Taboo words in Polish life

（If you can , please use Polish language to express the keyword you

mentioned in your answer ）

1.Festival:(which festival and what you can not say on that day)
In China, spring festival is the most important festival, on that day, we can not
say some words like “death”, “unhealthy”. How about Poland?

- Boże Narodzenie, Wielkanoc, Święto Trzech Króli (ogólnie świeta

katolickie), w tych dniach nie używamy słów obrażających drugą osobę,
staramy wyrażać się grzecznie, zważać na słowa. Nie powiemy takich słów
jak: głupek, bezwartościowy, samolub, nie rozmawiamy także o pieniądzach.
- Christmas, Easter, Epiphany (overally Catholic Vestivals) within those
Vestivals we do not use rude words which offend another person, We try to
use kindly and take care of words. We will not use words like: silly, worthless,
selfish, and we do not talk about money as well.

2.Funeral:（Some words can not talk or discuss during these special

occasion）
When talking about death, people often use euphemisms to avoid danger and
seek good luck, through some euphemistic expressions, to dilute the fear of death.

I want wo know how Poland express the death.

- W trakcie pogrzebów i spotkania po pogrzebie, które zwie się Stypa, ludzie nie

mówią źle o zmarłych. Starają się także mało o nich wspominać, mimo iż to

spotkanie jest w ich imieniu, ponieważ goście chcą uniknąć łez.

During funeral and meetings after the main funeral ceremony so-called Stypa,
people cannot talk about death persons in a bad point of view. Participants
mostly try to avoid talking about death people to not cry too much and avoid
stress. In Poland talking about death is kind of difficult because part of us
believe in God and Jesus and life after the death, some of Polen do not believe in
God. Just for example, I believe in God but I believe in reincarnation what puts
me out of the Catholic Church because I believe in other things than straight
from Holy Bible.

3.Name or title taboos:

In China, we can not call the people’s full name directly who is much older than
us. Especially when he is a person I know or a friend of my father’s. I must add

an “uncle” before his surname. How about Poland?

W Polsce nie mowimy bezposrednio po imieniu do osob starszych, ktorych nie

znamy z szacunku. Natomiast do wujkow, cioć i bliższej rodziny powinno się
mowic po imieniu dla usprawnienia relacji. Do babci i dziadka również możemy
mowic po imieniu. Pokazuje to nasza silna wieź ze sobą.

In Poland we do not use names directly to persons we do not know. It is very

unkind and disrespect. Nevertheless we use names calling uncles, aunts,
grandparents, and sometimes even parents. It reveals good relations in family.

4.Pronunciation taboo: (example: In Chinese culture, people are taboo

about "four", because the pronunciation of "four" and "death" is somewhat
similar.)

szmata, grucha, brzoskwinia, śmieć, spadać, wal się, lód.

rag (means prostitute), pear (means making love to someone), peach (describes
woman’s virginity), trash (rude word to describe people we do not like), fall
down (means get out of my way), fight with yourself (get out), ice-cream (one of
the most avoiding taboo word, means blow job, and people try to not use word
ice-cream even when they want to buy them).

5.In any language, there are some words which easily cause unhappiness

or damage the dignity of the other people. What are they in Poland? (for
example: people replace "Stupidity" with “Cleverness”)

6.How about “sex”:

Almost all Chinese people try to avoid talking about sex, and even listeners will feel
embarrassed if they hear it in public. When you have to talk about sex organs, Will use

other words instead. Such as “that”. How about Poland ?

7.Topics and Taboos of Life Customs:
When Chinese people communicate with each other, it is a common topic to ask each
other's age to show their concern for others so as to enhance mutual understanding.
In China, "Where are you going?" "What are you going to do?" "Have you eaten?" and
other conversations can be heard everyday, but these expressions are also privacy

questions in British and American culture. How about Poland?

Thank you very very much!!