Poles are generally a fairly tolerant people and have few, if any, unbreakable rules of etiquette.

This may be due to the historical emigration and extermination of the bourgeois classes or to 50 years of enforced proletarian culture, or both. Either way, it’s difficult to offend a Pole’s sensibilities. Having said that, though, it is the done thing to open doors for women and offer them your seat on public transport. Behave in a gentlemanly manner and you can’t go wrong.

In the Warsaw business community things have become a lot more westernised recently, and dressing smartly, being punctual and behaving politely have become important indicators of professionalism. Business cards are commonplace.