What are you good at?
- Thread starter Shadows
- Start date
That's because Eastern Europe was largely associated with the Eastern Bloc so any former communist state is essentially seen as being in Eastern Europe. It also has a lot to do with identity as well.
Geographically speaking, Poland is in Central Europe. Politically, sociologically, often seen as belonging to Eastern Europe.
When I was in Prague last summer, I read a couple articles about their historians talking how they were never "eastern europe" but were more "western" and gave some bullshit reasons like the arts or some shit. But if you talk to a Czech, see the way they act, it's quite easy to see they have that post-communist mentality that just distinguishes them from the West. Same with Poland, I'd argue.
Eastern Europe is cool. People are much more intelligent and educated about general knowledge than Western Europeans, and I won't start about North Americans.
That being said, Southern Europe is the shit. What what.
I agree with what Masta said... Poland is not Eastern Europe.
It also annoys me when people say that Yugoslavia is Eastern Europe... "Yugo-slavia"means Slavs from the south. Greeks are more to the east than us.
That being said, Southern Europe is the shit. What what.
I agree with what Masta said... Poland is not Eastern Europe.
It also annoys me when people say that Yugoslavia is Eastern Europe... "Yugo-slavia"means Slavs from the south. Greeks are more to the east than us.
We're known as South Slavs, but when it comes to geography, I tend to connect us to Eastern Europe. Including with what Sofi said... people also connect Slavs to Russians, which is far East. So people have made that connection over the centuries, hence Eastern Europeans. I'm the same, I connect Poland to Eastern Europe, but to me, that's a good thing cause Western Europe is boring. Else from the Irish and the Scots, they're cool.
See, when I travel to Czech republic I can feel that they are way more "eastern" than us. If you go to any small village and talk to older people in Poland you will also feel it. In bigger cities you'd probably only feel that in our language, the way our cities look and maybe a bit in mentality (and that we're mostly well educated lol).
It's not as "eastern" as other East European countries I've seen but it is to some extent.
I'd say that Poland is somewhere in between. We have slavic and some post-communist traits that are dying out. That's mostly because we in fact are "western-slavic" and we had communism 31 years ago.
I won't say that we take the best of both worlds because while we probably have many positive Eastern Europe traits we take a lot of bad ones from the western world and politically we probably feel ashamed for teaming up with Russia for a couple of years in the past but it's not like we had a choice - however the results of it now are bad. We tend to totally disconnect from them. Our relations with Russia are not good at all and our "leaders" want to disconnect us from Eastern Europe so other countries stop perceiving us as "Eastern ones".
That's why our relations with other eastern countries suck and we suck America's dick.
Which in my opinion is totally wrong. Eastern Europe is awesome. I'm not a fan of Russia and Ukraine since that's how most people picture Eastern Europe. There are awesome Eastern European countries with great culture and awesome mentality. I might be a bit biased but I honestly think that people from Eastern Europe have much richer personalities. Western mentality is an asshole.
It's not as "eastern" as other East European countries I've seen but it is to some extent.
I'd say that Poland is somewhere in between. We have slavic and some post-communist traits that are dying out. That's mostly because we in fact are "western-slavic" and we had communism 31 years ago.
I won't say that we take the best of both worlds because while we probably have many positive Eastern Europe traits we take a lot of bad ones from the western world and politically we probably feel ashamed for teaming up with Russia for a couple of years in the past but it's not like we had a choice - however the results of it now are bad. We tend to totally disconnect from them. Our relations with Russia are not good at all and our "leaders" want to disconnect us from Eastern Europe so other countries stop perceiving us as "Eastern ones".
That's why our relations with other eastern countries suck and we suck America's dick.
Which in my opinion is totally wrong. Eastern Europe is awesome. I'm not a fan of Russia and Ukraine since that's how most people picture Eastern Europe. There are awesome Eastern European countries with great culture and awesome mentality. I might be a bit biased but I honestly think that people from Eastern Europe have much richer personalities. Western mentality is an asshole.
That's a fact. Even elementary schools in most Eastern European countries are not easy. They(we) learn much, much more about History, Geography, Maths and Science and have to know it all perfectly to get a quite good grade. They are not giving away "A"s or "B"s. You have to really be outstanding to get one. Most kids spend most of their time studying.
For example when I was in London and my cousin had some important tests in her high school she literally had things I had to know perfectly in my elementary school. My Maths was much better in early high school than some people studying technical subjects at western universities! I saw some tests from some American universities when I was doing my research picking my university and they're usually getting points for having any idea about what they were asked to do. We had the very same material in our high schools, some even in elementary schools and had to do it perfectly to get any points.
I was not great at maths back then and I wasn't on a technical profile.
While Eastern Germany was heavily abused in the past I think you also had some elements of Eastern education there. For example East-Germany universities founded at that time were considering some of the best in the world and well respected. It was really hard to get to one.
And even right now education in Germany is good, definitely better than in other western countries.
You probably have no idea about Eastern European culture.
For example when I was in London and my cousin had some important tests in her high school she literally had things I had to know perfectly in my elementary school. My Maths was much better in early high school than some people studying technical subjects at western universities! I saw some tests from some American universities when I was doing my research picking my university and they're usually getting points for having any idea about what they were asked to do. We had the very same material in our high schools, some even in elementary schools and had to do it perfectly to get any points.
I was not great at maths back then and I wasn't on a technical profile.
While Eastern Germany was heavily abused in the past I think you also had some elements of Eastern education there. For example East-Germany universities founded at that time were considering some of the best in the world and well respected. It was really hard to get to one.
And even right now education in Germany is good, definitely better than in other western countries.
You probably have no idea about Eastern European culture.
Without the comparison, hizzle's statement stands on it's own. Generally speaking, the people of Eastern Europe and Southeastern Europe are well informed in world affairs, skeptical, but well-informed. They're the least skeptical when it comes to their leaders because a lot of political affiliation is nationalist-based. (at least in Southeastern Europe). When it comes to technical education, we are also very good because the education system was and remains extremely rigorous - the diplomas can be bought, sure - but those who are able to, attain a great technical education. Economically, politically, not so much because, for example, my mom had to take Marxism, self-explanatory. But post-socialist education is good. So, I don't want to compare because I don't know the data, but if you travel to Eastern Europe, you will mostly meet intelligent people who are very well-informed. The culture is beautiful, people party like crazy, corruption is rampant. Oh yeah, and we are relatively honest and straight-forward people. So if you have a bad fashion sense or you're fat, you'll get laughed at lawl.
I think hizzle was just more or less angrily provoked by artistic girl's statement. I don't know if she was being honest or just saying it for fun, but I mean the statement just holds no value.
I think hizzle was just more or less angrily provoked by artistic girl's statement. I don't know if she was being honest or just saying it for fun, but I mean the statement just holds no value.
Generalization where? It's just that some things are different at different locations. I'm not saying that people in America or wherever are stupid and elsewhere are always intelligent. There are different types of people everywhere. Also some of the best universities and professors are located in the USA (while they were usually educated elsewhere but that's another thing).
It's just that in some places generally things tend to be handled in a different manner. It's enough to leave a certain impression.
It's just that in some places generally things tend to be handled in a different manner. It's enough to leave a certain impression.
Ask a random dude in Poland to speak English, he will.
Don't do the same in Germany, you people can't speak English for shit... I remember once being in Frankfurt, I asked for an orange juice and the girl couldn't understand me... I WAS AT THE AIRPORT! Good thing I speak a little bit of German I was able to get my beverage lol. Same thing happened once in the North when I was at a BK... Had to ask for "Number 3" in german because that young lady wasn't speaking English... I was on the border with Denmark, I thought that speaking more than one language at a BK on the border would be a prereq.
Hell, in Croatia, I've heard ice cream men speak perfect French while in Italy or Spain, they can't even speak their own language properly...
Other than that, just walk around and talk to people, you'll feel that they have a lot of political and cultural sense compared to "West Euros".
I'll try to find a study, I read about this on BBC once also...
Also I would like to add that the most educated people I have met, on a constant basis, were in Denmark and Sweden. Those people speak English perfectly and are so well informed and educated on every aspect you could think of... From music to mathematics, economics, history, politics...
Norwegians are pretty good too, but some are retarded... I was once asked to speak "my language" with a Peruvian... They thought that we could speak together just because we were not Norwegian haha.
N.B.
I am not generalizing, I would not write any of this if it wasn't on a more constant level than a first-impression thing...
Don't do the same in Germany, you people can't speak English for shit... I remember once being in Frankfurt, I asked for an orange juice and the girl couldn't understand me... I WAS AT THE AIRPORT! Good thing I speak a little bit of German I was able to get my beverage lol. Same thing happened once in the North when I was at a BK... Had to ask for "Number 3" in german because that young lady wasn't speaking English... I was on the border with Denmark, I thought that speaking more than one language at a BK on the border would be a prereq.
Hell, in Croatia, I've heard ice cream men speak perfect French while in Italy or Spain, they can't even speak their own language properly...
Other than that, just walk around and talk to people, you'll feel that they have a lot of political and cultural sense compared to "West Euros".
I'll try to find a study, I read about this on BBC once also...
Also I would like to add that the most educated people I have met, on a constant basis, were in Denmark and Sweden. Those people speak English perfectly and are so well informed and educated on every aspect you could think of... From music to mathematics, economics, history, politics...
Norwegians are pretty good too, but some are retarded... I was once asked to speak "my language" with a Peruvian... They thought that we could speak together just because we were not Norwegian haha.
N.B.
I am not generalizing, I would not write any of this if it wasn't on a more constant level than a first-impression thing...
Donate
Any donations will be used to help pay for the site costs, and anything donated above will be donated to C-Dub's son on behalf of this community.
Members online
No members online now.