My wife (Polish) frequently gets the cold treatment in busy places when asking for help but my ridiculously rubbish attempts at polish[1] end up with 5 star ser

My wife (Polish) frequently gets the cold treatment in busy places when asking for help but my ridiculously rubbish attempts at polish[1] end up with 5 star service and smiles. Smiles in ex-communist small shops are not a thing afaict, except when a foreigner tries to speak Polish. Me speaking English gets the cold shoulder too. We’ve tried this out in different situations where we don’t make it known we’re together just so we can compare and contrast the treatment. [1] trying to buy a medium size bottle of water with “nie duze, nie male woda nie gazowana po prosze”