As a flight attendant who works flights in and out of NYC, I like to learn Hello, Goodbye and Thank You in as many languages as I can. Yesterday, it was Polish!

Dzien Dobry

Traveling from Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota to Toronto, Ontario, I had quite a few passengers on board from Poland. The first person I reached for beverage service just looked at me, pointed to herself and replied, “Me Poland”. This called for my well adjusted trick. I grabbed a Coke, a Sprite and an OJ out of the drawer and showed them to her.

Coke.

Then I showed her two glasses, one with ice and one without.

None.

Then, I went back into the galley with a napkin. On it, I drew a picture of a woman (to be my Mother) and wrote her maiden name under it (Polish) and a picture of a man (to be my Father) and wrote my last name (Italian) under him. I gave it to the lady. You would think she just found her long lost relative or something! That picture was passed around the front of the cabin while they all buzzed in their native tongue.

Later in the flight, I took a piece of paper and tried to ask her to write Hello in Polish for me. She obviously didn’t understand because she wrote down her name, address and phone number! I think that I will at least send a card.

What do you think she would do if I showed up at her house? I would definitely need to know more than just hello.

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