You are teaching us how to appreciate simple things. Also buildings which are not the most beautiful 😉 and it is also important! We - Poles - have often very critical point of view about many things, and we need to learn how to see more pros than cons. Thank you for it!

Thanks for the video! I'm a Polish citizen, via my mother, but I've never lived in Poland so I enjoy hearing your perspectives

I can't wait to see you visit Kraków after saying so many good things about Warsaw!

I lived in the north of Poland. All Ukrainians living there (and it was halth of our village) were perfectly assimilated. There were speaking polish. They had they own religion but respected our traditions and we were even going to their church for weddings and burials and they to our. We knew who was ukraininan and who wasn't but it never mattered. As kids we were in the same class. If the kids didn't tell me their parents were Ukrainians I would never guess. Why so many Ukrainians lived in the village in north Poland? Due to very painful history...but we were able to leave it behind and live peacefully together as a community. 4th generation lives there now. I know from experience that you can assimilate and at the same time keep speaking your language at home and practicing your religion and remembering your roots. Honestly, I never thought about it but now I am very grateful that I experienced that as a child.

I believe that you will easily assimilate with Polish society and this country. What you say - and how you do it - shows that you think and feel exactly like the average Pole. And the language? If you know Ukrainian, it will take you about a year or two to learn Polish "more than conversional". And I fully agree with your perception of Warsaw. The fact that office buildings are completely mixed with residential buildings is a great solution (by the way - the dark skyscraper from the beginning of your video is also an apartment building, not an office building). I wish you good luck. And one more thing - in Warsaw almost everyone is "from somewhere". Local is a rarity :)

Integration and assimilation are two different things. Assimilation means losing (or giving up) your original culture while obtaining the new one. Integration means learning the new culture and its way of life while keeping key elements of your original culture that can be reconciled with the new one, potentially enriching it. This includes additive bilingualism. I say this as a Hungarian who had learnt sociolinguistics: two thirds(!) of pre-war Hungary were detached after WWI, along with almost 3 million Hungarians. Still, there are ~2 million Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin outside Hungary, even if the post-Trianon states tried to forcefully assimilate them (e.g. in Ceauşescu's Romania). Their present situation varies from country to country.

Jeden z wieku dobrych odcinków które publikujesz 👍 Polska potrzebuję takich ludzi.

with time things are possible i have high hopes for you and Marina in Poland you both already have the language down bit by bit , sending you both positive vibes

I think you've fell in love with Poland... :) I'm glad you like it here.

You are one of us, we are all human after all. All the best to you and Marina.

Great video, thank you. We learn so much from you. Keep on sharing. Love to Marina and Musa. Lots of love from South Africa

Knowledge of local language is crucial for assimilation ;)

Hi I'm living in this house (żelazna 40), building is average, old (from 1971), flats are small but neighborhood is fantastic.

You are right in everything you stated, smart and wise. Knowing heroes and their history will tell you a lot about Poles, people like Kościuszko, like Polish cavaliers who helped locals on Haiti to claim independence, like Roman Dmowski and Piłsudski and many many more. I don't have good opinion about Polish political knowledge this days, most people likes goes after trends. People don't understand what is right or left anymore ;) You need to build your opinion by yourself and as smart guy you will choose properly so don't worry. Wish you all best bro, grow your family in Poland safety!

What helped me is; the language, sociology class, and history. At first, the importance to communicate with others, you already know that, will make your life easier. Sociology helped me to understand how society works, basic history was also helpful. It helped me to understand, why people think and do the way they do. Wish you all my best. Greetings from SoCal.

Everything you said is pretty true and on point 👍

The key to the culture is sens of humor. You should see just three Commedy and you would know almost all about Polish soul. 1. "Sami swoi" (translated as All Friends Here or Our Folks; literally "only our own") 2. How I Unleashed World War II Jak rozpętałem drugą wojnę światową 3. MIŚ . Teddy Bear is the (English title ) 4. Sexmission (Polish: Seksmisja) 5. "Kiler". English: The Hitman First one is the about finding new Home after the war. Almost half of Polish society has such family expirences

Wincenty Lutosławski wrote: Do polskiego narodu należą spolszczeni Niemcy, Tatarzy, Ormianie, Cyganie, Żydzi, jeśli żyją dla wspólnego ideału Polski. (…) Murzyn lub czerwonoskóry może zostać prawdziwym Polakiem, jeśli przejmie dziedzictwo duchowe polskiego narodu, zawarte w jego literaturze, sztuce, polityce, obyczajach i jeśli ma niezłomną wolę przyczyniania się do rozwoju bytu narodowego Polaków.

There was a long weekend due to national holiday on May 3rd so entire Poland was on barbecue till Tuesday 🍖 🍺

You broke the Betteridge’s law of headlines! :)

I think this question of "Assimilation" is more towards foreigners than locals. Because the locals really only understand it theoretically, whereas a foreigner has a history of different experiences that he or she can discuss. You will not feel like a foreigner in a country until someone reminds you that you are different - question your accent or your regional dialect/slang etc. Yes, basic communication language is a start, but then there is the local semantics of the language. It's very important that the locals reach out to people of foreign/other origin (non-local) in order to allow them to smoothly integrate culturally and economically. Assimilation or integration for many foreigners is very tough, for many reasons, so the local infrastructure for people to connect socially through education, work, hobbies or reach-out centers is important. Even in one's own country people of different locals will treat each other as outsiders. For example, I travel 2.5 hrs outside of NYC - upstate into the countryside where local people consider a New Yorker as an outsider; and tend to keep them at a distance. It's a strange feeling when you spend long periods of time among the locals - countryside people and you start to feel like an outsider :-). You then long to find other similar type people, "like minded", with who you can exchange a meaningful conversation and camaradership. It's a great to have positive feelings about yourself and the world when you connect positively with people around you 😊.

My father was polish and my mother Irish and i was born in Chicago.So I am a citizen of all three.

When you shop in Żabka and the world famous Biedronka, you are practically assimilated :)

If you can be fluent and grammatically and idiomatically correct enough to help the kids succeed and excel in school as they grow, that’s integration into the country, and then some.

19:04 Political situation in Poland is very dificult because the population is diversed between two big Parties PiS and PO Similarly to US Republicans And Democrats.

"World's famous Biedronka" - that really cracked me up :D Language and history - I couldn't agree more, they are indeed the key to Polish identity. And I say that not because I teach the former to foreigners ;), but because we really identify Polish speakers with the nation, since there is no other Polish-speaking country and relatively few foreigners used to learn it, and even fewer achieved fluency (that's quickly changing now, but still a foreigner with good command of Polish is met with a lot of respect for their hard work - Poles are proud of speaking a difficult language, even if there's not much of achievement in aquiring it as a child). And about history - it is not necessary to know all the details, but it's important to know what national traumas were. Once you get things like: why Poles say "widać zabory" while looking at some maps or why Warsaw is called "miasto-feniks" - you are in the right place. As for politics - it's tricky, many people belive that talking about it is a sure path to quarrel, so it would probably be best to approach the subject carefully, especially with a newly met person.

agree with you: knowing a language of a country is a key to successfully assimilate or at least be comfortable at you daily life and yes, there is no way around it.

8:17 building on right hand side with pope sculpture. This is the church that was located next to Warsaw ghetto. Local parish priest helped Jewish children to get baptization metrics and find them Polish foster family. It was one of very few way to save them from dying in ghetto or in death camp. Btw I strongly recommend checking "ciekawehistorie" KZfaq channel. It is channel of brother of guy who ran "bez planu".

Re integration to the society: interesting point. There are countries where you will never become „one of them” if you are not born and raised there. Example: Nordic countries. There are countries where you can fully integrate. I perceive Poland as one of them. I believe, if all the boxes you listed are checked, you can become Polish.

13:10 - it has fingerprint scanner. This network was using fingerprints instead of membership cards as a main selling point meaning “you don’t need another plastic in your pocket”. Unfortunately later covid came and touching the same surface which literally everybody else have to touch became kinda out of fashion so they switched to mobile app ;)

Witamy w Polsce. Zostańcie z nami.You are welcome in Poland.😊😊😊👋👋👋

You are a Pole in your heart.

2:14 That's a rare view: a girl on a "trzepak". During communist times these served basically as the only playground ammenities for children, as there were no proper ones; and there were no smartphones either ;). Nowadays most of the trzepaks are gone.

Pols Like history And know history well And not only polish history.We are passxionate about history

Your attitude and actions shows great respect for your new home ! I’m sure this will make your life in Poland much more comfortable. Hopefully you can soon start to make some local new friends

Watch some polish movies, they may help you with language, culture and history. Many polish classics were made during communism, you could see how much Poland has changed by comparing what is in movies vs what is now. I don't know that many classics, I can recommend Seksmisja, Dzień Świra, they both are quite peculiar. Maybe someone else can recommend more.

Are you going to change your channel name into "American in Poland" or "American in Central Europe"?

Polacy kochają swój kraj. Widać po komentarzach. Tylko polskie. Też go kocham. Nikt nie ma tyle miłości co my Polacy, chociaż jestem Ślązakiem jestem Polakiem.

Hey, could you make an episode about English knowledge amongst the Polish people, as compared to Ukraine/Brasil/Germany/Danemark/wherever you had been to?

“The Polish nation includes the Polonized Germans, Tatars, Armenians, Gypsies, and Jews, if they live for the common ideal of Poland. (...) A black or a red-skinned man can become a true Pole if he takes over the spiritual heritage of the Polish nation, contained in its literature, art, politics, and customs, and if he has an unwavering will to contribute to the development of Poles' national existence. " - Wincenty Lutosławski (1863-1954)

You are lucky. I as being Polish so far at the age of 50 I have been to Warsaw 5 times, summing it us it took me 15 days altogether.

If you would like to start BJJ again I recommend Copcabana Mokotów - fantastic club with a lot of friendly, knowledgeable, black belt instructors. I recently started training there after a short break and it is truly fantastic! Near Ochota you have also Aligatores Fight Team which I had great things about. Maybe we can roll one day :)!

Dzień bez Biedronki to dzień stracony ;)

@1:38 - I grew up in this particular block (in 90's). At 1:57 you even showed windows of my former apartment :)

I agree with you I live in UK and I from Poland. I never will be speak like local people.I am still try to improve my English.In Poland live is also change by covid.People less integrate each other.

At 7:35 it's not a business district! This is a very expensive apartment building! Like the sail-shaped one you saw from the Palace of Culture and Science. By the way, Robert Lewandowski has his Warsaw apartment in this sail-shaped building ... By the way, this building was designed by the famous American architect Daniel Liebeskind ... Besides, I love your YT movies and I hope that you will visit beautiful and atmospheric small cities near Warsaw one day!

I pray for your country so that it can win and enjoy peace and create prosperity. Because, assimilate or not, there is no place like home…

Dawno nie byłem w stolicy ale patrząc na to video to miasto to jeden wielki kontrast.

Never talk too much about politics with ppl in Poland, it have a big influence on how you're going to be seen. Especially when u get too excited about it. And absolutely NEVER talk about politics when drinking vodka. Except of course, if u like to have a brawl. Then ok. You can put your black belt in vodka nintendo to the test. Poles love to quarrel and politics is favoured battleground. Just sayin bro. Pozdrawiam i sukcesów mordo.

This neighborhood you like has a cinematic history. Pańska Street was the setting for many films and series in the 1970s and 1980s. Two very popular series were filmed on it: Dom(Home) and Czterdziestolatek(Forty -year -old) and comedy Nie lubię poniedziałku (I don't like monday).😂😂😂 7:35 This is the Cosmopolitan skyscraper, this is a residential building.

O trzepak (u mnie wszystkie trzepaki zlikwidowali ,po Śląsku klopsztanga) pozdrawiam serdecznie 🤗 i życzę miłego dnia 👍🇺🇦🇵🇱

7:35 - it is a residential skyscraper ;)

CERTAINLY CAN. I'VE MET MANY WHO HAD ASSIMILATED PERFECTLY.

Is that not a general true: being integrated is how you see yourself, not how others are seeing you. I’m living n Ireland many years now, and I see myself as a proud Polish Irish.

4:00 i was in that building today at about 17:11 aleja Jana Pawła 18

14:00 oy mate! What do you mean “łesterplatte”?! If Wałęsa can be Walesa then Westerplatte is W-esterplatte not Ł-esterplatte. This is not an English “w” sound. We have “ł” for that one. Polish “W” and “v” sound exactly the same ;)

it's good to know polish but if you're speaking english it will be ok too - also german, russian, french, spanish as during the high school, most of the schools will teach you (at least they try to do so) two languages - english + one other - deepends on school - for example I had english + german and then english + russian - so if you know one, two or more languages it should be easy to stay and live here - you can for example work in a company that import/export goods abroad - but if you will learn polish (even a little bit) and at least try to know the people and culture - that will be appreciated a lot by local people

16:43 - You mentioned, your not history fan? In that case i recommend you to watch those YT channels: "Suibhne", "OverSimplified", "Overly Sarcastic Productions". Those channels are very educational and they do it in very entertaining way.

If you want to learn something about history and have a good time I recommend you a film called "Ogniem i Mieczem" or "With fire and sword". It is available on YT with english subtitles in 4 parts.

💪🇵🇱💓

Integration is better then assimilation . Then you take the best of the host culture and contribute from your own culture. Judging from your positive attitude I know you will be successful here. Życzę powodzenia !

You are not a foreigner. You are from Ukraine. Ty brat :)

I am surprised You and Marina consider yourself as a foreigner. For myself and all my folk, people from areas of former Pierwsza Rzeczpospolita are not foreigners and are not considered Immigrants. Ask Marina If She consider a girl from Minsk or Vilnius living in Kiev as an immigrant.

Hey brother To be a Pole you do not have to be born in Poland. I know many people born in Poland who are not Poles. To be a Pole, all you have to do is love Poland and the nation Polish. To be a Pole, it is enough to be an honest, honorable and courageous man who loves Poland with all his heart, knows its wonderful history. And it will always stick to these simple moral principles no matter what the circumstances.

For me being Polish requires only three things: 1) you have to respect the values of the nation; 2) love Poland :) ; 3) if it’s needed you should be ready to defend Poland. Why? ... because of our history: many of our greatest kings weren’t born in Poland, king Stefan Batory didn’t even speak polish, Wladislaw Jagiełło was from Lithuania, Zygmunt III Waza was from Sweden, admiral Unrung fought in WWI in Kriegsmarine, then lived in Poland and served in polish navy... after German attacked Poland he refused to speak German... even his family while visiting him in POW Camp had to speak with him through the translator

This is called " City planning " and there are specialist studies of that at Architecture . Also , cities in Poland are planned carefully in line with regulations and Urban rules .

If you want to learn history about our culture IPN has short videos aswell with english subtitles

The skyscraper you showed is not a business one, these are expensive apartments (about 9 minute).

Simple answer: no - we have Kashubians still being Kashubians after 50 generations (1200 years) of living together, - we have Oppeln Germans still being Germans after 30 genarations (750 yeasr) of being among Poles, - we have Kruszyniany Tatars still being Tatars after 25 generations (650 years), - we have Lemko Rusyns after 80 generations of living together with Lechities/Poles (West and South-East Slavic ethnicities separated some 2300 years ago), - we had Jews living here for 25 generations (600 years) untill Germans came and took their into German trains. - and we still have our fearsome Yatvigi / Sudavians near Suwalki, who despite speaking Polish for 25 generations (600 years) still remember that they are another, Baltic nation.

'Dzien dobry Panie i Panowie ' u lala 😁

9:11 there are apartments.

The answer is "yes" As long as you are not black, muslim or gay. American accent helps, we LOVE Americans deeply.

BJJ, nice - first vid on YT I had ever seen was a Brazilian tournament with some broken bones :)

People often confuse assimilation and integration, but there's a clear distinction that emerges when we compare how both terms are used nowadays. Integration is a term that is linked to the economy of the country. You've been well integrated if you've become a working, tax-paying, citizen. Assimilation, on the other hand, is a term that is linked to culture. You've fully assimilated into a country once you've become part of the culture and your personal identity has become linked to it.

Glad you like Warsaw brother My flat is at 57/7 Nowy Swiat Historical building

I think that anyone can assimilate in Poland, but as it turns out, learning Polish can be very difficult for English-speaking people for whom Polish is one of the few most difficult languages. Cheers!

When you are a Ukrainian, or Belarusian there's no problem with integration. We are closely similar. But it doesn't work like that with all refugees and immigrants, that's the paradox. Refugees from Syria, that Belarus USED on polish borders to start some riots, were not so much welcomed by the government nor mainstream people's mindset.

i belive the integration or asimilation whatever you call iit it is in every person reach, question is how far they will go

I'm curious how maju kilometers do you do every Day walking in the city? 😁

siema przyjacielu, pozdrowienia z Oberhausen

Polska is bardzo legko, if you speak Ukrainian just add "zo" to the beginning of many words and keep injecting "shh"/"pshh" in the middle of words, while speaking in a nasal voice - you will be 90% of the way there!

I invite you to the western Baltic Sea. You have not seen such a beach, I assure you.

visit podlasie

Watch this YT Eastern New Mexico University: "Poland: the country that refused to die"

Good luck with the Polish language because with living with a husband that speaks Polish very well and coworker at speaks very well..I still don't repeat the words correctly

Makes me wonder if you've seen our comedians, kabaret is something many Poles like to watch in their pass time

You have many fight clubs in Poland 😉

nice video

You should watch on you tube Stefan Thompson Naddniestrze o Polsce. ( in Russian). I really recommend this video.

Please visit museum of Warsaw Uprising, one of the best museum in the world.

21:52 Somebody in military uniform drove in electric scooter next to James. 😄👍

You should definitely pop in to Academia Gorila, great bjj club at ulica Kopernika, you will love it

Just curious: Is the 'Cultural center' gifted by the Soviet Union still standing in Warsaw? My Dad heard many jokes about that building when he visited there back during the Cold war..

Where do you lear how to speak and write in Polish? Is there a school for forigners you attend?

How I would like political factions to be as legible today as they used to be. Left, right, center. Today it is all mixed up that they themselves do not know what cloak to wear.

Brother stop beating yourself! You are one of us and I'm one of you (Ukrainians). We are one and always have been. All Poles know that on a conscious or unconscious level. It's no coincidence that Poles have always been strongly anti-immigration but this time opened their own homes to any number of Ukrainians willing to come. It's even hard to say it's immigration, it's migration within the Slavic land. If we stop dividing each other there will never be any excuse to hurt each other again. I'm saying that as a grand soon of Ukrainian girl from Kolomiya killed by people who misunderstood the love for their country ... and killed her for marring Pole and having kids with him. I believe that the Ukrainian accent will be just another accent of the Polish language and there is no reason to make one of them better than the other. Welcome home Bro! Слава Україні!

In 6 months you will speak polish fluently it is so similar

As a Pole I am worried about the future, afraid of social conflicts that may come if the current situation becomes "eternal improvisation". Suddenly there is a lot of Ukrainians living for who knows how long in Poland. There is nothing wrong with that, except that they will become important part of the society while having little political representation. And what about their kids? After all there WILL be a lot of Ukrainian children born, and presumably raised, in Poland. As such they will be certainly granted Polish citizenship. But how should we, as a society, tackle the issue of raising them? Likely they will mostly simply have to attend regular schools. And I am afraid that "polonization" of their kids might not seat well with Ukrainians who will remain in Poland after the war. I can only hope that my worry is undue. That the spirit of good will remains strong between Poles and Ukrainians and no bad sentiments nor past demons corrupt it.

Have you visited the square of an unknown soldier in the centre of the city?

Good job, buddy.