UK, Ireland / Do you know any Polish war emigrants living in UK? [7]

The Glasgow Sikorski club mentioned above is a good idea. Allegedly the old boys refer to being 'w glasgowie', so as a linguist you might find a few nice things.

You could try contacting the Royal British Legion, they might know of some Polish ex-servicemen's groups.

This is an old article but it might be of use. It's about a Polish hospital in wales.

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/north_east/3436885.stm

Here you are: newalesnhstrust.org.uk/index.php?page=penleyhospital&lang=en

Law / New ID 'card' in Poland [19]

I know what you mean, Steve. I've been here 8 years myself. That said, I've still got a UK/EU driving licence. Occassionally makes them feel sorry for me when they pull me over.

Ironic thing is that a UK driving licence is now not considered legitimate id in UK! (go figure).

Law / New ID 'card' in Poland [19]


I'm British, so technically I don't need it anyway. The thing is Olsztyn has a weird mindset...

Seriously, when I applied for GE Moneybank credit they were fine; I showed them all my residency docs, firm paperwork, ZUS and tax payments etc... then they asked for my PESEL. I handed over my pobyt and the lad said, "There's no PESEL." I said that I had one on a piece of paper from the ratusz (obviously, I'd need one to start a firm). He made a few calls and then apologised, saying they wouldn't give credit to someone who didn't have PESEL number on his pobyt. No amount of meetings with other meletters was of any use.

The Skoda shop... well, I wanted 5 year credit to buy a car 'on the firm' (paid about 10-15k up front). They said i had only 3 years on my id so they wouldn't do it in case i ran away to UK (duh!). My wife said she'd take the credit and run away to UK the next day. Mind you, we are talking about a car showroom where you have to carry cash because you can't pay 1000 zlots insurance with plastic.

I should take citizenship, then I could go to UK and get all the preferential treatment (translators, free money transfers etc) that i can't get as a Brit in Poland.

Law / New ID 'card' in Poland [19]


Well, it helps with things like credit. I'm married to a Pole and have my own firm but still have trouble getting things like credit ("Sorry, can't give credit to someone without a pesel on their id" said GE Moneybank, or "Sorry, you can't have 5 year credit because there's only 3 years left on your id" said Skoda car-showroom). Also, I don't want to carry my passport around everywhere everyday.


So what am I supposed to carry around on a day to day basis?

UK, Ireland / Can I join the British Royal Marines if I"m a Polish citizen? [17]

This might give you some idea.

royalnavy.mod.uk/careers/how-to-join/eligibility/

If you do have an interest in The French Foreign legion, you can write to them for information. They'll send you brochures and an idea of pay (seriously, I did it once). Trouble is that it is a fixed 5 year service.

Law / New ID 'card' in Poland [19]

yeah, probably had a job lot of pale paper sitting around. mind you, why should I be surprised... nobody in my local immigration office speaks English or German.

Life / Poles that have lived or live abroad are they different? [68]


The thing is that many Poles living in Poland have little experience of speaking Polish to a learner of Polish. Whereas the British are used to hearing foreigners attempt English and will often try (unless they just enjoy being prix) to adjust their speech (S...L...O...W...L...Y... AND LOUDER!!!!!), many Poles don't and don't seem to have a concept of a need to do so.

Even if you say in Polish that you don't understand and ask them to speak slower, it seems that this suggests you can actually speak Polish and so they speak faster. It's often easier to just say you don't speak the language!

Life / Poles that have lived or live abroad are they different? [68]

The guys I know who've returned now understand my point of view when I'm moaning about poor service in shops, bad drivers and idiot bureaucracy in Poland.

UK, Ireland / Exhibition celebrates Bonnie Prince Charlie's Polish links [18]


Your welcome, my friend.

That said, Clavers did pull off an amazing victory at Killiecrankie, apparently he was quite a soldier.

UK, Ireland / Exhibition celebrates Bonnie Prince Charlie's Polish links [18]


I thought he only had one good battle and died winning it.

The bold pit cur fell in a fur
an' Clavers got a clankie-o
Or I had fed an athol gled
On the Braes o' Killiecrankie-O.

UK, Ireland / What is it with black culture in the UK? [22]


I seem to recall hearing ofthem. Were they not the people who put blades under their cap peaks, so they could just whip the cap across someone's face in a fight?

I was always told never to grab a guy's lapels in-case he had razor blades sown underneath.


What about girls, who are often more vicious and often ready to use weapons (shoes, bottles etc)

UK, Ireland / Exhibition celebrates Bonnie Prince Charlie's Polish links [18]


Sounds good. Funny how everyone blames the English for a Pole and a German fighting over who gets the crowns! (joke, people!)

Life / Which Polish Season you love the most (weather) [12]


Please do, that would be wonderful.

I remember having to take an early bus into the village some years ago. The bus stopped on the far side of the 'kolonia' (is that right?), so I had to walk along a field road, at that time in the morning there was still a lot of dew and one of the fields was always full of cobwebs on the grass. In the morning, the dew was hanging on the webs and sparkling in the early morning sun.

Life / Which Polish Season you love the most (weather) [12]

Autumn. Just driving through the forests, watching the different colours

Life / Are Polish traditions dissapearing [93]

there's a ritual of showing all your fellow students your homework, so they can copy it. The ritual time is about 5 minutes before class. Also, the tradition of cheating in exams.

My wife is a culture animator and did some ( Midsummer) Sobótki singing and rituals in the local village, with the kids.

Obviously, things like the St Andrew's night, fortune telling etc.

I've heard of, or seen a few wedding/funeral traditions (usually specific regions), but I'm not that knowledgeable about them.

More of a Ukranian thing, but there is a tradition of decorating graves with flowers and singing specific songs on a particular day. I saw film of a similar thing in Macedonia.

I've studied a bit about szopka puppets, which used to be commom around Christmas (not the Krakowian style decorative szopkas).

Life / Are Polish traditions dissapearing [93]


We did carolling on NY once or twice. The hospitality was sound! The carolling season goes/went on into mid January.

Life / Are Polish traditions dissapearing [93]


I worked with a Polish theatre company for a few years, doing things like Kolęda and Zapusty carolling.

It was funny when I mentioned some of the things to kids in my class and they laughed, asking me what I thought I was saying. It was the beautiful looks of stunned surprise on their faces when an adult member of the class said, "It's no good, they're too young to know what you're talking about, they wouldn't know about it."

"What? You mean it acually exists?"

Orkney and Shetland have some great stuff (Aly Bain IS god!), so do a few places in Northumbria, like the tar barrels and the swinging of burning balls on New Year's Eve.

Language / POLISH ETHNIC PEJORATIVES [23]


Also suggested because their helmets looked like chamber pots (jeroboam).

wikipedia is marvellous... a whole page about insulting Germans: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boche#Boche_.28derogatory.29

Life / Are Polish traditions dissapearing [93]

Cheese rolling! Don't you read "Headway"?

Actally, the point was 'culture', but if we include traditions then it's still a long way off...

Playing conkers, traditional music, styles of cooking, literature, theatre, New Year, Hogmanay, traditional sports (Cumbrian wrestling), beer and whisk(e)y making, wedding traditions... Voting in someone who'll betray us every 5 years (7 in the US)...

Life / Are Polish traditions dissapearing [93]


Yawn... not that again! I suggest you see a bit more of the west than the inside of a McD's which is playing MTV. Perhaps redefine your notion of 'culture'.


Maybe not a 'holiday' as such, but 1st of April when kids come to school dressed as members of the opposite sex (boys as girls etc). First day of summer, when kids run away from school.

Zapusty, chasing away the last dark nights.

Drinking to the building of a new house (although it might be religious in that you start praying the builders will actually return the next day).

UK, Ireland / England, Dirty, Expensive and a dangerous place to live? [205]


That's because loads of the little villages have been bought up by rich townies who don't want to live in expensive, dirty towns!

I'll agree the rural areas are generally very nice and well looked after (says the Shropshireman!) but I'd also agree with Shelley that by and large, British cities are filthy compared with European cities...

That said, the railway stations are nicer than those in Poland. Warsaw is dirty and scary.

Also, living in Warmia I am constantly told that everyone is (rightly) proud of the beautiful nature and "the green lungs of Europe" and yet everytime I go through the forests or round the lakes they have been used as middens!

News / What needs to happen in the world so that Poland and Russia form alliance? [297]


And left Afghanistan in a state too!

Life / Looking for details on hunting in the vovoidship of Warmia-Mazurskie. [92]

To be fair, a lot of the hunters here make sausages too.

Life / Why Poles don't use Facebook? [43]

some naughty words, but quite funny

youtube.com/watch?v=S7MuwPlOiNQ

Work / Advice needed ELS-Bell Szczecin (is it dodgy?) [45]


Maybe. I must have just been out of the country for so long.

The matter raised earlier about comparing exchange rates and wages might come into it if you have the chance of working in UK or in Poland. A few summers ago I worked in Devon at a well-known school and found my hourly wages were less than my wages in Poland.

Couple that with the cost of living, board etc... I'd have been better off staying in Poland that summer.

Work / Advice needed ELS-Bell Szczecin (is it dodgy?) [45]


Really? jesus, I know hardly anyone earning that much. What a peasant I am!

Life / Are Polish people absolutely obsessed with money? [30]


Arrgh, yes. And I've had parents ask me to teach their kids and ask if I can give them a lower price because one of them isn't working... all in front of the kid! I cringed.

I think a lot of it is that, like cars, Poles haven't actually had the chance of lots of disposable income for many years. So (in both cases) subtelty and restraint are not always things they think about.

I think hunger and shortages create a deep folk-memory.

Life / Positive Polish Joke [9]

God is making the wold and he comes to make Poland.

The angels ask, "What will you do with this country?"

"Oh, I'll give it amazing countryside, beautiful mountains and plentiful forests, wonderful food and beer, vodka and beautiful girls."

The angels ask, "Isn't that a bit much, giving all this wealth and beauty to just one country... doesn't it seem a bit unfair on the others?"

"Oh, it's not all perfect, " says God, "Wait until you see who I give them for neighbours."

Work / Advice needed ELS-Bell Szczecin (is it dodgy?) [45]


Yeah, I think around 800 is the flat rate these days. Thing is, if the school DO pay it for you, then it kind of adds 800 zl to your wages. If you are working 20 hours a week (let's say 80 hours a month) it's about 10zl an hour. So your 35 becomes 45.

Obviously, if you're working more hours it is worth less and the rate becomes worse.


That's quite a bit more than the average working wage in UK.