Украинские студенты о Польше и поляках

Abstract

The author reports the results of Ihe project supervised by prof. Bokszański. Its aim was to find out what are the images of Poles in the eyes of other nations. Students' opinions were treated as representative for the social discourse connected with the images of Poles in Ukraine. The research showed that the attitude towards Poles is generally positive and friendly. Ukrainian students do not classify Poles as strangers or incomprehensible foreigners. They rather identify Polish people as friends and neighbours. Opening the borders seems to be a very important event for Ukrainians in this context. They could learn more about neighbour nation by live experience. They could know Polish features of character, elements of tradition and habits that were unknown in Ukrainian culture. The origins of negative stereotypes and prejudice could be found in historical and cultural ways of interpretation as well as in situational factors.