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I teach English abroad, so always come in contact with a ton of other English teachers abroad, many who've spent a lot of time in quite a few various countries.
One theme I've generally noticed with teachers who've taught in Poland, is they talk about the 'intellectualism' of their students in Poland.
They'll often have a depth of knowledge on philosophy and other types of heavier types of thought.
To those of you who are familiar with Poland and Polish people. Do you notice this in particular with Polish people?
(For the record, the majority of the English teachers I know who've lived and taught in Poland, are generally from the UK, just for reference sake. One American and one Mexican as well).
I don't want to generalize, and don't want to make it look like every pole is somehow an intellectual giant, but there is some truth to these observations. Having said that, like every nation, Poles have their share of idiots and fools.
I can only say what I've observed. The generation that was born in the 80's or earlier, people that still remember Poland being a Russian satellite, people that remember the round table talks and the rapid change from a planned economy to rampant capitalism - folks like me basically, we've seen and heard a lot. We've been lied to and manipulated by different ideologies. We can, to an extent, see through the bs of the modern world. Why ? Because in these harsh conditions, we had to learn to think. To analyze. This whole mess created a generation that didn't have any solid authorities, a generation that had to figure out how they viewed the world on their own.
Don't know if it's intellectualism, but I remember reading and discussing social sf books with my friends when we were 12. I remember the long night of discussions with my classmates after visiting Auschwitz - a bunch of 13-14 year olds focused usually on things like girls, soccer, computer games etc - we were all shocked, we were all very serious. We spent the whole night talking about it. I remember serious world events being discussed among kids. I remember how shocked we were when 9/11 happened, I know I spent the whole day glued to the tv. I remember discussing various possible geopolitical scenarios that can come out of it with my peers. Much of that was naive, but the fact that we had open minds and actually discussed things, tried to see the arguments of the other side, I value that. It formed a basis for a better, imho understanding of the world. Often backed up by some knowledge of history and philosophy,.
Also, I remember from my college years the native speakers that were our teachers were a really random bunch. Most had no teaching experience and as a result were pretty lame teachers. I also remember that during classes people actually wanted to learn, not just get out of there asap. We had to force several of our teachers to actually prepare for classes, maybe that's how they got the idea ?
And nowadays the damn kids are only obsessed with their smartphones, stupid (oh my, how stupid) music and facebook ! So even if what you said was true at some point, I fear it won't be true for long.
Yac.
I think this is not specifically a Polish thing. It's common to the former Eastern Bloc countries. Intellectual and cultural life was taken very seriously there, despite (and to an extent because of) the restrictions placed on it by the authorities.
As the post above implies, rampant consumerism and the need to find a job and make a living have greatly dissipated this. I've seen it in Russia and Czech Republic as well.
I think this is not specifically a Polish thing. It's common to the former Eastern Bloc countries. Intellectual and cultural life was taken very seriously there, despite (and to an extent because of) the restrictions placed on it by the authorities.
As the post above implies, rampant consumerism and the need to find a job and make a living have greatly dissipated this. I've seen it in Russia and Czech Republic as well.
Some years ago, I heard that people in what used to be East Germany read books, on average, about five times more often than their fellow countrymen living in Western areas.
The Polish people I know are under 30 and have been living in Spain for some years, so it may not be the best example, but I've noticed no difference between them and us regarding this. Most of them read the usual best-selling books, they have the same hobbies that the average Spaniard has, their cultural references are the same as is their (scarce) knowledge of philosophy, etc.
This may be the result of their adapting to a new country or, as you say, the fact that capitalism is changing things up there.
Poles who live in Norway are very smart, have good knowledge of history, are good in maths, and.. can build solid houses....
Poland is ranked within the top three European nations along with Germans and Dutch in terms of their IQ. Average Polish IQ is 106. Although Norway was not tested, I believe we are high as well:]
What I think is that Poles always lived under extremely hard political conditions being crunched between Germany and Soviet Union (or Russia), two main world powers. They had to think hard to survive and hold the country, keep the cultural wealth etc... This is what made their brain cells circulate...
I teach English abroad, so always come in contact with a ton of other English teachers abroad, many who've spent a lot of time in quite a few various countries.
One theme I've generally noticed with teachers who've taught in Poland, is they talk about the 'intellectualism' of their students in Poland.
They'll often have a depth of knowledge on philosophy and other types of heavier types of thought.
To those of you who are familiar with Poland and Polish people. Do you notice this in particular with Polish people?
(For the record, the majority of the English teachers I know who've lived and taught in Poland, are generally from the UK, just for reference sake. One American and one Mexican as well).
I have noticed this with Polish people. I have noticed it with people from Nigeria, Kenya, The Netherlands, Turkey, Mexico, and other nations. Then again, I am around foreign college students alot. I would not say this is particular to Polish people.
Well, in the USA, back in the 1970's, there were alot of jokes about Polish people.
...which were brought by Germans who came first and poised the well so.. Poles and Germans didn't get along.
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So even if what you said was true at some point, I fear it won't be true for long.
