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Where did Polish stupid stereotypes come from?


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On 12/5/2017 at 5:00 PM, ExiledInIllinois said:

DP=Displaced Person, became "dumb Pollack."

 

That is what I always thought.

 

Wop=Without papers, stuck w/the Italians.  Must have been a lot of Italians without papers?


I went to Poland with my grandparents back when it was a communist country. Eve-opening experience as an adolescent. Anyhoooo we had to catch a train in Kraków, and it was like a free for all to get on - just a solid mass of people pushing and shoving to get on this train. My grandmother and I managed to board, but my grandfather was unable to (they must have just been letting females on because neither one of us were over 5'2" and 110# - never could have pushed our way on). My grandmother spoke Polish, so when a train conductor/porter (? not sure which, but a nice lady) asked her "which one is your husband?" my grandmother pointed and told her "that one" and grandpa got on. (The train conductor told my grandmother "you should have picked a better looking, younger one! :P)

So we are sitting in the area of the train near the doors as this train was FULL (hence the mass hysteria on the train platform to get onboard), and our First Class tickets didn't matter much.

Just as we had resigned ourselves to the ride to Vienna sitting on suitcases, another conductor came by, asked for our tickets and said, "We better find you some seats. You look like DPs sitting there."

Never forgot that experience as it really was funny all the way around (that and the train was half empty and never filled up... so much for communists running the trains on time and full).

Oh, and that trip was the last time I ever referred to myself as "Polish".  I was introduced all around in Poland by my third and fourth-cousins as "this is my American cousin". I was no more "Polish" than the man-in-the-moon (those dozen words of Polish I understood notwithstanding.)  I'd like to go back someday - most of my family has been there since the fall of communism and said it is beautiful there now. My grandfather went back once before he passed away, and told me I wouldn't recognize the areas we had visited.

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21 hours ago, Wacka said:

Must've been envy by the Germans and Russians. Poles have the man who said the sun was the center of the solar system (Copernicus) and the first non-Italian Pope in over 400 years (JP II).

In defense of...everyone else not Polish, I guess, Copernicus' analysis probably went something like "Well, if anything's at the center of the universe, it sure as hell isn't frickin' Poland..."

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14 hours ago, joesixpack said:

 

False. My grandfather spent most of his early life in Poland and had a thiiiiick accent, but my father had none.

 

2 hours ago, Nervous Guy said:

My mom didn't know any English when she went to kindergarten, only spoke Polish....same with my Dad....yet both had no Polish accents.

 

So, you're saying this was not in the case with a number of Poles?  Exiled even admitted it................Oh well, there must be another reason for the Polish are stupid stereotype. 

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2 hours ago, Nervous Guy said:

My mom didn't know any English when she went to kindergarten, only spoke Polish....same with my Dad....yet both had no Polish accents.

My mom went to kindergarten only speaking Italian.  She had no accent when she grew up.

I read somewhere that it's pretty common for a pre-teen to switch languages without keeping the accent.  By the time you are a teenager you have to work much harder to lose the accent.

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1 hour ago, bbb said:

 

 

So, you're saying this was not in the case with a number of Poles?  Exiled even admitted it................Oh well, there must be another reason for the Polish are stupid stereotype. 

No my mother didn't have that accent.  She could speak Polish.  I guess it depends on the person.

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12 minutes ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

No my mother didn't have that accent.  She could speak Polish.  I guess it depends on the person.

 

I didn't say your mother.  You were the one giving examples of it last night. 

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