Hey hey! Greetings from Warsaw, Poland's capital. Welcome to another Tip Thursday
with me, Conor the Language Tsar so in today's video we're gonna be diving into
five things you should remember if you're gonna take a trip to Poland
about Polish etiquette so let's get into today's video!
So when you guys are visiting a Polish home, it's important to remember to bring
a gift whether that's gonna be flowers and chocolates some alcohol for
the host. I know that applies to a lot of other countries but something that
you should definitely remember here in Poland. Another thing to remember is never bring
yellow chrysanthemums as a present as they're for funerals here. So that will
definitely not go down well if you bring those as flowers. So other times you're
gonna have to remember to bring a gift to a Polish person is of course on their
birthday, on Christmas and their name day. Their name has a saint and that saint has a
particular day that's also a time to give gifts in Poland. So that's something
that you mightn't have known because that's not as universal as say a birthday
present or a Christmas present in Christian countries. So during dinner Poles
tend to toast a lot and drink a lot of alcohol so if you don't drink alcohol
then you're gonna have to say 'no' multiple times because it's not the cultural norm
here. So if you decide to bring a present alcohol well vodka is always a good
choices. So this is legendary vodka from from Belarus, Царская Поляна.
Okay. Now when you go to a Polish dinner there's gonna be copious
amounts of food there so definitely go on an empty stomach
otherwise your host is gonna be a bit offended if you're not launching
yourself into everything and tasting all the different dishes that they have here
so of course pierogi are the famous dumplings in Poland. You have bigos which
is like a hunter stew you have I think it's pronounced Zurek and I've probably
butchered that which is the soup that I had. So some other things you're gonna
have to be aware of that are traditionally Polish are cabbage,
sausages, pork meat if you don't eat pork that's another thing to be aware of and
ask your host what has pork it doesn't have pork of course but pork is a main
staple of the diet here in Poland and often all that is gonna be washed down
by not just vodka but also by some homemade liqueurs. There's some with
honey they're quite popular that I've tasted. So to address Poles it's not
customary to do so by their first name unless you really know them
quite well so you should be referring to most 'pan' for mister and 'pani' to a woman.
Customs here in Poland, it's a little less intimate than say North America where
people use first names a lot sooner. Here they tend to be more formal in terms of
their greetings and a handshake is the normal way to create men. So if you're on
public transport then chivalry it's a lot more common here than it is maybe in
countries like North America or Western Europe. You were expected to give up
your seat for maybe disabled, obviously a pregnant lady but I think
that's a property universal anyways and even for just an un-pregnant, a normal
woman, a lot of men will still give up their seat. There's more of that chivalrous
culture. It's maybe a little less common amongst younger people [but] definitely
amongst older people and of course age that you let an older person take your
seat on public transport if there's no other seat available is still the norm
here in Poland and in fact it's kind of dying out but it used to be customary
and it still is amongst older poles to kiss a lady's hand when you meet
them. Isn't that very chivalrous and a romantic custom? So most poles follow
Roman Catholicism and religious holidays are national events here so they are
observed and you're not going to find shops open on Catholic holidays for
example. So just be aware of what the Catholic calendar is if you're gonna
travel here so that you're aware that you know things mightn't be open. People may
be observing religious ceremonies or attending religious service services for
example. They're at home with their family because it's considered a family
time like maybe during Easter and Christmas are two the biggest Catholic
events throughout the year and they will of course mean that things are not
operating as normal in the country so just be aware of that and be
aware of when those events are taking place before you come.
So following your feedback to my recent poll that I put out on my Instagram, my Facebook and my
Twitter accounts I've decided to change up my free video course for traveling
and to change it from a general course which was 'Traveler not a tourist' to a
more specific course for here in Central/Eastern Europe. I know Poland is not
technically Eastern Europe it's actually the eastern part of Central
Europe but at the same time it's gonna be a course called 'How to survive a trip
to Eastern Europe' if you want to receive that free gift just go to the link in
the description below this video. Sign up by email. Click the link in the
confirmation email that you're going to receive and I will whisk that over to
you for free, no obligation so if you know someone is actually gonna come here
to Poland definitely share this video with them so that they are aware of some
of the cultural differences that they may experience so that they're not too
shocked and they can you know not offend anyone here in Poland so that's it from
today's video 'pa pa!' or 'bye, bye' from Warsaw, Poland and I'll see you in the next video!