“Excuse me, does the mister have a cigarette?”

The clouds have been covering Warsaw for the past few days, and the mood is starting to resemble that of my hometown back in the States. There are grey skies and lush green foliage, and it’s a stark oppressing contrast that keeps every conversation from getting overly exciting. People constantly say they are in forgetful and woeful moods, and everybody seems to be distracting themselves in order to make it through to the sunny days to come.

I want to take this moment to think about something peculiar about the Polish language, something that sets it apart from most other languages, and something that you encounter early on while learning it. It plays a distinct role in the character of the Polish language, and maybe even the character of the nation and people itself. It’s really worth a quick look at, and if anybody were to do some tests on the psychology of language, I’m sure this would play an important role in the understanding of the Polish soul. I’m talking about the formal language that is used when addressing a stranger or elder. The polite language. A form of language that we have lost in American English, probably due to our affinity for equality and our innate resentment of being controlled or manipulated.

You can find this concept in most other languages, addressing somebody as sir or madam, or in French as monsieur or mademoiselle, and usually it is accompanied by a certain structure that implies a distance from the one you are addressing. In French you use the 2nd person plural, for instance, “Excusez-moi monsieur, avez-vous une cigarette?” Although, today you don’t find many young French people using the terms monsieur or mademoiselle, and same goes for sir and madam. In Russian you address strangers with vy (вы), which is the 2nd person plural, for instance, “Izvinitye, vy znayete kak idti v biblioteku?” (Excuse me, do you know how to get to the library?) This structure extends to most other languages in the Indo-European family with a few exceptions.

Most of these exceptions don’t even use their version of polite speech anymore (Italian, Spanish, Lithuanian) but there is one that uses it profusely, and that is Polish. The exception is that, instead of using the 2nd person plural, they will use the 3rd person singular. So in English the sentence would sound something like this, “Excuse me, does the mister have a cigarette?” And yes, you are saying that to the person who you want the cigarette from. In Polish it looks like this, “Przepraszam, czy ma pan papierosa?” Pan means sir or mister, and Pani is the female equivalent. The title of the great poetic epic, “Pan Tadeusz,” by Adam Mickiewicz, actually translates to “Sir Thaddeus,” even though you will usually find it under its original Polish title. To dissect the previous phrase a little further, “ma” means “he/she has,” but translates here as “you have,” whereas the usual polite form in other languages would be “macie” in Polish, which really means “you have.”

Lithuanian used to operate with a similar construction, and this is probably due to the close historical ties that these two countries have had to each other, but due to Russian influence and the Soviet Union, nowadays it’s version of this is used very rarely. That’s not the case in Poland though. Everybody uses this formal method of addressing.

“Would the miss like anything else?”

“Does this mister have sliced gouda cheese?”

“Does the mister know if there are any more tickets for tomorrow’s show?”

It’s quite a strange world to live in where you cannot address anybody directly, and this is why I say that maybe it has some affect on the social consciousness of Poles.

There is a high level of civility in Poland, and they are often times very sensitive people. The elderly are well respected and get quite offended if you don’t address them properly. They are proud of their history, and this language is historical language, coming from the once great nobility that ruled the Polish plains. It’s also harder to connect to a Pole as a real close friend, and in my opinion this kind of language could have something to do with it.

Besides the rambunctious hooligans that walk the street during a Legia football match, Poland is an incredibly polite country. As a foreigner, and especially an American, this kind of speaking takes some getting used to, but as you start to notice it, you realize that there is something very dignified about it that can momentarily transport you to other epochs of courtship and knighthood in the past. It’s a good idea to traverse some of Warsaw’s bazaars, and you’ll notice how this level of politeness really brings Polish people together in their appreciation for treating each other with respect.

Thanks for reading, and if you have any opinions or knowledge about this subject, please let me know in the comments.