Polish culture
For centuries, Poland has been a bridge between the East and West. Located in the heart of Europe, it is a multifaceted country where the tradition coexists with modern, progressive and vibrant lifestyle. As in the case of every other country, its ubiquitous and complex culture is hard to define. Nonetheless, let’s have a try.
According to “Communication between cultures” by Larry A. Samovar, there are five basic elements that mark a collection of people as a culture. First of them is a culture’s history. While considering Poland, getting to know the stories of the past is a prerequisite for explaining and truly understanding the character of its culture. That is mostly because it has particularly long and complicated history, including 123 years of occupation, Nazi’s invasion during the WWII or communist regime lasting for almost 45 years. Most of the Poles are very aware or that, and they pay extra attention to pass what Basile describes as “source of the collective consciousness” on to the next generations.
The second constituent pointed out by Samovar is religion. More than 96 percent of citizens are identified as Roman Catholic. Poland is among the most uniformly Catholic countries in the world, and the Roman Catholic Church in Poland enjoys immense social prestige and political influence. Such situation shows that it seriously affects families, communities, and the economic life. A human conduct is judged by Catholic precedents of acceptable behavior, and accordingly to its notions of right and wrong. People are not willing to stand out that is why there are very few religious minorities.
Another feature of a culture is values. The ideas shared by Polish society suggest that our culture is based on rigid, hierarchical social structures, is not dependable on science, but does emphasise the importance of work. I cannot say, however, if Poland is more characterised by collectivism or individualism because it is still facing systematic transition problems, so some aspects of life are more collective, post-sovietic, whereas the others tend towards Western competition, individual achievements and initiative.
As far as the social organizations in Poland are concerned, they are crucial to make up a culture’s structure. The Poles generally perceive an institution of family in a wider, extended way. We take care of older people, respect their opinion and learn from their experience.
Finally, the last element indicated by Samovar is language. Polish is the official language of my mother country and it is the most spoken West Slavic language. It has been greatly influenced by Latin; many Polish words are actually direct calques from Latin. Moreover, due to our turbulent history, especially Russification and Germanisation, and the whole process of changing Polish ethnic self-label or identity, the Poles are really proud of their own language that survived throughout these difficult times.
Culture offers people a common frame of reference. I am proud of my Polish heritage because it shapes my identity, but still, what I keep in mind every time I encounter a person with a different cultural background is that, fortunately, people are more that their cultures…that places us all on in one point- we are all humans…