Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Do you think there is a "Polish" problem in the Uk now that it's become the 2nd language in England?

464 replies

NomadsLand · 31/01/2013 20:48

I've been to Poland and I like Poles a lot as a people. I think Warsaw is a great city and I have nothing against Polish people.

My mother complained back in 2007 about the number of Poles in Liverpool changing the 'culture'. What she meant was that she loves to banter with people in shops and restaurants and she used to get a lot of chat back (Liverpudlians are generally very funny - IMHO - and love a bit of verbal 'how's your father'). She complained that this had changed and that she was increasingly met with blank stares. This is high insult to my mother!

I didn't think much of it. But I am now finding the same - I approached a new restaurant outlet at my local services today and joked about them selling hot dogs and milkshakes and what a welcome addition to the usual (was hungry and about to make an irresponsible food choice!). I got the same blank stare. Didn't understand a word I said.

I finally understood what my mother has been saying. AIBU?

OP posts:
flow4 · 01/02/2013 00:15

And me. I came here to advise you never get a polish problem if you simply learn to love dust...

MrsTerryPratchett · 01/02/2013 00:24

I still want to know the Polish for cuntweasel.

Also, people do know that you don't have to cover your head in a lot of Muslim countries, right? I mean, I went to Morocco and Zanzibar and didn't have to. I don't know why anyone Muslim would want me to here.

Yellowtip · 01/02/2013 00:28

Yes, you're completely and utterly U OP. You lot here in England wouldn't be here in your present form had it not been for the Polish contribution during the Battle of Britain in 1940. And what a bloody bad show during the Warsaw Rising of 1944. You should be ashamed. Really very, very seriously ashamed. So don't start all the stuff about foreigners now please. You deserve to have lost your Britishness decades and decades ago.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 01/02/2013 00:30

I can tell you in Russian it's pizda-hariok, mrstp. Important to know, eh?

(They are vaguely similar languages. Possibly not with idiosyncratic MN obscenities, who knows?)

WorraLiberty · 01/02/2013 00:32

JamieandtheMagicTorch Oh Blush

Yellowtip that post was nearly as bad as some of the ones the OP has made.

'Us lot' deserved to have lost our Britishness decades and decades ago?

Well sorry but I wasn't alive then so there's not much I could have done about it Hmm

Yellowtip · 01/02/2013 00:33

MrsTerry the done thing for Brits is surely just to shout 'cuntweasel' out in a very loud voice, whenever in Kracow or Warsaw (or Lwow, or wherever). That will get the desired response.

Yellowtip · 01/02/2013 00:37

Tbh don't really care Worra. I can do it, as half Brit, half Pole with almost every Polish family member playing a significant part in the Home Army and being let down at every turn.

Yellowtip · 01/02/2013 00:40

And I wasn't alive then either Worra and made no contribution but honestly some of these xenophobes do need to get a grip of their history.

MrsTerryPratchett · 01/02/2013 00:41

A person with a rellie in Polish Bomber here. Lost my Grandfather over Germany. I would have put it a teeny bit differently, though Smile

MrsTerryPratchett · 01/02/2013 00:41

That would be Polish Bomber Command...

WorraLiberty · 01/02/2013 00:42

You can do what? Confused

Did you play a significant part yourself or like me, did you get to play no part?

If it's the latter then I'm not sure why you feel the need to put British people down, any more than the OP feels the needs to put Polish people down.

We can't go back and change history...we played no part in it.

Therefore stooping to the level of the OP is pretty foolish imo.

WorraLiberty · 01/02/2013 00:43

X posts!

But still, let's not stoop to the OP's level particularly as our generation played no part in it.

Yellowtip · 01/02/2013 00:46

Well you're probably more temperate MrsTerry. I'm afraid the thankless lot annoy me even though I can't claim any effort either. Was your dad a Pole or was it your mum? Sorry about your Grandpa.

Yellowtip · 01/02/2013 00:48

Lots of cross posts! Agree heartfeltedly about not taking glory but even so, this coming over and taking our jobs stuff just really gets my goat (yes goat, I very deliberately used the term goat).

Yellowtip · 01/02/2013 00:52

Sorry Worra/ Mrs T* - mixed you up.

MrsTerryPratchett · 01/02/2013 00:54

My Mum is half Polish. It was all very tragic. He came over, fell in love with my Granny and they conceived my Mum. My Grandmother talked about being in the WAAF and counting the planes in and back. Normally a smaller number coming back. I never knew if she was there the day my Grandfather didn't come back.

It does affect me because people talk about the Polish and make Daily Mail type comments and my DM adn I hear them. They don't know they are talking about us and our family.

WorraLiberty · 01/02/2013 00:56

Lol at goat! Grin

It is ridiculous and nearly always said by very ignorant people.

I'm the daughter of Southern Irish parents who came here to England nearly 60yrs ago...and despite the Government begging them to come and take up manual labour after the war, they still got flack about 'taking our jobs and houses' etc.

My Dad really did see the B&B signs in the windows that said, "No dogs - No Irish".

But as he'll tell you himself, there are ignorant and bitter people to be found everywhere in the world and you just have to look to the majority of decent people to realise the others are (thankfully) in a minority...even though at times it won't seem like it.

BitchyDragons · 01/02/2013 01:05

Do you think the op actually accepted their arse back or do you think it is lurking in the corner on a plate still?

Only reason i can see for this thread still being in existence is the fact that it shows quite clearly that mnetters won't accept views that come across as racist.

HoHoHoNoYouDont · 01/02/2013 01:06

Back to the Polski Sklep forrin grub for a min. I'm a bit precious about food ingredients and wondered if all food imported has to have clear labelling on it (fat,salt etc) or is that just a uk thing?

Yellowtip · 01/02/2013 01:07

Worra I meant I could be fairly rude about racist British attitudes to Poles because I have a foot in both camps.

My dad would have said exactly the same about the majority being decent. Still, the minority can do with being pulled up from time to time in case daily reading of the Daily Mail gives them ideas above their station.

mrsjay · 01/02/2013 08:45

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by Mumsnet for breaking our Talk Guidelines. Replies may also be deleted.

Hulls · 01/02/2013 10:53

Hully was mysteriously obliterated last night (awaiting reasons from mnhq)

but did see odd thread of naming. Just wanted to say thanks for those wot defended and may sanity one day prevail...fat chance.

LineRunner · 01/02/2013 17:37

Yellowtip, no-one here (well, no-one that isn't the OP) would disagree with you that DM-type hypocrisy is ignorant and sickening. It's just that when you said 'you lot' is could have been read as 'you lot on this thread.'

This was unfortunate as people on this thread are definitely not in the business of tolerating the very ignorance that gets all our goats.

Dear, dear goats.

Hully, Lots of posts have been deleted, I see, including loads of the OP's. Is it worth MNHQ keeping the thread, really? It started off mad and went downhill.

Mia4 · 01/02/2013 18:05

Was that the DM article? It was all very sensational and scare mongering...until you get to the point when 92% speak English, mother tongue or not? And only 1% speak Polish. So basically only 8% of people in this country don't speak English: a proportion of those will be Welsh, a proportion will include those who haven't learnt yet and those who will and a proportion will be those who can't be arsed.

But sadly, not being arsed to learn the language or the country you are going into, is very universal for all walks of people. I know a fair few ex-pats in France, Germany and Spain and while they are learning the language they know many other English and Americans who can't be arsed to and expect others to speak theirs. Whilst English is very widely spoken, a lot of the time it's the same attitude existing that stops people bothering to learn.

marjproops · 01/02/2013 18:23

At least any Poles Ive ever met/seen actually work in this country, I was a bit shocked when the news said Polish is now the second language here, was expecting another one to be (wont say at the risk of sounding you-know-what).

Im not opposed to ANYONE coming to live in this country if they are genuinly looking for work, (and theres a lot of workshy layabout nationals here as it is who moan ''all the bloody foreigners getting all our jobs''-yet theyre not prepared to work) just the ones that come here and immediately get the posh houses and benefits without doing a scrap of work. beacause they can.

prepares to put hard hat on.....

and Id say the same about any country.

I LOVE the Australian PM, theres a speech she made that said it all, about anyone choosing to live in Australia.