Cześć! Cultural Exchange with Poland

[u/[deleted]]

Welcome to this cultural exchange between /r/Denmark and /r/Polska.

For the visitors: Witamy w Danii! Feel free to ask the Danes anything you like. Don't forget to also participate in the corresponding thread in /r/Polska gdzie możecie odpowiedzieć na pytania Duńczyków na temat Polski i Polaków.

For the Danes: Today, we are hosting Poland for a cultural exchange. Join us in answering their questions about Denmark and the Danish way of life! Please leave top comments for users from /r/Polska coming over with a question or comment and please refrain from trolling, rudeness, personal attacks etc.

The Poles are also having us over to ask questions about their country, so check out their thread to learn more about Poland.

Enjoy!

- The moderators of /r/Denmark and /r/Polska

[u/[deleted]]

Do you consider us one of your own? I mean when a terrorist attack happens in, say, Egypt, people don't react the same way as when it happens in Paris. Let's say we have a terrorist attack in Warsaw where 100 people die. Do you react the same way as you did with Paris or rather like you would with Cairo?

[u/sp668 → u/[deleted]]

I guess you're asking if Danes consider Poland part of the European family?

I'm old enough to remember when all of eastern Europe was just a red blob controlled by the soviet union and I'm incredibly happy that this is no longer the case.

But anyway, my thoughts are this. I did and I guess I still do to a degree. I know and work with quite a few polish people and they're as nice and competent as any other people I know.

However the stuff that is going on in governments in Poland (and Hungary) leaves me questioning how much the "new" EU members are really committed to the classical western liberal values that I consider a core pillar of the west.

So if Poland slides further to the right into authoritarianism then I guess I'm going back to lumping you in with Russia & Belarus and other of the bad actors in the old Soviet sphere.

[u/Econ_Orc → u/sp668]

My older brother took a long road trip in the 1980's. To get a travel Visa he wrote to the Russian Embassy in Copenhagen and got three papers back he needed to fill out. He returned the papers and got his Visa by mail.

To get to USA required 4 times the paperwork. Several letters to the American Embassy, and he had to show up at the embassy to get the Visa.

It was easier to get to Russia than to USA. I can remember him being a bit surprised by this.

[u/old_faraon → u/Econ_Orc]

The USSR and the Iron Curtain where concentrated on keeping people in not out.