# very Polish



## Encolpius

Hello dear friends, here I have opened a thread in the Russian forum and now I would like to ask you if there is any idiom, collocation to describe a very Polish person? Thanks.


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## dreamlike

Not that I can think of, no.This thread is likely to spur political discussion as there are many ideas about Polish identity and hence about being 'very Polish'.


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## jasio

Actually, I made a google search, which did not prove to be very helpful, because "tak...jak" is used most often as a complex way to say "both" (recently: "tak Polska, jak Ukraina", meaning 'both Poland and Ukraine') rather than to make a reference.  To add insult to injury, such reference seems to be used ironically to show lack of relationship more often than to make a positive reference.

Anyway, I've found "tak polski, jak chleb" (as Polish, as bread), "tak polski, jak wódka" (as Polish as vodka), and "tak polski, jak pierogi" (as Polish as dumplings), both used very rarely, in very specific contexts, perhaps even in unique texts later re-published several times, so apparently authors must have been seeking for a good comparison themselves rather than using an existing, fixed phrasing.


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## wolfbm1

"Miłość bez zazdrości to jak Polak bez wąsa." Kazimierz Władysław Wóycicki (1807–1879). According to this XIX century saying a quintessential Pole should grow a moustache.


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## Ben Jamin

Encolpius said:


> Hello dear friends, here I have opened a thread in the Russian forum and now I would like to ask you if there is any idiom, collocation to describe a very Polish person? Thanks.


Could you be more precise, what you are looking for?  Any examples from other languages?


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## Encolpius

Ok, it just does not exist in Polish, no problem, that's a very good answer, too....  Thanks...
Americans, Czechs and Slovaks have their examples (only)...vianie wrote the examples in the above mentioned Russian thread so you can check them....


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## sonorous

A stereotypical, bigotted, thoughtlessly conservative, uneducated and narrow minded Pole may be called Janusz-cebulak (someone smelling like onions)


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## dreamlike

sonorous said:


> A stereotypical, bigotted, thoughtlessly conservative, uneducated and narrow minded Pole may be called Janusz-cebulak (someone smelling like onions)


And how does it relate to what Encolpius is looking for....? Besides, those called "Janusz" or "cebulak" do not necessarily have to be "bigotted" or "thoughlessly conservative", at least judging by the way in which these terms are used in my experience.


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## sonorous

Apparently you don't understand this term. Google it maybe


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## dreamlike

Our understanding of these terms may indeed be different, but I don't see how either of them could be useful to Encolpius. If "Janusz" or "Cebulak", or a mixture of the two is what you think being "very Polish" is, then I'm really sorry for you.


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## sonorous

Read my first post once again.


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## dreamlike

I get it. I just think that suggesting such negative terms to foreigners, for whatever reason, serves no purpose.


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## sonorous

Aha. Only good examples serve it. I see

Well, this is not groundless at all, in the last few days we had two examples of people (Marek Jakubiak and Rafal Zirmkiewicz) with such a mentality the term "Janusz-cebulak" expresses.


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