Work / 5000$ Gross Salary. Is it good in Poland? [37]


What a breathtakingly Thatcherite move that is :/

Law / Paying Tax For The Self-Employed In Poland (Yet more Questions...) [16]

Is it just me, or is there something very illogical about ZUS going from 300 (or 330PLN) to 800PLN after two years? Wouldn't it make much more sense to simply have it as a proportion of your income...?

Work / Teaching English in Poland, no degree just certificate [41]

I missed this ;)

It's probably too late for the guy in question, but for anyone else...

You'll need a Masters to have any hope of teaching in the universities in Poland, so if you're merely BSc plus PGCE, then it won't be enough for them. The fact that you're registered as a teacher in the UK is good enough for Poland, but the likelihood is that there just won't be the demand unless you're exceptionally lucky.

Teaching in a state school would be easy enough once your Polish is at an adequate level. But the salaries are so terrible that it simply wouldn't be worth it - unless you really wished to continue teaching, it would seem unlikely that you'd want to do it. There's no real such thing as 'heads of departments' in Polish schools, so you'd be looking at taking a demotion.

The best option in my opinion would be to go private - but even then, you'd be looking at needing 3 years or so of English teaching experience before the real money would start flowing.

The other option would be to take a career change of sorts - there's enough international companies in Poznan that would value you for your 'transferable skills' - you might very well find that someone capable of teaching Physics in English could be desirable within some of these larger companies. But again, it could be a crap shoot so to speak

But jeez, why everyone in Poznan? It's not meant to be desirable!

Work / Interview at a Callan School [204]


Not true. The reason they pay more is because natives are three things -

1) They're scarce. Compared to thousands and thousands of English speaking graduates every year in Poland, there are very very few native English speakers in Poland.

2) Perceived worth. Many people will perceive a benefit from a native speaker - because of the language they use being 'real' and 'alive'. A native speaker can teach things that many Polish teachers just couldn't hope to know, even if they had the CPE in English.

3) Linking the two together - there's a low supply and high demand. This equals higher wages.

But when times are slow, a good school will retain their native speaker over a Pole. It's simple logic in this sense - a Polish teacher can be easily replaced, while a native teacher might be far more difficult to find. If you've got a contract with a business to provide a native speaker in every 3rd lesson (for instance) - the loss of the native speaker is going to be a tough blow for any business, whereas finding a Polish teacher is likely going to be easier.

It's not as simple as saying 'oh, the Polish teacher gets 25zl and the native gets 35zl, so let's sack the native'.


And you will struggle to recruit any native speakers with that attitude. Who would work for you for the same wage as a Polish teacher, when you can work elsewhere for more? You forget that for Polish teachers, they expect a lower standard of living than the native speaker will. It's quite normal for 20-something people here to share a room with their relative/friend. It's not normal for most native English speakers - so they will demand more.

If you teach nothing but 'pure' Callan, then you're right, there's no difference. But you won't attract quality Polish teachers, you won't attract natives worth anything and you'll lose a lot of clients because they'll be bored senseless with just Callan. So while you might be 'fair' in payment, you'll end up having to resort to terrible business practices simply to keep your head above water.

Even for Callan, there's a question about when someone last did something for you. How many Poles would know that it's quite common in the UK to say 'someone done something for me' instead of 'someone did something for me'? Hardly any, I would imagine. And this is where the value comes in - the native teachers can bring the language to life.

There is the point that you could recruit Poles that have lived in the UK/Ireland/wherever for a few years and so are speaking very naturally in English. That's fine - but you'll be forced to pay the going rate for them. They're not going to be cheap, again, because they can demand high salaries as a result of actually knowing and living in the language.

Running a language school is anything but black or white. Remeber one thing too - if you pay a native English speaker 25PLN an hour to teach pure Callan, they'll leave you as soon as they get the chance.

For instance, say everyone pays 15PLN an hour for a class. You might have 9 people in the group at the start of the year, but by the end of the year, it's quite possible that you will only have 4 left. 135PLN/hour is great in the beginning for the school, but when you're only getting 60PLN/hour and have to pay all the teachers 30PLN hour net - then there's barely anything left to actually run the school with. This is another reason why the Polish teachers are getting less - it's simply not financially possible to pay more.

Work / Interview at a Callan School [204]


Yup, I agree with this. The better ones (the ones I respect!) in my school are the ones who have that spontaneous approach, while the worse ones are the ones who don't deviate from the book. At least as far as I can tell, the better teachers are the ones who actively seek out English tv shows/radio/etc, while the worse ones don't do this.

As I see it, at least in a semi-Callan environment. Polish teachers are great for explaning grammar, because it can be done much quicker and much more effectively than a non-Polish speaking English native. They have the benefit of being able to switch between languages quickly, combined with the benefit of being able to compare it to the students own language.

But being native, I can often really go into a word, really explaning about how the word works, how it's used, how it can be used ungramatically and so on. I can teach things that Polish teachers just wouldn't know, such as why letting yourself go is a bad thing and not a good thing and why it's used as an insulting term.

Each group has their own strengths and weaknesses, but they can't be directly compared.

Incidentally, Seanus...these graded apparisal things. Do you think they can be used to actually compare natives with Polish teachers, bearing in mind that poor students will always want to resort to Polish?

Work / Interview at a Callan School [204]

No no, you know those feedback sheets that many schools hand out, where they ask people to grade the teachers, among other things?

Work / ADVICE: Teaching English in Poland, will I get hired [21]


No chance in a public school - a Masters degree with a recognised teaching qualification/element is the requirement. They might be flexible on the Masters requirement, but you'll still have to have the recognised teaching qualification.

I'm not certain as to the private schools that teach children - but a quick look at the British school in Poznan shows that most of their teachers have a Masters - and I would stab a guess at them being qualified to teach too.

Do you have an EU passport? If you don't actually have an EU passport, then it's trickier as you're into the world of work permits and permission to stay and so on.

Go for a private language school that also teaches kids :)

Work / Interview at a Callan School [204]


The worst thing is that it did, the form was like writing a 1000 word essay.

But as far as I'm concerned, it was discredited the moment I discovered that idiots would grade Polish teachers higher because the Polish teachers could use the idiots mother tounge.

Though, you're right - the whole system of grading teachers is nonsense. As far as I can tell, the whole thing was statistically unreliable because the stronger personalities in a class would dictate to the others what to write - I actually witnessed a mid 30's woman do this to a teenage girl. Both of them were blissfully unaware that I could actually understand them, which made it all the better.

I know quite a few students were rather irritated at having to grade teachers.

Life / Is it possible to have a NIP without PESEL? [16]

Just a general bit of advice from what I've picked up from people -

The general rule in Poland is to always be armed with copies of the relevant legislation to back up what you're trying to do. But failing this - you need to be either self employed or employed in Poland to obtain the 5 year residence permit as an EU citizen. You can't get a PESEL without the 5 year residence permit, therefore, they have to issue a NIP to you in order to get the employment/self employment bandwagon rolling.

So their nonsense about you not getting a NIP without a PESEL is just that - nonsense. You should just point out that NIP numbers are issued to anyone that pays tax in Poland for whatever reason :)

(having said this, i'm still mystified as to why the PESEL doesn't double up as a NIP number!)

Work / ADVICE: Teaching English in Poland, will I get hired [21]


Mmm...do you have a PESEL and a Polish ID card? If so, combined with CELTA, you should be very employable.


I don't have it (yet!) and I somehow teach kids too. I don't know how or why, apart from that my boss is clearly a mentalist. But I get on with them and don't expect much from them, so maybe there is something there. Having said that, one particular kid cheated at HANGMAN. They then had an hour long class all about cheating as punishment ;)

Work / Interview at a Callan School [204]


I've even started to tell people the word in Polish if I can, my glorious moment was teaching a group the days of the week in English and being able to tell them the Polish translations.

But it seems to me that while a good group can have an excellent atmosphere in English, a poor group will need the Polish 'dummy' to be always in the hand, possibly because they don't motivate each other to use the language.

I so often see with the better groups, they'll talk to me in English outside of the classroom (say, on a break and I've got a different class) - but with the worse groups, they'll shy away and make it clear that they don't want you to talk to them.

It is funny how one person can dramatically change a group dynamic though.

Life / What should be done to make life in Poland better and more enjoyable? [94]


Yes. YES. YES YES YES.

I'm sick to death of this, to the point where I point blank refuse to give them the change out of sheer stubbornness. Are Polish businesses really so greedy as to not supply adequate change?

Once I learn the Polish for "you have the change, you don't need to ask"...then it's getting repeated constantly. I even witnessed a woman in a sports shop in Galeria Malta (the brand new shopping mall in Poznan!) refuse to take a 100zl note for an 18.00zl purchase. Why on earth didn't she have change for that in the till?

Life / What should be done to make life in Poland better and more enjoyable? [94]


The thing I can't understand about it is that with the amount of time wasted getting every last grosz from someone, they could probably afford to cut down on the amount of people actually working there. I was in Carrefour and timed the amount of time wasted on asking for change. The average? 22 seconds.

Having said this, why they haven't eliminated the 1 and 2 grosz coins by now is beyond me.

The other irritating thing is when you've got quite a bit of stuff, and the cashier will just go ahead and serve the next person without any consideration for you at all. Don't they realise that making someone feel comfortable is a guaranteed way for them to come back and spend more? I can understand this mentality in shops like Biedronka - but in Alma?

Work / ADVICE: Teaching English in Poland, will I get hired [21]


You don't need CELTA (or any TEFL qualification), basically - it just depends on the location and how desperate they are. Obviously in places like Warsaw/Krakow/Wroclaw, they can be a bit more fussy - but in Poznan, it's not so attractive to foreigners (why not, I don't know, it's a great place!) and so simply speaking the language and having some education behind you is good enough for some schools. It all depends on your expectations, really.


In all honesty, CELTA will get you a job somewhere. It's a gold standard of sorts - if you've got it, combined with a degree, then you shouldn't have any problems whatsoever finding employment.

Work / Interview at a Callan School [204]


As far as I know, the most common way to do business is to make the teacher responsible for their own tax affairs. It does depend on the school - my one gives people the choice of paying their own tax or getting the school to do it for them.

But non-Polish teachers seem to often be offered the 'brown envelope, no questions asked or answered' approach, especially if they're working without a contract or any real proof of them working there. It's this approach that often leads to them being ****** over with payment, although Polish teachers can be ripped off just as well.

Given that many language schools operate in cash anyway, it's easy enough to 'lose' a couple of thousand zloty to pay someone in cash.

But - one thing I'd argue is that even 25PLN an hour isn't bad (although you can make much more!) when you consider the amount of effort required - if you just have to turn up, take a book and "teach", it's a doddle. I've heard of schools demanding full lesson plans to a certain format for every single class - with the consequence that you could easily end up spending over an hour preparing a two hour class. 100zl for two hours isn't that much when you add in an extra hour for preparing - and any non-'method' class is always going to be more demanding on the brain.

Still, you get what you pay for. A Polish teacher might be happy to accept 25PLN/50 minutes because it's still more than they'd get in a state school. But a native can always get more, simply because there are options and demand.

Work / Interview at a Callan School [204]

The lack of a tax code system here is what surprises me, the whole fact that they could be deducting tax from you all year, only for the tax office to throw a big bill in your face is absolutely incredible.

Law / It is impossible to get temporary residency in Poland [23]


This isn't correct. In theory, it is - but for all practical purposes, you can live and work in Poland as long as you want without having any sort of registered address if you're from the EU. Others can advise more - but because there's no systematic proof of entry/exit from Poland, or indeed from Schengen, it's quite easy to get round this whole requirement.

Your biggest problem will be finding work at this point in the year, to be honest.

Law / vetting/pre employment screening in poland [3]

There's certainly nothing systematic, it amazes me on a daily basis that they let me teach children without any background checks whatsoever...

Law / It is impossible to get temporary residency in Poland [23]


This mess is because of the way that they haven't properly split the registration/residency requirements for EU and non-EU citizens.

Temporary registration (ie, the three months registration done at the Urząd Miasta) is just a matter of landlord and passport. EU citizens can just keep getting the 3 month temporary registration if they can be bothered - but the Urzad Miasta wouldn't allow a non-EU citizen do to the same thing.

Even the requirements for 5 year registration are much, much less hassle for EU citizens than non-EU citizens. If someone's making you translate endless documents/etc for EU 5 year registration, then they've got the wrong information and you're going up the wrong path.

Law / Buying, Registering, Insuring a NEW Car in PL is a NIGHTMARE [22]


In this respect - no. You'll need to be registered in Poland in order to register a car, and the car registration will only last as long as you've got a residence permit for. The matter is a doddle for EU citizens, with the problem of needing your landlord to agree to your registration in the property. This is not such a formality - many will refuse for tax related reasons. Given that you'll only be here for a semester, I'm not even certain that they'll grant a 5 year residence permit.

Can I ask why you wish to register a used car here in the first place? They'll likely be cheaper from Holland...

Travel / Places to visit near Czech border, help please. [27]

Jelenia Gora comes to mind - it's cheaper than bigger cities, it's a nice place, but I'm not sure as to how touristic it is in summer (due to Karkonosze being nearby). It's a nice place though, and there's a decent nightlife there from what I can tell.

Life / Wanna buy a rubber/condom (in Rossmann in Poznan)? [51]

Isn't the age of consent 15 in Poland?

Anyone voting for the League of Polish Families should be shot for abusing democracy :/

Travel / WE ARE BACK FROM POLAND AND HERE IS OUR REPORT [96]


Wroclaw zoo is better, I think... :)

Law / Paying Tax For The Self-Employed In Poland (Yet more Questions...) [16]


The problem as I see it is that there doesn't seem to be any allowance built in for the fact that you could easily be struck down with something, be unable to work and yet struggle to claim disability payments here. Without those disability payments, no ZUS - and thus no health care.

Look at the UK amounts - 2.40 a week, plus 8% over 5,715 a year. That's much more realistic - even if they dropped the limit to 12% of everything to adjust for Polish realities, it would be far more sensible. How can it be remotely sensible to have rich and poor paying the same insurance? No wonder ZUS is in such a mess with such a system.

A fixed payment for health insurance is fine - I have no issue with this. But the pension aspect of ZUS? There's just no excuse for this not to be based on a percentage of income rather than percentage. Seeing as the state pension here is variable dependent on contributions anyway, why isn't it so for the self employed?

The fixed contribution just isn't friendly to the small business owner.

Law / Banking in Poland, as a foreigner. [26]

Some banks can be funny, but mBank are very painfree in respect of foreigners.

Law / Copyright in Poland - Have to pay copyright for a design. [5]

As far as I know, it's quite normal in the design world for them to keep hold of the copyright of the design - the idea is that you're buying the design and the functionality, but not the actual copyright. This is probably where the copyright fee comes in - without it, you wouldn't be allowed to alter it/etc freely.

But - one thing. If you haven't paid it already, run the website through validator.w3.org. If it isn't *perfect*, then tell them to sort it out :)

Life / What is the fastest/cheapest/easiest way out of the schengen zone from Warsaw? [3]


The passport stamp won't prove anything - the Schengen rules are 90 days in 180. He might get lucky and they won't check his passport - but given that they always look through mine when I request a stamp (as an EU national!) - they're not going to miss someone overstaying on an Australian passport.

There's no such thing as 'opinions about whether it's accepted' - Schengen rules are fixed, and if he's caught anywhere in the zone having broken the 90/180 limit, then he'll be in serious trouble. It's even more serious now given that the Straż Graniczna are actively stopping people anywhere in the country for random 'border' checks - and the maximum punishment available is a 5 year ban from the Schengen zone.

The 'safest' way would be to go to the UK. If he's refused re-entry into Schengen, then there's always the option of going via Dover - which has notoriously lax entry checks from the French. But again - be warned, a refusal from Schengen is marked in the passport - and this can often be grounds for a future refusal.

Work / Opportunities for Fluent English/Polish Speakers? [7]


Actually, I've observed the exact opposite. With the global 'crisis', people need to be better qualified, hence the need for English teachers. The schools that operate on getting people for a term (like Profi-Lingua) might very well struggle - but the well ran schools in good markets will always have customers.

Travel / What is a milk bar and are there any still remaining in Poland? [14]


Only one?

There's one on Sw. Marcin, one on Szkolna (two seconds from the Rynek), one on Dąbrowskiego, one on Pl. Wolności, Pl. Cyryla Ratajskiego and one on Podgórna.

And that's off the top of my head...

Travel / Traveling to Koszalin? [13]

Depends on the train and time of day, to be honest.

Osobowy trains (ran by PKP Przewozy Regionalne) should probably best be avoided - while they are perfectly safe and reliable, they can be very overcrowded and generally wouldn't be a good bet for someone travelling with small children. But it depends on where - Kostrzyn-Krzyz is an example of where the trains are of a very high standard.

Pospieszny (ran by PKP Intercity) can be hit or miss too - and I'd give them a wide berth too. Again, it depends on the time of day - you can travel on practically empty trains, or be stuck on ridiculously overcrowded ones. The standard is all over the place too. Neither osobowy nor pospieszny trains do seat reservations.

Generally speaking, you'd be best to stick with TLK/EX/IC/EC trains. But I've had a look at the timetable and there's only one TLK train a day and a very late night Express - so it might be pretty unsuitable for your needs. PKS bus might be an option - but no public transport in Poland is really that suitable for someone travelling with children.