Wednesday 15 August 2007

new wave

at the moment I am delivering to bakeries, Sweet manufacturers and meat packers. I have noticed that in all these places, because wages are low, nearly all the staff are Polish. This new wave of Polish workers is quite recent but I never realised the scale of it.
I feel very awkward when I am unloading the waggon with people who I don't understand and they don't understand me. I was never any good at languages but I would like to learn a few words of Polish just so I can say thank you and goodbye etc, it must be so weird for they people (mostly young) to be here in a strange land although Leeds does have quite a large Polish community from the post war wave of immigration.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Down here we depend on East European workers to work in the seaside hotels and restaurant kitchens. I've worked with them, and I have to say they work a damn sight harder than the local bunch.

Toadee said...

yes, I had noticed that keith, and Many of those who have been in England a little while speak better English than the local bunch too.