ポーランド、なぜ?

After doing Bunpro for some time, I noticed that there is one country that appears quite often: Poland (ポーランド). Some examples:

ポーランド人には13という数字は不吉な数字とされている。(とされている (日本語能力試験 N4) | Bunpro)

私に言わせれば、彼はポーランドのスティーブン・スピルバーグのような人だったと言えるでしょう。(と言える (日本語能力試験 N3) | Bunpro)

There are many more sentences like this. At first I though this was a cute easter egg where country in sentence is dynamically selected based on user’s location or something like that. But I tried to test this idea and it doesn’t seem to be true.

Then there is this sentence:

あるゲームの通知:「冒険に挑むに先立って仲間を集めよ。」(に先立ち (日本語能力試験 N2) | Bunpro)

‘You must gather your party before venturing forth.’ are words from Baldur’s Gate. I might be digging too much, but while this sentence might be known all over the word, Polish version played by Piotr Fronczewski (YouTube) are something like cultural phenomena in Poland. I think everyone who played video games in Poland at certain period know these words by heart.

So, what is going on? :slight_smile:

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It’s a bit like the possum jokes… :eyes: @Superpnut :eyes:. No one is really sure where the joke started.

That or we are a team of Polish possums and our efforts to remain undiscovered have been in vain…

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Just FYI, the bunny references across Bunpro are not jokes. They are very serious :rabbit2:

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This might get into conspiratorial territory, but I think this is bigger than even you think.

Every Japanese language podcast for learners I’ve listened to mentions Poland, Spain or Mexico every episode. Like literally every episode. They are just mentioned constantly for some reason.

It must be that these nations are conspiring together for some nefarious plan…

Or perhaps its just a popular language to learn in those countries, so they get mentioned more often. (To appeal to users of the content, and also because that content might be made by people from those countries.)

That being said, I’m a believer in Polish cultural, technological, and spiritual supremacy. All the loose strands of this conspiracy are coming together…

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Hold on, the “Is the Bunpro team made up of possums or bunnies?” debate never really got settled, did it? But now we have to figure out whether or not they’re Polish, too? The mystery continues!

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Yes, it did: they’re bunnies, 100% :rabbit:

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You better tell me, did you also imagine a river of coffee to remember the reading of 川?

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+1 dude baffled by all the sentences involving Poland, one that lives there to boot (but isn’t Polish). They even went as far as to include Polish words in some example sentences and make Haruna read it!

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