UK, Ireland / FIVE DIE AS POLE DRIVES WRONG WAY ON UK MOTORWAY [78]


In Poland the hard shoulder is where you drive when the idiot in the Audi is driving towards you on your side of the road.


Thanks for the warning> I'll look both ways when I cross the road (and step ONTO the pavement)

UK, Ireland / FIVE DIE AS POLE DRIVES WRONG WAY ON UK MOTORWAY [78]


Don't forget, Poland doesn't have a huge number of motorways, so the concepts of motorway driving are not always obvious. I recall a case a few years ago in the Midlands, where an Irish ambulance driver was prosecuted for reversing up the hard shoulder. His excuse, when police stopped him was, "Sorry, I'm Irish!" He'd never been out of Ireland before but was a very experienced driver.

The situation isn't actually that uncommon. In Germany drivers who do this are known as "Ghost-drivers" and there are special proceedures for other drivers and the police for dealing with someone who finds themselves on the wrong side of the autobahn.

I believe in this situaion the Polish driver may have been confused by roadworks. Not surprised, they can be bloody confusing.

It is so sad.


Tell the Pole he should come over to Poland and drive up the Warsaw-Gdansk road and see all the big, expensive Polish registered cars which seem to condone driving on the left as well, overtaking several cars at once on double white lines (above the speed limit) and expecting YOU to drive in the gutter to accomodate their stupidity.

UK, Ireland / Polish/Glaswegian bus driver-speak! [3]

I was teaching at Philips Electrical in Kętrzyn once. One of the ladies said she was going on a trip to a plant in Hamilton. I shook my head...

When she returned she looked as if she'd been through hell... "Oh my god! You were right!" She couldn't understand anything.

Life / How many people really know English in Poland? [53]

I think most of the older generations learned Russian, German and French as foreign languages. That said, I have a number of adult students (over 40's a small percentage) for things like business and pleasure (including a group from the local law courts, interestingly enough). The rise of English speaking companies in Poland (like Phillips Electrical) has increased the need for English.

As to today's students, I think you just have to look at the number of private language schools to see that the business is booming. I have 5 groups of around 14 students at intermediate and above. There are over 20 teachers doing more just in the school where I work.

Add to that the fact that the Matura exam used to give a waiver to those kids with FCE. Now it doesn't, suggests that the Polish education authorities felt that the FCE was a threat to the Matura in some way. Now more kids opt not to do FCE but go onto Advanced instead... the level is definitely pretty good.

UK, Ireland / Looking for a Polish psychologist in England. [11]

where in england?

Work / Any non-shafty English schools in Poland to work as an English native speaker? [36]

I'm not sure, cos I'm from UK, but part of the problem might be actually employing you while awaiting your work permit. It has been known for schools to 'employ' a Pole and let you work under that name...

UK, Ireland / Why Scotland doesnt Need any Immigrants By a Scotsman [56]

I've also read that the legends of the Selkies (seal-people) may have come from Saami people (Laplanders) in their skin canoes (not Eskimo/Inuit as if often suggested) coming from Norway.

Damn seals... coming over here and taking our women and our fish! Send 'em back where they came from.

UK, Ireland / Why Scotland doesnt Need any Immigrants By a Scotsman [56]


The Norwegian king pawned them to Scotland when he needed to pay his daughter's dowry (she married a Scottish king) in 1468/9.

"Milk" is like the German word "Milch" (Scottish-style ch). Probably a pan-germanic word, like Kirche/kirk

UK, Ireland / Why Scotland doesnt Need any Immigrants By a Scotsman [56]

The word "Bairn" is common on the east coast. means "child" or "baby". The Swedish word is "Barn". east coast is where most of the viking settlements were, I imagine.

Orkneys and Shetlands actually belonged to Norway for a while.

UK, Ireland / Why Scotland doesnt Need any Immigrants By a Scotsman [56]

So the story goes, a Russian diplomat came over in the 1960's to sign a peace treaty and the then mayor of Berwick said, "You can tell the Russian people that they can now sleep soundly in their beds!"

UK, Ireland / Why Scotland doesnt Need any Immigrants By a Scotsman [56]


Is Berwick still at war with Russia? Allegedly when England/Wales and Scotland declared war over the Crimea Berwick wasn't sure under whose laws it came and declared war independently. It was overlooked in the peace process afterwards and Berwick remained (may still be) at war with Russia.

UK, Ireland / If yer Coming tae Scotland, Remember Please [14]

I assume it is (could be wrong). It was a way of keeping the girls off the street, I beleive. Law turned a blind eye.

About 15 years ago I'd just been to Finland, where saunas are a normal part of everyday life. It was a hot summer in Edinburgh and I was doing a few puppetshows at the Ed Festival. I was sticky and sweaty and thought, "I could murder a sauna" (strange thing to think, I know). Well, I'd seen a few signs so I thought I'd check 'em out later. Meantime I went to see a play about prostitution in Edinburgh... where I found out about the saunas (honest, guv!).

A lucky event.

Yeah, the HIV thing was a few years ago when the police decided they could combat drug addiction if they limited the availability of needles... which led to a lot of shared needles and one of (if not THE) highest HIV rates in western europe.

UK, Ireland / If yer Coming tae Scotland, Remember Please [14]


Sorry, I'd forgotten that. Something else for incomers to remember.

Edinburgh... If you want a sauna then avoid places advertising themselves as saunas (unless you want some extras).

Oh, does Edinburgh still have one of the highest HIV rates in Europe?

UK, Ireland / Polish Pubs in Scotland. [22]


I remember going to some theme bar in Glasgow called "Piwo Piwo" where it was something stupid like 2.50 for a small bottle of EB (it was a while ago).

I just thought, "bugger this" and nipped to the Sikorski Club, where it was only 2.00 a full sized bottle (and I wasn't surrounded by such pretentiousness).

UK, Ireland / If yer Coming tae Scotland, Remember Please [14]


Ah, an enclave of civilisation! I was in a chippy with an Edinburgh girl on the south side of Glasgow once. She asked for 'salt'n'sauce'. The silence was deafening...

UK, Ireland / If yer Coming tae Scotland, Remember Please [14]


Quite a few mix it with Irn Bru (or buy it ready mixed). Salt on the porridge.

A few more things:

Most Scots don't wear a kilt everyday (if ever).

"Fish and Chips" is known as a "Fish Supper" no matter what time of the day you eat it.

In the west it is salt and vinegar (as it shouldbe!) while in the east it is that disgusting sauce!

Lots of Scots don't actually know the words to the second verse of "Flower of Scotland".

William Wallace did not paint his face blue to look like mel Gibson.

UK, Ireland / Why Scotland doesnt Need any Immigrants By a Scotsman [56]

Barry, almost everything you say also happened in parts of England and Wales too.


Imagine if the government had used Rosyth, the people in Devonport would have said the same thing. Like I said, they play people off against each other.

Where I grew up in Shropshire (near the Staffordshire border) there was once a number of mines in the area and a lot of car and motorcycle industry in the Midlands area. Part of my family are from Tyneside, likewise, once a strong mining area. The heavy industries are all but gone in most of these areas (no mines in Shropshire). Much of the new factories are/were foreign, granted cheap rent and tax breaks by The Divine Margaret(sic) ...

An open door to Europe for many of the Asian companies...

UK, Ireland / Why Scotland doesnt Need any Immigrants By a Scotsman [56]


Barrygaji, with respect, like many Scots, you make it sound (perhaps unintentionally) like this was some conspiracy by the nasty, horrible English against Scotland. It's worth considering that England and Wales also had their heavy industries stripped and destroyed. Let's face it, perhaps the only reason Swan-Hunter shipyards on the Tyne were allowed to continue was so the governments could play them off against the yards in Glasgow and Belfast. Mines? Some English kids have read about them in history books or heard about them from their grandparents. Fishing fleets... I didn't recognise the North Shields fish quay from my childhood days when I was last there.

I'm curious about your claim that the Travellers were made homeless after the 1715/45. As I understood it there were Scottish anti-traveller laws (Romany, anyway) in place hundreds of years before that. One of the reasons there were communities around Rosslyn was because the local laird refused to enforce such laws (hanging).

I'm not disputing your own history, I'm just wondering if this was widespread displacement or were your family from a particular area?


Probably right but many would say that the money given to Scotland actually comes from Scotland to London first (I don't know how strong this argument is cos I don't know the figures).

Real Estate / Foreigners: Please don't buy Polish Land! [823]

Living in Warmia-Mazury, I think one of the biggest fears about foreigners buying land s that the Germans will come back and buy (reclaim!) the land they had before the war or before the previous owners left for Germany. There have been a few cases where families have been evicted when someone who emigrated returned and proved they still had legal ownership of property.

I think the law of reclaim which allowed Jews and others exiled by Nazis or Commies to claim back property scared a lot of people.


Terrible when you think McD's pay 6.37ph

Food / Where to buy Cheddar in Warsaw? [57]


Apologies, you are quite right.


Oh no, that was a great shop.

A friend of mine outside Olsztyn makes Swiss style hard cheese. We brought a load back to Glasgow once... 27 hours on the coach to London and then 9 hours to Glasgow (and it was pretty ripe to begin with). One of the lads kept his with him, rather than in the luggage hold!

By Glasgow the driver comes up, "Has somebody been sick? There's a terrible smell!"

Real Estate / Foreigners: Please don't buy Polish Land! [823]

What bugs me is that I moved to Poland, set up a one-man firm in Poland (I pay taxes in Poland) and borrowed a few thousand from my parents in UK. Polish government had no qualms about accepting the money into the country but I still had to buy the house and land in my wife's name (she's Polish).

Real Estate / Foreigners: Please don't buy Polish Land! [823]


Like Scottish islands, whole stretches of Ireland and now, potentially, a whole village in England.

Food / Where to buy Cheddar in Warsaw? [57]


Wookey Hole is not one of the Cheddar Caves (although it is used for aging cheddar cheese), it is in the village of... errm, Wookey Hole. It's where they shot "Revenge of the Cybermen" for Dr Who. It's also a centre for making paper from rags and the warehouse for Madame Tussaud's wax museum.

The town of Bridgenorth in Shropshire has sandstone caves and occasionally cheese is matured there (imported from elsewhere).

UK, Ireland / Negative attitude towards Polish immigration in UK becoming stronger [90]


I agree... imagine taking them from the fairly decent education system in Poland and dropping them in the hoody-hell education sytem dat is in da UK, innit!?

Food / Where to buy Cheddar in Warsaw? [57]

You can also get German cheddar in some places but it isn't as good as Eng/Scot/Irish

Food / Where to buy Cheddar in Warsaw? [57]

Come on, we can even get cheddar in Olsztyn. W'saw must have some.

Work / Interview at a Callan School [204]


Interestingly, I have heard that the best example of spoken standard English actually comes from the East Coast of Scotland.

The point is that a teacher shouldbe aware of the peculiarities of their own accent and be able to point it out to a student. As a midlander I have to warn them that I may have a tendency to flatten my vowels, whereas the American teacher may pronounce them differently. It can be fun when my studes have US accents or, curiously, French accents and I have to corrct the pronuciation. It is by using phonetics that I can stress pronuciation.

Obviously, if the accent is strong a teacher may need to moderate it. Studes will use any excuse not to understand. I had one Intermediate group who moaned that they couldn't understand me and I used too complicated words. Funny thing was I'd taught pre-int and int the previous year with great success, so the use of words argument was utter BS. The fact was they missed their previous teacher. To suggest they didn't understand my accent (not something I hear alot) was also bs as me and their previous teacher are from the same area.

Life / temporary license plates - buying car in PL [6]

How are you buying it?

I tried to buy my car on 5 year credit but they wouldn't let me because I didn't have 5 years left on my ID. Might just have been a provincial bumpkin mindset of the salesperson but in these days of credit-crunch it could be a problem.