Wednesday 24 November 2010

Romanians, Football, Skiing and Polish English Acting

A few things brought to mind by various things I have seen this morning.

Anti-Romanian/Roma prejudice locally is probably inevitable. There is a group, possibly a family, just along the road from me who I have been told by different people to be Romanian and Roma - may be they are both as I wouldn't know one from the other. They are extremely noticeable as they routinely scream at each other and their children. Even though they look different from Poles (so do I), they do not look so fundamentally different that this would automatically be an issue, nor do they seem to otherwise act in a drastically different way. However, in a quiet neighbourhood where raised voices are extremely rare they stick out a mile as being completely different people who behave in an unacceptable way.

Thenews.pl reports that ;'foreigners' will be accepted into the Polish team. They are needed. Poland is not a footballing nation. In London, in virtually any half decent area large enough and nearly flat enough to have a kick around, there will regularly be crowds of people playing football. We used to play in a small area in the local park with a sloping area of ground completely surrounded by low fencing, but no 'keep off' sign. No such thing in Poland. The picture below, from August, is of a small football pitch just up the road in Rusiec (Rooshets). Note the luxurious, virtually undisturbed grass.



The wintersports season has started. TV will now be flooded with months of programming showing how well or badly we are doing. I've tried to get to like ski-jumping and hoping that Małysz will win, but I really wish that they'd all get up and go home. Even more TV boredom than ever.

I heard a voice with a Polish accent speaking English on the television and went to see what was on. It turned out to be another occasion when a Pole had the role of a foreigner - I think from the USA in this case. It seemed obviously false to me, but I wonder whether the Polish audience fails to notice or just don't care.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

hi :) found you from polandian! finally someone agrees about the accents on tv!

i'm polish and live in australia and it constantly bothers me when i see foreigners on polish tv with heavy slavic accents! i also wonder if people don't realise and somehow i don't think they do - my mum wouldn't be able to tell. she thinks all brits, americans, south africans, kiwis and aussies speak the same!!!