Law / Renewing Karta pobytu in Warsaw [35]

Okay you're making me mad now.

YOU DIDN'T EVEN TRY TO READ THE LINK I POSTED!!!!!!

Allow me to quote:

"Rozporządzenie określa przypadki, w których powierzenie wykonywania pracy cudzoziemcowi na terytorium Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej jest dopuszczalne bez konieczności uzyskania zezwolenia na pracę.

.......
4) będących nauczycielami języków obcych, którzy wykonują pracę w przedszkolach, szkołach lub placówkach, o których mowa w przepisach o systemie oświaty, .... którzy są obywatelami ....Stanów Zjednoczonych Ameryki, .... jeżeli język, którego nauczają, jest ich językiem ojczystym;"

If your Polish isn't up to reading that I posted a link to an unofficial translation (there is no official translation as only the Polish version counts).

That's as clear as it gets. That is the answer. There is no more answer. Yes, there is a possible hole in the regulations that YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO FILL.

If you can't understand that then maybe you don't belong in Poland afterall or you're just a troll who I've wasted too much time on already. Stop bothering people with your inability to cope.

Law / Renewing Karta pobytu in Warsaw [35]

TRANSLATION (which I linked to previously and which you obviously didn't try to read):

"Work may also be performed by foreigners without the need for a work permit in the following cases:
....
4) foreigners who are teachers of foreign languages performing work in preschools, schools and institutions stated in the regulations on the educational system... if they are citizens of ...the United States of America... if the language they teach is their native tongue"

Is that too hard to understand or did you even read it before? As for your "friends, they're either illiterate, too stupid to understand legal regulations, blew you off by not even trying to read it or they're trying to get rid of you. If it's the last I'm not sure if I blame them.

News / What is the future of Catholic church in Poland. [154]


It wasn't religion per se, it was his religious views on a particular issue he would have to deal with in his public capacity (enforcing positions he's opposed to). It's called "Conflict of interests".

An analogy: Let's say there's a EU commisioner for religious discrimination and a protestant nominee for the position is on public record as saying that Roman Catholicism is an evil religion and that all Roman Catholics are doomed to an eternity in Hell for worshipping a mortal man and a woman(!) over Jesus Christ.

Of course, he reassures you, those are his personal opinions only and would not influence how he carries out his duties at all. Are you going to support him?

Life / 90 days soon expire - where can I go? [33]

Have you considered the possibility that they're telling you that you can get right back in to get rid of you? (not you personally, but people in your situation)

Life / 90 days soon expire - where can I go? [33]


Where was this report? It sounds kind of bogus.

The urząd might not want to oust a native speaker (or generally speaking Americans) but if you haven't started work yet, be aware that a lot of Polish teachers of English really don't like native speakers who they generally regard as unqualified and causing trouble (by not knowing how things work here). They're not the majority but they do exist and can cause problems, forewarned is forearmed.

If you have an application for residency pending you should have a letter that can be used at the border to help you get back in too. I had one when I was in a similar situation.

Study / a big problem! exam document not accepted in Warsaw. [25]


They probably assumed you'd acted as any Polish student in the same situation would (accepted the place in Lublin while trying to get into Warsaw).

And 'no' is almost always the first answer in Poland. It doesn't mean 'no' it means 'convince me'. Always keep talking (asking, pleading, persuading) until they physically run away or have you thrown out. Endurance and persistence counts for a lot here.

Life / 90 days soon expire - where can I go? [33]

The '90 days' means 'up to 90 days' and can only occur in one lump period of time, it ceases to exist once you leave Poland, whether you leave after 1 or 89 days. YOu can't necessarily leave after 80 days and expect to have another 10 days when you come back, the clock starts again (if they let you back in, which they should if you have the papers to show you have a pending application for residency).

Life / 90 days soon expire - where can I go? [33]


Oops, you're right, I was thinking of the old system. But that still doesn't mean they have to let you back in. I agree about having as many documents about the application for residency as possible.

UK, Ireland / All That Manners Business [I'm Polish, moved to UK as an au pair.] [87]


Well in this case, intentionally or not, you _are_ being impolite. You know what the greeting rituals in Britain are and you're purposefully not adhering to them.

Not adhering to traditional standards of courtesy _is_ impolite, it's the very definition of 'impolite'.

Greeting rituals never make rational sense (saying 'dzien dobry' when it's awful weather?) you go through them to signal to other people that you know how to behave in polite company. When you disregard a culture's greeting practices because they don't measure up to your standards of logic or whatever, you're expressing disrespect for the culture (whether that's your intention or not).

Yes, it does sound like she's not a very nice person, but if _he_ matters to you then you need to make more effort than you've been making to establish a truce with her or your relationship will break up (if it comes down to a choice between the two of you, your chances are .... not good in the long term). Remember, older people find it harder to change the burden of adaptation in this case is on the young. Think of it as a kind of noblesse oblige.

My advice: apologize for not greeting her properly in the past and make sure it never happens again. And don't try to explain, an apology with an explanation isn't an apology. Just say you're sorry if your behavior made her feel bad and you'll try to do better.

Food / Polish National Dish [54]

Bigos is sort of the "official" national dish, but people don't eat it very often, maybe a couple of times a year on average.

"Kotlet schabowy" a breaded and pan-fried pork chop is more the real national dish in that people eat it a lot more often.

Travel / How can I stay for longer than 90 days in Poland? [26]


Wow, not everyone would be so .... open in admitting to such negative, sociopathic feelings.
On the one hand, thanks for sharing (I guess) but we really don't need to know every nasty emotion you experience.

Work / Working in a Polish Office [13]

Bits and pieces from my encounters/observations of Polish offices, warning some of it could be dated and/or not apply as much to Poles who've been in Britain for a long time.

1. Always say hello to the room when entering (first time in the day, later not so important) and goodbye when leaving (for the day). Even if everyone seems busy you should do that and they'll notice you won't.

2. Polish people mostly don't celebrate birthdays or namedays at work. Usually the person whose day it is will bring cakes to the office but office birthday parties with gifts aren't the norm.

3. Don't be too quick to make coffee or everyone will assume it's 'your job'. Always qualify that you're making coffee for yourself or will be glad to do it 'this time'. General suggestions that someone less busy than you should make coffee are okay.

4. Polish people mostly don't socialize after work with colleagues. People you work with aren't necessarily friends (they can become friends, but working together isn't enough to establish that).

5. Don't be too familiar or too friendly too quickly, if you start off reserved and professional you can always go back to that when/if you need to. Start off too friendly and you're stuck and no one will take attempts to be reserved/professional seriously.

6. If this is a group that's already used to working together you'll be a newcomer. Newcomers are not necessarily made to feel welcome. Don't take it personally.

7. Polish work places are both more and less hierarchical than US ones (what I know, I don't know so much about the UK). On the one hand, formal deference to the boss is expected, on the other hand, you're free to chase down the boss with your personal problems no matter where they are or what they're doing.

8. Accept small courtesies from male co-workers, opening doors etc. If they get fresh, treat it as a joke (being very slightly confrontational).

9. Find an ally who'll keep you informed (let this happen naturally don't push it). Polish offices usually don't have much in the way of written communication, it's all oral and it's easy to miss stuff. So you want someone who'll keep you apprised of any important announcements while you were out (and you'll reciprocate of course).

10. Don't get upset when they speak Polish to each other in front of you. Trust me, it's almost always because that's easier. 99 % of the time they're talking about you.

11. Don't bring up work problems on breaks. Polish people are very good about leaving work problems at their desk and not talking about them during breaks unless there's no other possible shared topics of interest. Feel free to talk about family, that's always okay.

12. 'Ambitious' is not necessarily a label you want, it's always two-edged for Polish people.

13. Religion, money, politics and sex (or 'relationships' if you will) are okay to talk about _much_ sooner than for British people. So are racial issues (you'll probably want to head that kind of talk off before it starts). If they say bad things about Poland and other Polish people DON'T JOIN IN!!!!! that's a game only Polish people can play.

Work / Working in a Polish Office [13]


MISTAKE!!!! That should be 99% of the time they're _not_ talking about you.


Bad? I'm just describing my observations and experiences about differences.
I did not intend to criticize Polish ways at work (which I often prefer).
I focused on the things that are liable to be difficult for someone used to UK office culture because that was what was asked for.

Work / Working in a Polish Office [13]

I completely second Siegfried's post. AFAIK the situation hasn't really changed (and is also found in larger companies).

Getting a job through connections "znajomości" is standard procedure and until you have a _really_ good idea of what connects X to Y (liable to not be visible or obvious) it's best to be a little Pollyanna and only say nice things about those not present or at least be non-commital and don't join in the criticism.

Also (while we're here) Polish people are often surprisingly good at establishing functioning working relationships with people they don't like personally (the feeling is mutual and open - nothing two-faced going on) or have very strong disagreements with and often surprisingly bad at establishing that kind of relationship with people they like and/or agree with about most things. This means a lot of the signals of alliances, antipathy etc that you're used to can be deceiving.

Eventually things will shake out and you'll get a clear picture (faster if you know Polish) but don't make any assumptions based on friendly office chats or arguments.

Life / Comedy of communist absurd 'Mis' by Bareja [13]

The thing is I don't think subtitles would help. To understand Miś you need either to have lived in an Warsaw Pact country in the 70's or 80's or lived in Poland for at least a year or so (outside the English speaking ghetto).

I've known non-Poles who love Miś but they inevitably have been in Poland a while.

Anyone who's worked in Poland knows the last minute of this scene all too well.

"Zawołaj tu tego pana, co tu był!"

USA, Canada / MARTIAL LAW IN THE US AND POSTPONED PRESIDENT ELECTIONS? [33]


Two points:

1. "a gossip" is a person and not "a piece of gossip". Sorry I usually avoid teacher mode but using non-count nouns as count nouns drives me crazy (the same say "dwie mężczyźni poszły" might drive a Pole crazy).

2. this isn't new, it's an old bit of conspiracy lore that reappears every four years. there's a lot of crazy people in the US and they have _very_ strange ideas about what the government is up to. these are the same people that say the 9/11 was carried out by the US government to gain more power. for a long time they've been saying that the government would engineer a massive financial market disaster as a prelude to declaring martial law (and then it gets really strange, look up 'amero' 'garden plot' and/or 'new world order' in google).

Life / The people of Poland are wonderful!!! [26]

I know it might seem nice to you, but knowingly or not your post comes down to "Polish border controls are really unfair, but they're unfair in my favor, so yaahoo!!!"

I know people from Russia and Ukraine who need to come to Poland for week long education sessions and the way they're treated is not very edifying (like having to go to Kiev for a visa and wait for a week when Kiev is farther from their hometown than Warsaw). I know some Vietnamese people and the horror stories I've heard about how Vietnamese are treated by border guards is completely disgusting.

It's not wonderful that Polish border guards treat so many people so badly even if they're nice to the occcasional resident of a rich country.

Language / nazywam sie vs na imie mi - the difference [11]

nazywam się "I'm called ...." (my name is but usually first and last name are given)

mam ni imię "My first name is ....." imię is 'first name, personal name"

Jestem "I'm ......." in the phone context, it's a little like saying "This is (name)"

Love / My polish girlfriend will not leave [47]

Chances are that she thrives on fights and scenes and emotional encounters. As long as she can provoke you into an emotional reaction or physical desire, she figures, she's got you. She's probably right.

The way to get rid of her is to practice Buddhist detachment. First tell her it's over. You no longer have strong feelings for her and you're going to start seeing other women.

Then (this is crucial) maintain a sustained, consistent show of polite indifference (no matter what she says or does). Be courteous and distant with no verbal or physical affection (no more sex with her!!!)

Imagine her as a troublesome elderly aunt who have to be civil too but no more (and toward who you have no sexual desire). Treat the (inevitable) tearful shows of remorse with the same lack of overt emotion (perhaps the slight distaste you would show a stranger who tried to engage you in an emotional encounter).

Warning: Be sure you can carry that off. If you try and fail (especially if you have sex with her) then it'll be ten times harder to break things off.

Language / Pronunciation difference between Ź and Ż / RZ [83]


Yes it is in practical auditory (what you hear) terms.

There is a structural difference between a consonant that's normally unvoiced versus one that's normally voiced but de-voiced in certain circumstances.

Basically rz is pronounced just like ż. They're both pronounced (roughy) like French j or the ss in 'fission'. Sometimes this is written 'zh' in phonetic transcription in English.

The hard thing is that rz and ż have different voicing assimilation rules.

This means that the combination krz will normally be pronounced 'ksh' but the combination kż will normally be pronounced 'gzh'

On the other hand both żk and rzk would be pronounced 'shk'.

Bierz sounds like byesh (rhymes with fresh).

Finally, a long time ago in the past rz and ż were different and rz was like the modern Czech ř (sort of like r and zh pronounced together). Some Polish people still think that rz and ż should be distinguished and might claim that rz still is like ř (though I know of know dialect of modern Polish that does this).

Language / Pronunciation difference between Ź and Ż / RZ [83]

Voicing is not distinctive for Polish vowels (that means all things being equal they'll be voiced) but unvoiced vowels definitely occur in everyday speech, especially in unstressed syllables surrounded by unvoiced sounds (especially in the s,c, ś, ć and sz, cz groups) or in final position preceded by at least one consonant form the above group or two or more consonants one of which is from the above group.

Language / Recommend a text book for learning Polish... [10]

I think the two best are:

Teach Yourself Polish (the original by Patkaniowska, the newer version is just your standard confusing conversation textbook)

Among Poles (I forget the author)

Language / LASKA- CHICK, BABE OR BIRD? [12]


You probably shouldn't. The word also some pretty specific ..... connotations as well.
It's used to refer to oral pleasure received by a man and by itself can also refer to a specifically male protuberance...

Life / I am in Poland on a tourist visa and have been here for 2 years.. [53]

From what you've written there are two basic options:

1. Try to legalize your stay (which may not work and will result in you getting kicked out).

2. Keep on until they catch you or you have to cross the Schengen border for something and you definitely get kicked out.

My advice is to try to legalize your stay and get a residence card (yeah it's a bureaucratic hassle but it beats being thrown out).

The good news is that the current laws weren't put in place to keep out Americans so that works in your favor.

1. Go to the embassy if you haven't and find out what your options are. I doubt that you're the only one in this particular situation.

2. Go to the foreigner's office and tell them the situation. Accept that you're going to be yelled at for screwing up because .... you screwed up. If you admit your guilt and apologize (and can demonstrate you are not and will not be a drain on the Polish economy, if you haven't been paying taxes then things will be much more complicated) if you haven, then I'm pretty sure it can be worked out sooner or later (though you might have to leave the country for a bit - perhaps combining that with a visit to your mom).

3. Stop putting things off. The longer you don't do anything the worse it'll get.

Language / Which case for adjectives? [47]

"Mike'a książka"

'książka Mike'a' is better. IME the apostrophe is used primarily:

a) between a 'silent e' and the ending (Mike'a, software'u etc) I think it's required in these kinds of words.

b) after a word final -y (Kennedy'ego, Romney'a) I think its more necessary in the second but I could be wrong

Using it after nonce loans (ending in a consonant) happens but isn't necessary and it might be considered incorrect. My idea is that it's definitely incorrect once a loan has become nativized, "ma powera" not "ma power'a".

Love / Are (most) Polish unmarried people virgins? [60]

AFAICT viriginity at marriage has never been the norm in Poland. Expecting at marriage is much more common (note high percentage of VPB's - visibly pregnant brides).

Life / muslim community in poland [430]

As for your question. I've known a number of Muslims happily living in Poland but it's hard to call them a 'community'. For one thing Polish infrastructure is such that ethnic minority neighborhoods will not happen for a long time. For another, Muslims in Poland come from a number of different countries with different traditions within Islam and speaking different languages and aren't necessarily interested in associating with other Muslims just because they're Muslims. A lot of recent Muslim immigrants are small business people who don't have much time for socializing anyway.

As for halal meat, either find it imported or forget it. AFAIK there is no halal slaughterhousse (maybe in the NE of Poland where there's an indigenous Muslim minority). The most popular and common meat in Poland is pork but chicken, turkey and beef are easy to find (less so mutton and/or goat which have never been popular here).

I don't know of any mosques (again, there are only a few Muslims in Poland and they come from different traditions so there's no big feeling in most of them to get together to build mosques) there are places they meet for prayers but you'd have to be here and know people to find those.

Life / muslim community in poland [430]


It depends on what you mean by 'practice (your) religion'. Muslims from the same country or language group do have contact with each other in Poland and there are meeting places for prayers (one less than 1/2 kilometer from where I live).

Actually according to Wikipedia, there are mosques in Poland (though the article doesn't distinguish mosques and prayer hourses)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Poland

On the other hand, it is basically impossible to live in Poland as a Muslim in precisely the same way as in a Muslim majority country (or predominantly Muslim neighborhood) or to order your life so that you have contact mostly or entirely with Muslims so if that's the way you want to live then Poland is definitely not for you. You still might want to visit, in which case you might be interested in the NE where there is a small Polish Muslim (Tatar) community.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatar#Polish_Tatars

Life / muslim community in poland [430]

I think ash came here with a reasonable question and was attacked by some unhinged people at which point he became aggressive too.

I have nothing against Muslims (IME they're mostly pretty nice people) but some aspects of Muslim behavior just do not mesh with modernity (whether Islam or the non-Islamic parts of the cultures or modernity are at fault is another question).

So I think there's something not quite right about him dating a non-Muslim (and he showed her a great deal of disrespect that was unnecessary and did his case no good whatsoever). What's worse is his dating a non-Muslim when Muslim women are not free to date non-Muslim men. The freedom to choose one's mate is a fundamental human right and Muslims want to systematically deny that right to half of their population. Even if only one or two per cent of Muslim women would ever want to marry a non-Muslim they absolutely should have that right and it should be protected by the state.

ash (and asmaani) if you had to choose, which would you want your Muslim sister to marry:
1. a man who calls himself a Muslim but doesn't respect her, threatens her and even beats her?
2. a Christian who's kind and respectful to her?

Life / muslim community in poland [430]


IIRC the fuss with the puppy was raised by one or two obnoxious loudmouths and then carried on by PC non-Muslims. Most Muslims quite sensibly didn't care.

As for the second point. The problem is that Christianity and Islam are both expansionist religions. Part of what this means is that they only thrive when believers have a feeling that their number is growing. The collapse of Christianity in much of Western Europe pretty closely coincides with the idea of not trying to convert the world. Believing Muslims don't want the same thing to happen to their religion.

Interestingly the number of believers doesn't actually have to expand as long as current believers feel like the number is expanding (in other words perceptions are more important than reality). US Christianity (much more robust than European versions) maintains an illusion of continual expansion by (basically) converting and reconverting the same people over and over again and this is not unheard of in some Muslim circles too (as is making it difficult or dangerous for Muslims to convert to other religions). Another tactic when Muslims are in the minority (practised in a lot of western Europe) is to self-segregate as much as possible and whenever possible get the majority to grant them concessions.