My blog has been nominated in the Language Professionals category in this year’s Top 100 Language Blogs contest run by LexioPhiles.

This is very flattering and I’m currently blushing.

But I will blush even more (and maybe do a little dance too) if you vote for me.

Please go to the voting page, scroll down to find “the POLSKI blog” and vote. I will love you forever. Voting closes on 24 May.

Dziękuję.

Anyway, where was I? Ah yes, Poles in the UK. There are thousands of them. Or is it millions now? And it seems that despite the bad economy, more and more are heading there. Personally, I know only two people who chose to return to Poland in 2009, and about ten times as many who got on a Ryanair flight with all their dreams and belongings reduced to one piece of checked-in luggage. But as I am a professional nomad myself, it’s not really my place to pass judgment on them and dissect the reasons why they decided to leave Poland.

What interests me are their experiences in the UK. Why? Oh, I’m nosey and real life stories are so much better than soap operas.

Luckily for me, it seems that just about every Polish expat on the “islands” is busy documenting his or her life in a blog. Most, actually – almost all of those blogs, are written in Polish and detail the boring, mundane events of boring, mundane every day life.

What surprised me was how many (many) of those Poles in UK complain, and what they complain about (everything). I know that narzekanie (complaining) is one of our national traits. No, wait, it’s not a trait, it’s part of our Polish genetic makeup. Nobody complains like we do. We’ve turned complaining about life, universe and everything into an art form.

But where was I? Ah yes, Polish expats blogging. Mercifully, since most of the blogs are written in our obscure national language, their readership is also almost exclusively Polish. There are, however, a few brave souls that decided to blog about their experiences in the UK in English. And maybe because they blog in English, they don’t complain as much as the rest.

So, if you’ve ever wanted to know just what those neighborhood Poles are up to, now you can – check out thesee blogs:

Anglopole’s blog is somewhat spasmodic, but still offers a nice glimpse of what a Polish person in the UK does and thinks.

Polka on the island writes a bit more frequently and also covers a wide variety of topics.

If you are a Pole abroad and blog in English, or in a mixture of languages about your daily life na obczyźnie, please take a minute and leave a comment – if you don’t mind, I’d like to feature your blogs next time we talk about this subject.

And yes, if you think I’m a blog addict, you are absolutely right. I love them, I read them, and I write them. Kocham blogi, piszę blogi i czytam blogi – jestem blogowym nałogowcem.

Post from: Polish Blog