Polish or not Polish? :))

“...and you’re from Poland, right?”, said someone to “Daniel” the other day! And the week before, and last month and ... every time the situation comes when a Polish or Irish or English person greets him and starts its conversation (in a bar, petrol station, etc.) straight in Polish. Well... Daniel kind of looks like Russian, Polish, Baltic, Eastern European... all blended together very well into a look that is basically interpreted by people according to their own individual view of the world...

Like in one other situation, when after all this usual greeting and a tipping moment, he accidentally gave 1 penny instead of 1 pound. The assistant mumbled some words with “curva” and went on. He was quite amazed at the situation and approached the waiter with 3 pounds, whom was then carrying bottles in his hands and in a mix of clumsiness and surprise accepted the tip and smiled... Interesting how swearing wasn’t probably in his mind at this moment! And how Daniel, who could have been angry at the swearing part, could’ve just walked away, sealing the interaction with a bad feeling... There is always a choice!!


When you move out of your country to live abroad, there is a mix of adventure and fear of the unknown, excitement of travelling, learning experiences and search for something new, together with a relief of finally leaving behind your normal life, despite the special people you may miss... not necessarily to go home every holiday or summer, paying for (sometimes extremely) expensive flights or showing off your “holidays” lifestyle in your home town. Now that you feel (and seem to look) so different because you come with a funny accent in your native language... In my opinion, our language or accent doesn’t really change so much, even if we don’t speak it every day. It’s part of us and the way we learned the world around... Why to go on with fake sophistication and add a “je ne sais quoi” to our style, when our mind and language naturally adapts to our home country...

This is a general thought and doesn’t apply if you’re born in London, from a Maltese mother and a Swedish father, living in Germany for most of your life and having a Hungarian lover!!!

With a global society, where we travel, live and work with so many different people, it’s quite common the assumption of a specific label towards a face, look, style or simple body language, prior to any speech. And how so many times this first impression shatters itself with a complete different ending, surprising us and our initial judgements...

The point is, do we really want or bother to change our first impressions about people and the world around us?