Study / Schools to learn Polish in Warsaw [29]

I did 2 courses (A0 and A1) in IKO, and i found them good. totally agree with Irishinpoland about the photcopies..but that is just a minor point. I would have continued on there, but i live in poznan so it was not practical.

In relation to grammar books, i would recommend 'Polish in 4 weeks'. Ignore the claim of the title....it wont happen. But it is a very good grammar book and explains it very simply. They essentially have 28 chapters hitting bits of grammar in each chapter along with a conversation. They have the polsih converstaion and also the english transalation. Very user friendly.

Just read the rest of mail from Irishinpoland and totally agree with Irishinpoland advice on learning polish(i just have to adopt it...). Starting off is the hardest bit but doing the course in IKO got me over the hump/fear at looking at the huge task of learning polish. After the course, i was surprised that, even though you dont know that many words, how much you can then pick up when listeneing to people talk.

Study / Schools to learn Polish in Warsaw [29]

No. Any good?

Not sure if you saw it but there is a link on their 'Links' page to an article in a magazine. It does read well, taking into consideration that they are promoting themselves. Might look them up at some stage. Would definitely be interested in sitting down with someone for that amount of time on certain subjects...Need to try and get back into it.

vincent

Study / Dormitories for students in Poznan [5]

HAVe you checked directly with the university? I would assume dormitories are managed by the respective universities.

Study / Schools to learn Polish in Warsaw [29]

Irishinpoland...words of wishdom about carrying around a pocket book. I have finally picked up my teach yourself books again...and was listening to a few conversations from 'Polish in 4 weeks' CD this morning on my way to work on the tram.

ONe of the most important things is, to actually listen. I tended to switch off when a conversation in polish is going on. But now i am trying to listen in to converstaion even to get a few words. With time, i hope it will get better.....

Life / Buying a laptop in Poland with English O/S [11]

I bought a HP PC some time ago in poland and I had the option to select Polish or English at the initial configuration of the PC. I was told that if i selected the wrong one, i would have to reformat and start again.(Not sure how true that is).

Point is...you can get come PCs with English OS...just ask in the shops.

It might be an idea to wait a few weeks and get the new version of Windows...think it is release the end of this month/start of next month.

Regards,

Vincent

Life / Has your move to Poland been successful??? [15]

i moved here over 3 years ago and have never regretted it. When i first intended to move over, i did not have a job. Luckily, i have been working on and off remotely for my old company back in ireland so that has kept me going financially. Would i feel different if i had to go looking for a job here, i am not sure.

There has been many challenges, between work/business, and for a lot of last year, i had some very nice challenges on the medical side.... However, if you face these with a positive way, i do think it makes you a stronger person.

I still dont know how much longer I will be here, but i do think my stay here will be a very valuable part of my life.

Vincent

Life / When on a Polish street you can see... [19]


hairdresser/beauty salon added in here as well

Life / UK expat recently moved to Warsaw - lots of ongoing questions :) [27]

I know M & S sell Quniea (Not sure if is spelt that right). I think that is a vegitarian protien supplement. It is in there food section(where else would it be, you might ask). There is one in the Zlote Zarasy i.e. Golden centre, shopping centre. I was able to buy it in the M & S in Poznan so i would think they would also have it in the warsaw store.

Life / Receiving a order from Amazon.com in Poland [11]

I think that once it comes from the EU i.e. amazon.co.uk, you dont have to pay anything extra (so far i have not had to pay anything but that has only been for books).

Real Estate / How to get out of a Preliminary Purchase Contract? [8]


Just following on from this suggestion, can you check to see if there are still apartments available in the development that you bought. And if Yes, can you see what prices they are now going for? There has definately been a decrease in prices since your initial purchase, and while the level of decrease may differ from city to city, I dont think it would be extreme to think that prices have gone down by at lease 5 % in Katowice. Try and check with some estate agents to see what has happened. Maybe then you can go back to the developer and re-negoatiate i.e. get out of paying the final 5%. Of course, this is totally dependent on your desire to keep the apartment in the first place.

If you are looking for the return on your investment, it will be an uphill struggle. There has been such a change in the property market over the past 2 years, that developers will be very unwilling to give back money especially if they have a lot of unsold stock on their hands.

Best of luck with whatever you decide.

Regards,
vincent

Life / Are there Bank Cheques and checkbooks in Poland? Do people use cheques? [8]

Not sure if this is any help..but last year i received a cheque for some work done from an irish company. I went into the bank to lodge it and it had to be sent for collection i.e. the cheque is sent by post to the bank that it is drawn on and the bank sends on cleared funds. The process took about 7 weeks. Somewhat painful. Best if you have a bank account to transfer the money into. By the way there was a charge for sending the cheques for collection.

Life / Are there Bank Cheques and checkbooks in Poland? Do people use cheques? [8]


I should clarify that the cheques was received from a company in ireland and not poland. I have never seen a cheque being used to transact in poland, either on a small or large scale. A lot of large scale transactions are by money transfer between bank accounts. This is actually one area that poland are miles ahead on i.e. no cheques in the payments system unlike ireland and UK which still have a large (though decreasing) reliance on the cheque book.