regarding his father, probably his ancestors were Visigoths which destroyed all male side. Lord Colin Renfrew | Marija Redivia: DNA and Indo-European Origins cdn. In her book, she spoke about that subject. Południk zerowy przebiega przez Kraków? - Dr Franc Zalewski.
In XV century when Copernicus lived there was no Prussia, there was Poland since 966 till 1795. Albo inaczej, czemu uwłaczasz Kopernikowi? Hołd Pruski nie ma nic do rzeczy jak Śląsk dzisiaj
@@natalias50 Tłumaczysz Polakowi po angielsku żeby dbał o polski interes :)))Jemu to albo zwisa albo lubi umniejszać Polsce i Polakom. Już mu odpisałem po Angielsku i po naszemu :) Nie domyśliłaś się jak pisał o Hołdzie Pruskim? Dla niego Kopernik, Kościuszko i Skłodowska to bohaterzy rewolucji Amerykańskiej a nie Polacy. Miło, że piszesz o Enigmie, kolejna zasługa 3 zapomnianych Polaków. I like what you have wrote to that guy who claim he is a Pole but he is twisting our history
I am from Germany with Polish roots on my mother's side. I listened to a lot of English music in the 80s and did not understand anything of it until I had some years of English at school. So not being able to understand the texts doesn't mean you don't enjoy the music 🙂
Rob to the part about speeking English. I live in Kraków. I work for Swedish corporation and most of my co-workers are from USA. Sometimes I use English phrases even without thinking. But I'm fully aware that my grammar is bad. I was ashamed becaurse of it and for long time I avoided to talk to anyone in English. Later on I realized that even if I sound funny for natives at least I have a chance to comunicate. And for English-speaker learning Polish is almost mission impossible ;)
Europe is not only a geographic concept of a continent, but also a cultural/civilizational concept, which has changed over the centuries, such as through the conquests of Islam. The glue of European culture was Christianity. Russia was never part of Europe. It is a different civilization. Polish historian Feliks Koneczny presented his own concept of civilization. Europe was Latin civilization - today we would call it Western civilization. He classified Russia as a Turanian civilization. Let me quote; "Formed in antiquity in the areas of the Great Steppe. It has not developed permanent social ties higher than ancestral; instead, the population unites for war purposes into ords, which, if successful, can assume powerful proportions, but are not permanent and disintegrate with the death of the leader or his defeat. All political activity within this civilization is military in nature, according to Koneczny. The rulers are not bound by morality (hence Koneczny spoke of the individualism of this civilization). It did not develop any of the sciences, but quickly assimilated any inventions in the military field. It recognizes the equality of monogamy, polygamy and concubinage. Seemingly religious indifferentism prevailed, but religion was often used as a cause of wars within its framework, while it had NEVER influenced public morality or social relations.
Europe ends at the eastern border of Poland. Beyond are only savages. You should learn history. Ural mountains are border of geografical Europe. Borders are made by people and monsters like Soviets but not by lines on the map, those can be and has been changed many times. maybe for Americans it is hard to understand but wars change borders.
@@jannowak2352 Europe definitely does not end at the eastern border of Poland, neither politically nor culturally nor geographically. There is the end of Europe only in your head.
Not offended at all as obviously been a part eastern block so I guess this is where it comes from but it don't matter we are Poland unique one and only 😊 thanks for your commitment in introducing Poland the way you do mate ❤
The location of Poland is not a matter of geography but of culture. Poland is a mixture of eastern and western culture. So that makes it kind of the center. Two Europes collide in Poland. Personally, as a Pole, I appreciate it very much.
Seriously? What your ancestors hunted, what they built their houses from or where they lived defines the culture of a country. It is enough to trace the development of the language of a nation to know what defined it in what period. Geography matters a lot. A man from Polynesia or the Arctic Circle perceives reality differently.
Ever since Poland accepted the Western Roman Catholic vein of Christianity (rather than the Byzantine Eastern type like the Serbs or Ruthenians), it became a part of the Western culture. Polish cities were built by Western engineers, mostly from Germany but also from the Netherlands and other Western European states. It was through Poland, that Western culture would slowly be pushed towards the East, mostly to its closest ally the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and all the lands that would eventually become a part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (a modern politically correct name, back in the days it was just called "Poland" for short, especially in Western Europe, and "Rzeczpospolita" within the PLC itself). So that's it when it comes to cultural roots. Naturally, Polish culture, due to its geographical proximity would also be impacted by Turkey and Russia which led to extravagant Eastern style of clothing that one wouldn't find in Western Europe but in terms of the political mentality, unlike the Russian Tsardom, Poland-Lithuania was very much Western, resembling early parliamentary democracy in England, also with a union of state quite similar to that of England and Scotland (where Scotland, just like Lithuania, would eventually replace its original language in favour of English and a new common "British" identity would arise for all the members of the United Kingdom -> in case of Poland-Lithuania it was the concept of "Gente Lithuanus, natione Polonus"). In purely geographical terms, since it was accepted by the 19th century geographers, that the agreed upon border of Europe lies at the Ural mountain range, countries like Slovakia, Czechia and Poland do lie more or less in the geographical centre of Europe. The only reason Poland is considered 'Eastern' nowadays is only because of Stalinism and the Iron Curtain which divided Europe into these two political and economic blocs, where no separate "centre" to spreak of existed at all. The Iron Curtain fell over 30 years ago but it's not easy to change people's habits.
I've been to Poland 22 times now. Love it! I started in Krakow, but been to far more interesting places. The mountains (Zakopane), lake district (Giżycko, Sterławki Wielkie, Ostróda, Olsztyn). You will fall in love with Wroclaw, Gdansk, Sopot and you must go and ride the boats over the hills in Elbląg.
To you question about English in Poland. People here understands english very well. They probably fear about speaking to you, cause they probably think their speaking abilities are not so good. :)
@@RobReacts1 I remember, when I came to The UK, and in Nottingham I asked someone, where is Boots... well. I pronounced "Boots" in polish way (short and fast) and the guy didn't understand me... and after a while, when I repeated the word two or three times, he said "ooooohh, Booooots" pronouncing the word like he wanted to scare me (very strong "b") ;DDD It was very surprising how important in English is the way you speak. In Polish usually we pronounce our words fast (no "oooooooo", "uuuuuuuu", "aaaaaaaa", etc.), but in my opinion for us is easier to understand if a foreigner speak polish. I remember I felt like a dumb and my thoughts were like "oh my god, I already said "Boots... just a bit different... why he didn't understad me?" :)
Hi mate, Most of the Poles are understand your English language...You need to try to learn another language,so then you can understand why people afraid to make mistakes...English speaking people have no motivation to learn any languages,because anywhere they go people can understand them....We Poles we live in Eastern Europe and I don't really understand why some Poles trying to be Central,we should be proud to be Eastern Europeans.Geopolitacally speaking now it's our geography will help us to be the most important country in Europe etc...Maybe one day Brits will come to Poland to work for us...times are changing....who knows... It was a good video,you need to go to Poland-not only Krakow and stereotypes...Kind Regards.Grzegorz🍀
@@kikixchannel Poland is eastern Europe Fakt!I am not sure if you fully understand my comment.You should learn Geography yourself mate Some Polish trying very hard to explain English people they central Europeans,but for them French,Germans are cental,we are eastern from most West countries point of you.We should be proud about it...not ashamed...
As a swede i really never considered poland eastern european - slavic yes but not eastern. Not that the word "eastern" really mean anything. But im from the arctic at the finnish border so technically im closer east than west hehe
@@RobReacts1 Nah, it's about the Iron Curtain which divided Europe into two blocks - the East under Soviet influence (the so-called Warsaw Pact) and the West under American influence (NATO). Historically Poland was always part of the Western / Latin civilization ever since it became a Christian country and would later Christianize a Pagan country to the north-east of it, ie. Lithuania (that's how basically the union of the two countries slowly began). As for Poles being sensitive about being called Eastern, it's because we don't like to be associated with Russia and in purely geographic terms, central Europe is countries like Czechia, Germany, Poland & Austria. What you guys in the West often forget is that the continent of Europe ends at the Ural mountains, so we need to imagine Russia ending there and then you should be able to see it with your eyes why Poland actually lies in the center of Europe more or less. :)
The European border ends in the Urals. So, by all, it can be said that Poland is in Central Europe. This is also about some negative associations with the term East (e.g. Russia, etc.).
Honestly, we listen to music in other languages simply bcs it SOUNDS good. We love the rythm, if it's something catchy we like to dance to it. Linkin park made me WANT to learn english even. It was the music of my childhood (bcs my brothers were listening to it). So yeah, we just like how it sounds
When you think of Silesia or Kaszubia, think of Scotland. Formally a part of the UK, but with their own distinct culture, tradition, dialect, strong sense of identity, etc. :)
25:56 tallest mountain in Australia is Mt Kosciuszko. Tho evidently our pronunciation is nothing like the original, as was explained and demonstrated by the tour guide on a walking tour of Warsaw I was on. She laughs every time she hears an Aussie say it!
Kosciuszko was a war hero for the Americans, but the reason your mountain is called that way, is because a Polish explorer, Paweł Edmund Strzelecki, together with the Australian James Macarthur, were the first people we know of, to climb its summit. :) Anyway, Polish people absolutely love Aussies, you guys are fantastic! (although your fauna is kinda scary haha)
Poland is geographically central Europe. Do you know were Ural Mountains are? They separate Europe from Asia. East Europe is a huge part of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. The central Europe is Poland, Czech, Slovakia.
@@dorotamaty888 yeah, I think to many people it seems like Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Belarusian and Ukrainian border with Russia is where Europe ends. There is no visible line on Ural Mountains on a map that's why they can't see the real eastern part of this continent. Probably they should draw this Europe-Asia border on a map so that everyone sees where on the east Europe ends
Właśnie o to chodzi!!!! Europa geograficznie kończy się na Uralu i to daje pozycję Polsce w środkowej Europie a nie na Litwie, Łotwie, Estonii czy dokąd oni to tam uznają granice Europy. Mogą też powiedzieć, że Polska leży na wschód od nich ale nie że na wschodzie Europy.
@@sylwiawajda9866 Most of Europeans don't look at Europe like that though. They look at it by country, not by geography. So the Germanic region is considered central, whereas the slavic part is considered eastern and roman parts are considered western. To be honest, that is more or less how it is. Its not so much about where the Ural is, as that is insignificant no-mans-land in Russia. The Europe/Asia border in Istanbul is much more of a reference for other Europeans, than the Ural. By that border, Poland is very much eastern. We also don't consider the UK or the baltic countries to be northern Europe, just because they are located above mainland Europe. Poland is part of the western world, but Poland is one of the eastern most country geographically in that regard. But anyways, what difference does that make? Whether its eastern or central, Poland is still Poland.
If you want to know what Poles think about England and the English in their hearts, read the history of Dyzision 303. And how England dealt with its members after winning against Germany. When you understand this, you will know what Poles think about England.
Rob, I must say, your reaction to wanting Great Britain as our best friend was simply priceless! 💛 We don't harbor any ill will towards British people, but I must admit that we haven't quite labeled them as our BFFs just yet. However, we're totally open to expanding our social circle. Personally, I've developed quite a liking for British folks and their charming accents. I really love British accent! I definitely like British people more than Americans as I just don't understand their super enthusiastic behaviour. And I think Polish people can interpret such overly optimistic behaviour ambiguously or even as insincere. We appreciate many british musicians and bands like: Queen, Pink Floyd, Sting. And we love Monthy Python (I mean many of us love). And speaking about cultures, I would like to clarify one thing. You see, we're not exactly intolerant towards other nations; it's just that we can be a tad bit picky about the cultures we embrace within our own borders. When people come to visit or live in Poland, we simply expect them to play by our rules. And that's why we may have some reservations about accepting immigrants from Africa. It's not that they're not lovely people, but, um, let's just say cultural blending can sometimes be a challenge. On the other hand, we absolutely adore Ukrainian immigrants because they seamlessly fit into our society, like they were born to be here. We share such similar vibes, you know? As a tourist, we don't expect you to be a walking encyclopedia on Polish culture or even have mastered simple greetings like "dzień dobry" or "do widzenia." Nope, not necessary! English will do just fine for communication in Poland. But, oh boy, if you're planning to settle down here, we'd really appreciate it if you learn Polish and show some love for our culture. It's like joining an exclusive club-only those who know the secret language and appreciate the quirky customs get the full experience 😀 Anyway, thanks for doing what you do! It really warms my heart to see your love to our country and people! And your are very welcome here in Poland my british brother! You and your wife of course! But You have to visit more places than Kraków! Come and visit Silesia region! Thats were I come from. There is a lot to see here like coal mines (yes, you can actually go down there), mountains, museums and many other places. And You will be suprised to hear Silesian language as its very similar to German. And Silesians are very, very open, helpful, and friendly. Cheers!
Several comments on the video: 1) Speaking English. In the old days, i.e. in communist Poland, before 1990, people did not learn English. It was obligatory to learn Russian in schools, though. After 1990 it slowly started to change, but in a manner which I call an old way, and by that I mean putting emphasis on grammar rather than conversation. So, if you meet a Polish person who understands you, but has problems with speaking, it may be because this person tries to recall all the rules and thinks if Past Perfect, Present Perfect or perhaps Past Perfect Continuous should be used? In Polish there are only three tenses (past, present, future), so it may not be that easy to use correct one in English, especially when you have been tought years by years that this is the most important part of the language. For younger ones, and for those, who have spent some time abroad, it may be easier to communicate as they focus on the message they need to communicate rather than on using gramatically correct tense. Perhaps it's because they are aware that in spoken language the meaning can be understood given a context of a conversation, and even if not, and someone does not get it, you can always clarify it later on, when asked. 2) Geography. This map that you have seen shows pretty much geographic boundaries of Europe. So is Poland on eastern side? I would say it's exactly in the center. Old definition of regions was related to Western/Eastern Bloc divided by Iron Curtain, but... three remarks here. First, Iron Curtain (as we knew it back then) has fallen, so this division is no longer applicable. Second, Eastern Germany was also in Eastern Bloc. Yet most of the people would classify it (as a part of Germany now) as Western Europe. So in both cases it would be rather Central Europe. And last but not least, if by 'Europe' are you referring to European Union, it is perfectly acceptable to name Poland as a country in the east, not to mention that also Polish politicians are proud to be on the east flank of the EU. Answering: I would not find it offensive, 3) Kraków. I have no idea why they have showed the Barbican, and from a wrong side, instead of e.g. Wawel Castle or the Main Square, which is the largest medieval town quare in Europe and is enlisted as Unesco World Heritage List (as Historic Centre of Kraków). Also, Wieliczka is a must-see with its salt mine. 4) Passing thru railroads Even with no high-speed lines it will be easier to go through Poland than other countries. The alternative for Poland is to go through Slovakia and Czech Republic, and those countries are placed in a mountains, so it's much more complicated to get through them than to get through Poland. When it comes to motorways, Poland has A4 from Ukraine to Germany, others are still in construction. 5) To understand Polish... First you need to learn about polish winged hussars. A Polish pride, called the most beautiful cavalry in the world, which could beat fourty (yes, that's 40) times stronger enemy. With polish saber whicn some consider the best weapon of those times. Polish winged hussars were the only ones who conquered Moscow in 1610, and stayed there for over two years, the day of freeing Moscow is up to this day a holiday in Russia. Polish winged hussars came to Vienna in September 1683 under the command of King John Sobieski the Third, to honour the treaty of Holy League, and to protect the Golden Apple and Europe from Ottoman Empire. This was the day when Ottomans fell and never regained its strength ever after. Funny fact was that when Austria was a side in partitions of Poland and took some 20% of its territories, one of two countries who never accepted this, was... Ottoman Empire. A little bird told me that Rohan charge in Lords of the Rings is based on Polish Winged Hussars attack. Second. The Battle of Warsaw, which is known in Poland as the Mirracle on the Vistula. This is when Polish defeated Bolshevik forces who wanted to set communist fire to Europe. In other words, it is understood here in Poland as protecting Europe from communism. A thing which was later rewarded by putting Poland in Russian zone of influence, and which is a reason why Poles do not trust European allies up to this day...
As to no 1 - it's not true that we didn't learn English at school before 1990. I'm over 50 and had English classes at my grammar school. And that was nothing unique, believe me.
I really like the fact that in polish radio you can hear songs in many different languages. Mostly English but also Spanish, Romanian, Portuguese or French. Yes we do not understand them but this is the whole deal. Listening with heart and soul and trying to understand the meaning of the song. I live in Irelalnd for 17 years and I miss that variety of music in different languages. To hear the same things over and over again. It's just boring 😊 I like your video by the way 👌
@@RobReacts1 "Ostatnia nadzieja (the last hope)" Miał pod nosem czarny wąs Rozdawał koniaki Liczył na drobniaki Ten błagający wzrok Chciałby uciec stąd Biegł A wszystko to co miał To w kieszeni pyszny trunek I jeden kierunek By lecieć tam gdzie ptak A śpiewał sobie tak Wszystko to, co mam Wszystko to, co mam To ta nadzieja, że życie mnie poskleja Dziś odchodzę sam Dziś odchodzę sam Już nie zawrócę To wszystko dziś porzucę Ja się zarzekam, uciekam Dość mam przeznaczenia Po co zwlekać, czekać Gdy się nic nie zmienia Moja mama, mówiła Ostatnia umiera nadzieja I don't know how youtube translated it but I tell you listen to it. It feels... well it depends who you ask. For me it's great.
@@RobReacts1 that's the problem with British.You live in English language bubble on the green island surrounding by water.You watching British and Americans films,listen British and Americans music and you did't know that other languages even exist.You as a nation scare of any people who speak different then you.This language bubble makes you outcast when you travel to countries where english is not popular.Thats why Brits don't understand Europe.So many languages,so many nations,so much confuse.Modern Western world choose English as a common language because this is the language of pop culture,computing and is perfect as a form of basic,short communication.This is one of the main reason why Irish language is not popular in Ireland anymore.Of course this language was banned by English for centuries but in modern Ireland young people prefer English rather then Irish for obvious reasons.I spend many years in Ireland and England and yes, I'm Polish so I know exactly what I talking about😅 Great episode Rob! Pozdrawiam!
@@osip78 Im not going to disagree with you however, I would say its a generalisation. I can only only speak for myself. I love exploring other countries and always try and learn bits of their language. Even if its just hello and thank you.
I just LOVE your way of carrying on conversation and accent. And "cat's eyes" on roads. And left hand traffic. And the way you get angry - like a gentleman if you know what I mean ;) And all of this despite that your goverment betrayed us after II WW.
from polish perspective eastern europe is like russia, turkey and mongolia (they're enemies) and poles always think that east is not technologicly advanced
Haha it's what was recommended to us by the polish head waiter. You can see it in our Vlog on our vlog channel. th-cam.com/video/zBXEImb_2ng/w-d-xo.html
@@RobReacts1 Just checked that and I'm not sure what you got but these weren't gołąbki (cabbage rolls). Gołąbki are meat and rice rolled in cabbage with tomato souce based on chicken soup. What you got didn't have meat, and had some unidentified black souce, while it should be orangish red.
@@RobReacts1 Way too dark and way too little. It should be swimming in sauce. You either got scammed on that or restaurant was trying to look fancy and failed miserably.
Poles really like Anglosaxon countries and culture, including UK, USA, Australia, Canada etc. Probably mostly because we didn't have many contacts throughout history and most of them were positive or neutral. The Polish-Hungarian friendship mentioned in the video is something else. It is considered a kind of phenomenon between nations. Both Poles and Hungarians have this saying in their respective languages about being cousins. It's supposed that at some point in history we might have had some common ancestor. Even though Hungarians are not Slavs and we don't always agree on everything. But there is a strong conviction in the hearts of both peeples that we are good friends who can depend on one another. So imagine that there is a country where you can go without knowing anyone, and as long as you say you are from your country they will be welcoming and helpful. That's how it works for Poles and Hungarians. Even during the war, when Hungary was allied with Germany, when Polish spies went there and told some random people that they were Polish they were offered help.
Poles were also historically really big on concepts such as freedom and personal independence, which also aligns with the Anglo-Saxon cultures. Also, the personal union of England and Scotland as well as their parliamentary system sorta resembled what we here in Poland had together with Lithuania.
Great work, i'm positively amazed at how well and comprehensivelly you shown Poland from a visitor's perspective! Have fun in other cities and areas as well 😉
FYI I'm a born and raised Polish Highlander - fun fact - Croatians and Serbs do understand my Polish dialect "at the fly" witch is kinda different that a "regular" spoken polish.
You don't have to understand song for it to sound nice, try it its really worth it. Radio stations are playing a lot of English songs because that's the language kids are learning at schools right now but older people were learning stuff like Russian or French.
Rob, famous cosmetics brand "Max Factor" is after polish-jewish Maksymilian Michał Factor born in 1872 in the very middle of Poland - Zduńska Wola near Sieradz.
Eastern European thing may be offensive for some, but not for all Polish people. For me it’s not offensive. But real geographic center of European continent lays in Poland so it really is Central Europe. Besides that Polish people ethnically are slavic but culturally you can distinguish some differences between west slavs (Polish, Czechs, Slovaks), east slavs (Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians) and south slaves (Serbs, Croats, Slovenians). And historically, in the European field there were two main slavic powers Catholic Poland and Orthodox Russia. Both with completely different mentality and both fighting with each other for centuries. Poland with western values, democratic, liberal (but in classic meaning not leftist distortion) and Russia autocratic, where people are only statistic and they need to obey their lords. Polish people doesn’t want to be in the same group with Russia. That’s why there is this sensitivity over this central/ eastern discrimination.
Dumnym z bycia członkiem jakiegoś narodu może być ten, kto nie ma żadnych innych powodów do dumy.Dumnym można być z czegoś co jest naszą zasługą. Co osiągnęliśmy swoim staraniem, pracą, umysłem. Możemy być dumni ze swoich dzieci bo to nasze wychowanie sprawiło jakie są. Ale jaka to twoja zasługa ze urodziłeś się akurat tutaj a nie w Afryce, Azji czy na Grenlandii???
@@filipek124 100 procent racji .. i jeszcze płacisz nadmierne podatki .. żeby utrzymywać takiego pasie brzucha jak stany Zjednoczone. Które kontrolują wszystko co u nas się dzieje . Sterują nas do kolejnej wojny... politycy uciekną swoimi samolotami . Jak to było za 2 wojny światowej. Niczego sie nie nauczyliśmy. Usa i wielka Brytania zawsze rządzili polska po latach 70 .. Jeszcze nam wszystkim dupa wyjdzie amerykańska demokracja i wolność słowa.. patrząc na bliski Wschód i pozostałe kraje gdzie amerykanie zawsze uczestniczyli w wprowadzaniu niby pokoju 😅 .
@@filipek124 O rany jaki ty jesteś biedny człeczyna . Ja mam z czego byc dumna OSOBIŚCIE(w życiu prywatnym jak kazdy NORMALNY czlowiek) ,ale i jestem dumna z bycia Polka i z Polski mojej Ojczyzny , z polskiej historii ,tradycji i kultury bo MOI PRZODKOWIE oprócz swoich osobistych sukcesów PRZEZ WIEKI wkładali także swój własny wkład ,swoja wlasna cegielke w budowe naszej Ojczyznę ,cegiełki w kulturę ,cegiełki w rozwój ,cegiełki w podtrzymywanie polskości kiedy trzeba było by nie zginęła ,a także cegiełki z własnego życia walcząc w bitwach przeróżnych ,w powstaniach i w ostatnich dwóch wojnach oddawali za nią życie .Ty to jak widac albo bezpański pies nie nie znający własnych korzeni (wiec nie dziw ze tylko mozesz byc dumny tylko z siebie i własnej zagrody),albo podrzucony tu przez obcych element który nie ma zadnych zwiazkow z tą Ziemia ,z Polska ,która nie nie jest twoja ojczyzna .,albo jestes tylko ludzka wydmuszka .Nie rozumie takich wydmuszek chodzacych po ziemie i skad sie takie wydmuszki biorą ,Takie żywe wydmuszki to najbardziej żałośni ludzie na całej planecie. Wspolczuje więc z całego serca nawet jeśli sobie wmawiasz zes najszczesliwszym czlowiekiem na swiecie to tylko to sobie wmawiasz. Największym dramatem wydmuszki jest moment kiedy wydmuszka zrozumie ,ze jest tylko pusta wydmuszka .Filipek dorosnij jak najszybciej
1: Travel: we, Poles, travel very often around the whole country. It is a big country, and thanks to good communication, we are used to doing business, leisure, networking, and just chillin' inside Poland on a monthly / weekly basis. It is normal to live in Warsaw and work in Łódź, spend a weekend in Treecity, and go for an unplanned in advance one-day work trip to Cracow and come back the same day. And trains are still overcrowded. We don't usually fly between cities. That's why having a well-communicated country with a fast railway and good roads is a must and a blessing.
By the way, this house is located in a cultural park where you will find various interesting aspects of Poland, but also Polish emigration to Canada or Turkey. Yes, there is a Polish village in Turkey to this day. In this area of the park there is also a hotel with its own beer production. And in the hotel you can book rooms equipped with a personal beer tap. Yes, with your own beer tap in the room 🙂 I highly recommend this place. And welcome to the "Slavic Circle"
we also have other achievements like the world's first commander who fired a grenade launcher at the police station because he mistook it for a loudspeaker :D
We are not really shy when goes to speak other languages Polish is delicate and we feel it. Some little mistakes in speech could cause big issues. We always try hard to speak perfectly but we can’t so we stay silence or nervous 😅
There have been quite a few things you mentioned (or by Geography Now for that instance) and asked us to comment on, but I feel that most of it have already been commented on quite accurately. So I will share my opinion only on one, last topic and by that I mean our or at least (mostly) mine opinion on the UK as you asked for it. So from my personal view: the UK is in fact a rich, western country, just as you pointed out. Poland and UK have many differences of course: economic situation, political or simply perspective on the world from a geographical point of view. Personally, I would never say (and such though never structured me before) that the UK is showing off with its "money". Each country finds itself in a vastly different situation and carries a different heritage (and by that I mean culture or generally past history as well as wellness itself). It never came to my mind that I could judge a whole country just by the amount of money it has. As far as I know, the UK has been a strong ally of Poland in the matter of war in Ukraine, we got shared history through those people who needed to leave Poland in the time during WW2 and settled in the UK. We share joint responsibility for the vast amount of Polish citizens who live and work in the UK (google tells me that in 2021 there were 700 000 Poles on the isles). So far that's just a few things that came to me in a moment, but I can add as well personally that I have some family members in the UK living there for some time now, and our family business settled about 2-3 shops in London only. So when you ask me about Poles' opinion of the UK, I can't say anything more than what I already know from my point of view and some news I read in the newspapers. Summarizing: United Kingdom is a country much different from ours. There is no doubt it is a western country (in contradiction to what was said about Poland in the video ;)), tho we seem to share some opinions and responsibilities (let's call it such). The UK has its own problems and challenges, as well as Poland. The UK struggles to find its place after Brexit, while Poland struggles with the judiciary... I was about to say reforms, but let's settle with "complications" and "rule of law matter". We have much in common, we share many values. As I said before I have family and business stuff in the UK, so for me, it is maybe the closest place in UE, tho it is not so close by physical measure. Also, I have been there for about 2-3 months a few years ago, and I got to say it was a beautiful place at the time, and as well it was a wonderful time I spent there, I am sure I will get back there sometime in the future.
We Poles get kind of offended by calling Poland "Eastern European" because of our internal complex (I mean issue). You see, after WWII Poland was under the Iron Curtain for about 40 years. It was a really bad time, with a lot of bad things going on, like dumping milk in times of hunger or producing cars no-one could buy. This left a very deep, nation-wide scar in our mentality, that Eastern Europe is bad Europe. So when you say "Poland is Eastern European Country" we hear "Poland is 3rd category country". Not because this is true, definitely not because you mean it (I bet you didn't mean it that way), but because we are scarred from communist times. It is only now, we are getting healed from this complex. Gen Z is the first generation to be free from it. Even millennials who were born during change have this issue, this mindset of "we have to separate ourselves from the past poverty" even though things were starting to get good when we were born. Anyway, sorry for a long post, hopefully it was helpful. Here is a potato 🥔
... A może dlatego że jakby nie mierzyć i nie liczyć, to ciężko mówić o państwie który leży w całości lub w większości na zachód od punktu centralnego, że jest państwem wschodnim. Środek Europy leży w Suchowoli według jednych obliczeń, według innych na Ukrainie. Gdyby ktoś usilnie nazywał cię kobietą, mimo że nią nie jesteś, to pewnie też byś był zirytowany.
It's not a complex. The term Eastern Europe is almost always used as a way to show that Poland is somehow worse, uncivilized, etc. When people talk about Sweden do they say Northern Europe? Or when asked where is Germany - "Oh, Germany is in Western Europe"? Nah, everybody just calls it Europe. Only when it comes to Poland it's somehow Eastern.
This is what I like about the UK: 1. sarcastic sense of humour; 2. crime stories; 3. architecture (terraced houses, bay windows), 4. villages and country landscape; 5. cliffs and the sea; 6. Royal traditions; 7. individualism&conservatism; 8. politeness; 9. red double-decker buses; 10. fish&chips; 11. old middle-size towns; 12. white, transparent floating clouds; 13. palm trees and wild gardens; 14. love for animals, mostly cats.
Well, about this "eastern European" thing - yes, we don't like it because for us it sounds like a comparison to Russia and Poland wants so much to differ itself from them. A lot of foreigners think Poland is like Russia, we use cyrillic, it's always cold here (eventhough in some regions of Russia the people don't really know what the cold is...), we walk with bears etc., basically "eastern" for us means like "backward". Now we want to integrate with the West, we want to be western (sometimes even more western than the westerners...), we always underline our culturally Latin heritage, we have catholic, not orthodox culture, Poland culturally it's closer to Germany, France or England than Russia. So calling Poland "eastern Europe" for us looks like looking down on us.
As an Italian, you don't even have to have "culturally Latin heritage", be proud of your Slavic roots and your Western-style democracy! You have a beautiful country with an amazing Polish culture that I'd love to visit one day. Poland is pretty much in the north of Europe as well, which is known for being the more advanced part of Europe. You can always call yourself "Northeast" or even "North-central".
@@medeispagan There's a large monument in Lithuania marking the geographical centre of Europe (and that's what it is called if you want to look it up 😉). #thingsyoudiscoveronaroadtrip #youdontseethesethingsflyingpointtopoint #hashtagsarefun #hashtagscanbeannoying 🤣😂
I love you guys for your sense of humour. There is no more beautiful variety of english language than that UK (yes I know it depends on the region but still). I am fascinated by the English people's interest in the royal family. You guys are over-the-top and unmatched in smalltalks. A very rich culture and customs. I loved seeing the castles, even if they were just ruins. I lived in the UK for 2 years and can't wait to go back. Even for a weekend to breathe the English air.
Thank You Rob, I will share Your movie about my country to my foreign friends. It is so true and made in so funny way. I laughed a lot watching this video😁 btw Your ginger hair tall friend looks like face in Doom game front panel 😉
I don't speak fluent German, but have some in my music collection. The voices sou d nice and it's helping me to increase my understanding of the language
1:30 zwróć uwagę na alfabet łaciński w porównaniu do cyrylicy, Rosja jest też dosyć spora dlatego należymy do centrum geograficznie i kulturowo gdzie wschód spotyka się z zachodem.
Hi. I like your love for Poland. This is rather uncommon among the English people. You ask what Poles feel about England and the English. Surely each of us will have a different point of view. I was in London about 20 years ago. I know that a lot has changed in England and Poland. Of course, I have some typical experiences. Left-side traffic, double taps, pubs, big CD shops on Oxford St., black cabs… There were also "off-the-shelf" themes. I was very surprised that the typical farmer (the same as in Poland, a little unshaven, dirty and neglected) speaks fluently english (but what language would he speak ?). It's a bit strange, but when we were learning English, we didn't play scenes on the farm, but in the cinema, subway, shop or hotel. You know what I mean. The second big surprise was the fact that an ordinary worker, say a plumber, was going to play golf. In Poland, golf is a super elite sport. In the UK there are elite clubs and public clubs (not present in Poland). Another surprise was empty or closed churches. Not only Catholic but also Anglican. One of them was near where I lived. Today I checked google street view and there is … an escape room in this church. Escape from ... church. As for the English themselves, the whites were rather indifferently inaccessible, while the blacks were rather curious or sometimes threatening - they were looking for a provocation. I may write more about these historical associations later. Greetings, Tomek.
Anything I've got to say on this topic would start WWIII... Rob talks of gorgeous Polish women, when I was 17, I knew (for a short time) a truly gorgeous Polish man. Just wow!
About the music (~23:27) I believe it's just about listening to the music when flow of sounds and words is good, it does feel nice to listen. This is why so many people like to listen japanese and korean pop even tho they know not a single word - exactly the same thing as polish taxi driver listening to english songs without understanding the language.
I am from Poland. For me, the Western Europe is : Spain, France, Germany. While the Eastern Europe is : Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. So we place ourselves in the Central Europe because we are not like Western or Eastern countries. Poland is a completely different country than Russia and Belarus are. We are more developed, we have more human rights, we are in NATO, in the EU etc. I could add that we are from different civilizations. So if somebody calls us Eastern Europe, it's offensive because then we think that for that person we are like Russia or Belarus which is ULTRA HYPER TURBO OFFENSIVE. And if you think about it, "the West" consists whole EU, UK, USA, CANADA ETC. While the East consists Russia and China. WE HATE RUSSIANS. WE ARE NOT RUSSIANS AND WE CANT EVEN UNDERSTAND RUSSIAN LANGUAGE. PS GLORY TO UKRAINE !!!!!!!
I dont think we hate Russians. Live and let live others, but we dont like the country of Russia(cage of nations) and Rusians like Russia(as an Empire) thats lead to tensions. We dont like Russia because its tyranical bully, slave country that take part in participations. When Poland was off the map polish pepole where victims of Russification or Germanization our participators wish to "civilize us" that lead to 2 major uprisings. After regaining its independence Poland has major fight with comunist Russia in 1920 when comunist wish to bring Rusian regime to Europe thrue the corpse of Warsaw. For polish pepole WWII starts in1939 by invasion of Nazies Germany and Stalin comunist Russia atack Poland from bouth sides and cooperate in country subjugation. NKVD and SS had even common conferences. Rusian goverment send off polish citizens looking for refuge from nazies(partizans, Jews, civilians) till 1941. After WWII has ended due to geography Poland fall in to Rusian sphere of influences. Where western Europe rebiuld and develop itself after WWII Poland get comunist dictatorship, more or less pawns of Rusian regime. Loving freedom, free spirits like poles forced to live so many years under autocratic tyrany. So for polish pepole its nothing to like in Russia this country, its elites feads on its pepole(Tzars tyrany, Stalins tyrany, now its Putin tyrany). Slave country forcing its pepole against they will almoust in chains to invade other countries. Russins will still love their country its theirs motherland(like child loving its abiusive drunken parents) -they neighbours not so much.
yeah, well said. Historically, Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland were the same country, and you could even then see the difference between western and eastern part of this country, despite hundred years together, same king, government, people, etc. There even was special religion in Poland which mixed catholic with Orthodox church. Nowadays the difference is even bigger with all that EU and NATO stuff. So it is very clear to say if Poland is linking western and eastern europe since it was founded in 10th century, than it is exact center of europe. Poles are feeling offended if you asociate them with the east because of so much they did for the west and prove that they are more like western countries than russia.
Z tą chwałą dla Banderowców z UPA to cię poniosło droga Polko. O Wołyniu słyszałaś może? Jak Ukraińcy obdzierali Polaków żywcem ze skóry? Owszem Polska jest inna niż ci barbarzyńcy ale to nie my się umieściliśmy w tym miejscu tylko Stalin po 2 w.ś. przesunął nas na zachód w głąb Niemiec i stworzył Ukrainę na naszych wschodnich ziemiach. Zrobił to aby zasiać zamęt i niezgodę między Niemcami, Polakami i Ukraińcami aby łatwiej nami rządzić.
Eastern Europe was another name for Soviet bloc. The Soviet bloc is gone and the Eastern Europe has different meaning now. Those are post soviet countries they are not as rich as Western Europe. So Poland belongs to Eastern Europe.
About listening to songs in language you don't understand: sometimes it is kind of magical to listen to rythm of music without thinking about meaning of words. I for example don't know french but i like french songs.
Poland is not in Eastern Europe, but in Central Europe, because the border between Europe and Asia is where the Ural Mountains are. Look at the map, part of Russia to the Ural Mountains is in Europe. Then you will see that Poland is in the center of Europe
Copernicus could be a german origin - from his father side. But he was polish citizen and was defence Commander of Frombork fortres against Germans. He was loyal polish king"s liege. From XX century- please google "Commander Unrug". German aristocrat who became a Pole. There is only one ctiteria to be a Pole - you have to love Poland. That's all.
Im living in Poland, and Bledow Dessert is near city where I lived almost 28 years. Beautiful place, known mostly from TV series or movie "Four armored and a dog", where they are shooting it. About TV Series/Movie "Four armored and a dog" - is historical series about young guy with name Janek (played by Janusz Gajos) and their friends (and of course a dog named Szarik [in russian - Kulka, Furball]) in a world war 2 as a Rudy (Ginger) tank (T-34-85).
Yes it's true, there is a desert! It is currently degrading because it is overgrown with invasive Siberian pine. But the restoration process has begun. I grew up in close proximity to this desert. As a boy I used to run around it. There is a beautiful Jurassic region in the area.
About UK. Polish people in general like UK nowadays, but there still is some historical carefulness. Last few hundreds years interactions between Poland and UK were either fighting against each other (Poland was on Napoleon's side) or Poland was on UK side and was betrayed (This one is mostly about events in 1939 and 1945).
I think a lot of people In Poland don't like to speak english is because of the way it is/was taught - focused on grammar and tenses and what's not, and, at least at school, they were never pushed to actually speak the language beyond some rehearsed phrases. I mostly tought myself (my highschool english teacher was awesome and I will love her forever, but she couldn't focus on every student, there were 37 of us, and I took all I could from her lessons, but the ability to speak is on me). As soon as they shake off the shame of having an accent or making mistakes they are great.
I agree. The phonetic differences make it very difficult to actually speak English for a Pole, regardless of ones knowledge of it. I say that as a person that knows English at almost the same level as Polish, but almost never had a chance of using it verbally. Well, the reverse is also true... That being said, that way of teaching is common all around the world. It is academic learning of a language, contrary to an assimilation method of learning a language which children and foreigners that move to a country with a foreign language (and actually interact in it) learn. Though the assimilation method is becoming more common for courses and private schooling.
I've never been in UK but I've met a lot of british people, especially younger ones on many music festivals around Europe. They were very kind, I had a lot of talking with them and I never felt that they act as they're better or sth. They had a lot of fun, but that is why they came for. My feelings about British were always good.
Lines connecting the extreme points of Europe intersect in Poland: according to the calculations of Szymon Sobiekrajski from 1775, the geometric center of Europe is located in Poland in the town of Suchowola near Białystok (23°06'E and 53°35'N). meridional: 54°50'N - 49°00'N = 5°50' (649 km).
It's not eastern. Russia's european part is quite big. In Poland people associate the word "eastern" with Russia, with poverty, with Orthodoxy, with communism, etc. Łódż is not the 3rd biggest city in Poland anymore. Now it's Wrocław. Polish is very phonetic language and I really like it. Under your other video I wrote what I think is better in The UK, so now I'm going to write what is worse in my opinion: 1. Houses. Your houses are cold, 15-17 degrees during the winter time? My god, that's too cold for me. The houses are not insulated and often not even plastered, so heating is a nightmare. There is often mold and fungus on the walls. And your houses are quite weak (wooden structure and thin walls). And I don't like windows - definitely I don't like them in The UK. 2. The weather. I think I don't have to write too much about it. It's too rainy and for us, the Poles, the weather in The UK is like autumn all the year. 3. Boring and sad looking cities and towns (red brick everywhere). 4. You have not too many parcel locker's. 5. I used to live in Nottingham and Bristol, and I've never been very satisfied of Internet quality (speed and stable connection) from TalkTalk and Virgin. 6. Showing ID if you want to buy a knife or even a razor? Really? So if someone is 16yo, they has to ask mum to buy it? Lubricant? Cough syrup? That's really crazy.
Hi Rob. I just discovered your channel, watched few vids and I'm amazed about your enthusiasm. I probably feel the same towards the UK as I have spent there 11 years of my life. Cheers!
upside down house, from the outside it looks like a house standing on the roof. but once inside you have the feeling of walking on the ceiling. all senses go wild. you lose track of where is up, where is down.
23:13 you don't have to understand lyrics to enjoy a song. the same way how "Despacito" became very popular worldwide, even tho most people who listen to it don't understand spanish
I have seen here so many comments about eastern Europe issue, that has prooven Geography Now point for you - it is like that. Some people take it with geographical point of view, some take it from cultural point of view. Both are correct. Western countries see Poland as eastern country because of A) we are Slavs. B) Poland was behind Iron Curtain as one of soviet country (not from our own will). As veles_pl wrote, Poland is bridge between eastern and western culture. Polish people were originated from eastern nation Slavs, but often we were taking western standards since the beginning of our country in 10th century AD. In Poland there is architecture you will not find east of us. For people of the West, eastern Europe starts here, but in the same time, for people of the East, western Europe starts here as well. There is a joke that French going to eastern Europe and Russian going to western Europe (both for the first time), find themselves in Warsaw for a switch of a transport before further journey. They both getting out, streaching their arms, look around and say, so this is how it looks like. Yes, Poles consider themselves as central europeans, nor west, nor east, just central.
Rob then you don't know yet another very interesting place in Poland, which is located in the Świętokrzyskie Mountains (the oldest mountains in all of Europe). The city of Starachowice is located there and there is a historic Iron Blast Furnance from 1899. The Iron Blast Furnace with the entire machine park has been preserved to this day. In the place where it stands, the Museum of Nature and Technology was created. Every year on the last weekend of August there is a concert of blues bands called Blues under the great furnace.
Before Yalta Poland was not in Eastern Europe and Poles are Western Slavs since over 1000 years and long time before that they were Venedic People which were living under different names , but of course not connected to the Slavs by official narration in Western-Prussian Schools , mean Berlin-Vienna (forget about G.Kossina -allochtonic theory and VI AD). By geographic point of view Austria also must be Eastern country :) So easy to put one nation to one bag with others , for example: someone hears the Polish language and asks a question - "are you Russian?" Slavs is a big family (over 300mln) and is different - only us we can recognize ourselves by our languages or even by the face. Look at Africans , are you able to to say from which part of Africa or country are come from , or try to recognize difference between Korean and Chinese. Someone forget that all nations in Europe are Indo-Europeans and comes from East - the same homeland -> Ural area. In conclusion all people from Europe are Eastern-Europeans without any exception. So , when you are English and need to tag your type of race - which is Caucasian and your DNA comes from East part of Europe, are you still from the West ?
English was intorduced to polish schools after after 1989 and it became popular much later on, before (and for some time even after that) the mandatory second language was russian. That's why the younger population speaks english and older not so much. As to why they're shy, the school teaches us primarily for the purpose of passing the matura exam (written and spoken), but speaking on lessons is basically also for passing. They don't teach us (there are exceptions!) to use english in real life situations. We're basically scared to speak in case we make mistakes (basically what school teaces us: you make mistake you get lower grade)
I am a little late to the party but as an English teacher I can offer some insight into Polish people knowing but not speaking English. Polish style of teaching English is very encyclopedic, puts great weight on all the complex structures and nuances but with little to none practical use involved. I came through the Cambridge style schooling which puts a lot more attention to actually speaking and doesn't fuss that much about grammar and while CAE exam was not a problem and I am very confident with my English I believe I wouldn't be able to pass it's Polish equivalent to get C1 at English.
We are not mad to be call East Europeans we are mad of steorotyps/ conotation Westerners have when they say East. Backwards, poor, Russia etc so we insist to Central Europe. Especially that if you drawn a line beween Spain west cost and ural mountain - the middle point will be in Poland....
Slavic languages are like Romance languages as in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and partially French, they can get the gest from the conversation between those languages same as Slavic languages. Poland and Polish people have always thought of Brits as allies especially in the 20th century and have always looked up them and held them in high regard.
Popłynąłeś na gównie,aż się niedobrze robi. Nigdy nie uważaliśmy Anglii za sojusznika,bo nigdy w historii nie mieliśmy ku temu powodu. W epoce napoleońskiej byliśmy w stanie wojny i walczyliśmy przeciwko sobie,w czasie zaborów, które Anglia popierała, powstania narodowe uważała za przestępstwo,a po odzyskaniu niepodległości,to Anglicy sprzeciwiali się naszym dążeniom,popierali Niemcy i byli wrogo nastawieni do Powstań Śląskich oraz nie uznali sukcesów Powstania Wielkopolskiego. Pomimo zawartego między naszymi państwami sojuszu,w lipcu i sierpniu 1939 zorganizowali konferencję w Abbeville,na której domagali się od Francji nie podejmowania działań zbrojnych na wypadek niemieckiej inwazji i w efekcie,oba kraje nie wywiązały się z umów jakie z nami zawarły. Podjęli się Anglicy misji wywiezienia naszych rezerw złota,podczas której ukradli ponad 50 ton kruszcu. Nastepne 75 to zabrali za pomoc w repatriacji Polaków z łagrów sowieckich i jeszcze 143 tony za walkę naszych żołnierzy po stronie Anglii. Nie wiem więc po co piszesz takie brednie,robiąc z siebie debila. Mając takich przyjaciół,nie potrzeba nam wrogów.
23:13 It's all about our curriculum. We are being taught to understand a lot and even in some cases translate both ways but we are not taught how to speak. We know how to listen, how to read and even write but not really how to speak. There is another kind of thing - we actually are rised like "If you are not perfect in something there is 80% chance you are not worth to do it", that may be a reason why we are so shy to actually speak even some simple sentences (it is actually changing but there is a long way ahead).
Yes. I would get slightly offended, or more if you called Poland "eastern Europe". It's mainly a historical and/or cultural thing. When people say "Eastern Europe", let's be honest, they mostly mean Russia. And ANY association with Russia and the Eastern Block sits very badly with Poles. We don't want anything to do with them. There are cultural differences, obviously political differences. Russians have abused this country for most of its existence, they were one of 3 reasons why Poland disappeared from the map for 123 years and they're the main reason why any industrial and economic progress, which was pretty fast between the two World Wars, pretty much fucking stopped for half a century. The Poles don't want to be associated with Russia and its backwards... everything, in any way. And by calling Poland (which is to the west of the geographical centre of Europe) you're basically doing just that
To be honest honest, I have said Poland as Eastern Europe. But because UK is to the west, its just in my mind that Poland Is East. But culturally I see Poland similar to the other Slavic countries. Ukraine, Czech, Belarus etc.
@@RobReacts1 say whatever you want brother, nobody will assault you for that, just keep in mind that you can see a frown when you do say that to a pole :D
@@RobReacts1 If you want to, just say Slavic, nobody would get mad. But Poland just isn't Eastern. It's just a fact. It's as Central as it gets Europe ends all the way by the Ural Mountain Chain
@@RobReacts1 actually here’s where the cultural line of division lies. Poland is really similar to Czechia and Slovakia, since we are all Western Slavic nations. However, Ukraine and Belarus are Eastern Slavs, just like Russians and these nations share similar values and lifestyles, quite different front the one we have here.
I've been living in London for 10 years now. I've got used to it so much, that for me Poland is a country you go for holiday to. I like England and English people. I still consider myself as a patriot though.
And again: Błędowska Desert - the sole and unique sandy desert in Europe, a stone throw from Cracow (Klucze, Bukowno directon) If you like Cracow and visit it sometimes, it worth to go and see. Sandy in the past and now, although it was partially devastated by trials of forresting undertook in fifties of last century. Now restored to natural. And some add: for years used by armies for practicing and manouvers. Not only by Poles, but during IIWW also by Rommel's troops (Africa Korps) before African campaign.
Łódź isn't third airport in Poland. City is to close to Warsaw. 3rd is Gdańsk or Katowice. 5th is probably Modlin and then 6th Wrocław. But yes, Łódź is 3rd population bigest city in Poland. Greetings, Adam.
Wrocław był na 3 miejscu pod kątem wielkości miasta, Łódź była na 4, odwrotnie było pod kątem ilości mieszkańców. Obecnie Wrocław zajmuje 3 miejsce w obu tych kategoriach.
If you are enjoying my Polish Reaction Videos, why not go check out our vlog channel where we have visted poland!
th-cam.com/play/PLw4JaWCFm7FeHG7Ad5PtaZzoYd1Vq5EXW.html
@Julia Poland thanks Julia. I am just me! I'm glad you enjoy the content 😊
@Julia Poland ✌️
If you take a map of Europe and connect the westernmost point with the easternmost point you will get one line then take the northernmost point and the southernmost point and you will get a second line and both of these lines will intersect in Poland which means that Poland lies in the very center of Europe as a continent
@@maciejsiwa3931 Dokładnie, exactly.👍
Yeah stereotypes... so why Sweden is not concerned eastern European or Finland
Geographically Poland is EXACTLY in the center of Europe. So it's not the matter of being offended, it's a matter of being educated... 😉
But, also, it was (and still is) a narrative that's pushed to show people that even if we may not be a western European country, we are also very different from Russia, the ultimate eastern european country, and it's politics, and we should be seen as a different category. Personally I'm not offended, In many ways we are closer to the East of the continent than the West, but I appreciate it if people recognize that Poland is not In the same block as Russia and Belarus. And I hope Ukraine will join us soon, In the virtual "yeah you are In the East but separate from Russia and share quite a lot with West so Central is perfect I guess" team.
So apparently, it is you who haven’t been educated. In Anglo-Saxons world, Europe is divided to only four parts - south, west, east and north. Centre is not distinguished. Poles seem to not understand it. Pozdro
Marek. EXACTLY!
@@parziiich Indians do not live in India even if Anglo-Saxons call them so....
Sweet;) Dyskusja pozamiatana💪👏👏
The thing with Eastern/Western Europe is not at all about the geographic location of the country (although, keep in mind Europe does not end on Ukraine, and reaches as far as Ural mountains in Russia which makes Poland real center of the continent). The true meaning of being Central Europe is the fact how much this country, and of course few others like Czechia or Slovakia is blending both worlds together. They are Slavic countries but use Latin alphabet, are catholic, historically have closer ties with Western Europe than with Russia, adopted many western customs and traditions, while at the same time preserving eastern Slavic ones to some degree. They are constantly a bridge between Western civilization and the East, which we can especially see now with the strong voice Ukraine and Belarus (democratic opposition I mean) have in the West being primarily the Polish one. And it also feels wrong when we're being called Eastern Europe because of the past meaning it is still carrying, the one in which West is describing Eastern Europe as poor, underdeveloped, wild even, which is no longer the case.
exactly ❤
well said 👍
Also the geographical center of Europe is in Polish village Piątek, which is almost in the middle of Poland...
We in Eastern Europe know that it’s still not the case, Western Europe still lives in a Western bubble and suffers with superiority complex.
@Julia Poland you realising that any country located in that region is taught that the geographical centre of Europe is at their location.
Polish, Germans, Czechs, Slovaks are all taught that- you just need to take different corners of Europe to make your country the centre part of Europe. 🤷♀️
Jest jeszcze jedna bardzo ważna sprawa o której nikt nie mówi. W momencie kiedy straciliśmy niepodległość zniknęliśmy z map świata ale Państwo podziemne cały czas istniało (sądownictwo, szkolnictwo, kultura etc.) Dlatego udało nam się zachować naszą tożsamość. ;)
For people that didn't understand the above and would like to:
"There is another very important thing that nobody talks about. When we lost independence and disappeared from the maps of the of the world, the Underground Country still existed (judiciary, education, culture etc.). That's why we managed to hold onto our national identity."
Well, there's a lot of people that actually talk about it though, seeing as Poland is the only country in history that managed to achieve that. But yeah. It is a big thing in maintaining the heritage and culture.
@@kikixchannelJe constate qu'à force de vouloir accueillir tout le monde avec le sourire, vous allez devenir ce que la France est devenue.
Si vous voulez savoir ce que je veux dire, venez à Paris... vous serez le seul blanc dans beaucoup de quartiers, mais attention à vos filles, à vos affaires et à votre vie.
@@XXIVVIII First, I don't understand French. I threw your post into Google Translate, but that's not exactly reliable, so yeah.
Second, what Google Translate showed me suggests that your post has zero relevance to anything I wrote in my post. It's a completely different topic.
@@kikixchannel Spróbuję sam wytłumaczyć, ale niestyty mój poziom w polskim języku jest teraz bardzo niski, bo już od bardzo dawna więcej nie mówię po Polsku. Jestem Francuz z pochodzenia Polskiego urodzony w Francji.
Co chciałem powiedzieć to że coraz więcej otworzyliście kraj do całego świata, i navet arabom i murzynom, wszyscy musulmani rozmnażają się jak .... , i wołają całą plemię do was.
Są takie filmiki TH-cam po francusku, w których czarni mówią że u was jest życie tanie, łatwo się zorganizować, kuchnia dobra, dziwki łatwe itd.
U nas za póżno, ale wy nie dajcie się, nie poddajcie się.
Warto zwiedzić Paryża i tak zrozumieć co was grożi.
@@XXIVVIII Ja wiem o co Ci chodzi, ale to nie na temat.
Poza tym Polska i Polacy nie lubią kiedy im się mówi co mogą a co nie mogą robić w swoim kraju. Nie lubią też jak inni przyjeżdżając do Polski robią co im się podoba.
Francja przyjmowała obcokrajowców a potem chodziła na paluszkach wokół nich. Dlatego skończyła tak jak skończyła. Obcokrajowcy byli chronieni i pielęgnowani. To samo się teraz dzieje w Hiszpanii.
W Polsce nie zapowiada się by tak było, chociaż niektóre grupy polityczne...pewnie by to wprowadziły. To jednak prawie na pewno doprowadziłoby do strajków i problemów wewnętrznych.
To rozróżnienie na kraje w których "Gość musi się dostosować do narodu" a nie "Naród musi się dostosować do gościa" ma duże znaczenie.
0:58 I will quote Ronald Reagan: "The distances from Warsaw to Moscow and from Warsaw to Brussels are identical. The sign says that Poland is neither in the east nor in the west. Poland is the center of European civilization. She really contributed a lot to the formation of this civilization. It does so today in a significant way, refusing to be oppressed."
If someone does not know where the European continent ends and where the Asian one begins, they can of course be wrong to say that Poland lies in Eastern Europe.
While living in Cyprus, I worked with one Czech woman. Sometimes when we talked, I spoke Polish and she spoke Czech. The Cypriots could not understand how this was possible
Ja miałem to samo z Czechem jak pracowaliśmy w Niemczech.
Czech and especially Slovakian language are much closer to Polish than Russian, when I meet Slovakians in England where we all gone for work, we could understand each other
That can happen with Czechs and Slovaks, but it may require several beers to work.
@@SomeSkeptic Poles, Czechs and Slovaks understand beer language ;]
1. Yes, I feel offended when being called eastern european
2. Łódź isn't the 3rd biggest city anymore. Wrocław is
3. "Laccucia & subsribuccia" literally killed me XD
4. We like English songs even if we don't speak English, because the language is melodic and enjoyable to listen to for us
5. Yes. Chopin, Copernicus AND Maria Skłodowska-Curie (Curie being her husband's lastname) were Polish
6. No, we (nowadays) do not understand russian language. Maybe there are few similar words, but overall it's completely different. Our parents/grandparents had to learn it in schools hovewer.
7. Polish people are often afraid to speak English because they think they do not know it well enough and that they will be laughed at or misunderstood. That's our mentality. We have to be able to do something very well in our opinion in order to show it to someone else.
Great video! Greetings from Poland :)
I guess I pronounced Like and Subscribe wrong then :D Thats what google told me when we were in Poland haha
alos we learn not that long ago german in school not english like i have 24 years and i learn german but 23 and below start learn english
About nr.7 so true about polish people.
@@Darlf_Sevil sounds weird, Im 32 so im 8 years older than you and I had English in the primary school
@@Skorpion1991 so you have luck bsc 99% school at this time have still germany i have english later like in tech
Rob, Joseph Conrad, famous british writer was a Pole. His original name: Józef Konrad Korzeniowski. Born in Berdyczów (today Ukraine) in noble polish family in 1857. His father was deeply involved in independency movements, especially during January Upraising in 1863. Korzeniowski family was sent, in frame of russian repression after upraising , to Siberia. In 1873 young Józef Korzeniowski escaped from Siberia to Western Europe.
Reportedly, even though he mastered the English language in writing, he spoke with a distinct Polish accent all his life.
Copernicus wasn't "technically German". His mother was from a German speaking minority (his father was Polish) and he was born in the Royal Prussia which was a province of Poland (unlike the Dukal Prussia which was a Poland's fief). He was a Polish citizen and a loyal subject of the Polish king. He was born in Poland and lived there all his life with the exception of his studies in Italy (after completing his studies in Kraków). He also negotiated with Germans on behalf of Poland, and at some point he even led the Polish army against Germans.
Similar issue with Chopin and Sklodowska-Curie- in Western Europe known only by her French surname, Curie.
Not to mention case of cracking the Enigma cypher- there was a movie a few years ago that only briefly mentioned Marian Rejewski.
When you have money you make history.
Copernicus . "His mother was from a German speaking minority."
His maternal background is H4a, which is haplo subgroup H.
H4a Poland posses 5% of population that is the biggest concentration in Europe. Second is Ireland 3% of population. That's why there's so much controversy if she was Polish or not.
I posses those genes and my maternal ancestors came to Europe 9,000 years ago via Caucasus. In central Europe they lived around 5,000 years ago. BTW, he was my distant cousin and his family lived relatively near my family. Regarding his father, probably his ancestors were Visigoths which destroyed all male side.
Lord Colin Renfrew | Marija Redivia: DNA and Indo-European Origins
cdn.
In her book, she spoke about that subject.
Południk zerowy przebiega przez Kraków? - Dr Franc Zalewski.
In XV century when Copernicus lived there was no Prussia, there was Poland since 966 till 1795. Albo inaczej, czemu uwłaczasz Kopernikowi? Hołd Pruski nie ma nic do rzeczy jak Śląsk dzisiaj
@@natalias50 Tłumaczysz Polakowi po angielsku żeby dbał o polski interes :)))Jemu to albo zwisa albo lubi umniejszać Polsce i Polakom. Już mu odpisałem po Angielsku i po naszemu :) Nie domyśliłaś się jak pisał o Hołdzie Pruskim? Dla niego Kopernik, Kościuszko i Skłodowska to bohaterzy rewolucji Amerykańskiej a nie Polacy.
Miło, że piszesz o Enigmie, kolejna zasługa 3 zapomnianych Polaków. I like what you have wrote to that guy who claim he is a Pole but he is twisting our history
@@jannowak2352 are you writing to me or just in general?
I am from Germany with Polish roots on my mother's side. I listened to a lot of English music in the 80s and did not understand anything of it until I had some years of English at school. So not being able to understand the texts doesn't mean you don't enjoy the music 🙂
Rob to the part about speeking English. I live in Kraków. I work for Swedish corporation and most of my co-workers are from USA. Sometimes I use English phrases even without thinking. But I'm fully aware that my grammar is bad. I was ashamed becaurse of it and for long time I avoided to talk to anyone in English. Later on I realized that even if I sound funny for natives at least I have a chance to comunicate. And for English-speaker learning Polish is almost mission impossible ;)
For me, I appreciate when people try in the first place. Don't be ashamed ☺️
1:00 Such a reminder, Europe is not the European Union. Europe ends at the Urals. And that makes the middle of the continent more or less near Warsaw.
More like 40ish kilometers from Łódź, village Piątek is the geographical center of Europe.
Europe is not only a geographic concept of a continent, but also a cultural/civilizational concept, which has changed over the centuries, such as through the conquests of Islam. The glue of European culture was Christianity. Russia was never part of Europe. It is a different civilization. Polish historian Feliks Koneczny presented his own concept of civilization. Europe was Latin civilization - today we would call it Western civilization. He classified Russia as a Turanian civilization. Let me quote; "Formed in antiquity in the areas of the Great Steppe. It has not developed permanent social ties higher than ancestral; instead, the population unites for war purposes into ords, which, if successful, can assume powerful proportions, but are not permanent and disintegrate with the death of the leader or his defeat. All political activity within this civilization is military in nature, according to Koneczny. The rulers are not bound by morality (hence Koneczny spoke of the individualism of this civilization). It did not develop any of the sciences, but quickly assimilated any inventions in the military field. It recognizes the equality of monogamy, polygamy and concubinage. Seemingly religious indifferentism prevailed, but religion was often used as a cause of wars within its framework, while it had NEVER influenced public morality or social relations.
Europe ends at the eastern border of Poland. Beyond are only savages. You should learn history. Ural mountains are border of geografical Europe. Borders are made by people and monsters like Soviets but not by lines on the map, those can be and has been changed many times. maybe for Americans it is hard to understand but wars change borders.
@@jannowak2352 Europe definitely does not end at the eastern border of Poland, neither politically nor culturally nor geographically. There is the end of Europe only in your head.
Not offended at all as obviously been a part eastern block so I guess this is where it comes from but it don't matter we are Poland unique one and only 😊 thanks for your commitment in introducing Poland the way you do mate ❤
The location of Poland is not a matter of geography but of culture. Poland is a mixture of eastern and western culture. So that makes it kind of the center. Two Europes collide in Poland. Personally, as a Pole, I appreciate it very much.
Seriously? What your ancestors hunted, what they built their houses from or where they lived defines the culture of a country. It is enough to trace the development of the language of a nation to know what defined it in what period.
Geography matters a lot. A man from Polynesia or the Arctic Circle perceives reality differently.
Poland is geograpically Central Europe ....economically we are "eastern" but when it comes to geography,it is a fact.
What exactly do you appreciate, if you don't mind me asking?
Ever since Poland accepted the Western Roman Catholic vein of Christianity (rather than the Byzantine Eastern type like the Serbs or Ruthenians), it became a part of the Western culture. Polish cities were built by Western engineers, mostly from Germany but also from the Netherlands and other Western European states. It was through Poland, that Western culture would slowly be pushed towards the East, mostly to its closest ally the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and all the lands that would eventually become a part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (a modern politically correct name, back in the days it was just called "Poland" for short, especially in Western Europe, and "Rzeczpospolita" within the PLC itself).
So that's it when it comes to cultural roots. Naturally, Polish culture, due to its geographical proximity would also be impacted by Turkey and Russia which led to extravagant Eastern style of clothing that one wouldn't find in Western Europe but in terms of the political mentality, unlike the Russian Tsardom, Poland-Lithuania was very much Western, resembling early parliamentary democracy in England, also with a union of state quite similar to that of England and Scotland (where Scotland, just like Lithuania, would eventually replace its original language in favour of English and a new common "British" identity would arise for all the members of the United Kingdom -> in case of Poland-Lithuania it was the concept of "Gente Lithuanus, natione Polonus").
In purely geographical terms, since it was accepted by the 19th century geographers, that the agreed upon border of Europe lies at the Ural mountain range, countries like Slovakia, Czechia and Poland do lie more or less in the geographical centre of Europe.
The only reason Poland is considered 'Eastern' nowadays is only because of Stalinism and the Iron Curtain which divided Europe into these two political and economic blocs, where no separate "centre" to spreak of existed at all. The Iron Curtain fell over 30 years ago but it's not easy to change people's habits.
To be fair our national unificayion has been backed by British demograf and polititian Curzon
Rob, Maria Salomea Skłodowska was born into polish noble family in 1867 in Warsaw as a fith and last child.
Poland is as much Eastern europe as UK is Rain Forest. Rain is a key word here😂
I've been to Poland 22 times now. Love it! I started in Krakow, but been to far more interesting places. The mountains (Zakopane), lake district (Giżycko, Sterławki Wielkie, Ostróda, Olsztyn). You will fall in love with Wroclaw, Gdansk, Sopot and you must go and ride the boats over the hills in Elbląg.
To you question about English in Poland.
People here understands english very well. They probably fear about speaking to you, cause they probably think their speaking abilities are not so good. :)
Yes thats exactly what I mean. A lot of younger Poles have learnt english very well, but actually speaking it is a bit tougher :)
@@RobReacts1 I remember, when I came to The UK, and in Nottingham I asked someone, where is Boots... well. I pronounced "Boots" in polish way (short and fast) and the guy didn't understand me... and after a while, when I repeated the word two or three times, he said "ooooohh, Booooots" pronouncing the word like he wanted to scare me (very strong "b") ;DDD
It was very surprising how important in English is the way you speak. In Polish usually we pronounce our words fast (no "oooooooo", "uuuuuuuu", "aaaaaaaa", etc.), but in my opinion for us is easier to understand if a foreigner speak polish. I remember I felt like a dumb and my thoughts were like "oh my god, I already said "Boots... just a bit different... why he didn't understad me?" :)
Hi mate,
Most of the Poles are understand your English language...You need to try to learn another language,so then you can understand why people afraid to make mistakes...English speaking people have no motivation to learn any languages,because anywhere they go people can understand them....We Poles we live in Eastern Europe and I don't really understand why some Poles trying to be Central,we should be proud to be Eastern Europeans.Geopolitacally speaking now it's our geography will help us to be the most important country in Europe etc...Maybe one day Brits will come to Poland to work for us...times are changing....who knows...
It was a good video,you need to go to Poland-not only Krakow and stereotypes...Kind Regards.Grzegorz🍀
@@gregboe6469 You should learn geography. Large part of Russia is part of Europe. Russia is not an Asian country. Russia is Eurasian country.
@@kikixchannel Poland is eastern Europe Fakt!I am not sure if you fully understand my comment.You should learn Geography yourself mate Some Polish trying very hard to explain English people they central Europeans,but for them French,Germans are cental,we are eastern from most West countries point of you.We should be proud about it...not ashamed...
As a swede i really never considered poland eastern european - slavic yes but not eastern.
Not that the word "eastern" really mean anything.
But im from the arctic at the finnish border so technically im closer east than west hehe
I suppose it's just because in the UK were to the west and we forget how big Russia is.
@Julia Poland I confirm your grandparents story. My granny told me the same and I trust her more than anything - she had to survive the time of war.
@Julia Poland That's why we share these common genes😊! I mean, because of the war between Sweden and Poland...😉
@@RobReacts1 Nah, it's about the Iron Curtain which divided Europe into two blocks - the East under Soviet influence (the so-called Warsaw Pact) and the West under American influence (NATO). Historically Poland was always part of the Western / Latin civilization ever since it became a Christian country and would later Christianize a Pagan country to the north-east of it, ie. Lithuania (that's how basically the union of the two countries slowly began).
As for Poles being sensitive about being called Eastern, it's because we don't like to be associated with Russia and in purely geographic terms, central Europe is countries like Czechia, Germany, Poland & Austria. What you guys in the West often forget is that the continent of Europe ends at the Ural mountains, so we need to imagine Russia ending there and then you should be able to see it with your eyes why Poland actually lies in the center of Europe more or less. :)
The European border ends in the Urals. So, by all, it can be said that Poland is in Central Europe. This is also about some negative associations with the term East (e.g. Russia, etc.).
Honestly, we listen to music in other languages simply bcs it SOUNDS good. We love the rythm, if it's something catchy we like to dance to it. Linkin park made me WANT to learn english even. It was the music of my childhood (bcs my brothers were listening to it).
So yeah, we just like how it sounds
So true. We only listen to music that sounds alright. Mostly we don't even understand the lyrics
When you think of Silesia or Kaszubia, think of Scotland. Formally a part of the UK, but with their own distinct culture, tradition, dialect, strong sense of identity, etc. :)
25:56 tallest mountain in Australia is Mt Kosciuszko. Tho evidently our pronunciation is nothing like the original, as was explained and demonstrated by the tour guide on a walking tour of Warsaw I was on. She laughs every time she hears an Aussie say it!
Kosciuszko was a war hero for the Americans, but the reason your mountain is called that way, is because a Polish explorer, Paweł Edmund Strzelecki, together with the Australian James Macarthur, were the first people we know of, to climb its summit. :) Anyway, Polish people absolutely love Aussies, you guys are fantastic! (although your fauna is kinda scary haha)
Poland is geographically central Europe. Do you know were Ural Mountains are? They separate Europe from Asia. East Europe is a huge part of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. The central Europe is Poland, Czech, Slovakia.
Maybe they don't know that part of Russia belongs to Europe, too.
@@dorotamaty888 yeah, I think to many people it seems like Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Belarusian and Ukrainian border with Russia is where Europe ends. There is no visible line on Ural Mountains on a map that's why they can't see the real eastern part of this continent. Probably they should draw this Europe-Asia border on a map so that everyone sees where on the east Europe ends
Właśnie o to chodzi!!!! Europa geograficznie kończy się na Uralu i to daje pozycję Polsce w środkowej Europie a nie na Litwie, Łotwie, Estonii czy dokąd oni to tam uznają granice Europy. Mogą też powiedzieć, że Polska leży na wschód od nich ale nie że na wschodzie Europy.
@@sylwiawajda9866 Most of Europeans don't look at Europe like that though. They look at it by country, not by geography. So the Germanic region is considered central, whereas the slavic part is considered eastern and roman parts are considered western. To be honest, that is more or less how it is. Its not so much about where the Ural is, as that is insignificant no-mans-land in Russia. The Europe/Asia border in Istanbul is much more of a reference for other Europeans, than the Ural. By that border, Poland is very much eastern. We also don't consider the UK or the baltic countries to be northern Europe, just because they are located above mainland Europe. Poland is part of the western world, but Poland is one of the eastern most country geographically in that regard. But anyways, what difference does that make? Whether its eastern or central, Poland is still Poland.
@sylwiawajda9866
If it is just a simple geographical mistake, then why get so offended about it. No, there is more to it.
If you want to know what Poles think about England and the English in their hearts, read the history of Dyzision 303. And how England dealt with its members after winning against Germany. When you understand this, you will know what Poles think about England.
To jest pikuś, ci idioci wymusili na naszym rządzie zapłate za korzystanie z ich sprzętu podczas wojny ,w której to ich dupy ratowaliśmy.
Well written. I would also mention 1939 and broken guarantees by UK. Nation that doesn't keep own promises.
I like England
I love Kraków . I’m leaving Poland in two weeks . I love your videos. Thank you ! Great content!!!❤
Thank you
Rob, I must say, your reaction to wanting Great Britain as our best friend was simply priceless! 💛
We don't harbor any ill will towards British people, but I must admit that we haven't quite labeled them as our BFFs just yet. However, we're totally open to expanding our social circle. Personally, I've developed quite a liking for British folks and their charming accents. I really love British accent! I definitely like British people more than Americans as I just don't understand their super enthusiastic behaviour. And I think Polish people can interpret such overly optimistic behaviour ambiguously or even as insincere. We appreciate many british musicians and bands like: Queen, Pink Floyd, Sting. And we love Monthy Python (I mean many of us love).
And speaking about cultures, I would like to clarify one thing. You see, we're not exactly intolerant towards other nations; it's just that we can be a tad bit picky about the cultures we embrace within our own borders. When people come to visit or live in Poland, we simply expect them to play by our rules. And that's why we may have some reservations about accepting immigrants from Africa. It's not that they're not lovely people, but, um, let's just say cultural blending can sometimes be a challenge. On the other hand, we absolutely adore Ukrainian immigrants because they seamlessly fit into our society, like they were born to be here. We share such similar vibes, you know?
As a tourist, we don't expect you to be a walking encyclopedia on Polish culture or even have mastered simple greetings like "dzień dobry" or "do widzenia." Nope, not necessary! English will do just fine for communication in Poland. But, oh boy, if you're planning to settle down here, we'd really appreciate it if you learn Polish and show some love for our culture. It's like joining an exclusive club-only those who know the secret language and appreciate the quirky customs get the full experience 😀
Anyway, thanks for doing what you do! It really warms my heart to see your love to our country and people! And your are very welcome here in Poland my british brother! You and your wife of course! But You have to visit more places than Kraków! Come and visit Silesia region! Thats were I come from. There is a lot to see here like coal mines (yes, you can actually go down there), mountains, museums and many other places. And You will be suprised to hear Silesian language as its very similar to German. And Silesians are very, very open, helpful, and friendly.
Cheers!
Several comments on the video:
1) Speaking English.
In the old days, i.e. in communist Poland, before 1990, people did not learn English. It was obligatory to learn Russian in schools, though. After 1990 it slowly started to change, but in a manner which I call an old way, and by that I mean putting emphasis on grammar rather than conversation. So, if you meet a Polish person who understands you, but has problems with speaking, it may be because this person tries to recall all the rules and thinks if Past Perfect, Present Perfect or perhaps Past Perfect Continuous should be used? In Polish there are only three tenses (past, present, future), so it may not be that easy to use correct one in English, especially when you have been tought years by years that this is the most important part of the language.
For younger ones, and for those, who have spent some time abroad, it may be easier to communicate as they focus on the message they need to communicate rather than on using gramatically correct tense. Perhaps it's because they are aware that in spoken language the meaning can be understood given a context of a conversation, and even if not, and someone does not get it, you can always clarify it later on, when asked.
2) Geography.
This map that you have seen shows pretty much geographic boundaries of Europe. So is Poland on eastern side? I would say it's exactly in the center. Old definition of regions was related to Western/Eastern Bloc divided by Iron Curtain, but... three remarks here. First, Iron Curtain (as we knew it back then) has fallen, so this division is no longer applicable. Second, Eastern Germany was also in Eastern Bloc. Yet most of the people would classify it (as a part of Germany now) as Western Europe. So in both cases it would be rather Central Europe. And last but not least, if by 'Europe' are you referring to European Union, it is perfectly acceptable to name Poland as a country in the east, not to mention that also Polish politicians are proud to be on the east flank of the EU.
Answering: I would not find it offensive,
3) Kraków.
I have no idea why they have showed the Barbican, and from a wrong side, instead of e.g. Wawel Castle or the Main Square, which is the largest medieval town quare in Europe and is enlisted as Unesco World Heritage List (as Historic Centre of Kraków).
Also, Wieliczka is a must-see with its salt mine.
4) Passing thru railroads
Even with no high-speed lines it will be easier to go through Poland than other countries. The alternative for Poland is to go through Slovakia and Czech Republic, and those countries are placed in a mountains, so it's much more complicated to get through them than to get through Poland.
When it comes to motorways, Poland has A4 from Ukraine to Germany, others are still in construction.
5) To understand Polish...
First you need to learn about polish winged hussars. A Polish pride, called the most beautiful cavalry in the world, which could beat fourty (yes, that's 40) times stronger enemy. With polish saber whicn some consider the best weapon of those times. Polish winged hussars were the only ones who conquered Moscow in 1610, and stayed there for over two years, the day of freeing Moscow is up to this day a holiday in Russia. Polish winged hussars came to Vienna in September 1683 under the command of King John Sobieski the Third, to honour the treaty of Holy League, and to protect the Golden Apple and Europe from Ottoman Empire. This was the day when Ottomans fell and never regained its strength ever after. Funny fact was that when Austria was a side in partitions of Poland and took some 20% of its territories, one of two countries who never accepted this, was... Ottoman Empire. A little bird told me that Rohan charge in Lords of the Rings is based on Polish Winged Hussars attack.
Second. The Battle of Warsaw, which is known in Poland as the Mirracle on the Vistula. This is when Polish defeated Bolshevik forces who wanted to set communist fire to Europe. In other words, it is understood here in Poland as protecting Europe from communism. A thing which was later rewarded by putting Poland in Russian zone of influence, and which is a reason why Poles do not trust European allies up to this day...
As to no 1 - it's not true that we didn't learn English at school before 1990. I'm over 50 and had English classes at my grammar school. And that was nothing unique, believe me.
Dziekuje Ci Krzysztof za Twoj wklad !
Ad1) there was Russian and Latin in “high school” (liceum) and a choice of either English or French.
my gandfather worked fought with poles in battle of britan. he always like them a lot and even met with them in krakow in poland after ww 2
I really like the fact that in polish radio you can hear songs in many different languages. Mostly English but also Spanish, Romanian, Portuguese or French. Yes we do not understand them but this is the whole deal. Listening with heart and soul and trying to understand the meaning of the song. I live in Irelalnd for 17 years and I miss that variety of music in different languages. To hear the same things over and over again. It's just boring 😊 I like your video by the way 👌
Thanks Michal. To be fair, I have never really listened to foreign music. Apart from Ça plane pour moi haha
@@RobReacts1 Then you missed a lot. I don't speak french, italian or spanish but love their music, their songs, either pop or classical.
@@RobReacts1
"Ostatnia nadzieja (the last hope)"
Miał pod nosem czarny wąs
Rozdawał koniaki
Liczył na drobniaki
Ten błagający wzrok
Chciałby uciec stąd
Biegł
A wszystko to co miał
To w kieszeni pyszny trunek
I jeden kierunek
By lecieć tam gdzie ptak
A śpiewał sobie tak
Wszystko to, co mam
Wszystko to, co mam
To ta nadzieja, że życie mnie poskleja
Dziś odchodzę sam
Dziś odchodzę sam
Już nie zawrócę
To wszystko dziś porzucę
Ja się zarzekam, uciekam
Dość mam przeznaczenia
Po co zwlekać, czekać
Gdy się nic nie zmienia
Moja mama, mówiła
Ostatnia umiera nadzieja
I don't know how youtube translated it but I tell you listen to it. It feels... well it depends who you ask. For me it's great.
@@RobReacts1 that's the problem with British.You live in English language bubble on the green island surrounding by water.You watching British and Americans films,listen British and Americans music and you did't know that other languages even exist.You as a nation scare of any people who speak different then you.This language bubble makes you outcast when you travel to countries where english is not popular.Thats why Brits don't understand Europe.So many languages,so many nations,so much confuse.Modern Western world choose English as a common language because this is the language of pop culture,computing and is perfect as a form of basic,short communication.This is one of the main reason why Irish language is not popular in Ireland anymore.Of course this language was banned by English for centuries but in modern Ireland young people prefer English rather then Irish for obvious reasons.I spend many years in Ireland and England and yes, I'm Polish so I know exactly what I talking about😅 Great episode Rob! Pozdrawiam!
@@osip78 Im not going to disagree with you however, I would say its a generalisation. I can only only speak for myself. I love exploring other countries and always try and learn bits of their language. Even if its just hello and thank you.
I just LOVE your way of carrying on conversation and accent. And "cat's eyes" on roads. And left hand traffic. And the way you get angry - like a gentleman if you know what I mean ;) And all of this despite that your goverment betrayed us after II WW.
from polish perspective eastern europe is like russia, turkey and mongolia (they're enemies) and poles always think that east is not technologicly advanced
Cabbage rolls without meat? What a heresy? That's a main ingredient
Haha it's what was recommended to us by the polish head waiter. You can see it in our Vlog on our vlog channel. th-cam.com/video/zBXEImb_2ng/w-d-xo.html
@@RobReacts1 Just checked that and I'm not sure what you got but these weren't gołąbki (cabbage rolls). Gołąbki are meat and rice rolled in cabbage with tomato souce based on chicken soup. What you got didn't have meat, and had some unidentified black souce, while it should be orangish red.
@@Krokmaniak haha well it tasted very 'polish' 😂 the sauce was a very dark red colour.
@@RobReacts1 Way too dark and way too little. It should be swimming in sauce. You either got scammed on that or restaurant was trying to look fancy and failed miserably.
@@Krokmaniak Do you know that in Warsaw they had golaki only with meat?
Poles really like Anglosaxon countries and culture, including UK, USA, Australia, Canada etc. Probably mostly because we didn't have many contacts throughout history and most of them were positive or neutral. The Polish-Hungarian friendship mentioned in the video is something else. It is considered a kind of phenomenon between nations. Both Poles and Hungarians have this saying in their respective languages about being cousins. It's supposed that at some point in history we might have had some common ancestor. Even though Hungarians are not Slavs and we don't always agree on everything. But there is a strong conviction in the hearts of both peeples that we are good friends who can depend on one another. So imagine that there is a country where you can go without knowing anyone, and as long as you say you are from your country they will be welcoming and helpful. That's how it works for Poles and Hungarians. Even during the war, when Hungary was allied with Germany, when Polish spies went there and told some random people that they were Polish they were offered help.
Poles donated and sent several wagon carts of blood when ruskies invaded Hungary in 1956. Since then we not only share friends but also blood!
✌🏻
Poles were also historically really big on concepts such as freedom and personal independence, which also aligns with the Anglo-Saxon cultures. Also, the personal union of England and Scotland as well as their parliamentary system sorta resembled what we here in Poland had together with Lithuania.
Great work, i'm positively amazed at how well and comprehensivelly you shown Poland from a visitor's perspective! Have fun in other cities and areas as well 😉
FYI I'm a born and raised Polish Highlander - fun fact - Croatians and Serbs do understand my Polish dialect "at the fly" witch is kinda different that a "regular" spoken polish.
You don't have to understand song for it to sound nice, try it its really worth it.
Radio stations are playing a lot of English songs because that's the language kids are learning at schools right now but older people were learning stuff like Russian or French.
To tell a Pole Poland is Eastern Europe is like to tell a Brit Malvinas belong to Argentina
no is much more danger
Because it does. And hopefully the Republic of Ireland will finally liberate their northern territories from british occupation.
Rob, famous cosmetics brand "Max Factor" is after polish-jewish Maksymilian Michał Factor born in 1872 in the very middle of Poland - Zduńska Wola near Sieradz.
You are full of inventions! :D
Warner Bros. Too, from my City 👋
Were the heart of Europe. That’s why central
Rob, I have to admit,
Your videos are educational and humours.
I always learn something new.
Thanks.
Thanks mate. I do always try and learn stuff while still having some fun
Eastern European thing may be offensive for some, but not for all Polish people. For me it’s not offensive. But real geographic center of European continent lays in Poland so it really is Central Europe. Besides that Polish people ethnically are slavic but culturally you can distinguish some differences between west slavs (Polish, Czechs, Slovaks), east slavs (Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians) and south slaves (Serbs, Croats, Slovenians). And historically, in the European field there were two main slavic powers Catholic Poland and Orthodox Russia. Both with completely different mentality and both fighting with each other for centuries. Poland with western values, democratic, liberal (but in classic meaning not leftist distortion) and Russia autocratic, where people are only statistic and they need to obey their lords. Polish people doesn’t want to be in the same group with Russia. That’s why there is this sensitivity over this central/ eastern discrimination.
In the north-eastern part of Poland, in Podlasie, in the village of Suchowola, there is the geographical center of Europe.
Precisely
One of the geographical midpoints of Europe to be fair. There are several midpoints, Polish one is not "the one".
to kultura i korzenie to szacunek do moich przodków dzięki którym mogę być dumny i zawsze będę dumny że jestem Polakiem Kocham cię moja ojczyzno
Dumnym z bycia członkiem jakiegoś narodu może być ten, kto nie ma żadnych innych powodów do dumy.Dumnym można być z czegoś co jest naszą zasługą. Co osiągnęliśmy swoim staraniem, pracą, umysłem. Możemy być dumni ze swoich dzieci bo to nasze wychowanie sprawiło jakie są. Ale jaka to twoja zasługa ze urodziłeś się akurat tutaj a nie w Afryce, Azji czy na Grenlandii???
@@filipek124 Tyloko polak mógł to tak skwitować XD no mam bekę w ch..j XD
te dwa komentarze to destylat polskości XD
@@filipek124 100 procent racji .. i jeszcze płacisz nadmierne podatki .. żeby utrzymywać takiego pasie brzucha jak stany Zjednoczone. Które kontrolują wszystko co u nas się dzieje . Sterują nas do kolejnej wojny... politycy uciekną swoimi samolotami . Jak to było za 2 wojny światowej. Niczego sie nie nauczyliśmy. Usa i wielka Brytania zawsze rządzili polska po latach 70 ..
Jeszcze nam wszystkim dupa wyjdzie amerykańska demokracja i wolność słowa.. patrząc na bliski Wschód i pozostałe kraje gdzie amerykanie zawsze uczestniczyli w wprowadzaniu niby pokoju 😅 .
@@filipek124 O rany jaki ty jesteś biedny człeczyna . Ja mam z czego byc dumna OSOBIŚCIE(w życiu prywatnym jak kazdy NORMALNY czlowiek) ,ale i jestem dumna z bycia Polka i z Polski mojej Ojczyzny , z polskiej historii ,tradycji i kultury bo MOI PRZODKOWIE oprócz swoich osobistych sukcesów PRZEZ WIEKI wkładali także swój własny wkład ,swoja wlasna cegielke w budowe naszej Ojczyznę ,cegiełki w kulturę ,cegiełki w rozwój ,cegiełki w podtrzymywanie polskości kiedy trzeba było by nie zginęła ,a także cegiełki z własnego życia walcząc w bitwach przeróżnych ,w powstaniach i w ostatnich dwóch wojnach oddawali za nią życie .Ty to jak widac albo bezpański pies nie nie znający własnych korzeni (wiec nie dziw ze tylko mozesz byc dumny tylko z siebie i własnej zagrody),albo podrzucony tu przez obcych element który nie ma zadnych zwiazkow z tą Ziemia ,z Polska ,która nie nie jest twoja ojczyzna .,albo jestes tylko ludzka wydmuszka .Nie rozumie takich wydmuszek chodzacych po ziemie i skad sie takie wydmuszki biorą ,Takie żywe wydmuszki to najbardziej żałośni ludzie na całej planecie. Wspolczuje więc z całego serca nawet jeśli sobie wmawiasz zes najszczesliwszym czlowiekiem na swiecie to tylko to sobie wmawiasz. Największym dramatem wydmuszki jest moment kiedy wydmuszka zrozumie ,ze jest tylko pusta wydmuszka .Filipek dorosnij jak najszybciej
@@wilkomirwilk110 Gdzie dwóch Polaków tam trzy opinie.
1: Travel: we, Poles, travel very often around the whole country. It is a big country, and thanks to good communication, we are used to doing business, leisure, networking, and just chillin' inside Poland on a monthly / weekly basis. It is normal to live in Warsaw and work in Łódź, spend a weekend in Treecity, and go for an unplanned in advance one-day work trip to Cracow and come back the same day. And trains are still overcrowded. We don't usually fly between cities. That's why having a well-communicated country with a fast railway and good roads is a must and a blessing.
By the way, this house is located in a cultural park where you will find various interesting aspects of Poland, but also Polish emigration to Canada or Turkey. Yes, there is a Polish village in Turkey to this day. In this area of the park there is also a hotel with its own beer production. And in the hotel you can book rooms equipped with a personal beer tap. Yes, with your own beer tap in the room 🙂 I highly recommend this place.
And welcome to the "Slavic Circle"
Błędów desert is small, but it was used by Germans to train Afrika Korps units before they were sent to Africa in 1941.
Tam byl tez krecony teledysk Bajmu do piosenk.Nie ma wody na pustyni.
we also have other achievements like the world's first commander who fired a grenade launcher at the police station because he mistook it for a loudspeaker :D
🤣🤣🤣🤣
We are not really shy when goes to speak other languages
Polish is delicate and we feel it. Some little mistakes in speech could cause big issues.
We always try hard to speak perfectly but we can’t so we stay silence or nervous 😅
There have been quite a few things you mentioned (or by Geography Now for that instance) and asked us to comment on, but I feel that most of it have already been commented on quite accurately. So I will share my opinion only on one, last topic and by that I mean our or at least (mostly) mine opinion on the UK as you asked for it. So from my personal view: the UK is in fact a rich, western country, just as you pointed out. Poland and UK have many differences of course: economic situation, political or simply perspective on the world from a geographical point of view. Personally, I would never say (and such though never structured me before) that the UK is showing off with its "money". Each country finds itself in a vastly different situation and carries a different heritage (and by that I mean culture or generally past history as well as wellness itself). It never came to my mind that I could judge a whole country just by the amount of money it has. As far as I know, the UK has been a strong ally of Poland in the matter of war in Ukraine, we got shared history through those people who needed to leave Poland in the time during WW2 and settled in the UK. We share joint responsibility for the vast amount of Polish citizens who live and work in the UK (google tells me that in 2021 there were 700 000 Poles on the isles). So far that's just a few things that came to me in a moment, but I can add as well personally that I have some family members in the UK living there for some time now, and our family business settled about 2-3 shops in London only. So when you ask me about Poles' opinion of the UK, I can't say anything more than what I already know from my point of view and some news I read in the newspapers. Summarizing: United Kingdom is a country much different from ours. There is no doubt it is a western country (in contradiction to what was said about Poland in the video ;)), tho we seem to share some opinions and responsibilities (let's call it such). The UK has its own problems and challenges, as well as Poland. The UK struggles to find its place after Brexit, while Poland struggles with the judiciary... I was about to say reforms, but let's settle with "complications" and "rule of law matter". We have much in common, we share many values. As I said before I have family and business stuff in the UK, so for me, it is maybe the closest place in UE, tho it is not so close by physical measure. Also, I have been there for about 2-3 months a few years ago, and I got to say it was a beautiful place at the time, and as well it was a wonderful time I spent there, I am sure I will get back there sometime in the future.
Thank you for being a friend of Poland.
We Poles get kind of offended by calling Poland "Eastern European" because of our internal complex (I mean issue). You see, after WWII Poland was under the Iron Curtain for about 40 years. It was a really bad time, with a lot of bad things going on, like dumping milk in times of hunger or producing cars no-one could buy. This left a very deep, nation-wide scar in our mentality, that Eastern Europe is bad Europe. So when you say "Poland is Eastern European Country" we hear "Poland is 3rd category country". Not because this is true, definitely not because you mean it (I bet you didn't mean it that way), but because we are scarred from communist times. It is only now, we are getting healed from this complex. Gen Z is the first generation to be free from it. Even millennials who were born during change have this issue, this mindset of "we have to separate ourselves from the past poverty" even though things were starting to get good when we were born. Anyway, sorry for a long post, hopefully it was helpful. Here is a potato 🥔
... A może dlatego że jakby nie mierzyć i nie liczyć, to ciężko mówić o państwie który leży w całości lub w większości na zachód od punktu centralnego, że jest państwem wschodnim. Środek Europy leży w Suchowoli według jednych obliczeń, według innych na Ukrainie.
Gdyby ktoś usilnie nazywał cię kobietą, mimo że nią nie jesteś, to pewnie też byś był zirytowany.
It's not a complex. The term Eastern Europe is almost always used as a way to show that Poland is somehow worse, uncivilized, etc. When people talk about Sweden do they say Northern Europe? Or when asked where is Germany - "Oh, Germany is in Western Europe"? Nah, everybody just calls it Europe. Only when it comes to Poland it's somehow Eastern.
This is what I like about the UK: 1. sarcastic sense of humour; 2. crime stories; 3. architecture (terraced houses, bay windows), 4. villages and country landscape; 5. cliffs and the sea; 6. Royal traditions; 7. individualism&conservatism; 8. politeness; 9. red double-decker buses; 10. fish&chips; 11. old middle-size towns; 12. white, transparent floating clouds; 13. palm trees and wild gardens; 14. love for animals, mostly cats.
English breakfast and people
@@bystander1255 Yes. That's true, too.
Well, about this "eastern European" thing - yes, we don't like it because for us it sounds like a comparison to Russia and Poland wants so much to differ itself from them. A lot of foreigners think Poland is like Russia, we use cyrillic, it's always cold here (eventhough in some regions of Russia the people don't really know what the cold is...), we walk with bears etc., basically "eastern" for us means like "backward". Now we want to integrate with the West, we want to be western (sometimes even more western than the westerners...), we always underline our culturally Latin heritage, we have catholic, not orthodox culture, Poland culturally it's closer to Germany, France or England than Russia. So calling Poland "eastern Europe" for us looks like looking down on us.
the same for Ukraine but we are really use cyrillic and we are really Eastern Europe :-)
As an Italian, you don't even have to have "culturally Latin heritage", be proud of your Slavic roots and your Western-style democracy! You have a beautiful country with an amazing Polish culture that I'd love to visit one day. Poland is pretty much in the north of Europe as well, which is known for being the more advanced part of Europe. You can always call yourself "Northeast" or even "North-central".
I can say its certainly not said in a negative way and I appreciate you dont want to be associated with the Russians and Little WIlly Putin.
Geographically, Europe ends at the Ural Mountains, so technically the center of Europe is probably in Lithuania or Poland.
@@medeispagan There's a large monument in Lithuania marking the geographical centre of Europe (and that's what it is called if you want to look it up 😉). #thingsyoudiscoveronaroadtrip #youdontseethesethingsflyingpointtopoint #hashtagsarefun #hashtagscanbeannoying 🤣😂
I love you guys for your sense of humour. There is no more beautiful variety of english language than that UK (yes I know it depends on the region but still). I am fascinated by the English people's interest in the royal family. You guys are over-the-top and unmatched in smalltalks. A very rich culture and customs. I loved seeing the castles, even if they were just ruins. I lived in the UK for 2 years and can't wait to go back. Even for a weekend to breathe the English air.
Thank You Rob, I will share Your movie about my country to my foreign friends. It is so true and made in so funny way. I laughed a lot watching this video😁 btw Your ginger hair tall friend looks like face in Doom game front panel 😉
Eastern and Western Europe are old Soviet boundaries. I can see why they want to distance from that.
I don't speak fluent German, but have some in my music collection. The voices sou d nice and it's helping me to increase my understanding of the language
Yes, Marie Curie was Polish! She married a Frenchman - Pierre Curie - but her maiden name was Skłodowska and she was born in Warsaw :)
That's why the radioactive stuff she discovered is called polonium ;)
1:30 zwróć uwagę na alfabet łaciński w porównaniu do cyrylicy, Rosja jest też dosyć spora dlatego należymy do centrum geograficznie i kulturowo gdzie wschód spotyka się z zachodem.
The center of Europe is in the town of 'Piątek' in POLAND! Poland is the center of Europe and even the world! :) 😎😀
Hi. I like your love for Poland. This is rather uncommon among the English people. You ask what Poles feel about England and the English. Surely each of us will have a different point of view. I was in London about 20 years ago. I know that a lot has changed in England and Poland. Of course, I have some typical experiences. Left-side traffic, double taps, pubs, big CD shops on Oxford St., black cabs… There were also "off-the-shelf" themes. I was very surprised that the typical farmer (the same as in Poland, a little unshaven, dirty and neglected) speaks fluently english (but what language would he speak ?). It's a bit strange, but when we were learning English, we didn't play scenes on the farm, but in the cinema, subway, shop or hotel. You know what I mean. The second big surprise was the fact that an ordinary worker, say a plumber, was going to play golf. In Poland, golf is a super elite sport. In the UK there are elite clubs and public clubs (not present in Poland). Another surprise was empty or closed churches. Not only Catholic but also Anglican. One of them was near where I lived. Today I checked google street view and there is … an escape room in this church. Escape from ... church. As for the English themselves, the whites were rather indifferently inaccessible, while the blacks were rather curious or sometimes threatening - they were looking for a provocation.
I may write more about these historical associations later. Greetings, Tomek.
Anything I've got to say on this topic would start WWIII... Rob talks of gorgeous Polish women, when I was 17, I knew (for a short time) a truly gorgeous Polish man. Just wow!
About the music (~23:27) I believe it's just about listening to the music when flow of sounds and words is good, it does feel nice to listen. This is why so many people like to listen japanese and korean pop even tho they know not a single word - exactly the same thing as polish taxi driver listening to english songs without understanding the language.
I am from Poland. For me, the Western Europe is : Spain, France, Germany. While the Eastern Europe is : Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. So we place ourselves in the Central Europe because we are not like Western or Eastern countries.
Poland is a completely different country than Russia and Belarus are. We are more developed, we have more human rights, we are in NATO, in the EU etc. I could add that we are from different civilizations. So if somebody calls us Eastern Europe, it's offensive because then we think that for that person we are like Russia or Belarus which is ULTRA HYPER TURBO OFFENSIVE. And if you think about it, "the West" consists whole EU, UK, USA, CANADA ETC. While the East consists Russia and China. WE HATE RUSSIANS. WE ARE NOT RUSSIANS AND WE CANT EVEN UNDERSTAND RUSSIAN LANGUAGE. PS GLORY TO UKRAINE !!!!!!!
I dont think we hate Russians.
Live and let live others, but we dont like the country of Russia(cage of nations) and Rusians like Russia(as an Empire) thats lead to tensions.
We dont like Russia because its tyranical bully, slave country that take part in participations. When Poland was off the map polish pepole where victims of Russification or Germanization our participators wish to "civilize us" that lead to 2 major uprisings. After regaining its independence Poland has major fight with comunist Russia in 1920 when comunist wish to bring Rusian regime to Europe thrue the corpse of Warsaw. For polish pepole WWII starts in1939 by invasion of Nazies Germany and Stalin comunist Russia atack Poland from bouth sides and cooperate in country subjugation. NKVD and SS had even common conferences. Rusian goverment send off polish citizens looking for refuge from nazies(partizans, Jews, civilians) till 1941. After WWII has ended due to geography Poland fall in to Rusian sphere of influences. Where western Europe rebiuld and develop itself after WWII Poland get comunist dictatorship, more or less pawns of Rusian regime. Loving freedom, free spirits like poles forced to live so many years under autocratic tyrany. So for polish pepole its nothing to like in Russia this country, its elites feads on its pepole(Tzars tyrany, Stalins tyrany, now its Putin tyrany). Slave country forcing its pepole against they will almoust in chains to invade other countries. Russins will still love their country its theirs motherland(like child loving its abiusive drunken parents) -they neighbours not so much.
yeah, well said. Historically, Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland were the same country, and you could even then see the difference between western and eastern part of this country, despite hundred years together, same king, government, people, etc. There even was special religion in Poland which mixed catholic with Orthodox church. Nowadays the difference is even bigger with all that EU and NATO stuff. So it is very clear to say if Poland is linking western and eastern europe since it was founded in 10th century, than it is exact center of europe. Poles are feeling offended if you asociate them with the east because of so much they did for the west and prove that they are more like western countries than russia.
Z tą chwałą dla Banderowców z UPA to cię poniosło droga Polko. O Wołyniu słyszałaś może? Jak Ukraińcy obdzierali Polaków żywcem ze skóry?
Owszem Polska jest inna niż ci barbarzyńcy ale to nie my się umieściliśmy w tym miejscu tylko Stalin po 2 w.ś. przesunął nas na zachód w głąb Niemiec i stworzył Ukrainę na naszych wschodnich ziemiach. Zrobił to aby zasiać zamęt i niezgodę między Niemcami, Polakami i Ukraińcami aby łatwiej nami rządzić.
Ultra Hyper Turbo Offensive is the name of my new band.😂
Eastern Europe was another name for Soviet bloc. The Soviet bloc is gone and the Eastern Europe has different meaning now. Those are post soviet countries they are not as rich as Western Europe. So Poland belongs to Eastern Europe.
About listening to songs in language you don't understand: sometimes it is kind of magical to listen to rythm of music without thinking about meaning of words. I for example don't know french but i like french songs.
Poland is not in Eastern Europe, but in Central Europe, because the border between Europe and Asia is where the Ural Mountains are. Look at the map, part of Russia to the Ural Mountains is in Europe. Then you will see that Poland is in the center of Europe
Copernicus could be a german origin - from his father side. But he was polish citizen and was defence Commander of Frombork fortres against Germans. He was loyal polish king"s liege. From XX century- please google "Commander Unrug". German aristocrat who became a Pole. There is only one ctiteria to be a Pole - you have to love Poland. That's all.
5:27 It wasn't that simple, and besides, it wasn't exact a Polish colony, but a vassal of Poland - the Duchy of Curonia and Semigallia
Im living in Poland, and Bledow Dessert is near city where I lived almost 28 years. Beautiful place, known mostly from TV series or movie "Four armored and a dog", where they are shooting it.
About TV Series/Movie "Four armored and a dog" - is historical series about young guy with name Janek (played by Janusz Gajos) and their friends (and of course a dog named Szarik [in russian - Kulka, Furball]) in a world war 2 as a Rudy (Ginger) tank (T-34-85).
Yes it's true, there is a desert! It is currently degrading because it is overgrown with invasive Siberian pine. But the restoration process has begun. I grew up in close proximity to this desert. As a boy I used to run around it. There is a beautiful Jurassic region in the area.
About UK. Polish people in general like UK nowadays, but there still is some historical carefulness. Last few hundreds years interactions between Poland and UK were either fighting against each other (Poland was on Napoleon's side) or Poland was on UK side and was betrayed (This one is mostly about events in 1939 and 1945).
That's interesting! I would assume now we are friends 😊
@@RobReacts1 Yep 😊
I think a lot of people In Poland don't like to speak english is because of the way it is/was taught - focused on grammar and tenses and what's not, and, at least at school, they were never pushed to actually speak the language beyond some rehearsed phrases. I mostly tought myself (my highschool english teacher was awesome and I will love her forever, but she couldn't focus on every student, there were 37 of us, and I took all I could from her lessons, but the ability to speak is on me). As soon as they shake off the shame of having an accent or making mistakes they are great.
I agree. The phonetic differences make it very difficult to actually speak English for a Pole, regardless of ones knowledge of it. I say that as a person that knows English at almost the same level as Polish, but almost never had a chance of using it verbally. Well, the reverse is also true...
That being said, that way of teaching is common all around the world. It is academic learning of a language, contrary to an assimilation method of learning a language which children and foreigners that move to a country with a foreign language (and actually interact in it) learn. Though the assimilation method is becoming more common for courses and private schooling.
Czy Twoja rodzina pochodzi z Olkusza?
I'm from poland and I love poland
And Poland is central Europe 🇵🇱🇵🇱🇵🇱
Preach it, bro!
I've never been in UK but I've met a lot of british people, especially younger ones on many music festivals around Europe. They were very kind, I had a lot of talking with them and I never felt that they act as they're better or sth. They had a lot of fun, but that is why they came for. My feelings about British were always good.
Lines connecting the extreme points of Europe intersect in Poland: according to the calculations of Szymon Sobiekrajski from 1775, the geometric center of Europe is located in Poland in the town of Suchowola near Białystok (23°06'E and 53°35'N). meridional: 54°50'N - 49°00'N = 5°50' (649 km).
I have Japanese in laws who love western music and sing along with the correct words, but don't speak English, quite weird actually
It's not eastern. Russia's european part is quite big. In Poland people associate the word "eastern" with Russia, with poverty, with Orthodoxy, with communism, etc.
Łódż is not the 3rd biggest city in Poland anymore. Now it's Wrocław.
Polish is very phonetic language and I really like it.
Under your other video I wrote what I think is better in The UK, so now I'm going to write what is worse in my opinion:
1. Houses. Your houses are cold, 15-17 degrees during the winter time? My god, that's too cold for me. The houses are not insulated and often not even plastered, so heating is a nightmare. There is often mold and fungus on the walls. And your houses are quite weak (wooden structure and thin walls). And I don't like windows - definitely I don't like them in The UK.
2. The weather. I think I don't have to write too much about it. It's too rainy and for us, the Poles, the weather in The UK is like autumn all the year.
3. Boring and sad looking cities and towns (red brick everywhere).
4. You have not too many parcel locker's.
5. I used to live in Nottingham and Bristol, and I've never been very satisfied of Internet quality (speed and stable connection) from TalkTalk and Virgin.
6. Showing ID if you want to buy a knife or even a razor? Really? So if someone is 16yo, they has to ask mum to buy it? Lubricant? Cough syrup? That's really crazy.
Hi Rob. I just discovered your channel, watched few vids and I'm amazed about your enthusiasm. I probably feel the same towards the UK as I have spent there 11 years of my life. Cheers!
upside down house, from the outside it looks like a house standing on the roof. but once inside you have the feeling of walking on the ceiling. all senses go wild. you lose track of where is up, where is down.
23:13 you don't have to understand lyrics to enjoy a song.
the same way how "Despacito" became very popular worldwide, even tho most people who listen to it don't understand spanish
I have seen here so many comments about eastern Europe issue, that has prooven Geography Now point for you - it is like that. Some people take it with geographical point of view, some take it from cultural point of view. Both are correct. Western countries see Poland as eastern country because of A) we are Slavs. B) Poland was behind Iron Curtain as one of soviet country (not from our own will). As veles_pl wrote, Poland is bridge between eastern and western culture. Polish people were originated from eastern nation Slavs, but often we were taking western standards since the beginning of our country in 10th century AD. In Poland there is architecture you will not find east of us. For people of the West, eastern Europe starts here, but in the same time, for people of the East, western Europe starts here as well. There is a joke that French going to eastern Europe and Russian going to western Europe (both for the first time), find themselves in Warsaw for a switch of a transport before further journey. They both getting out, streaching their arms, look around and say, so this is how it looks like. Yes, Poles consider themselves as central europeans, nor west, nor east, just central.
Check few things about "Husaria" and maybe a movie called "Potop". A great piece of art with one of most realisticly showed sword duel
Saber duel
As a Polish, I didn’t know many of these things. So I enjoyed your video very much. And I love pierogi
Rob then you don't know yet another very interesting place in Poland, which is located in the Świętokrzyskie Mountains (the oldest mountains in all of Europe). The city of Starachowice is located there and there is a historic Iron Blast Furnance from 1899. The Iron Blast Furnace with the entire machine park has been preserved to this day. In the place where it stands, the Museum of Nature and Technology was created. Every year on the last weekend of August there is a concert of blues bands called Blues under the great furnace.
We really like UK as much as Australia or Canada.
We are also pro USA. We see ourself as an Ally to this english speaking countries.
Before Yalta Poland was not in Eastern Europe and Poles are Western Slavs since over 1000 years and long time before that they were Venedic People which were living under different names , but of course not connected to the Slavs by official narration in Western-Prussian Schools , mean Berlin-Vienna (forget about G.Kossina -allochtonic theory and VI AD). By geographic point of view Austria also must be Eastern country :) So easy to put one nation to one bag with others ,
for example: someone hears the Polish language and asks a question - "are you Russian?" Slavs is a big family (over 300mln) and is different - only us we can recognize ourselves by our languages or even by the face. Look at Africans , are you able to to say from which part of Africa or country are come from , or try to recognize difference between Korean and Chinese. Someone forget that all nations in Europe are Indo-Europeans and comes from East - the same homeland -> Ural area. In conclusion all people from Europe are Eastern-Europeans without any exception. So , when you are English and need to tag your type of race - which is Caucasian and your DNA comes from East part of Europe, are you still from the West ?
English was intorduced to polish schools after after 1989 and it became popular much later on, before (and for some time even after that) the mandatory second language was russian. That's why the younger population speaks english and older not so much. As to why they're shy, the school teaches us primarily for the purpose of passing the matura exam (written and spoken), but speaking on lessons is basically also for passing. They don't teach us (there are exceptions!) to use english in real life situations. We're basically scared to speak in case we make mistakes (basically what school teaces us: you make mistake you get lower grade)
I am a little late to the party but as an English teacher I can offer some insight into Polish people knowing but not speaking English. Polish style of teaching English is very encyclopedic, puts great weight on all the complex structures and nuances but with little to none practical use involved. I came through the Cambridge style schooling which puts a lot more attention to actually speaking and doesn't fuss that much about grammar and while CAE exam was not a problem and I am very confident with my English I believe I wouldn't be able to pass it's Polish equivalent to get C1 at English.
We are not mad to be call East Europeans we are mad of steorotyps/ conotation Westerners have when they say East.
Backwards, poor, Russia etc so we insist to Central Europe. Especially that if you drawn a line beween Spain west cost and ural mountain - the middle point will be in Poland....
Ah, yeah? But what about Ireland? Ireland surely belongs to Europe, isn't it? So the western border of Europe should be Ireland's west coast?😮
Dziekuje za wspanialy film
Slavic languages are like Romance languages as in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and partially French, they can get the gest from the conversation between those languages same as Slavic languages. Poland and Polish people have always thought of Brits as allies especially in the 20th century and have always looked up them and held them in high regard.
Popłynąłeś na gównie,aż się niedobrze robi. Nigdy nie uważaliśmy Anglii za sojusznika,bo nigdy w historii nie mieliśmy ku temu powodu. W epoce napoleońskiej byliśmy w stanie wojny i walczyliśmy przeciwko sobie,w czasie zaborów, które Anglia popierała, powstania narodowe uważała za przestępstwo,a po odzyskaniu niepodległości,to Anglicy sprzeciwiali się naszym dążeniom,popierali Niemcy i byli wrogo nastawieni do Powstań Śląskich oraz nie uznali sukcesów Powstania Wielkopolskiego. Pomimo zawartego między naszymi państwami sojuszu,w lipcu i sierpniu 1939 zorganizowali konferencję w Abbeville,na której domagali się od Francji nie podejmowania działań zbrojnych na wypadek niemieckiej inwazji i w efekcie,oba kraje nie wywiązały się z umów jakie z nami zawarły. Podjęli się Anglicy misji wywiezienia naszych rezerw złota,podczas której ukradli ponad 50 ton kruszcu. Nastepne 75 to zabrali za pomoc w repatriacji Polaków z łagrów sowieckich i jeszcze 143 tony za walkę naszych żołnierzy po stronie Anglii. Nie wiem więc po co piszesz takie brednie,robiąc z siebie debila. Mając takich przyjaciół,nie potrzeba nam wrogów.
Great material! Thank you!!
23:13 It's all about our curriculum. We are being taught to understand a lot and even in some cases translate both ways but we are not taught how to speak. We know how to listen, how to read and even write but not really how to speak. There is another kind of thing - we actually are rised like "If you are not perfect in something there is 80% chance you are not worth to do it", that may be a reason why we are so shy to actually speak even some simple sentences (it is actually changing but there is a long way ahead).
Yes. I would get slightly offended, or more if you called Poland "eastern Europe". It's mainly a historical and/or cultural thing.
When people say "Eastern Europe", let's be honest, they mostly mean Russia. And ANY association with Russia and the Eastern Block sits very badly with Poles.
We don't want anything to do with them. There are cultural differences, obviously political differences. Russians have abused this country for most of its existence, they were one of 3 reasons why Poland disappeared from the map for 123 years and they're the main reason why any industrial and economic progress, which was pretty fast between the two World Wars, pretty much fucking stopped for half a century.
The Poles don't want to be associated with Russia and its backwards... everything, in any way.
And by calling Poland (which is to the west of the geographical centre of Europe) you're basically doing just that
To be honest honest, I have said Poland as Eastern Europe. But because UK is to the west, its just in my mind that Poland Is East. But culturally I see Poland similar to the other Slavic countries. Ukraine, Czech, Belarus etc.
@@RobReacts1 say whatever you want brother, nobody will assault you for that, just keep in mind that you can see a frown when you do say that to a pole :D
@@RobReacts1 If you want to, just say Slavic, nobody would get mad.
But Poland just isn't Eastern. It's just a fact. It's as Central as it gets
Europe ends all the way by the Ural Mountain Chain
@@prodbyguac I will do my best to say central 🙂
@@RobReacts1 actually here’s where the cultural line of division lies. Poland is really similar to Czechia and Slovakia, since we are all Western Slavic nations. However, Ukraine and Belarus are Eastern Slavs, just like Russians and these nations share similar values and lifestyles, quite different front the one we have here.
To answer your question. I love United Kingdom. I hold both Polish and British citizenships and truly consider both countries my homelands 🥰
I'M POLISH MAN -AND I'M PRIDE OF THIS
I've been living in London for 10 years now. I've got used to it so much, that for me Poland is a country you go for holiday to. I like England and English people. I still consider myself as a patriot though.
And again: Błędowska Desert - the sole and unique sandy desert in Europe, a stone throw from Cracow (Klucze, Bukowno directon) If you like Cracow and visit it sometimes, it worth to go and see. Sandy in the past and now, although it was partially devastated by trials of forresting undertook in fifties of last century. Now restored to natural. And some add: for years used by armies for practicing and manouvers. Not only by Poles, but during IIWW also by Rommel's troops (Africa Korps) before African campaign.
The geographical center of Europe is in the Vilnius region, in the village of Giria or in Suchowola (Poland, Podlaskie Voivodship).
Łódź isn't third airport in Poland. City is to close to Warsaw. 3rd is Gdańsk or Katowice. 5th is probably Modlin and then 6th Wrocław. But yes, Łódź is 3rd population bigest city in Poland.
Greetings, Adam.
Już jest czwarte. Według najnowszego spisu Wrocław wyprzedził Łódź.
Wrocław był na 3 miejscu pod kątem wielkości miasta, Łódź była na 4, odwrotnie było pod kątem ilości mieszkańców. Obecnie Wrocław zajmuje 3 miejsce w obu tych kategoriach.
@@VJFallen Powierzchniowo Wrocław jest minimalnie mniejszy niż Łódź. Na trzecim miejscu jest co ciekawe Szczecin.