working as teacher in Warsaw

if i talk english and french fluently and i have a child care mangement diploma what are the chances i can teach in poland, taking in consideration that i am not from the EU countries

Where is MRU? You may find legal difficulties if you can not work within the EU legally. Poland is always looking out for anybody who speaks English and will employ even Poles with First Certificate to fill their classrooms with 'teachers'. I am not sure about today as my knowledge is a bit out of date but certainly that was always the case years ago.

If you aren't a native speaker in any of them then It may be difficult. They want native speakers, not just someone, who knows the language. I think that opportunities in case of French could be better, It's much less popular than English but on the other hand there's fewer teachers - in case of English there are many people from UK or USA teaching here. And in case of non EU workers... I don't know details as I'm Polish in Poland... but If some company has a serious reason to hire someone from outside EU then It's rather a matter of paper work.

Where have you got that information? That's nonsense!

Kmiot is talking crap all the time, so that's not surprising.

No, when I was in a small village near to Czestochowa, the English Language teacher was a Pole, who did not even have a First Certificate. A few years ago now mind you, maybe they have tightened things up since? I was also in a place called Krasnik and I visited a local school where the shortage of English Language teachers in the State School System was so acute, that they were hiring young Ukrainian girls from Kiyev to fill the places. I know because I myself was there in the school, I met the teachers and I met the children and I met the School Head. Do not say that I am talking crap-I know Poland very well indeed and in my time I have been almost everywhere. In fact, I have probably seen more of Poland than a lot of Polish people living in their own country.


Yes, I am talking crap-to me it nice!


I think that Austrlaia, New Zealand, Canada, the U.S.A. and Ireland would all count as 'native speakers'. It might take a little longer to get the visa though. Mind you, if I was from Australia I would go to somewhere like South Korea and earn twice the money for doing half the traveling.

The problem you have here Michal (as I see it ). Is that you are using your experiences from a long time ago, to advise people. And things change a lot over the years, especially in Poland where Communism no longer applies.

This is why people are making the remarks that they do. The World has moved on and a lot of the people asking for advice are from a much younger generation and have already researched a lot of what they need and can see that some of the things you say are out of date. I'm not sure whether you understand that ? It's always interesting to hear other people's reminisences but it shouldn't be viewed as being up to date information.

This reply is meant as a kindly gesture and there's no criticism intended.

it will sem to you very strange my questions but as i see people are willing to help i will ask such silly questions as

what is meant by celta, efl etc... as qualifications needed to be teacher.
how can i know if i have the equivalent?

.......it doesn't seem strange at all to me ! I have no knowledge but am sure there are lots of people on here, who will be only to happy to reply and give you the info you request !

Cambridge CELTA - Certificate of English Language Teaching to Adults

originally this was an EFL qualification rather than ESOL or ESL and was aimed specifically at those wanting to teach adults - Cambridge now refer to it as an ESOL qualification and there is a grey area about its applicability to teaching Young Learners although Cambridge will be happy to sell you the CELTYL whilst youre at it

TCL Cert. TESOL - Certificate of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

A well rounded course which will cover both teaching adults and young learners in groups and 1 to 1. the UK government programme for teaching english to immigrants is ESOL in methodology

There is not internetionally recognised awarding body for such qualifications and different certificates will be prefered in different parts of the world - to see how your cert measures up look at its content and see how this compares to the above two - a course basically needs to be about 12O hrs in length and involve a minimum of 6 hrs teaching practice to students rather than your peers

Michal was right in this case. We still have here teachers with FCE who teach in public schools. There is an official instruction from a school inspectorate (I live in Krakow) allowing teachers with A FCE grade to teach. Those with B and C have to get a one year permit for teaching and they do get this permit.

If I am right, the CELTA is a newish qualification, produced through a marriage of the former RSA (Royal Society of arts) and Cambridge Examination Board. There is also Trinity College London (which I did in Guildford in 2000) I think that both are very similar with six hours of tuition in the classroom. The Trinity TESOL is supposed to be better in a way as there is a teaching children component but in such a short course every aspect is taught in very limited quantities. I can not even recall anything to do with children on my course.


I may not always be up to date but I will only ever comment on something where I have had personal experience. I do remember when I was staying in Warsaw, I visited a language school called the Anglo school of English. I can still remember the address, I think ul. Popieluszki 7 or 9, I am not sure now after all these years. I do not know if it still exists, I imagine that it would in some sort or other. It was run by a family who had lived in Australia and then decided to return back to Poland. It sends out danger signals in itself that anybody would want to return to Poland after living in Australia. Anyway, I was taken to the school and had a chat with the owner of the school but it would not be my cup of tea at all. The Polish teachers would be employed to teach grammar and English teachers do the conversation classes. What teacher would only want to teach conversation is beyond me! They call it their own unique dual system of teaching. I can not remember how much they offered to pay me but when I was back at the flat in the evening the man of the house where I was staying laughed. He said to me,"my mobile phone bill per month costs more than that!" I would give Poland a 'big berth' if I was a teacher of English!

Actually, as a P.P.S., if I am right it used to be called the Trinity College Preparatory Certificate and it was offered by International House in London in Piccadilly. A factory of foreign students came and went and the English guinea pigs spent their hard earned cash giving all these lessons for free in return for their certificate. Not my thing at all. It is rather a shame that new developing countries such as Poland could not be allowed to become more naturally Polish in their own way rather than having to become more and more like the west with silly television programmes such as the Polish version of 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? and the Polish version of 'Blind Date'. That is why, in part, Poland has gone down hill. It is not one thing or the other but rather a sad mixture of its own old ways with a vaneer of western culture superimposed over the top. Not a place for me to live in at all! Why a Polish person must be successful in English to gain a matura and a place at university in my mind is nothing less than cultural blackmail and I for one would have nothing at all to do with it.

A Polish person doesn't need to be succesful in English to gain matura but he/she must be succesful in any foreign language.

I heard that there wasn't necessarily a visa needed to teach English in Poland. Is there any validity to this?

There always was but it should be quite easy if you are from within the E.U. Obviously if you hold an American passport, for example, you will need a sponsor I would imagine.