Daily Archives: 27/07/2013


You must have, at least once, been at a house party where a Polish host offers one of their Polish guests something to eat. Salad?, the host enquiries. Nie, the guest replies.  Bread? Nie, again. Soup? The third suggestion must be the final one, you’re thinking. But then, the guest says no. A minute later you see the host serve hot tomato soup with noodles (the Polish way) to the guest. The guest seems really up for it. But he said no, didn’t he?! To make sense of this situation, you will need to switch off the English-speaking part of […]

Ever wondered why Polish people say ‘no’ when they mean ‘yes’?