Old Lifts and Excitement

Basically, at the generic town hall / symbolic seat of the county government / general place to have meetings big fancy building:

They have a working lift from the 1920s or so – and it is SUPER EXCITING because it doesn’t stop, it is on a continuous loop, so you sort of have to leap in and out. It really is a loop – so if you stay in it, you get to go to the top and shuffle sideways and go down the other side. If that doesn’t make sense, please refer to the illustration:

   

The best part being, when you are at the top in the dark, the sign in front of you telling you to RELAX. On another note, the generic town hall building thing has seen a few different governments, not least the Nazis, who made it their regional headquarters, and of course the Communist party for the region. And the lift has been there for all of that. Who knows who else has been in this crazy old lift, but I’m sure even the Nazis and the Commies would have had a giggle.

The 15-year-olds were trying to be a bit too cool for the lift, at least I didn’t have to bother with that.

Katowice and Accents

The *other* school I work at took me on a tour of Katowice on Friday – and at each monumental stop, the designated 15-year-old had to come out and tell me in their lovely English about what we were looking at. Some of their levels of English were really amazing, and they don’t learn it at school, which is horrifying to see – teenagers, working for fun, outside of school hours. Like mini Stepford Wives. And, because the children love me to bits, they also took a lot of photographs with me in them…

One of the students spoke with a really strong American accent though, which I always find bizarre. Which I shouldn’t, but I do. I suppose I just don’t notice that the others are trying to speak with a British accent? It certainly doesn’t seem so to me. That would be a huge waste of time anyway – which British accent would you chose to emulate? Liverpudlian and Cornish, Birmingham or Scottish (I’m informed they are, in fact, speaking English in Glasgow all these years, but I can hardly tell) – they are all so hugely different, and you can’t claim any one is the ‘right’ accent. If anything, I feel a bit disappointed that I teach the children such a boring, typical English accent, although it’s nice to get compliments on it, I’m not sure anyone really knows what they’re complimenting… but, on the other hand, my English is probably about as easy to understand as you’ll ever meet. At an old job, surrounded by Bristolians, my foreign colleagues used to say I was the easiest to understand, because “you’re how we were taught to speak”.

This has become a bit of an issue though – if I can’t understand a Liverpudlian, how will the kids? So, I am teaching them some lovely Bristolian turns of phrase to make their English a bit more interesting. The 11 year olds can now happily tell you they are “going down Asdal” to go shopping, to “mind them daps” and to “cheers, drive” and refer to all inanimate objects as “he”. Except boats, which are clearly “she”.

Also, sometimes when they are annoying, I teach them imaginary words. TELL NO ONE.

Katowice has its own accent, although only used by a small minority, the Silesian Dialect. It has a few of its own words, but is not so hard to understand. Poland doesn’t have the variety in accents that the UK does – but, I don’t think many places do.

My teaching philosophy is trying to mimic accents is a huge waste of time. Unless you’re like the Dutch, who for some reason can do amazing English accents (why is this?), then don’t bother. English is spoken a hundred different ways in any big city or town, and we are used to it, unlike those fussy Danes. I don’t put on a Polish accent, unless I’m trying to be particularly offensive to those I love, of course. Of course, maybe I could get lessons from this man we found on Polish gumtree website, offering lessons in how to speak Polish in an American accent. Yes, not English in an American accent – but Polish. I really hope no one took up his offer, that really is the height of accent nonsense.

So, the photos are of me with the famous Spodek (Saucer) of Katowice, which is a bit like the Gerkin in London, in as much as it’s a weird shape and people seem to either hate it or love it… and some other sites, the Jewish Cemetary and the Uprising Monument, which is in the shape of three eagle’s wings and is very brutal and communist. Like a lot of Katowice. You will have to guess which photo is which. It’s a game! Have fun.

Google and Amusement

On the page where I handle comments (and then, half the time, quietly sigh at the state of society and those who feel my blog is the appropriate place to deny the holocaust, etc.) it tells me if anyone searched on google for a particular thing which then brought them to my blog. It’s a curious thing, but some of them are really funny, and today brought my favourite one. So, if you put in to google…

 ”i traveled to poland it was awful”

…it will lead you here. Clearly, I need to put up some more cheery blog posts…

Mostly I am curious at why anyone would put that phrase in to google. Maybe they’ll come back, and find this whole post written about them. I doubt their opinion of Poland is the same as mine. Poland is frustrating, people have a collective memory sometimes based totally on propaganda and it’s cold. That, as a list of complaints, is not exactly awful, is it? It’s not the worst place I’ve ever lived.

I’ve lived in Gloucestershire.

 

Communism and Women

If you don’t already know, my life revolves mainly around reading The Times, and then telling people about what I have read in The Times. I look forward to this being the first time for a few people to be told by me about things that I have read in The Times…

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article6899786.ece

This is an interesting article, which I recommend you read if you have the time – if not, it asks the question of whether Poland’s (and Eastern Europe’s in general) women were better off under communism than they are now, compared to men. The answer seems to be a not negligible ‘yes’, although I doubt anyone here would agree, and well they might disagree: look in to the Polish mind when you mention Communism, and it’s a dark, sad, struggle of a time.

If I was going to write a history book for Poles, it’d be called “A Dark, Sad, Struggle of a Time”. It would sell MILLIONS.

So, why even ask the question if it was such an awful time? However, compare the times for women under communism in Poland to women in the UK. In the UK, they were dealing with 3rd wave feminism – aiming for equal pay, the right to child care at work and acceptance past the ‘glass ceiling’. In Poland, women had far more representation in companies at higher levels, argues the article – I mean, I don’t know, I wasn’t alive at the time and I’m sick in bed right now and can’t be bothered to look it up… although, I have to say that women of the older generation are more represented in sectors like science and medicine than in the UK, from the people I know, so I would guess this is true. I mean… a newspaper couldn’t make something up! An interesting quote in the article pretty much sums it up – a Polish woman, working during communism, said the glass ceiling was not for gender, but for communist party membership.

Another interesting (and taboo, and also yucky) issue is abortion. Under communism, the only country in the Eastern Block to prohibit it was Romania, due to a declining population. Now, in Poland, it is illegal unless under the usual circumstances, rape, mother will die, etc. In 2007, I remember reading a pretty shocking article (in The Sun, what a delight – Polish equivalent of Fakt) reporting that over 10,000 Polish women had come to the UK for abortions. Soon to be three years on, imagine what that number now is. Back to the article, the UK is not the only “abortion tourism” destination – apparently Germany is an unwitting recipient of desperate women too.

This is just an example of a right which Polish women had under communism, which had now been taken away. Yes, it may be a religious society, but obviously it is a right people want, and travel for. Not everyone, obviously. But a number so big that it stuck in my mind for two years. Also, having paid National Insurance for a few years, I am not really happy that (this is going to sound so Daily Mail, cringe cringe cringe…) “my taxes” have gone to pay for abortions for women from Eastern European countries whose own country will not give them what they want. It’s a huge cost to the NHS and it doesn’t seem right that the UK should have to pay for the consequences of a religious post-communist shift in rights in the Eastern European countries. It’s a difficult issue. Although, I am less happy about paying for tattoo removal on the NHS, and there’s a lot more things besides.

Seemingly, the article also says that women now have to spend more time and money looking after their children and parents, as state benefits are lower and, unlike the UK, school starts at 7, not 5.

Saying this, I don’t think I’m going to find a woman around here who wants to go back to communist times, for lots of reasons – but, if they could pick and choose the best of then and now, maybe they’d choose a lot more of the past and you might assume.

There. You can never go back now – you have officially just been told by me about something I have read in The Times.

The Poles and Languages

One thing I wish I saw at home is the eagerness to speak a language that people have here. You just have to walk down any street in the centre of town, or look at the billboards on the motorways, to see all the adverts for English language schools – not to mention the Italian, Spanish, German, etc. classes offered, in schools or on home-made signs at the bus stop. Working people, taking time out of their weeks to learn.

Yes, in London people may take evening classes in languages occasionally – as long as it’s a pretty or glamorous language, or to make themselves feel smug at their beginners Mandarin. But here, people see it more as improving yourself. I wish people at home felt this way.

For one thing, if people in London could speak so well in another language as many Poles do in English, they wouldn’t be so humble about it. So many people I meet are embarrassed to speak English, or describe their abilities as poor, whereas I feel most people I know back home, had they this level in German, Russian, whatever, would be pretty happy with themselves.

England may have the “why speak another language” approach – but maybe if, unlike in Poland, a language graduate didn’t rack up an average of £36,000 in debt by the time they leave university - not counting living expenses and books – they might be a bit more inclined to study languages. Any international economy needs language speakers, so maybe, government, you could… I don’t know… encourage us a bit?

Sigh!

Polish Myths and Attitudes

As much as I like it here, sometimes people’s attitudes really annoy me. It’s mostly little things, though, which is good. And the people I chose to spend time with, are, obviously, of a better quality…

Poland’s myths about the Second World War are particularly strong, and people feel the right to subject me to their stories at any time, with no warning. I was reading about this survey about WW2, and I couldn’t find the original English article I read, which was more detailed, but a similar Polish article can be found here - http://londynek.net/wiadomosci/article?jdnews_id=5390&cat_id=39 - and the summary of the article is, the majority of those questioned believed the Polish suffered more than any group during WW2 – including the Romany gypsies and the Jews. Which, frankly, is ridiculous – the percentages of those who survived speak for themselves. Yes, Poland had an awful time, worse than England did, but… no, not worse than the gypsies and the Jews, I don’t think so. Why cheapen the horrible experience the Poles had by promoting such ridiculous stereotypes? There are many other instances of this “national memory” that seem, frankly, false. Every country has this, the difference here is how often people bring it up – ironic, when 60% of Poles believe the Jews talk “too much” about the holocaust. People talk about WW2 constantly, then if ever a Jewish person joins in, they all jump and say “see! All you talk about is THE WAR”. Sigh. As the article says, the “martyrdom” literature is really quite unique as well.

I may be overstepping the mark, but I feel this attitude plays out in daily interactions. Sometimes it feels here that the martyrdom attitude, that so many accuse the Jews of, gives the Poles the right to abuse others, be it at work or in the street. For example, this is a small thing, but people never say thankyou when you give up your seat for them on the bus. I once heard an old lady say thankyou for this, it really shocked me. The same in the work place – those who have worked in other schools tell of how the student teachers are used as an excuse for the supervising teacher to take a day off and not do their normal work. I’ve had trouble with this attitude at work too, and while I would like to do what is actually on my contract, I just can’t be bothered with the reaction this ensues. My job title is Assistant. The clue to what I do is in the name! Yes, at the school that I work at as a teacher, I’m happy to be the classroom teacher – because there are no discipline problems, it’s what we agreed and what I’m paid for. But, at my school, I actually learnt the word for violence just to write on the board at the start of the lesson what they shouldn’t do – PRZEMOC NIE WOLNO! (Later changed to PAWEL NIE WOLNO – it’s always the boys who are worst, nie?) I lie, they aren’t actually that bad, but the point is I was told when I came here I wouldn’t ever be alone with the kids and I wouldn’t have to plan whole lessons… that seems a long time ago I was told that!

The school’s better than lots of English schools, of course, but this is about complaining, not being fair.

This casual abuse of good will is something I find pretty tiresome. It’s not something I’d ever had such a constant problem with before. But at least it’s not everyone, I have met some of the kindest people I’ve ever known here. I just find it strange – when I told a Polish friend I was coming here, they told what a great time I would have, because Polish people are so much nicer and kinder than the English. I don’t think you can make a judgement either way, but to portray the whole nation as so saintly is bizarre – why can’t the Poles promote any ideas of the culture, historical or not, that are slightly bad? Why must everything be the worst for Poles, or they are the best – and no in between? In England we revel in the faults of our greats, here they are whitewashed – they are either 100% saintly or they were probably not Polish at all really, maybe German or Russian (also in the article – famous pogrom widely believed to not have been Poles at all!) Maybe my idea that it is a result of this martyrdom culture is wrong. But, I killed two birds with one stone, and made two posts in to one, HA.

Czestochowa and Pilgrims

These are some photos I took when I first arrived, of pilgrims in Czestochowa, which will be interesting for anyone like me who thought pilgrimages died out with the black plague.

They are off to see the Black Madonna painting, which has magical powers of some kind.

Polish and Learning

A word about my Polish skills to illustrate my various stories:

I understand quite a lot of what people say and can handle most everyday situations, but I find it hard to speak very expresively – any language learners out there know the point I’m at.

However, I know people who have been in Poland for years who are only at the same level as me. Similarly, I know Poles in the UK who’ve lived there for years who are on the same comparative level in English as I am in Polish. I’ve not been in Poland for years – I’ve been here less than two months, so clearly I have made more of an effort than those people have, and while I don’t need anyone to pat me on the back, there’s no need to think I’m not trying, so yesterday when I was shouted at about my Polish, I felt it was more than a bit unfair… 

Also, the whole reason I have a job in Poland, and receive many offers of extra work, is because I am a native English speaker. I was employed under conditions that stated I didn’t need to know a single word of Polish. For example, the last person in my job decided that Polish was not his thing and apparently never learnt more than a word or two, and they speak very highly of his time at the school.

Although, the sitation yesterday was really unusual, when the crazy lady accused me of not trying to learn Polish – most people think even my bad Polish is an amazing achievement and are so nice about it, full of compliments, and the children in my classes will sometimes burst in to applause if I speak even a few words, which is a surreal experience!

I feel bad about saying it, but learning Polish for me is undoubtably harder than learning English for Poles. With English, you have popular songs, TV, the internet – English coming at you 24 hours a day. Even the ‘stop’ signs in Poland and the stickers on the bus are in English, which it took me weeks to realise. I see English all over the place, or hear people using English words when they could use the Polish, but chose not to. They learn it at school, a school I visited had five hours of English a week from the age of seven. So, I really must insist that learning Polish for me is harder than learning English is for a Pole, because Polish is a pretty obscure language and doesn’t come in to your everyday life. Also, buying resources for learning is not easy. I went to the language bookshop in London, and every dictionary they had was for Poles learning English, and so didn’t have the grammar and explanations I need, which doesn’t help either. For example, most dictionaries have a list at the back with English irregular verbs, but nothing about Polish verbs. Although I am lucky, because of the Poles in England, that I can have a selection of cheap dictionaries to buy, even if they are not aimed at me – I wish I had even that with Danish.

I already know a lot more Polish than when I first arrived – I now use the past tense in conversation without having to think about it, which I never did before. I was always dubious about how living here would help me learn Polish, and worried if I didn’t really actively try to learn I wouldn’t achieve anything, but I do see how I am absorbing the language now. That makes me happy. I have to keep reminding people that I do understand more than I can speak, or I face them talking about me while thinking I don’t know what they’re saying; I’d rather tell them before I get insulted. They’re always embarrassed, which serves them right – if you wouldn’t say it to my face in English, why do you think it’s OK to say it in Polish which I supposedly won’t understand?

As always, my old-lady manners make social situations with anyone my age leave me feeling slightly offended!

Snow and Obnoxiousness

I woke up today in a not particularly great mood – today we have a day off for teachers’ day, and yesterday we had a teachers’ party, at which one colleague decided to be incredibly rude, despite us never having spoken before. About my level of Polish. This was a bit rich, as I have only been here six weeks, and amazingly enough am not yet fluent, and I didn’t see her being able to speak any other languages. Then commenced a failed attempt to bully me in to drinking shots. I don’t drink shots – I think downing alcohol without enjoying it borders on alcohol abuse, and that’s just my personal view. I don’t tell other people not to do shots, so don’t tell me to do them - especially when no one else was having any! As much as she insisted it was the “Polish thing to do”, I really don’t think casual alcoholism is a necessary part of my cultural experience. Then, on leaving, she thought it would be hilarious to talk about me in front of everyone, so quickly I could not understand. I was not pleased. I could talk about her in English or Danish and she wouldn’t understand, while the others would – would that be funny? Well, a bit – but mostly it would be really impolite. I could have done that as I left, but with more resolve than I knew I had, I didn’t. So, in conclusion, I did not feel very welcomed at all at this, our first work night out, as I sat in silence, with this stupid shot glass in front of me, wondering how to get rid of it. It was still on the table when I left.

Compare this to how great everyone was at my last job, going out of their way to respect my opinions and strange habits. Or even the job before that, where we did go out drinking a few times, would anyone have cared if I had been on the lemonade? A few jokes, maybe, but not the scene I experienced yesterday, for sure. To put it simply: this would never happen at home.

I was really pleased the monk came to the party though! I was trying not to be really impolite, but I have never seen a proper monk before except in Czestochowa (where you cannot move for monks, nuns and priests), and to see one at a bar was just really odd for me. I can understand how people from countries (like Poland!) feel on coming to England, and seeing the mix of cultures and acting in a way which some perceive as racism, but this just isn’t so – it’s just, if you’ve never seen a monk – or, like some Polish people can truthfully say, never seen a black person, or a mixed-race couple – then it’s interesting, and maybe you will stare. And I didn’t know monks could go to parties, and be just normal, friendly people, and it’s just ignorance, not any underlying hatred or such. Hopefully. Because, until you know, you can’t really be blamed for thinking otherwise. This is really stupid, but I even took my camera in the hope I could get a photo with a real live monk, but he left when I wasn’t looking. I promise I will get one soon, though.

But, after all that, when I woke up today it was snowing, and that did cheer me up. I was annoyed, I looked out the window, and I wasn’t annoyed anymore. It’s so strange, not even in the second half of October, and today it snowed since about 11am and hasn’t stopped yet. It’s what the weather forecast said, but everyone told me it wouldn’t snow, and I disagreed because I really wanted to see snow. It might snow until Saturday, so maybe I’ll have had enough by then! But, here you go, some photos of the first snow of winter, on October 14th:

Nowa Huta and Krakow

Nowa Huta – my favourite place in Krakow.

If you’re Polish, you’re probably confused by that statement.

Nowa Huta means ‘the new steelworks’, and is the eastern suburb of Krakow, built with money from Stalin to punish the bourgeoisie of Krakow for having too many fancy old buildings. Ironically, the steel works was built too far away from any coal mines to be workable and occupies some of the best farm land in the country – oh, and on a pre-historic human settlement, just to make it even worse. That’s what any Pole will tell you, the official memory if you will. But here’s my take on it:

The city was built for the steelworks’ employees and families, and the communist architecture may not be to everyone’s taste, but it is the greenest and leafiest part of Krakow, with these big wide streets, on the sunny day I visited it was all rather… pleasant. All the pinks and blues and balconies remind me really strongly of Miami, strangely.

What interested me about  Nowa Huta, and inspired me to visit, was that most Poles still believe the conflicts of the 1980s (the riots of the Solidarity trade union era were particularly numerous in Nowa Huta) are representative of Nowa Huta today. Every Pole I’ve spoken to warned me about visiting, believing it to be dangerous and full of crime – I visited because I didn’t believe this, as I’ve noticed Poles, maybe for practical reasons, are really anxious about crime. It was a lovely place – and has one of the lowest crime rates of the whole of Krakow, according to statistics. I saw nicely dressed families leaving church on Sunday afternoon and taking their children to the parks and strolling under the trees – the gangs of hoodies I’d been promised were no where to be seen. I guess it shows that old prejudices die hard, and I for one found it more interesting a place than the centre of Krakow – after all, you can see old world finery in many cities, but how often do you get to visit the Stalin dream city of the communist worker?

And, as a bonus, here are some Nowa Huta nuns: