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Europe: who hates who? / Evropane: kdo koho nenavidi?
March 3, 2008

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tanja @ 4:55 pm
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europe yahoo imageI stumbled upon this article the other day and I thought it was worth for me to share it with you. It is called “What Europeans think of each other“, written by an American who have lived there for 4 years. It is a very raw, blunt humor but that’s why it’s so funny. Just to give you a taste, this is what the Dailycandor writes about the Polish:

The Poles — Not much seems to register about Poland and the Poles except that they’re quiet. They are a relatively big country (40 million people) so the supposed scare of being overrun by Eastern Europeans when a bunch of Eastern European countries joined the EU in 2005 focused in on the Poles. The Germans really don’t like Poles, and among Germany’s 9 neighbors, are disliked the most. Poland is considered a country of car thieves by the Germans. Really, the relationship between Germany and Poland is similar to that of the United States and Mexico, and often for many of the same reasons (differences in income, history of war, different languages, etc.).Poles really shore up their hatred for their eastern & southern neighbors, primarily Russia and Ukraine, although they don’t like Czechs, Slovaks or Lithuanians either. Oddly, they don’t really mind the Germans, and probably still fear them a bit — you never, ever hear jokes about Germans in Poland.

The Germans - ……When German ask for directions in Holland, they’re usually given directions to the shortest way out of the country, or told “Give us back our bikes!”, a reference to the fact that Germans confiscated Dutch bicycles during WW2.Danes hate it when you pronounce their capital as “ko-pen-HAH-gen”, because this is the German pronunciation. Either pronounce it the English way (with “HAY” instead), or the Danish way, which is literally impossible to put down here.Germans tend to like their Western neighbors far more than they are liked by them, but they look down on their Eastern neighbors, particularly Poles. They, oddly, have some mixed respect for the Czechs, who have resisted German aggression.

What does he say about the Czechs?? It’s not that great:

The Czechs — Considered a relatively bright spot of Eastern Europe by Western Europeans, but I think primarily because Prague is such a gorgeous city and a popular tourist destination. Czechs are a bit like Germans, though — a bit rude, blunt, and cold. Poles don’t have much good to say about them.

If you want to find out what are the other Europeans “REALLY” like click here.

Source: http://dailycandor.com/what-europeans-think-of-each-other/

 

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2 Comments for this post

 
Pawel K. Dlugosz Says:

Interesting indeed! I remember a book - novel about Queen Hedwig. The young queen who just arrived to Poland from Hungary asked one of Polish lords: ‘why do Poles hate Germans so much?’ To which he replies: ‘My gracious lady, it’s because they love our country so much, that they would like to deprive us of it.’ It’s fiction, of course, but summarizes well Polish German relations through centuries. I hate Germans because they murdered several members of my family and millions of Poles - pure and simple.

 
Tanja Says:

I understand what you are saying, the Nazis committed a horrendous crimes, but we need to forgive them or the hate is going to eat us alive. What’s done is done and we need to move on. To hold a grudge especially against the new German generation is unfair. I have talked to couple of young Germans about this particular issue and they were deeply sorry about the whole situation. It’s not even their fault but the fault of their grandfathers.

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