David Kennedy is a Scottish business and financial journalist who has been living and working in Poland for 30 years. He is sharing his experiences of discovering Poland in the 1980s and perspective on the country, Polish people and culture today.
What’s the story behind your connection to Poland?
It started when I chose Slavonic and East European studies at the University of Glasgow. I began with Russian and I spent a year in Moscow. Then I chose Polish as a subsidiary language. It was in the 1980s, we had a lot of family friends who were Polish, and there was also John Paul II, still young and so influential. But honestly, having spent a year in Moscow, I kind of thought that maybe Poland would be more similar to the Soviet Union, than Czechoslovakia.
Was it?
I took a trip here and travelled around the country. There were so many things that looked the same as Moscow, but they were somehow a little bit different. The trams were made at the same factory but getting on them – a very different story. At the time in Russia if you didn’t have the right change with you, you could put in the machine a full ruble and you were supposed to get your change back from the next people, who would come on the tram. You would sort of stand there and it was all very regulated. In Warsaw, you had to buy a ticket in a kiosk. When I tried to do that, a guy next to me, hearing a foreign accent, just gave one to me. I felt that was great. Then I visited Gdańsk, which I expected to look like on tv – black and white, gloomy with people looking miserable. It turned out to be beautiful. When we went on a boat to Westerplatte, we passed the shipyards. It was during the strikes and we saw the shipyard workers sitting on the roof of Stocznia Gdańska. We waved at them and they waved back at us. It was very nice – a completely different reality than I expected.
When did you decide to move to Poland?
After I got my degree, I went down to work in London and that’s when I started meeting Poles. I was amazed by these people! Living in Earls Court, 4 or 5 sharing 2-bedroom flats, with friends and family members visiting – working, studying, learning English and having fun. That’s how I met my wife. At the time I was thinking of going to work in Russia again. I had done some media work, but the early version of capitalism there was very shaky. At some point, I realized it wouldn’t be the smartest choice. I had people approaching me with underhand business ideas and really didn’t want to find myself on some kind of KGB wanted list. I came to Poland in 1993 again and moving here made perfect sense. So, a year later we were here for good.
And it’s been 30 years…
I’ve been living here longer than in Scotland. I go back sometimes and we have 3 children so we’ve brought them over to Scotland quite a lot. But even though I don’t have a Polish passport, I would say I’m 100% Varsovian.
So, you don’t miss anything?
The country I remember is different from how it developed. I left Scotland because there were no jobs that I could do. Today, there’s a very dynamic economy there. The other thing is that back in the 1990s I couldn’t even check how my football team was doing. The internet wasn’t widespread, you could only listen to the radio. Now, you know everything and if you want to call someone, you just go to WhatsApp. On top of that – you have Dealz stores in Poland that bring over lots of Scottish delicacies. So, you don’t feel quite so isolated.
Have you integrated some Scottish aspects into your family’s daily life?
Our kids developed their Scottish history in their own way. They all speak English with a kind of Scottish accent. My oldest son identifies with the Scottish football team. The younger would support Poland playing against Scotland, but both of them are Glasgow Celtic fans and both would support Scotland playing England. /laugh/ My daughter enjoyed Scottish dancing and she even attended the Scottish Ball in Poland, which I have been involved in organizing since 2015. They all like shortbread, caramel wafers and Tunnocks tea cakes, which are marshmallows on biscuits. When the kids were little, we used to invite their friends and make tablet together. It’s definitely one of the most delicious things from Scotland. It’s a kind of crumbly caramel – so sweet, that if you bite into it, your teeth start dissolving. /laugh/
You mentioned changes in Scotland over the years. During this time, you’ve seen the transformation in Poland…
I’ve seen the incredible development, especially of Warsaw. 30 years ago, parts of the city were really ugly. Now you can see the city with the old buildings restored and new ones added in quite a tasteful way. People here have very high expectations of how their city should look. Maintaining the public spaces and common residential areas in Poland also works really well. It’s clean, there’s order and repairs are done if needed. The European money has been spent well. Since the 1990s also a lot has changed in the drivers’ mentality. I remember the Wild West sort of approach, when I first came to Poland. It was kind of fun, actually. Today, drivers stop when you go onto a zebra crossing. They didn’t do that before. My Ukrainian friends keep saying how polite and orderly Poles are on the road. Of course, there are other changes that aren’t that good. I live in Sadyba and we used to have a fantastic small market here with fresh vegetables and fruit, great suppliers, friendly local atmosphere – good for the community. Now it’s gone due to new residential development.
Scots have a particular sense of humor. Have you found Poles to be able to keep up with the banter?
In Scotland, if you go to a pub with friends, you better learn quickly and have a quick answer. If you’re boasting too much, people are going to burst your balloon very quickly. That kind of humor taught us to be slightly self-deprecating, being able to see the funny side of yourself. I guess you could compare it to the New York sense of humor. And people here appreciate that. Poles find it funny when something goes wrong and they also enjoy bursting the bubble. Only here, the jokes have a lot of cultural references and they are specifically about things that happened in Poland – some of them are really inexplicable. So, to really enjoy it, you need to know a lot and be in this culture.
So, you enjoy Stanisław Bareja’s comedies…
I do! I saw and I experienced the absurdities of life under the communist regime. During my first trip to Poland, I stayed in a youth hostel in a convent. I was coming back from a jazz festival by taxi at night and the door turned out to be closed. I remember the taxi driver taking a bunch of keys from his glove compartment and opening the front door for me. In communist times there were only so many combinations of locks and keys, I guess. /laugh/ But the old comedies are not the only ones I enjoy. Machulski’s “Killer” was really funny, with the legendary Rewiński as Siara and Arcadio Morales’ “pekaesy”. Brilliant.
What advice would you give to someone, who decided to move to Poland?
Learn the language. You’ll think that you can get on without it, but you’ll never fully integrate unless you know it.
