Just had the weirdest callers to my door!

[Saylwhat]

So we've an intercom system here where you can see who's at the main entrance on a video thing.

So there's two men, one elderly, one maybe 30's.

The guy goes 'Hi my name is Yatsik, we're looking for Polish speaking people in this block of flats - Do you know any?'. My answer was no, because there aren't any afaik, so he just said 'ok thanks' and then I could see them walk away.

Why would they be looking for Polish speakers? He had an accent of sorts, so perhaps Polish himself?

I just had a couple ring our buzzer and ask if anyone in the block speaks Spanish as they want to talk to them about the bible

Trust MN to have the answer then Trumpleton! I knew you guys would solve the mystery!

This happened to me except they were looking for Spanish speakers. Turned out to be Spanish-speaking Jehovahs Witnesses.

I live in a fairly mixed neighbourhood, but it still seemed rather niche to me.

I do feel sorry for the poor JW's. Does anyone ever listen to them I wonder? I do try to be polite when they arrive here - usually a Saturday or Sunday though I think? They always have a magazine called the Watchtower or something like that? Or the lighthouse? Can't remember - anyway, I do feel guilty though afterwards for saying no thanks and closing the door on them. How they face a whole day of that I do not know. Wouldn't be for me!

Like PP I have had people doing the same but asking for Spanish speakers, and they were Jehovah’s witnesses too. I think they use the language thing to identify people most vulnerable to their spiel- immigrants from religious backgrounds.

We have a large polish community where I live and this happens often here. I asked my neighbour who is polish why they do this and it is to meet the local community and help people who are new to the country/area acclimatise. It's actually quite nice in that they are helping each other.

The people in my flat before me were Romanian and I had two very confused Romanian outreach workers (I guess) on my doorstep - they'd come to see if the people here needed anything.

There are JWs who are fluent in sign-language for the purposes of outreach (I've met them).

They are jehovahs witnesses. They actively look out for foreign speaking people as they have foreign speaking congregations.
Please watch the recent Victoria Derbyshire show on the how the JW’s handle CSA. They allow repentant paedophiles to go out on their ‘ministry’
Please if you do know any polish people on your street don’t pass these details on. This ‘religion’ preys on the vulnerable and alone.

I think it could be maybe they wanted to offer help to the Polish people?
I’m foreigner too and I’m a member of various EU groups where now with Brexit happening, quite people wanted to form a help group to go into houses to help elderly people who can’t speak English properly to help them with Settled status which applies only to EU people , but there is still Loads of people who does not know about this new requirement... That what I read..
I would not think anything serious about it...

I had the same, and by coincidence, one of my polish friends was visiting. After she said she could, they said they were ambulance service, and needed translation for someone who had called 999.

We had this, and I asked why. They were from a Polish language church, looking to get in touch with people who might be interested.

Oh gosh I had the same thing just before Christmas. Knock on the door at about 5.30pm a s two young women with a baby in buggy asking if I spoke Polish or knew anyone who did.

I thought it quite strange to be knocking on random people’s doors on the off chance . They were really friendly and didn’t seem at all odd. I just said I didn’t speak Polish and didn’t know anyone who did and that was that. I did wonder if it was some sort of a scam.

I’m in West Yorkshire

Why go knocking on doors to find people speaking your language? Surely there are websites/Facebook pages, Polish shops and community groups for Polish people in the UK.

I would also assume they were up to no good.

Our local community (not Polish, but from another country in Eastern Europe) has an outreach programme for non-English speakers to inform them about the need to register for the settled status post Brexit and offering help. People who speak both English and their native language are volunteering with them in their free time, the guy who was doing rounds last week was actually quite a senior researcher in the local university. I think they are using the electoral roll to identify people who might need help, could be that there is/ was anyone living at your address with a remotely Polish surname (remotely as in many Ashkenazi surnames could be recognised as Polish)?
I think if they meant bad, they would have come up with a better excuse.

We had similar, they Jehovah's Witnesses, but were looking for French or Spanish speakers I think.

I have had this twice at my mums, looking for a polish family 'friends' they believe they live on our road but forgot which house number? Does sound like it happens to often to not consider if there is a scam?

We had it with two women looking for Romanians. Very odd.