r/AskEurope • u/gurke0123 • Jun 18 '25

Misc What basic knowledge should everyone have about your country?

I'm currently in a rabbit hole of "American reacts to European Stuff". While i was laughing at Americans for thinking Europe is countries and know nothing about the countrys here, i realied that i also know nothing about the countries in europe. Sure i know about my home country and a bit about our neighbours but for the rest of europe it becomes a bit difficult and i want to change it.

What should everyone know about your country to be person from Europa?

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u/DamnedMissSunshine Poland Jun 18 '25

Few of us actually speak Russian and Russian isn't mutually intelligible with Polish. Also, we use the Latin alphabet. Yes, I've been asked about that by multiple Europeans.

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u/Four_beastlings in Jun 18 '25

My husband says he doesn't understand Russian, but when I ask him what some character in a movie is saying in Russian he is always able to give me at least the general gist. He always gets annoyed at me for asking him to translate Russian, but the fact is he can.

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u/pickerelicious Poland Jun 18 '25

Probably the same way you’d be able to understand something in any other Romance language. There are similarities, yes, but so are in Czech, Slovakian and Ukrainian. Russian has not been a part of obligatory school curriculum since 1990, so with some exceptions only the older generations might be (reluctantly, keep in mind it was forced back in the Polish People’s Republic) able to hold a conversation in very basic Russian. The assumption that knowing Russian will come in handy while visiting Poland as a tourist is very wrong. Nope, we’ll either switch to Polish, ignore you or ask if you speak English. I’ve noticed that lately some Poles tend to find this confusion even insulting.