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Posts by Michal  

Joined: 27 Feb 2007 / Male ♂
Last Post: 22 Feb 2010
Threads: -
Posts: Total: 1,865 / In This Archive: 1,535

Speaks Polish?: No

Displayed posts: 1535 / page 1 of 52
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Michal   
27 Feb 2007
Work / How many polish adults want to learn English? [16]

Unless you have studied to be a primary school teacher with Q.T.S. in England and you have experience of children is there a difference between a CELTA and the Trinity TESOL? Teaching adults and children English is the same thing except perhaps for the discipline in the classroom. State pay is not good and even private language schools will not pay you enough money to make a profit to take home with you. I was once in Warsaw and was offered a job teaching English. The man with whom I was staying in Warsaw with laughed after I told him the conditions of employment as his monthly mobile telephone bill was more than my wage as an English Language Teacher would be! I think that I will stay in England and remain a postman!!
Michal   
27 Feb 2007
Study / Um studying abroad in Poland? [16]

You could always try the Polish Embassy in America and ask for the cultural section. There are a few summer Polish Language courses run through the summer and it would be a good idea to try one of these first to see if you like it. I did one many years ago in Krakow connected to jagiellonski and I believe there was also a course run in Lublin. I do not keep in contact now and am unaware of the prsesent circumstances. They arrange accommodation in their student hostel and the food was excellent. as an American citizen, the course carried credits which I think you would be able to use back home in the U.S.A. later. Only thing for you of course is that you would have to pay for the return flight and I do not know how much that would be from the USA. I came to Poland by train from England and that was fine.
Michal   
27 Feb 2007
Work / How many polish adults want to learn English? [16]

I can only add that when I did my Trinity TESOL course in 1999/2000 there was no teaching of English to children element (exept maybe a sheet of paper showing how children sit in a classroom) and no business English though a one month intensive course can not do everything. Maybe Poland 2006 is right when she says 'English sucks!', why should we spread our culture on to everybody else? I used to go to Poland when there was still 'communism', if that is the right word, and the Polish Language was pure, now so many new words of English origin have crept in...they do not say przepraszam but use the English word sorry!
Michal   
28 Feb 2007
Work / How many polish adults want to learn English? [16]

Half the Polish Language is full of English words. If you watch the Polish serial M jak Milosc all the time you will hear sorry sorry sorry and yet again sorry. I am not in Poland I am in Guildford Surrey but we get the serial via satelite. I was in a train in Gdansk and I hearded a student using the word amongst his friends. Obviously you have never been to Poland!! Even I am aware of some of the mdern linguistic trends. I used to visit Poland quite a lot but have moved on to Australia and other more interesting destinations now.
Michal   
28 Feb 2007
UK, Ireland / Marrying a Polish citizen in UK [24]

I can say that I was a student in Russia twenty years ago and there were over 600 students from Poland studying Russian at the Pushkin Institute at the same time. It is an irony as none from Poland ever had a single good word to say about England, I heard it all. It is your fault, Chuchill sold us to Stalin, my passport was ugly, the BBC always trotted out anti polish propoganda. I was in Warsaw and there were always big red flags supporting big Brother Moscow. If I wanted a visa I had to pay for it and on top of that I had to change money officailly for every day of my trip. Nothing was ever free It is always the same, the Poles NEVER accept responsibility. And now? They all want to cvome to England and buy houses in the best areas so that their children will get a place at the best local state school. They always know how to 'play the system' Last time when I was in Czestochowa I offered to buy a piece of land and they said no no no where is your Polish pasport? Jednak nie ma takiego slowa jak odpowiedzialnosc miedzy Polakami, to jest wina Ameriki albo Rosji albo Anglii-zawsze to samo, rob co do was mowie nie rob tego samego co ja.
Michal   
28 Feb 2007
Work / How many polish adults want to learn English? [16]

I never miss it! I always manage to fit in to my important busy life style attending cabinet meetings and parliamentary debates and around watching Neighbours and Home and Away from Australia. We get it on Satursay and Sunday and even the Sunday version is repeated on the Monday at 12.30p.m. Sometimes its better than at others but it was better when Kamil was in it though he is in London now. It is good practice for my Polish, in fact I think that I will go to Poland after redundancy from work in the U.K. and see if I could be Doctor Artur's understudy!
Michal   
28 Feb 2007
Work / For all English teachers in Poland (who work for only $1000 a month) [102]

If someone has studied at university and has finished socilogy or psychology working in Poland as a teacher is better than returnig to a factory job, that is, as long as you have no family to support. I was on a plane once flying to Poland as I sat next to a young man who was travelling to Koszalin to teach English for a year. He had to do lesson plans and marking all for £50 per week but this was much more than he had been earning in Turkey the previous year! There is a lot of competion for good jobs now, even amongs the young, teaching English in Poland is a soft option I suppose. Easier than getting in to finance in the City of London. I must say that unless I had imediate family there, I would not chose such an option. I was offered a job teaching English in a private language school in Warsaw and the Polish man with whom I was styimg laughed. My monthly wage would have been less than his monthly mobile phone contract!!
Michal   
28 Feb 2007
Language / I told my friends that I was polish and i speak polish but i'm not [24]

I think that it is a fantastic idea! You should now have the need and motivation to have to learn to speak, read and write Polish like a native so as not to make a fool of yourself. Is there anything so special about being Polish?
Michal   
1 Mar 2007
Language / I told my friends that I was polish and i speak polish but i'm not [24]

What happens when someone says to you, "I met a Polish person yesterday and they told me the polish for 'this that or the other', what happens then? How are you going to know what to say? Or do you just say something like "from where I come from, we have a completly different dialect."
Michal   
1 Mar 2007
Language / I'm really interested in learning Polish [33]

During the 1960's Poland produced an excellant book with a set of records and the course was called Mowimi Po Polsku. I do not know if you can get hold of such a course now but it was one of the best courses for beginners of Polish that I have seen.
Michal   
2 Mar 2007
News / Dealing with constant insults against Polish [323]

I think that it is the germans who have a lot of jokes about the Polish. They make jokes rather like the English make jokes about the Irish. I was reading some of the comments above. In Poland it is very rare to find Polish people who speak two languages. Many Polish people have come to England to work and this is strange. I met many Polish people in Moscow during communism when I was a student of Russian. I stayed at the famous Pushkin Institute in Moscow and there were over 600 trainee teachers of Russian from Poland. The Polish people never had a good word for England and it was always the same thing "Churchill sold Poland to the Russians". They did not like the BBC and even the colour of my British passport, now a totally different story. They all want to stay and buy a house in the best part of town where their children will be guaranteed a place at the best local state school i dalej i dalej I could go on and on about how two faced they are.
Michal   
3 Mar 2007
Work / How many polish adults want to learn English? [16]

In my experience that I have of Polish and Czech people in the classroom, they are worse than children. They sit and talk amongs themselves in their own language. They lack the same ability of the English. Generally the Polish are quite lazy and want all the work done for them, so in my lessons I have to help them a lot. Children are the same throught the world, What is the problem that you can not see here. I have never mad a Polish student stand outside in the corridor yet... but who knows...
Michal   
4 Mar 2007
Work / For all English teachers in Poland (who work for only $1000 a month) [102]

Probably, if the truth is known, most people (especially men) who are seriously considering a career in Poland as a teacher of English are looking for a relationship. After all, where better to look for young intelegent people who are motivated in learning to speak English and will automatically be of the right age range ect. It is quite tempting as you will have a classroom full of young hopefulls! I do know, seriously though, in the past of men who have inded gone to Poland in this capacity with this very much in mind. People seam to think that Polish women are 'easy' and in that I mean 'simply to get along with' and they do have a lovely slovanic soul but it is a misconception on the whole to think of a relationship as ever easy.
Michal   
5 Mar 2007
Work / For all English teachers in Poland (who work for only $1000 a month) [102]

Nobody can expect to earn a lot of money as a teacher of english in Poland or almost anywhere else for that matter. Teaching English is an unskilled job that provides 0 points for immigration to Australia, so it all goes to show you. In Saudi Aarabia, maybe but you will need good qualifications and a lot of overseas experience to back the academic side up. If you are in Warsaw then you could look at marketing and sales if you have experience in these areas. Can your embassy help with some contacts? It has always been the truth that the people in Poland who earn money are in private business or in to the mafia now!

I am sorry, I read your message again. I imagined that you were teaching English in Warsaw-that is what most foreigners do though in fact you do not state that fact. I assume that your girl friend is Polish. Polish women do very much like to be in control if that is the case. You will never be totally in charge if your girl friend is Polish! Another good place, I believe for jobs is the Warsaw Voice or something very similar in title. There are adverts there to look at but I am just also wondering about your legal status for work as you say that you are a nigerian. Your embassy may well be able to give you more advice.
Michal   
6 Mar 2007
Work / For all English teachers in Poland (who work for only $1000 a month) [102]

Pass, can you not read? Why are you asking me what I am talking about? Try to read and everything will be clear.

I have never been a teacher anywhere. I must say that I might be out of date and I may forget how things have changed. I was in Czestochowa fifteen years ago and I know that teachers could earn a lot of money for private lessons but there were often contractual issues around this as the schools would not allow the teachers to give private lessons. I imagine that schools were worried about students being 'poached' by teachers. I do not know what the situation is like today in Poland. I do know that even Russian has made a come-back and is taught again in state schools. I only completed a TESOL with Trinity College in 2000, I could never afford to actually change careers and work for peanuts in Poland.
Michal   
9 Mar 2007
Language / Polish language problems (orthography) [47]

I do know that the Polish ending u for the genetive case must be used and that they never use the closed o plus accent. I do not know if there is a difference between rz or z in pronounciation but there is a difference between sz and si.
Michal   
10 Mar 2007
Language / Suggestions for Children learning Polish [25]

I would have though that the best way for a child to learn Polish was from their own mothers. Otherwise, why would a child want to learn Polish?
Michal   
10 Mar 2007
Language / Polish language problems (orthography) [47]

Polish grammar and sentence construction is easier than German. On the whiole, Polish sentences are similar in construction to their English counteroparts and should produce few problems.
Michal   
11 Mar 2007
Language / Polish language problems (orthography) [47]

Polish is not a key to any other language. Origunally, Russian was THE language but spread with the tribes many centuries ago. Polish too has changed a great deal over a historical time frame. Czech is closer to Serbian though it may be possible to understand a few words when they speak (one in every forty) though the written is a lit possible. If you look at Slovene written it is possible to understand a fair amount of the written text but that may be due to knowledge of Russian. Slovak is much closer to Polish.
Michal   
12 Mar 2007
Life / What is BIALYSTOK like to live? [19]

Anywhere in the east of Poland has high unemployement problems. There is nothing wonderful about Bialystok and from I remember, a lot of Ukrainians come over to sell things. This is some years ago of course.
Michal   
17 Mar 2007
Language / Speaking bad Polish? [14]

The people of Guildford speak good English i mowimy po polsku tez!
Michal   
18 Mar 2007
Work / Job opportunities in Poland for a foreigner? (other than a teacher) [175]

In England we have 600,000 Polish loking for work as there is nothing in Poland. If you are looking for work in Poland besides from teaching English I would imagine that there would be almost no openings unless you have some very special skill such as a famous footballer or an excellent chef but even then as a a teacher of English you willl need to be able to translate grammar and meaning so you will be a useless teacher without a knowledge of Polish. the Polish are very practicle and do almost all jobs themselves from mending shoes to building houses so your skill will need to be something really special. i think that on the whole we are a little spoilt in the West and are used to relying on other people-that is why we have plumbers who come to our homes and charge £80 call out fee to change a washer on a tap! No such chance of this in Poland.
Michal   
18 Mar 2007
Work / Job opportunities in Poland for a foreigner? (other than a teacher) [175]

Best of all would be if you have a professional job such as a civil engineer or an accountant and you may be able to work in Poland for an international company with an interest in that area of the world. English Language teaching is all right for a while if you are young but it is not a career path for a family man.
Michal   
18 Mar 2007
Language / Do Poles get confused over the different word endings? [40]

Spelling can be a problem. I have seen examples such as zecz not rzecz and I had a letter once from an adult who wrote sluf for slow! lech Walesa said rekami for rekoma so yes, Polish people do often make mistakes.
Michal   
18 Mar 2007
Love / Discussion about Polish Men's Tempers [103]

The man is very starange and it would be better to stay away from him and find another. Polish women are very hard and can be very aggressive too. It is surprising how many men can feel threatened.