What do Russians know about Poland?

Recently, I’ve attended another meeting with people mostly from Russia. Of course, as always, I was quite a big attraction for them as it’s not so common in Ulyanovsk that there’s a foreigner living there. So we started a discussion about our countries. They asked me first what I know about Russia, we discussed different food, habits, they taught me some words… And then I decided to ask them what they know about Poland. And I really couldn’t believe my ears! 😀 The knowledge about Poland, and Europe, is generally really low. I was surprised when I heard some nice “facts” about my country and the history and geography… Here are some most “interesting” comments.

Comment One:

Q: So where are you from?
Me: Guess!
Q: Are from a country that was in Soviet Union?
Me: Yes, sort of. Eastern Bloc.
Q: Is it Ukraine?  Belarus?   Kazakhstan?   Georgia?
Me: No, but I’m from a country that has a border with Ukraine and Belarus.
Q: Is it Germany???

Comment Two (still talking about my native country):

A: So what is this country? Any tips?
Me: Do you know where Kaliningrad is?
A: Of course, it’s the part of Russia.
Me: Sooo we are very close to Kaliningrad. And in fact we have the border there, too.
A: Lithuania, right?
Me: No..
A: So WHAT’S the country? 
Me: Poland! Have you ever heard about it?
A: Poland?… wait… was it the part of Soviet Union???

Comment Three

And now, my favourite one. At some point in our discussion we drifted to nicer topics like cinema, books, music. So after giving some names of Russian bands or singers,  I asked my fellows if they know any Polish artists. And my dear Russian friend, whose name I shall not publish here, answered, “There is this Polish artist, Tomas something, do you know  him?”.  I answered that if his name’s Tomas then he must be Czech because in Polish it’d be Tomasz. But my dear friend was quite convinced that this guy was Polish. So here we go uncle Google, show us who he is. And unlucky for me, we found him. And he is totally Polish. And everyone in Poland knows his song, some time ago he was a YouTube king… of kitsch and disco polo 😀 My question is: “Why on Earth (!!!) does my friend know this man whose music is really poor when we have so many great artists??? What image of Poland does it project?” No words to describe my feelings here.

I’m just wondering what else is there to know about my own country and if it’s as bad as the song of Tomasz Niecik, I guess I don’t want to know more…

Well, in the meantime you can try to enjoy the song and see you soon 🙂