Life / Disco Polo - No No No No No! [95]

Oh, by the way... it's back!

viva-tv.pl/shows/disco-ponad-wszystko/

It's served with a big dose of irony, but it's ..... disco f*king polo.

Old and new.

I won't mention here why I think this is a good thing overall, but I do.

Life / Are there G U M Clinics in Poland?? [9]

Yeah, 'free' and speaking English just for your benefit don't go together in Poland.

Language / Celebratory words in Polish? [5]

Obligatory Simpsons reference:

Law / Need Advice on Writing a Business Letter to a Business Person in Poland [15]


Oh the irony!

Poles consistently underestimate (and downplay) cultural differences between themselves and Americans (bunch f reasons for this, none of which do I intend to explain now).

My suggestions (American living in Poland for well over 10 years).

1. Polish people tend to be more hierarchical than Americans, formal titles etc are more important. They also tend to place more importnce on formal (paper) qualificatins than on real world experience with no certificates to back it up.

2. For Americans politeness is based on being friendly and open and breaking down barriers, in Poland being polite means keeping your distance, professionalism means keeping things formal

3. English is not the first language here and even very competent translators might not understand informal usage and might find many idioms you take for granted to be opaque (or misinterpret them)

4. Polish people have more cross cultural experience than most Americans (crucially they have more cross cultural experience where neither side can make the other defer to their norms).

So,

1. Be more formal than you might be comfortable with, use titles (and make it easy for them to use titles back),

2. Use clear, transparent language, try to avoid idioms and spell everything out clearly

3. Don't presume to bear the burden of tolerance all on your own. People in other cultures enjoy being tolerant of outsiders' mistakes too and no Polish business is going to disregard a letter because it uses non-Polish formatting.

Study / Which university (erazmusem)? Poznań, Lublin, Krosno and Białsko-Biała. [17]


I've never really heard of the universities in Krosno and Bielsko-Biala (not to say they're bad, I just haven't heard)

I've heard different things about the Catholic university in Lublin (and the town itself).

Poznan is known as having the best language programs in Poland (though less so for Polish for foreigners) though from what I hear they've gotten better in recent years. I haven't heard anything bad about the Polish for Polish students program.

Poznan is generally more used to dealing with foreigners and it's also a good base for travel (easy to Warsaw, Berlin though connections to Krakow aren't good). dephiandomine is right about bad housing though (and the local housing market is not cheap).

Poznan also has a Hungarian dept (I don't know if that's an attraction or not).

hung.amu.edu.pl/index_pliki/Page1604.htm

Law / I was fined for not having a tram ticket in Poland. How does this affect me? [68]


I've been in Houston and had to use it's .... "mass (ha ha ha!) transit (ha ha ha!)"

Donkey carts infested with diseased rats would be better than the Houston bus system.

Mass transit in Poland isn't always pretty but it works remarkably well in moving people where they need to go when they need to at a reasonable cost.

It often doesn't satisfy the Polish public, but then _nothing_ would satisfy the Polish public.

Language / Poland in different languages? [74]


ellengyeltelenítettétek

quick and dirty analysis

el = from, out of, away

lengyel - Poland, Pole, Polish

telen - no, without

ít - causitive (makes sth be a certain way or makes someone do something)

ett - past tense

étek - you (plural) (it might be possible to separate out -é- as a separate morpheme, but I wouldn't)


This just means that no human language uses only one kind of structure. "agglutinative language" is an abbreviation for "a language that uses agglutinative structures more than most languages do". But English and Polish also have some agglutinative kinds of structures and there are inflectional and isolating bits of Turkish as well.

Law / I was fined for not having a tram ticket in Poland. How does this affect me? [68]

It probably won't affect you, but you're ..... not a very good example of a human being.

Life / "Letter from Poland" - very important movie to watch [51]


And many people are addicted to self-righteous victimization.


He agreed that all the Polish military leaders should be on a single plane. That fact alone disqualifies him as "one of the best in NATO".

Life / "Letter from Poland" - very important movie to watch [51]

A lot of the hysteria and suspicion mongering about Smolensk is camouflage designed to distract people from one important detail (that needs to be repeated often)

There was NO EXCUSE (NONE!) to have all the military leaders on the same plane. Any idiot (except for the idiot who organized this disaster) should know this. It was negligent and borderline criminal of Kaczynski to allow such an appalling lapse in basic security. Had any of them survived they should have been court-martialed or prosecuted.

Even if there were smoking guns pointing at direct Russian involvement (which there aren't) there's no excuse for that.

Work / English tutoring help - do we need the TESOL certificate to work in Poland? [33]

I think delphiandomine's points (which he could certainly make more diplomatically) are that:

a) hardly anyone in Poland is going to call it "Polish dancing" (it'll be called folk dancing or 'national' dancing or something like that)

b) it's a small niche interest (not the case everywhere in Central Europe, Hungary has a large folk dancing scene) I'm pretty sure I've met more non-Poles interested in Polish folk dancing than Poles (in Poland). Most young people in Poland want nothing to do with folk dancing. In a way it's kind of sad but it seems to be the way things are. Even ballroom dancing would be far more popular as a social activity. Hip-hop hump the air dancing is also popular as a group activity. Oddly though, up until the mid 90's (when I stopped going) you could see young people doing variations of ballroom/folk dances in discos. It was very odd.

c) optimists are almost always disappointed, pessimists are frequently pleasantly suprised. It pays for anyone approaching living and working in Poland to be a pessimist so that things that don't work out aren't as bothersome and things that do work out are that much sweeter.

Here's a sample of modern Polish folk dancing.

Work / Some cold, hard facts about teaching in Poland for newbies [101]


Very good point. A lot of private schools are slow payers and I've heard stories about those in charge acting like wanted to be paid was an act of personal betrayal. Don't let them get away with that crap!

Language / Polish regional accents? [141]


But not much more. All in all, Poland is far more homogenous linguistically than German, English or Italian. It's more homogenous than Czech spoken over a far smaller area. The upside for learners is that you don't have to deal with dialect or accents the way that German or or English learners do. The downside is that communication doesn't take much to break down. I hear so little non-standard Polish that when I do hear something non-standard it's harder for me to deal with.


In some ways there is, but it's not so much language based. Polish people are simply more hierarchical than British or Irish people.

They're also more prescriptivist with less tolerance for 'mistakes'. A construction like 'innit?' could never gain ground in Poland because most Poles aspire to speak standard Polish (unlike many British or Irish who are happy with and/or proud of non-standard features).

Real Estate / Good suburb in warsaw for house [23]


It wasn't at all clear if the OP had any clear idea of the way Warsaw is set up or what most Polish people mean when they say 'suburb'. That's why I brought up the issue. Just because three people are using the same word doesn't mean they have the same thing in mind.

I've spent a fair amount of time near/in Sadyba (couple months total) and would never call it a suburb.

Real Estate / Good suburb in warsaw for house [23]

Those are just districts within Warsaw (Śródmieście means 'city center'). I don't know Warsaw well enough to suggest any more than I have. Sadyba is a nice place with good connections to downtown and I used to know it a little.

I don't know prices at all. Sorry.

My main advice is double check everything with local people you know and trust (with no financial interest in you buying or not buying anything in particular).

Real Estate / Good suburb in warsaw for house [23]

For me (shaped by US usage) if it's in the city limits then it cannot by definition be a suburb (unless there's some kind of barrier between it and the more urban part).

Kabaty is part of Ursynów and completely in the city limits of Warsaw. It's a residential area on the outskirts of the city (outskirts refers to the areas just inside and outside the city limits).

The problem is of course that Polish vocabulary doesn't line up exactly with any particular variety of English. There's no reason it should since various kinds of English don't line up with each other either.

Real Estate / Good suburb in warsaw for house [23]

I'd say 'the outskirts (of town/the city)' for przedmieście.

Real Estate / Good suburb in warsaw for house [23]

That's probably a bad translation. Warsaw doesn't have NAmerican style suburbs.

It has outskirts some of which have small surburbanish developments on them. But these are often in inconvenient places without much access to public transport or shopping (and since they're private the city government isn't that interested in extending services to them). Unless every adult in the household has a car of their own living in them won't be easy.

There are some small towns and villages nearby where many or most people commute to work in Warsaw but these are also often not wonderful to live in, especially foreigners (especially with kids). Some have become fashionable enclaves for the moneyed classes but these are very expensive.

I'd go looking for a house (willa) within the city in an area like Sadyba, a nice green part of the city.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadyba

Real Estate / Good suburb in warsaw for house [23]

Warsaw has suburbs? Who knew?

Work / Some cold, hard facts about teaching in Poland for newbies [101]


Which I often didn't mind. I always found private lessons to be completely exhausting mentally. With a larger group you can keep things going without losing to much energy but having to focus on one person for an hour with no breathing room took a lot out of me.

I finally stopped doing them when I realized I was going to each and every one hoping it would be cancelled.

I still get asked occasionally but things'll have to get pretty grim before I go back to those.

Work / English tutoring help - do we need the TESOL certificate to work in Poland? [33]


That should be "The days of "Hello, I'm a native. Where's my job?" are over. Not good news for random people who blow into Poland but better news for those who know what they're doing and generally better news for learners.

Language / Polish regional accents? [141]

The short answer: Yeah, regional accents are no longer very prominent. Since WWII standard Polish spread very throroughly throughout the country and strong regional dialects are restricted to a few places (mountains and Silesia esp).

This is partly because of the close match between pronunciation and spelling which makes it easy for those who want to change their dialect upward to do so as long as they're literate. Just adopt a 'reading' pronunciation and you're all set.

So there's not much in the way of class differences either, broadly I'd say theres a) urban working class b) rural working (farmer) class and c) everybody else. There's no real equivalent of 'posh' accents. The differences are in occasion than in the person.

There are differences but they're subtle. They would include different intonation patterns (Poznan is very distinct) and different kinds of conversational particles. Wielkopolska has the confrontational 'tej' whereas most of the rest of the country would use 'no' (in wielkopolska 'no' is mostly used as 'yeah'). They tend to say jo instead of tak in the north central part. But a lot of the old regional dialects seem to have all but died out.

There are also local words for things that might not be understood elsewhere but nothing very extensive.

News / Lech Kaczyński statue in Warsaw? [66]


Now that is cruel. Accurate, but cruel.

Work / English tutoring help - do we need the TESOL certificate to work in Poland? [33]


And just what experience does she have in the market for English teachers?

delphiandomine is no ray of sunshine but he's on the ground and knows the market from the inside. He's also right in saying the Polish bias is for older teachers.

In the early 90's someone like you could sort of stumble into Poland and find a teaching job off the books and leisurely legalize your stay (or semi-legalize it with border runs or just ignore the laws on the books which weren't really enforced).

Those days are long past. Poland is now in the EU and the post communist government is busy making up for lost time when it comes to restaffing and creating useless bureaucracy and enforcing irrational regulations.

Also, bear in mind that Polish regulations are usually poorly worded and ambiguous and the only interpretation that matters is the one that the local bureaucrat comes up with. Once you know the system it's possible to work around it but you don't know the system (it takes at least a year to learn how any new country really works).

If you're determined to come then hope for the best but plan for the worst (enough cash to support yourself and/or get the return ticket home if you can't work things out in time).

Life / Winter in Poland? [160]


That wasn't even that bad. My first winter here, mumblemumble years ago, it once rained then froze and the whole downtown area was covered by a sheet of smooth ice. Not knowing any better I went out and about in my regular shoes. I was even doing okay for a while and was even thinking 'this isn't so ba-" when I took a massive pratfall followed by a several more before I got back home. It's been dicey a few times since but never anything quite like that...

Life / Winter in Poland? [160]

I'm from a warm climate and have hardly ever bothered with long underwear. I've used it a few times in unusually cold weather but usually just jeans are fine. You do want to have at least three layers above the waist. For me teeshirt, shirt and coat are usually enough though in really cold weather I might also have a sweater under the coat.

If you don't have long hair then make sure you have a cap that covers your ears.

Polish people are paranoid about their necks getting cold so if you don't wear a muffler people you know will worry and nag you into wearing something.

It mostly doesn't snow that much in Poland anymore (though it did last winter and in December of this winter). It can snow well into April but won't last long.

One big problem : slippery when frozen! You'll need shoes for when the sidewalks and streets are icy. If you're not used to it then it can be a big adjustment.

Another problem : Weather changes quickly and often in Poland and you can easily experience three seasons on any day of the year. If you arrive in March be aware that natives often have troulbe knowing what to wear if you dress warm enough in the morning you'll be sweaty and uncomfortable in the afternoon. Carry around a bookbag that you can store excess clothes in.

Food / Typical lunch in Poland? [50]

I'd say the first distinction that needs to be made is between meals on working and free days.

Free days can have up to five meals (a couple of them light, but still...).

breakfast - bread and sausage/lunch meat, maybe cheese or eggs, tomatoes or 'milk soup' (sort of like oatmeal but thinner and usually not oats), cofee and/or tea

second breakfast - late morning to noon (optional especially if the first first breakfast was heavy) - light, maybe an open faced sandwich and tea

dinner - early to mid afternoon, usually soup course, followed by meat and starch and salad all served together, may or may not be served with anything to drink (this can take some getting used to for some foreigners). may be followed by light desert, but usually people prefer sweet things separate from the main meal and will have

after dinner snack - cake and coffee in late afternoon

supper - a lot like breakfast (more likely tea than coffee to drink)

the main meals are
breakfast (when you get up)
dinner (mid-afternoon)
supper (early to mid evening)

People adapt this to working days in different ways. A lot depends on when the day begins and ends and plans of other family members.

Breakfast is not much affected usually and the ideal is to have dinner together as early as everyone's home (if at all possible). Second breakfast might become a bit bigger and some workplaces might offer full meals around the middle of the day and supper is liable to not happen if dinner is around 6 or so.

News / Lech Kaczyński statue in Warsaw? [66]


First, 'selfless' is a better translation of 'bezinteresowy' than is 'disinterested'.

Second, I don't think a personal monument is especially called for. It might be had his nitwit brother not sqandered the opportunity for creating a positive national unity with his half-baked witch hunts. But I don't want Jaroslaw to have more opportunities to use his brother's corpse for political gain. It's an ugly spectacle and the sooner it's ended the better.

Study / A female Asian student considers studying in Poland [21]

Asian means different things in different places, you need to be more precise.

East Asian = probably okay

South Asian (Indian subcontinent) = iffy, it depends some on religion and look.

On a one to one basis few Polish people will be overtly racist (though in public a few jerks will say things)

Also, Polish people are often kind of .... abrupt with each other so apparent rudeness isn't necessarily aimed at you personally. You get used to it.

Australia / Difficult situation with moving (Australia-Poland) [37]

Nothing the OP wrote indicated children and if children are involved then that changes things considerably.

But if they have no children, my advice is:

1. DON'T!!!!!!! (until you find a more likely candidate)

2. DUMP HIM AND GO BACK TO AUSTRALIA!

There's a small chance that if he's faced with a real choice between her or Poland that he'll pick her (probably not, but you never know). At any rate, a unilateral move by her will force the issue to resolution one way or the other.