Language / The Dative Case [62]


Yes you are right but I think you mean "direct object" not "indirect object":

direct object - accusative
indirect object - usually dative.

Life / Looking forward to move to Poland in September, but I have some questions. [12]


yeah I did that for my computer stuff, TV, plus all my electrical tools.

Nice trick is that you can force a Polish plug into a UK socket if necessary and it works fine.

Life / Looking forward to move to Poland in September, but I have some questions. [12]


Yeah I still remember how long it took me to rewire everything when I moved here - hours and hours. Polish plugs are much more fiddly to wire up than UK ones in my experience.

Life / Can a non-EU student studying in Poland apply for the EHIC card? [5]

[quote]But I need to travel around Europe
Even if you did pay ZUS contributions and were entitled to the EHIC card (or in Polish EKUZ) I wouldn't bother getting it because the process is a joke:

britishinpoland.com/blog/2008/12/european-health-insurance-cards-ehic/

UK, Ireland / Buying a used car from a private seller in UK. What is the law if... [18]


Actually it's not. My Mum's taken people to the Small Claims Court twice and won, it's quite straight forward and not expensive.

But as terri has said they have no legal case anyway so this wouldn't help unfortunately....

Life / Applying for EU passport... [51]


About one year plus or minus 6 months. I have heard it can take up to 2 years.

I have already been waiting one year, and every 3 months I get a letter which reads along the lines of 'due to the complicated nature of the matter it's taking longer than expected'.

But you can always ask whoever is in charge of your application what the status is.

Life / Does Marriage with Non EU citizen cause loosing health İnsurance for polish ? [6]

I am self-employed and pay my own ZUS contributions. I added my wife and child to my ZUS insurance for no extra charge.

I don't think she would lose her ZUS automatically just because she got married but I think you or her should go to your local ZUS office to check.

Life / Does Marriage with Non EU citizen cause loosing health İnsurance for polish ? [6]


Probably because your post is not very clear, I am not sure I understand exactly what you are asking. You haven't made it clear (at least to me) if your fiancee's insurance is private insurance or through ZUS.

Language / Polish Language Pronunciation - Example Words and Phrases [178]


yes but my point is not that English words are difficult, more that it is hard to know when using words of English origin in Polish whether they have been polonised or not, and if so, to what degree....

Language / Polish Language Pronunciation - Example Words and Phrases [178]

I find English words in Polish a real pain - I never know if I should pronounce it as if I was talking in English, pronounce it in English but with a Polish accent so the listener understands me, or try and pronounce it according to Polish spelling/pronunciation rules....

The other day I was talking to a Polish guy about installing an automatic gate and he pulled out a brochure for a company called "Nice". First thing I thought - is that pronounced according to English, French, Polish, something else? I pronounced it Polish style and of course got it wrong...

Language / difference among jechać, pojechać, and jeździć? [14]

To give you a very short explanation of perfective and imperfective:

imperfective - (e.g. wracać)

can be used for past, present and future tenses: wracałem, wracam, będę wracał

emphasis is on the action itself which normally occurs for a duration of time.
In the past tense you can think of it as "I was returning" i.e. an action in progress.

perfective - (e.g. wrócić)

can only be used for past and future. There is no present tense: wróciłem, wrócę

emphasis is on the result of the action, i.e. something you did. In the past tense you can think of it as "I returned" i.e. a completed action.

do a search on this forum for perfective/imperfective because this question is very regularly asked.

Language / difference among jechać, pojechać, and jeździć? [14]

Yes RJ_cdn has got it right. Just to expand on that:

Jeżdżę - indeterminate imperfective travel - e.g. in general
Jadę - determinate imperfective travel - e.g. right now
Jechałem - determinate imperfective past tense - I travelled/I was travelling
Pojadę - perfective future - I will travel
pojechałem - perfective past - I travelled

News / LOT (Polish Airlines) headed for a crash? [8]

I am sure the Polish government would prop them up just like the Italian government propped up air italia recently if anything happened....

Law / Do non-eu residents residing in Poland require Polish driving license? [20]


Well in the UK you can drive for one year before you have to take a British test:

direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/DriverLicensing/DrivingInGbOnAForeignLicence/DG_4022561

I have no idea about Poland, I would imagine it to be something similar though.

Language / Collective numbers - dwoje, troje, czworo [38]


I have seen it used when emphasizing a collection of something

- e.g. czworo studentów

as opposed to czterech studentów. But 95% of the time when I come across these collective numbers it's when counting children.

Law / Costs for importing a car from Germany to Poland. [34]

Yes except for a bike it's a bit easier and a lot cheaper. I imported my bike in February 2008 and here is exactly how I did it including time taken and costs: britishinpoland.com/blog/2008/02/importing-a-motorbike/

Law / Insuring a UK Citizen on a Polish registered car... [18]


Yes it would - insurance in one EU country automatically gives you the minimum legal cover in all other EU countries: ec.europa.eu/youreurope/nav/en/citizens/travelling/your-car/insurance/index_en.html#5405_1

Law / Do non-eu residents residing in Poland require Polish driving license? [20]


yes - that is exactly my understanding. In fact I just found the section on the europa.eu website at ec.europa.eu/youreurope/nav/en/citizens/travelling/your-car/driving-license/index_en.html#286

Law / Do non-eu residents residing in Poland require Polish driving license? [20]


I read up on this on the europa.eu website and I understood that there is no requirement (be it time or otherwise) to change your licence at all within EU member states. As long as your licence is still valid there is no problem.

I am sure the situation is different for our non-EU friends though but I have no idea of the requirements.

Language / Question on diminutives (Stefan and Ewa) [6]


You are probably right, but I have an aquaintance called Ewa and have heard how her husband calls her. It seems that a lot of these diminutives can be 'made up'.

Language / Question on diminutives (Stefan and Ewa) [6]

Ewka, Eweczka, Ewalunia...

Stefan I am not sure but would guess/expect:

Stefanek, Stefanuś.

Don't know if 'Stefek' or 'Stefuś' exist?

Life / Moving away from Poland, can I claim retirement payments back? [6]


If the countries you worked in and the country you will retire in are all in the EU then there are provisions for this, but you don't mention what country you are from/going to.

Life / international singned for post to poland-tracing delivery HELP [28]


going where? to the UK? Normally a registered priority (priorytet polecony) package takes 4 to 5 working days IME.

USA, Canada / Dual Citizenship: American and Polish? [53]


I am going to guess that your great grandparents left Poland before 1918 in which case no, you can't claim citizenship through them.

Citizenship can generally be claimed only by descendants of Polish citizens who left Poland after the country became an independent state in 1918

You can read up on wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_nationality_law#Citizenship_by_descent

Law / Paying Tax For The Self-Employed In Poland (Yet more Questions...) [16]


If you are running a Ltd company in the UK like I was, I was paying roughly 10% for employee's NI and 10% for employer's NI. Basically 20%.

Yes you are right in that if you suddenly lost your income you are still paying a lot.

Regarding these benefits anyway - I value them as worthless. I certainly won't be relying on the state to pay my pension or give me disability benefit because it's a pittance.

And when your two year discount period is up you could always close your company and open it up in someone else's name. I understand that after 5 years you can re-open your Polish company and get another 2 year discount period.

Law / Paying Tax For The Self-Employed In Poland (Yet more Questions...) [16]

Not sure I follow your argument. ZUS costs 800 a month, so factor that in to your business plan. Then be happy that you have a discount for the first 2 years. Personally I don't see why ZUS should be based on income as it is in the UK because it is an insurance payment that costs the same for everybody (if you presume that everyone has the same chance of getting ill).

Law / It is impossible to get temporary residency in Poland [23]


The E111 was replaced by the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC or EKUZ in Polish) a few years ago.

What they are after is proof that he is self-sufficient for his application for a karta pobytu. Which documents are required depends on which status he puts on his application - for example you could say you are a student in which case you need to show that you are studying somewhere. Or you could say that you have a Polish spouse in which case you need to show your marriage certificate. Or you could say you are working here in which case you need... blah blah blah...

Regarding the bank account again this depends. I just provided a photocopy of my UK credit card and they were happy.

You need to talk to the office for foreigners' affairs in the district where you are living. For malopolskie this is in Krakow at ulica Przy Rondzie.

Law / It is impossible to get temporary residency in Poland [23]

welcome to Poland - unforunately there's a bit of bureacracy to contend with. After that though life here is great.

do a google for "zameldowanie" or "british in poland" or check out britishinpoland.com

Life / ahhhh the lovely Urzad Miasta [7]

I had similar problems in that I couldn't renew until the old one expired, so I just asked to cancel my existing one and then did a new one which solved the problem.

Whether the building owner is required in person or not does seem to be dictated by the wind direction as Seanus suggests... :-) I needed the building owner the first time, but not on subsequent occasions (which surprised me).

Law / Paying Tax For The Self-Employed In Poland (Yet more Questions...) [16]


It's just because there is a discount on ZUS for the first two years to try and encourage people to open up small businesses.