Primary Poland Stories

Welcome to Poland! We are a country located in the centre of Europe.

Our total area is around 120,000 square miles.

This makes it the ninth largest country in Europe,

with the UK coming in at number 12.

Poland has over 300 miles of coastline,

of which over a half are beautiful beaches.

If only a swim in the Baltic Sea wasn't so refreshing.

Did you know that the number of people living in Poland

hasn't changed for the past 20 years?

The amount of Polish people has increased, but strangely enough,

Poland's population has stayed level at 38 million.

One of the reasons for this is migration.

Currently there are 17 million Poles living outside the country.

That means that for every ten Polish people, four of them have emigrated.

Jacek Kunysz is one of the Poles

who have made the hard decision to leave Poland.

Together with his wife and son,

he is about to make the move to Britain.

The family leave behind a small flat on the outskirts of Warsaw.

It's quarter to five in the morning,

and Jacek, his wife and his son are about to depart for the UK.

Bye-bye!

Jacek and his family are joining the 643,000 Poles

who are currently living in the UK.

The Wierzbiccy family moved to Scotland in 2011.

The family have settled near Glasgow.

You're maybe wondering how many Poles live in Scotland.

Well, in 2011, there were 67,000 of them.

That is 1.25% of Scotland's total population.

The Polish community is now well established in Scotland,

and there are more and more Polish shops opening

catering to Polish and Scottish customers.

I think life is much easier here for us.

It was very hard at the beginning because of language,

different culture, but everything can be possible.

And the weather, that is hard for us!

The weather is horrible!

The Polish community even has its own radio show

in which listeners can vote for their favourite Polish band.

All my life I dreamed about radio, and a job like a DJ in radio,

and I'm glad, because I do something for Polish culture.

What has prompted this increase of Poles settling in the UK?

With the average Polish salary of £635 a month,

compared with almost £2,000 in Britain,

Poles find the UK an attractive destination.

Moving to a different country and leaving your relatives behind

is never easy, but at least technology

makes keeping in touch easier.

When Poland joined the European Union in 2004,

there were 75,000 Poles in the UK,

and by 2011 this figure shot up to 643,000,

an increase of more than 850%.

It's not just for economic reasons people immigrate.

Three years ago, Pawel moved his family to Aberdeen

to further his career as a ship designer,

but they have now returned to Poland.

We decided to move to Scotland, to Aberdeen,

somewhere where is the offshore market,

which I could learn a lot from just to develop the skills

to have more chance to talk with other people and companies

and to have an international environment.

Pawel's move to Scotland wasn't so much to get him a higher wage,

it was more about getting him a better career experience.

He also found he got a better work and life balance in Scotland,

allowing him to spend more time with his family.

His working hours in Poland are much longer.

My life in Scotland was much easier than in Poland.

We had much more time after work.

In Poland, life is completely different.

Sometimes I have to take work home,

sometimes I need to organise some jobs for me and it's harder.

When Pawel's children reached school age,

the family had a big decision to make,

whether to stay in Scotland permanently,

or to move back to Poland.

Our children needed to start school and we had a choice,

or they start the school in Scotland

and then we would be there for another ten years or something.

We spoke with our family and all decided it was time to move back.

But the family don't regret the time they spent in Scotland,

as it has improved Pawel's career prospects.

Poland is a very proud nation, and us Poles are convinced

that most Polish things are the best in the world.

For example, Polish men have a reputation

for being old-fashioned gentlemen.

Poland is one of the few countries

where polite hand kissing is still a practice.

In Poland, it is normal for men to open doors for women,

and carry heavy things for them.

In a recent survey, Polish people were rated as the most attractive

compared to other Europeans.

Curiously, the Polish people

were also one of the most unhappy people within Europe.

In 2004, Poland joined the European Union,

and opened its borders to fellow EU countries.

You might be surprised to find out it has seven borders.

Its neighbours are Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine,

Belarus, Lithuania and Kaliningrad Oblast, a small part of Russia.

Two of its neighbours are not part of the EU,

so these borders are patrolled

to stop people crossing them without permission.

Karol is a border guard at Bezledy,

and looks after the vehicles crossing between Poland and Russia.

Karol's son Wiktor is nine years old.

Wiktor is a keen boy scout, and on Saturday mornings

he spends time with his friends at his scout club.

Wiktor is on a trail exercise,

looking for clues left by his fellow scouts.

In a way, it is quite similar to his dad's job as a border guard.

His father is constantly on the lookout

for signs of illegal activity,

but the dense forests of this area of Poland make Karol's job tricky.

Luckily, he has the right equipment for the job!

CHILDREN SING IN POLISH

After the morning's scouting activities,

Wiktor is picked up by his dad.

Karol has a trip planned for his son, to show him

the difference between a closed and an open border.

If you follow the border east from Bezledy for two and a half hours,

you will come to a point where three countries meet -

Poland, Russia and Lithuania.

With Poland opening its borders to other EU countries,

it has become less isolated and open to outside influences.

The Second World War started in Poland.

In September 1939, the Nazis invaded the country.

The Nazis' leader, Adolf Hitler,

wanted a Greater Germany for pure Germans only.

He attacked anyone who didn't agree with his master plan.

He specifically targeted the Jewish population.

Most Jews were made to wear yellow stars

and taken away from their homes.

They were sent to ghettos to isolate them

and make them easier to control.

Rutka Laskier lived in one of these ghettos,

and is often called the Polish Anne Frank.

She too wrote a diary about what it was like

being a Jewish girl under German occupation.

Maja is 11 years old and lives in Bedzin,

the town where Rutka wrote her diary.

The ghettos were only a temporary solution.

Eventually, the Jews were sent to concentration camps

where millions of them died.

One well-known camp was Auschwitz, which is the German name

for Oswiecim, a little town in the south of Poland.

Malgorzata Jakubas is 29 years old and studies political science.

She is learning all about the Holocaust and human rights law.

Her college building was originally part of the concentration camp.

Adolf Hitler spoke against Jews and blamed them

for everything that had gone wrong in Germany's past.

The German people were looking for someone to blame

and Hitler was there to urge them on.

This hatred grew into what we now remember as the Holocaust.

It wasn't just the Jews that were

sent to die in the concentration camps.

Hitler and his gang also targeted the mentally ill and the disabled.

Poland was under Nazi occupation for six years, and during this time

nearly a quarter of the Polish population were killed.

Three million of them were Jewish.

The Auschwitz museum is there to remind us

that we must never forget the victims who died here.

A few months after Rutka wrote these lines,

she was taken to Auschwitz, where she tragically died.

The majority of Jews transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau

died in the gas chambers...

..most of them within an hour of arriving here.

For this group of Israeli Jews,

visiting this place is a particularly emotional experience.

I think every person should know it can happen everywhere,

all the time, if people don't pay attention onto each other,

if people don't take care,

if people don't see behind their shoulders

and just think for themselves, it can happen everywhere.

Poland is mainly a Roman Catholic country.

90% of Poles have been baptised,

and about 40% go to church regularly.

Christmas and Easter are very important dates.

Another major event is All Saints' Day.

People all over Poland visit the graves of loved ones

and place candles and flowers on graves.

The special candles, which can burn for many hours,

are placed there so that departed souls

can find their way through the darkness.

The Gregorczyk-Janik family lives in Lec,

a little village outside Warsaw.

For Agata, All Saints' Day is a very important day.

All Saints' Day starts with an early Mass

attended by the whole family including eight-year-old Jeremi.

The family stop to buy some flowers, and meet up with grandparents.

Tradition is not just important in the countryside,

it also has its place in the modern cities like Warsaw.

STRING GROUP PLAYS FOLK MUSIC

THEY SING IN POLISH

The Warsaw Village Band plays traditional Polish folk music

combined with modern elements.

Maciej Szajkowski plays percussion in the band.

After visiting the graves of their ancestors,

the Gregorczyk-Janik family gather for lunch.

Poland produces 82% of its electricity from coal.

Much of that power -

around one-fifth of the country's electricity -

is produced from just one plant, Elektrownia Belchatow,

in central Poland.

This huge power plant produces enough electricity

to power the whole of Scotland.

It is Europe's largest thermal power plant, and its biggest polluter.

According to the European Commission,

it emitted close to 32 million tonnes of CO2 in 2010.

Belchatow power station produces its electricity from coal,

dug out from this huge open-cast mine.

Piotr Dominiak is a journalist and a passionate environment campaigner.

Belchatow open-cast mine

produces low-quality brown coal for its power plant.

Pniowek Coal Mine is a deep-cast mine.

Its black high-quality coal is used for providing electricity,

heating homes and for heavy industry.

Slawek Polak is a foreman in this mine.

Poland is highly dependent on coal

because it's used to provide most of Poland's electricity.

It is also exported to other countries.

The coal industry is a major employer, with over 100,000 workers,

so any reduction in coal production

will have a big impact on employment.

As a member of the European Union Poland will be expected

to eventually switch from using coal to using cleaner power sources.

But the end of mining will have a huge impact

on the people who work there.

Poland does potentially have another very lucrative power source.

Renewable energy occurs naturally and continuously

and does not get used up.

In 2010 Poland didn't generate much renewable energy -

only 9%.

By 2020 they are hoping to raise this to 15%.

In Scotland we are aiming to generate

the equivalent of 100% of our electricity

from renewables by 2020.

Another way to reduce pollution created by power plants

is to use less energy.

The 50/50 scheme does exactly that.

Wiktoria is 12 years old

and her school is keen to create a greener future.

Schools involved with the 50/50 programme

work hard to reduce their energy bills.

They get 50% of the money saved back to buy equipment

and materials for the pupils.

To meet its EU targets

Poland needs to improve its recycling as well.

In 2010 less than 15% of municipal waste was recycled in Poland,

well below the UK at 25%.

Some would say Poland still has a long way to go

when it comes to green issues.

With coal being such a huge part of the Polish economy,

it is hard to make the leap to sustainable energy.

The first thing most people learn in any new language is how to swear.

The next thing with Polish is how tricky it is.

The Polish language is said to be

one of the most difficult languages to learn

and it's not very catchy to foreigners.

"Tak" is "yes", "nie" is "no",

"witaj" is "welcome",

"czesc" is "hi",

and "do widzenia" is "goodbye".

Polish grammar is full of traps

and the biggest one is numbers, especially number two.

There are 17 forms dependant on how it is used in a sentence!

Although 97% of Poles speak Polish

there are a few other major languages -

German, Lithuanian and Kashubian,

the only officially recognised regional language in Poland.

Pawel aged 13 attends school in Staniszewo,

a typical Kashubian village.

Most of the 50,000 Kashubian speakers

live in north central Poland in the region of Pomerania.

In Kashubia, there are still some strong signs

of the Kashubian culture.

Kashubian folk dancing is very popular

and Pawel is a member of his school dance group.

There was a time when Kashubian culture was suppressed.

The communist government controlled all aspects of Polish life

and Pawel's teacher still remembers the time

when it was even forbidden to speak Kashubian.

One of the tourist attractions in Kashubia is the upside down house.

It was built as an artistic statement about the communist era

and current state of the world.

Many tourists who visit complain of mild seasickness

and dizziness after just a few minutes of being in this house.

The upside down house was built by Daniel Czapiewski -

Polish businessman and patriotic Kashubian.

For a traditional language like Kashubian to survive,

it not only needs to be taught in school,

but it has to be spoken at home.

The Kashubian tradition is alive and well in this area,

but for the Kashubian language it is make-or-break time.

Did you know that Poland is 12th in the world education ranking?

This is well above the UK, coming in at 20.

With a ranking like that you would expect all Polish schools

to be modern and hi tech, but there is a big variety.

They range from old-fashioned buildings in need of renovation

to brand spanking new schools.

What is school like in Poland if you are Scottish?

Meet Emelia, she is 14 years old and moved to Warsaw when she was eight.

Her family have recently returned to Scotland,

but she's back in Poland for a brief visit to her old school.

It's really funny being back in my old city

where I used to go to school, just right here.

It will be really interesting

because I've not been here for a few months

and all of a sudden I'm back in my old life.

I can't wait to see my friends,

it will be great to catch up with them

and talk about their first few weeks of school.

Emelia used to go to this school, Szkola Marzen,

it's a small private school in the outskirts of Warsaw.

Some Polish parents decide to pay for schooling

as they feel it will improve their child's education.

Emelia's class have no idea

they are about to see their old classmate again.

Polish education's really academic,

so you're getting tested all the time

and everything comes down to your final grades.

'You're just told to memorise things, write a test

'and then you forget everything. And in Scotland,

'I've even gone up a year and I still find in Poland'

they're already a step ahead of you, pushing you.

Samuel is eight years old

and attends a typical Polish school just outside Warsaw.

The Polish government has recently invested a lot of money

in its schools.

But not as much as its European neighbours.

Samuel's original school building was built 40 years ago,

but recently a brand-new wing was built.

Samuel's mother Melvina is a teacher at his school.

Things have changed a lot since her schooldays.

The teaching was traditional

in the way that we had to listen and repeat.

And I think that there was much more discipline in those years.

I don't really remember if it was interesting or not interesting,

it's hard to say because it was a long time ago.

Yeah, it was different, not so much fun, I think.

That's very good.

So today we have a lesson about Halloween also, OK?

What is that? Who remembers?

OK, but in English.

Melvina teaches English to children starting as young as six.

Pumpkin, OK.

'You have to learn English from the first grade

'at primary school.'

It's, like, obligatory.

It is obligatory for the whole of education - in primary school,

junior high and then secondary school.

And in many, many kindergartens now, also languages,

different languages are taught.

She's a witch, yes. Very good.

To start with, Polish and Scottish primary schools are quite similar,

but by age nine or ten,

the children change classes and teachers every 40 minutes.

From the fourth grade they have separate subjects

with different teachers.

So it is difficult for them, especially in the very beginning,

when they have to remember about different things,

and they have to get to know different teachers,

different characters.

It's time for Samuel's school lunch

and it's a hearty affair with soup and a main course.

But for Emelia, school lunch is one of the things

she definitely hasn't missed.

Lots of people say that their favourite time at school is lunch,

but for me that was definitely not the case.

I didn't particularly like Polish food,

some of it was quite nice,

but the pierogi and the potato pancakes aren't nice.

Poland is a country of food lovers.

Although Polish food may not be the most varied and exotic,

there are quite a few main dishes that hold a special place

in the Poles' hearts.

A soup with eggs and sausage sometimes served inside bread.

Another popular soup is red borscht - beetroot soup.

Golonka is pork knuckle served with cabbage stew.

Polish pork cutlets are breaded and fried.

But there is one dish which is most popular,

although it's not originally from Poland.

These dough dumplings can be filled with almost anything -

potatoes, onions, cheese, cabbage, meat, mushrooms, spinach,

you name it.

But Polish cuisine is not just about food. It's also about hospitality.

There's even a popular saying that says "a guest in the house

"is a god in the house".

So next time you visit your Polish neighbours

you can be certain that you won't leave their house hungry.

In fact they won't let you leave

until every last piece of food is eaten.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media