Travel / I'm going to Poland in September! [33]

The flight is wonderful, especially at night. I traveled to Gdansk by plan in the evening and we had a wonderful view of all Warsaw and the flight lasts only about forty minutes. I like train journeys too so take your pick! Yes, there must be a highway between Gdansk and Warsaw.

Travel / I'm going to Poland in September! [33]

The train should be nice

Travel / I'm going to Poland in September! [33]

Yes, I know the Neptune Fountain in the centre of the Old Town.

Travel / I'm going to Poland in September! [33]


you used to have to pay for a visa and change officially £10 per day unless you had a an International Student's card. You could spend foreign money in the PEWEX but all that has changed now. Warsaw to Gdansk is a fair way to drive though there are plans but I do not know how much it would cost. Where in Gdansk does she live? I have been there and even visited the University of Gdansk but that was in the days of Solidarnosc.

News / How Poles truly feel about their situation in Poland and being in EU? [76]


I think that it is the worst thing that has ever happened and I for one was always one hundred per cent against it.


When I was a student in Moscow many years ago, it was the Polish, and there were hundreds of them there at the time in the same Russian Language Institute that did not like the English at all and yet now we have 600.000. They want work here and the ability to buy houses yet we have no rights in Poland at all. I know how difficult it is for an English person to even get a zezwolenie na pobyt na stale or whatever it is called in Polish.

Travel / I'm going to Poland in September! [33]


That looks exactly like them. I saw them on the streets of Swinoujscie all those years ago. I hhave heard that they can catch a fair sum of money today. I wish that I had one!

Travel / I'm going to Poland in September! [33]

If you rent a car you maybe all right as a foreigner but when I was in Swinoujscie many years ago, they had a car called a syrenka everywhere and it was called a silnik dwusuwowy, literally a two stroke engine and you had to mix oil with the petrol but maybe now they have four stared petrol. who knows. I have not been there for many years but I do remember the cars being very strange with only two doors tough metal but very very old!! You may do better not to take a different car overseas to Poland as they will not know what to do with it. I remember driving back towards to boarder and a tire burst. My brother in law got out of the car and fixed it. I said that I had break down insurance and he almost laughed. This is Poland he said. So beware!

History / My Opinion about the Former President Walesa, Lech [28]

At least it will be an honest article!

Love / I've met a Polish girl, and have feelings for her... [44]

By now you will know where you stand. She has been honest with you and has told you that she is going back to Poland and therefore wants no long term relationship. You must respect that. You may find that she has a relationship back home in Poland and she is returning to him. It is quite rare for a girl in Poland to be twenty five and not be in a relationship of some sort. (Sorry, maybe I am a little old fashioned but it was always the case). Polish women are always very fickle and like to lead men on. I can not understand why. Maybe they are simply bored in Poland but they love to arrange meetings, which they never intend to keep. I have experienced them at first hand and never believe a word they say. I find it very unpleasant and can not understand why they do it. Many years ago, I was a guest in Gorzow Wielkopolski and a pair came to the flat where I was staying. "oh, I know a lovely new pizzeria in town and I will come along tomorrow evening at say 8.00p.m. and I will take you there" promised this Polish girl. Sure enough, nobody turned up, as I expected. The next evening or the one after that again they turned up at the flat and my first question was "and what happened to that night out I was promised to this new pizzeria?" "Oh," she replied, "to tell you the truth, there are no nice pizzerias in Gorzow"! The question is of course, why would a silly little Polish girl invite me to a none existent new pizzeria? It is something that can only and does happen in a silly country like Poland!

History / My Opinion about the Former President Walesa, Lech [28]

I do not know as I have not seen it. Anyway, he is just history now and was not liked even when he was in power even by the people in Gdansk. I remember when I was in Gdansk and he led Solidoarnosc and at the same time he was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. A lot of people in Gdansk were very unhappy about it saying that he did not deserve such an award.

Language / what is the difference between prosze and poprosze? [39]

I think the point is though that in a cafe you aske for coffee now withe expectation that it will arrive in a few minutes so for example ja poprosze kawe which you are doing now at this instance in time and when the waiter brings it to you it is 'prosze bardzo' I think that this is really what was being asked all along. It is alike to the difference in the Russian words for now, firstly, syechas and then tiepier, one meaning in a minute and the other being a more deffinit now.

Law / Law regarding Polish citizenship after marriage [10]

You do not want to take to much of what I write as I can only tell you what happened in my own experiences in the not too distant past. I am not sure of the law today in Poland since it is now becoming more and more an integral part of the 'New Europe'. Also, I was in Sopot once in the little English bar there and met an English teacher who is married to a Polish lady. He was telling me that sometimes people have dreadful difficulties in getting even pobyt na stale but others, at another time/and or in a different office get it straight away with no difficulty. Things in Poland have always been a bit of 'pot luck'. You may have legal rights to buy and own property now but a couple of years ago you did not. I could buy the property with my own money but the only legal owner would be my wife. I was then told by another source that after six years my name could be added to the title deeds on the land...so in the end, who knows. It all seams a little too complicated for my liking. Mind you, for some who got in early in the old day after Communism collapsed people could have made a real killing on their investments as land prices, in the right areas are bound to increase, especially in town centres such as Warsaw and Krakow where flats cost the same as London, so I have been told..

Law / Law regarding Polish citizenship after marriage [10]

Things should statrt to change since Poland's accession to the E.U. Some years ago, I was in Poland on holiday with my Sister-In-Law in Czestochowa and I wanted to buy a piece of land, as an investment, or possibly to build a little house some time in the future. It was a nice area as it bordered a little forest. We went in to town and saw a lawyer who told me that as I did not have a Polish passport, citizenship or at least a pobyt na stale for a minimum of two years I had no rights of purchase. Rather strange, really as in England the Poles can not stop buying all that they can lay their hands on! We drove too to an office, it might well have been the same thing as the Urzad Wojewodzki, and the lady there said that I could apply for citizenship and that I could have the forms but for some strange reason if I left Poland, the process stops and then on my subsequent return I would have to start the process all over again. So how anybody would be able to build up the credits seemed very remote. To me, it sounded crazy and as if the Poles just do not want to accept foreigners. Most people of foreign origin that I met in Poland claimed pobyt na stale, as it was called then and nothing more. If they were arrested and had Polish passports their embassies could not help them-so beware!

Love / The Polish girl i love has gone back to Poland . [65]

Actually, we stayed on the Costa Del Sol in Spain in April and there in the hotel was a freeby newspaper for the local area. I remember reading the private ads section and at least one Polish girl was offering services and some Russians too so I imagine that they will go anywhere where money is to be made.

Love / The Polish girl i love has gone back to Poland . [65]


There is something nice and captivating about young Polish girls. They have a childish laugh and smile, a magnatism often lacking in English women. I can see why English men want to do CELTA and go out East, hoping to find love before they are picked up by other home grown Polish men There is a great cultural divide though, they are certainly not as advanced as other western girls developing maturity later in life than English girls. I would imagine that often a polish woman going with a foreigner means that they are looking for something as most of them are fixed up very early on in their lives. Mind you, I knew of a family in Gdansk who were married many years and had two children before they divorced years and years later and there was a huge age difference between them. They were both Polish. I have known of many Polish girls meeting Dutch men and moving to Holland. Mind you, Polish girls will go anywhere if it suits them as they are very adaptable. Make sure you know the woman for a long long time before committing yourself and see how they behave when they are in a bad mood! There are some real cows out there so beware!!


I think it can be a common thing between all sorts of couples everywhere and not only in Poland.


You must also remember that they are like animals trapped in a cage for the last fifty years. Now they have their freedom but do not understand that capitalism too has its price to pay. Polish girls coming from the countryside have little money and therefore they have little to loose themselves so do not care much for other's broken hearts. The Dutchman will end up selling his house, the girl only her body!

Language / Why is the language so different in the South of poland? [5]


The area of Slask does have a certain German influence

Life / Trzeci Wymiar - Wuuuf...In Engilsh? [4]

Translates as 'The Third Dimension'

Love / OK then Girls, whats good about the Polish lady?? [46]


There were no English to be seen twenty years ago in Poland. Mind you, the country did not have the same amount of openness to foreigners either. I am pleased to have seen what I did when I did. I think that I saw the best of the country as it was really. I have moved on to new places. Poland has nothing new to offer me these days. Obviously, economically it is better in some ways though it is a mish-mash of cultures. I was there then and now I am here so I can live with Poland or without it. I have nothing there anymore as my family is here so why is it my problem? I like Poland for a few days and that is enough. At the airport, after I have passed the odprawy and when I see the sign 'ku samolotowi do Albionu' I am always very happy though!

Travel / The best city/town in Poland for: A) holidays B) living [18]


In fact there is a very nice Tesco in Warsaw. I do not remember the metro name but it is on the very end of the line. Anybody knowing the metro in Warsaw will know where it is. A very good selection of almost everything in fact I even bought a can of beer and a bottle opener there.


If you understand little of the language and you are out in the countryside then you will find it very boring indeed.

Language / what is the difference between prosze and poprosze? [39]


I thought that somewhere above I had already explained all this.

Travel / The best city/town in Poland for: A) holidays B) living [18]

No it is because every time I go back to Poland it is exciting as I travel to the airport and I travel on a plan, go through security but then on the other side, on the main road towards Warsaw, again, reality sets in and I think to myself, 'oh my God, what have I done by coming back here again?' I see all those concrete bridges and all those bill boards and, well, it makes me cringe just to think about it...

Travel / The best city/town in Poland for: A) holidays B) living [18]

For a visit, The Old Town in Warsaw is always nice when the weather is nice and you can go for a stroll. The centre of Gdansk is a bit cold and wet in winter but is pretty otherwise, well, you would expect it to be wet as the word Gdansk comes from the old Polish word for wet. However, to live, I would not recommend anywhere. You would be bored out of your brains after a week.

Work / I'm from Canada. Becoming an English teacher in Poland [8]


As far as I am aware it is not obligatory to have anything at all. There is no such thing as an 'official' qualification to teach English.

Language / what is the difference between prosze and poprosze? [39]


I can see that you are obviously a fully qualified CELTA man!

Language / what is the difference between prosze and poprosze? [39]

I answered the question about slucham and sluchac. Prosic and poprosic is really a completely different question and a different word.

Language / what is the difference between prosze and poprosze? [39]

As far as I can see the question was 'is slucham' short for sluchac'? This has already been gone over and over again. Maybe I am the silly Brit?

Love / OK then Girls, whats good about the Polish lady?? [46]


I think that it is a biological trick. When you are young there is a a strong biological urge to reproduce and people do not think about the long term commitments involved which in a way is understandable because everybody changes as they get older and we do think like that at the time, do we? We all learn from experiences and change. It is later when all the fun and sex is over and couples just look at each other and think, 'God, why am I here?" Then you have to start worrying!

Love / OK then Girls, whats good about the Polish lady?? [46]


That is obviously what attracts a larger and larger number of young English men to do these CELTA's and go out East.

Language / what is the difference between prosze and poprosze? [39]

I have already answered you.

Work / I'm from Canada. Becoming an English teacher in Poland [8]

The impression that I got was that these TESOL courses were a waste of time and money. To tell the truth it was interesting and I learnt something about English grammar but there is no legal requirement to complete a TESOL certificate before starting to look for work. Tesol or CELTA do not lead to QTS (qualified teacher status) and holding a university degree is by far the better option, especially if you want to travel further on such as South Korea, after gaining experience, where a degree is compulsory. In a Trinity or CELTA course you will be expected to complete the equivalent of six hours of monitored teaching but what is that? You will get more than that after your first real day of teaching in a classroom anyway. My course cost £520 but that was in 1999/2000 so probably costs much more now. The trouble is that schools will probably want experience of teaching in their methodology, i.e. the Callan Method and you would be expected to know the syllabus for First Certificate and maybe business English. These things will not be gleaned from a CELTA course, only the three P's.


Many years ago, I was in Poland in a place called Krasnik and local schools were even employing young Russian girls from the Ukraine to fill the huge gaps in the shortages. I would think that they would take any native speaker with open arms.