Ask a Pole

If you click onto interia.pl (and if you speak Polish so that you can actually understand what comes up) you’ll find a link to an Internet Polish news source, with several CNN-style questionnaires soliciting opinions on any number of issues. I’m going to translate just two, one that I think speaks to the deeply-rooted national complex I wrote of in an earlier post, and the other highlighting what I indeed know about Poles: they are avid readers.



(This poll follows an article about how Poles are breaking with stereotypes as they travel to England to find work under the new EU open-door policy)

Which of these stereotypes about Poles do you think is most widespread?

(3025 Poles responded when last I checked)



That s/he is a drunkard: 30%

That s/he is lazy: 1%

That s/he is knowledgeable: 7%

That s/he is hardworking: 3%

That s/he steals: 22%

That s/he is a manipulator: 37%





How many books did you read in the last 6 months?

(1021 Poles responded when last I checked)



1: 6%

2: 6%

3: 9%

4– 6: 21%

7 – 10: 12%

more than 10: 31%

none 15%



[If you are thinking that Net users are perhaps more likely to be bookish, I’d say an argument for the opposite can be made: avid Net users tend to read less than those without access to a computer. In any event, the results don’t surprise me. Poles really do read a lot – not only books, but also journals with social and political commentary.]