Life / Reasons for moving to Poland [291]


Poland sounds great for you! Why not stay then?

USA, Canada / Living in Poland - prospects for Alabama guy ... need some advice! [146]


not to mention, most TEFL'ers, after 2 years of doing it in Poland, would jump at the chance to do something else for equal money. something with a normal schedule, salary, guaranteed and PAID vacation days, guaranteed work year round, no split shifts, etc.

Life / You've been in Poland a while if .... [49]


hahaha, and you can also be sure that they have been sitting at home with full pay for at least 2 weeks for that sniffle.

Life / You've been in Poland a while if .... [49]

dude, the thread doesn't say "forever".....:D

Life / You've been in Poland a while if .... [49]

-when staying over someone's house, you stopped asking what's for breakfast. you know what's for breakfast.

-you're actually starting to believe that all the fatty food in Poland is healthy because it's natural

-you feel completely sorry for all the those beautiful Polish girls having to deal with such slim pickin's

-you keep asking yourself, "did I drink this much back home?"

-you constantly wonder, "man.....this would be SO much easier if I could only learn this damn language"

Life / Why do you choose to stay in Poland, why not other country? [152]


no no, it's the beautiful sandy beaches ;)

News / Poland's Economy Is Booming! The EU's Success Story? [711]


which is high compared to my Polish friends teaching in public schools in Poland (they clear around 1500) but i guess your data includes university level bringing up the average.

i'd clean houses or pick fruit abroad before I worked full time with papers to grade/lesson planning at home for 1500zl/month. 5 years of uni to get a "magister" so you can earn a pittance.

USA, Canada / Living in Poland - prospects for Alabama guy ... need some advice! [146]

This is a tough situation in general because your wife isn't taking a leap, she's moving back to her country, her family, her language, what's familiar. You, you have no idea what you're getting yourself into. That's a huge risk, especially with a baby on the way and you having no idea what you're going to do for cash.

If you and your wife are cool with winters, lots of young white people with beards, The North Face clothing, Subaru's, and coffee shops everywhere.....then my vote is Colorado.

You'd be a lost soul in Poland, man.

USA, Canada / Living in Poland - prospects for Alabama guy ... need some advice! [146]


I'd agree with you fully about the preventative care part, but health care being expensive? Depends. Not if you work for the feds or a government/state agency/city/municipality/military, not if you work for a corporation, not if you're dirt poor (medicaid) and not if you're over 65 (medicare). Fresh out of college, my first corporate job at 24 years old, I had soup to nuts healthcare for $15/month. My wife and I currently pay zero dollars for full healthcare through her job.

Generally the people getting hosed are the middle class who lose their jobs and can't find another one and those people are generally poorly equipped for the job market. Like you said, some certainly do fall through the cracks but no system is perfect. I don't have a single friend or family member without healthcare and the highest level of education any of us have is a bachelor's degree, and that's only about half of us.

Regarding your wife's pregnancy/miscarriage, very sorry to hear that. Horrible thing to go through. Unfortunately, in the USA, we have shite for maternity leave whereas in Poland it's what.....half a year or more with full pay? That's the way it should be and I'd love to see it change here. Not taking care of a country's women is a huge mistake.

Life / Our Life impact and expectation in Warsaw During EURO 2012 [6]

Honestly, I think Euro 2012 is going to be very benefitial for Poland, assuming everything goes smoothly. A lot of people have low expectations going into Poland for the first time and I think the cheap beer, Polish women and lots of pork products everywhere along with everyone going in with strong currencies will provide a good time.

USA, Canada / Living in Poland - prospects for Alabama guy ... need some advice! [146]


3 questions:

What's your native language?

How long have you been exposed/studying Polish and at what age did you start?

Define "sh*t hot".

USA, Canada / Living in Poland - prospects for Alabama guy ... need some advice! [146]


I'm not going to have an argument here on how hard the Polish language is. I'm just going to say that what I first said is absolutely true. The language is hard as $hit.



How would this be different if you had moved to Spain, or Italy, or France 10 years ago instead of Poland? Uuccchhh, people will never just admit it on here. But OK, let's get his hopes up and tell him that "it's not that bad" and "if he works hard at it" and "at least you have your wife to translate!" or some other crap like that.

USA, Canada / Living in Poland - prospects for Alabama guy ... need some advice! [146]


YEP. And it's gonna be like that for a looooooooooong time. Maybe forever. Some people simply never learn the language do to it's insane difficulty.


dude, what "school equipment"? books? clothing? shoes?

USA, Canada / Would like to move back to Poland from New York after living in USA for 20 years. [155]


I've lived here almost my entire life. I'm telling you my experiences. Nothing further.

USA, Canada / Living in Poland - prospects for Alabama guy ... need some advice! [146]


your words, not mine. odd you should take such offense to something you know to be mostly true.

USA, Canada / Living in Poland - prospects for Alabama guy ... need some advice! [146]


i'm sure that's certainly part of the problem. Alabama is awful.

USA, Canada / Would like to move back to Poland from New York after living in USA for 20 years. [155]

but now we're talking about 2 different things. i'm talking about meeting people outside NY, you're talking about how New Yorkers talk to each other.

News / Poland's Economy Is Booming! The EU's Success Story? [711]


haha, i guess when you're on the bottom it only leaves room to go up.

USA, Canada / Living in Poland - prospects for Alabama guy ... need some advice! [146]


what planet are you moving to where things are different?

the fact that you speak Polish and the OP does not already puts you in completely different situations.

USA, Canada / Living in Poland - prospects for Alabama guy ... need some advice! [146]

of course. i'm experiencing it first hand, i brought my polish wife here, but the withdrawal for him will be different in some ways than what his wife is going through. partially because of country and partially because of guy vs. girl.

News / Poland's Economy Is Booming! The EU's Success Story? [711]

If that's the case, I'd say using the term "American Pole" is misleading, even inaccurate as a whole, especially when saying, "There are Americans all over the place, its a well know phenomenon - look at the numbers here in PF. Polish Americans retire in great numbers around Zakopane for instance."

A Polish guy that moves to the USA to work for a few years and then moves back to Poland is Polish, not Polish American, just like I wouldn't call myself American-Polish after living in Poland for 4 years (or even 10 years for that matter) and then returning to the USA.

If that's the category these "Americans" you speak of fall under, you haven't "met loads of ex-Americans", you met loads of Polish people that lived in the USA for a while. Just like the Poles going to the U.K. to work for a while and come back are not British-Polish.

There is nowhere in Poland that you'll find "loads of Americans" or "ex-Americans" retiring.

USA, Canada / Living in Poland - prospects for Alabama guy ... need some advice! [146]


That all depends on your agreement in the beginning.


One of many things that will irritate you to the bone. Poland is so incredibly different, and just not America that for most people, especially someone such as yourself that doesn't really want to live there (or at least didn't just dream up an idea to go live there forever....if you hadn't met your wife, Poland wouldn't even be an after thought....) they flat out have trouble dealing with Poland, the language, the way you will feel inconvenienced, the utter lack of sports...(I hope you really really really like soccer, volleybal and handball because you can kiss baseball, basketball, football, hockey goodbye, excluding internet type methods which gets old fast).....I mean....I could write a book because I lived there for 4 years and know what the adjustments are like.

Another huge huge problem I see for you is work. If you don't want to teach English....haha....well.....yyyyyeahhh........

It's not all doom and gloom but just to reiterate....I WANTED to live in Poland. You'd just be tagging along by default. And dude......once you pull the trigger on Poland with your wife....the only way you'll get out of there is a divorce.

feel free to PM me.

News / Poland's Economy Is Booming! The EU's Success Story? [711]


What do you mean when you say, "American Poles"?

Are we talking about Poles born in Poland, spent some time in the USA, and then moved back?

Polish parents that moved to the USA, had children, and those children grew up and moved to Poland?

Americans, born and raised in the USA, who happen to have Polish roots or the random Polish last name, that moved to Poland?

News / Poland's Economy Is Booming! The EU's Success Story? [711]


For themselves and their families. They're not paying Polish taxes on that income so the Polish state doesn't see a dime of it. Send all the money you want back to Poland, it doesn't end up in ZUS payments unless that money is creating jobs and putting more people on the payroll.


university. master's program. then work.


for the most part, i can agree with that. i'd gladly trade 1 battleship for higher SAT scores in our schools.

News / Poland's Economy Is Booming! The EU's Success Story? [711]


Not just the long run. The minute anyone in your work force bounces to another country, it's one less person paying into Poland's socialized system.


she's been there 10+ years.

News / Poland's Economy Is Booming! The EU's Success Story? [711]


insert any country.


yes, there's been a slow deterioration of the middle class for years. i'd cite this as the biggest problem the US has right now as a whole. middle class in the USA lives well compared to most of the world....they used to live better.

News / Poland's Economy Is Booming! The EU's Success Story? [711]


the difference being what you are getting or accomplishing for 10-12 hour days. if you're taking home 15,000zl per month with 50+ hour weeks, it's justifiable.

also, let's consider your buying power after all that work. in Poland, a good salary is around 3000zl/month net for most people (my in laws, one is a cop, the other is a nurse, barely make a combined 3,000 zl/month but let's use 3,000 for argument's sake) and in the USA (I use the USA because I know what numbers are accurate and what numbers are inaccurate) an average salary is around 3,000 USD/month net, excluding big cities where it's obviously higher. Now say you want to buy a plane ticket for $1000 to Chicago from Poland. That's an entire month's salary. For the American? A week and a half.

Time and time again, people forget to consider the buying power they have in the country they are talking about. What good is a "nice salary" if you can't buy anything with it?

My sister in law, 29 years old, has been in Germany for 10 years. As much as she doesn't like German culture or the people for that matter, she simply cannot ever see herself moving back to Poland because it simply makes no financial sense. Her entry level job out of university pays so above and beyond what she would earn in Poland to do the same thing that unless she finds a wealthy Polish guy one day, marries him and they decide they want to live in Poland, she'll never ever go back to her homeland to live.

These conversations are so silly. Nobody wants to look at Poland for what it is. I dig the place, enjoy visiting, had a good time there for a while.....but raise kids and grow old there? Oh hell no. Why do that when I have options, and options is exactly what a lot of Poles now have with the EU open border arrangement.

News / Poland's Economy Is Booming! The EU's Success Story? [711]

i like to visit poland because a 12 oz. beer at the bar in the USA costs $4-$5 whereas in Poland, a 17 oz. beer is $2. I don't like to visit England because a 17 oz. beer at the bar cost $8-$10. why is that? because I'm a dumb American that simply doesn't understand how currency works.

yep.

News / Poland's Economy Is Booming! The EU's Success Story? [711]

when a pole goes to an EU country and sends that money home, he/she is happy that the euro dollar is currently 4.17 to 1.00 right now. they are happy the zloty is weak and the euro is strong. very happy.

now, if you would like to propose an argument stating that people have NO INTEREST in how strong the currency is of the country they are currently moving to, a country they plan on working in and sending money home from.....I'm all ears.

News / Poland's Economy Is Booming! The EU's Success Story? [711]


Hey jagg off, have a listen.....the mention of "weak currency" is most certainly significant because Euros going back home wouldn't have nearly as much of an impact if they were 1:1 or even 2:1 to the zloty. If Poles were living in Mexico and someone sent 10,000 pesos to Poland, what would you do with that, aside from wiping your a$$ with it.

It's the fact that the zloty is weak.....4+ times weaker than the euro in terms of exchange rate....that makes the euro transfers to Poland so significant to Polish economy.

Yet another deuche trying to take pot shots at someone just because they're American.


Just left last year. Go ahead.....tell me why that's siginificant.