Life / My Last Link To Poland Died - Why Leaving Poland Was My Best Decision [249]


It will be only ten questions, selected from a list of fifteen. A firm decision regarding whether such a referendum will take place is due to be made in July and the referendum, if it goes ahead, would take place in November.


The actual wording of the question is whether the 500+ program should be guaranteed in the constitution which is a very different matter.


Again that's not the wording of the question because EU law DOES override Polish law. That's not in dispute. All members agree to that when they sign the EU treaties. However EU law does not override the Polish constitution. Poland retains the sovereign right to refuse to comply with an EU law on the basis that it violates the Polish constitution. If they feel strongly enough about such a matter, they can seek to have the EU law changed or can leave the EU. The question is therefore pointless as it won't change the current situation at all.

Work / Salary for a senior software engineer in Poland [195]

Gosh sorry, I meant per month!! So sorry about that!

Travel / Poland - never again [593]


I never disputed that. I remember it well. It's a very extensive thread in which you told the the very sad story of what happened to the land. You sounded like a normal human being then and everybody was very sympathetic to the terrible situation you were in. You really did sound like a different, much more sensible and down to earth person, even acknowledging that the previous valuation of 3,8 million zł, before the damage was way too high. But anyway, it was the "I have 2 million dollars in assets and I made all that in my twenties' nonsense that I was challenging you about. That's simply not true because even if the land in Wrocław was worth a million USA dollars which it isn't, you didn't make that money, the land belonged to your family - and as for the other million, you didn't make that either, not yet :)) maybe you will, who knows?

Travel / Poland - never again [593]


I AM nice :)) and I like you Dolno, the question was rhetorical, more of a statement. The point is that I DON'T think you're an idiot. I think you're being awkward for the sake of it.


Staff Dolno?? Are they superflous? How many tonnes do you expect to extract? Transport?? As for the profit margins, years and years before you get to that stage. As you well know turnover and profit are very different. Stacks of businesses have turnovers in the millions and operate at a loss. Anyway the whole thing is nonsense. No point in discussing an imaginary cement plant.

Travel / Poland - never again [593]


Really? And yet that's not what you said at the time. In fact you said..........


And your parents' house...........


Really? And yet.............



America - very different to Poland. But in any case the land in Wrocław is a different matter to a Victorian townhouse.

@ Dolno, once again I am really surprised at you - are you being deliberately idiotic? Have you any idea of the costs involved in establishing a cement plant? Not to mention the existing competition from major foreign companies who are spending tens of millions of euros in upgrades alone, to their existing facilities. The whole thing is more of Adrian's pie in the sky nonsense and hot air.

Language / Czech language sounds like baby talk to most Poles. Similarities? [222]


Actually it might make it a bit harder. I knew somebody who learned Czech first and got terribly confused when she started learning Polish as there were so many similar words, she couldn't remember which was which and ended up frequently speaking a weird polyglot mixture, full of errors.

Language / How to write an email properly in Polish? [49]


A native Pole doesn't even think about those questions. They imbibe the answers like mother's milk. It's only the foreigners like you and me who struggle with it and all languages present similar challenges. On the flip side Poles struggle with articles, they just never get it absolutely right whereas you and I as native English speakers know instinctively where and when to use them. We have our articles, Poles have their Pan and Pani.

Travel / Poland - never again [593]


Until it became the giant lie that it is today :))

Work / Salary for a senior software engineer in Poland [195]

Gross of around 20 - 25,000 zł per year.

Travel / Poland - never again [593]


Actually you wrote

"I'd probably live with roommates or with my grandparents' in their guest house to save on rent."


You had a forty grand a year basic salary and worked your arse off for the 20-30 commission and:


Nothing wrong with any of that. Very admirable in fact. A grafter, good on you. You don't need to tell lies. Why do you bother? We all know you and we know you're lying so what's the point?

Travel / Poland - never again [593]

Adrian, why don't you just go back and look at your posts from three and half years ago when you were telling the truth about yourself. You were wondering if you could have a decent lifestyle on a net monthly salary of around 7,000 zł and talked about teaching English part time to make extra cash whilst accepting that you wouldn't be able to save anything............and now you're worth 2 million dollars...............oh and you were going to live with your grandparents until you could afford to rent something :))

Travel / Poland - never again [593]


No you do not. Four years ago you were fairly honest when you first joined the forum and gave your salary as just under 40,000 dollars a year plus commission of around another 20-30,000, so about 70,000 a year. Two years ago, you were talking about a dream of owning a convenience store and admitting to knowing nothing about the business laws in Poland. Now, you're worth 2 million dollars and own a house valued at 900,000 dollars? No bank would have given you a mortgage of that size with the salary you were earning. Knowing the way you inflate, exaggerate and lie outright, I expect that if the house exists at all, you're referring to your family home which your parents are selling, probably downsizing now that the kids have left home. And the reason I'm making an issue of it, is because you frequently attempt to childishly belittle other people on this forum, when you have no intelligent argument to make, by boasting about your so-called assets and suggesting that your fantasy vast wealth and self-made millionaire status, makes you superior to them. Grow up and stop being so silly.

As for you Dolno, you really do sound as daft as a brush these days. As a gentleman of the old Polish variety you have a responsibility to give guidance to the younger generation of the Polish diaspora, not encourage them in that kind of ignorant, rude, dishonest and obnoxious behaviour.

Travel / Poland - never again [593]


Yes, but he doesn't have 900,000 dollars Dolno. He has a house which he hasn't paid for and which he values at 900,000. If he pockets 100,000 dollars he'll be doing well. I used to work for an estate agent in London and I know how the story goes.

Young guy buys a place that needs renovating. Gets an almost 100% mortgage on it, let's say 400,000 dollars. In this case Adrian's family are in the building trade so he felt he could do it up at trade price for materials and free labour plus his own labour over evenings and weekends, then resell for 600,000 + and make a tidy profit, possibly do another one etc. Fast forward a couple of years. A tiny bit of the mortgage is paid off so he still owes virtually the whole capital sum, renovation is unfinished, real estate values have oossibly gone up a bit, young guy puts property back on the market speculatively, with an inflated price above the ceiling for the neighbourhood and street where property is located - property may or may not sell. Young guy isn't really bothered as he reckons that as long as he can continue to service the mortgage he's quids in, in the long run, but it's a VERY long run. However if it's lucky it will sell for the 600,00 he originally expected and having paid off the mortgage he'll have a few quid, which is great, but still a long way from a million.

I'm surprised at you Dolno. I thought you had more common sense.

Travel / Poland - never again [593]


And here's the quote.

Travel / Poland - never again [593]


You don't own your American house, you're paying a mortgage. You didn't buy or earn the money for your property in Poland. It's a family property that was gifted to you. The value has been compromised by the damage done to the land from the illegal dumping. Unless you have a vast classic car collection, then cars wouldn't add much to the pot. And you DID say that you worked in a pseudo-call centre. I can find the post if you want me to. Besides what does it matter how much money/assests you have? Of what relevance is that on this forum??

Travel / Poland - never again [593]


Adrian, just over two years ago you told us that you were working in a pseudo call centre and had 80,000 dollars in savings. You didn't acquire 2 million dollars in the last two years. Why are you bothering to spoof? Just like a few months ago when you said that you had both undergraduate and post-graduate degrees in business and when I pointed out that you hadn't completed your MBA you said you only had one class to take. Then last week you said you're half way through your MBA, rather a different story. Either way, one doesn't have a degree in something until one has completed one's studies, taken one's final exams and been conferred, even in the USA :))

Study / MS Finance vs MBA vs MFE in Poland? [13]


Dirk you need to make it clear that you're studying in America, not Poland.

Life / I'm British in Poland and I think that it's time to go back to the UK! [240]


I did indeed. We moved house a few times before I was twelve so I went to three different primary schools but just the one secondary. All nuns. But strangely enough I actually had a lay teacher for both my Communion and Confirmation. Some of the nuns had wonderful names like Sister Tarsisius! She was known as Tarzan. Sister Aloysius was Wally and so on. Happy days!


The attitude to Pan/Pani is the giveaway. Most Poles don't think twice about it, it's just natural to them. Also anybody of that generation attending university would be quite familiar with addressing people as Pani Magister or whatever. My own husband is decades younger than the OP and he remembers it as being quite normal.

Life / I'm British in Poland and I think that it's time to go back to the UK! [240]


Yes, but that doesn't matter to me because I know I'm telling the truth and the only thing that matters to me is what I think - like most people on this forum :))

Life / I'm British in Poland and I think that it's time to go back to the UK! [240]


I remember. Sister Gerard, when I was four, Sister Agnes when I was five, Miss Walsh when I was six, Miss McDonagh when I was seven, eight and nine, Mrs Holohan when I was ten, eleven and twelve. Sister Baptist for piano, Sister Rosario for violin, Sister Margaret for singing, Mrs Young for elocution and drama, Mrs Barry for dancing, Miss Ryan for PE :)) And you're definitely not Polish.

USA, Canada / Victoria Day - Gotta love Canada! [12]

Indeed - and Queen Victoria wasn't even the present Queen's grandmother, let alone her mother.

USA, Canada / Polish or American Education? [180]


To be fair, although there is a degree of nepotism in Oxbridge, it's far less than you might assume. The fact that your parent is an MP wouldn't be enough to swing it. It's a bit more subtle than that. These are universities that are so well established, each of them being almost nine hundred years old and have such a reputation, that they really don't need to court that kind of prestige. Back in the 19th century it was certainly the case that families were associated with either Oxford or Cambridge and entrance was almost guaranteed regardless of your academic ability. You were awarded third class Honours and it was known as 'a gentleman's degree'. But even that had less to with prestige than with maintaining the social order.

But nowadays there are a lot of students at Oxford and Cambridge who have come through the state schools and are there through a combination of their academic merits and suitability for the course. Oxford and Cambridge interview all applicants to see if they have the degree of critical thinking and intellectual potential preferred, as exam results alone are not considered enough to determine whether they are real Oxbridge material.

Here's a very interesting (but be warned, lengthy) article on the admissions process for Oxford:

timeshighereducation.com/blog/alan-rusbridger-lifting-lid-oxford-admissions

(Sorry had to edit the quote because of the word limit).

UK, Ireland / Letter from Polish Prosecutor??!! [34]


Actually, she's now submitted it to the European Court of Justice and they'll be making the decision in July. It's clearly one of the reasons why PIS have been trying to back-track on the court reforms.

Real Estate / Poland land ownership documents - what do they look like / where to obtain [15]

If you don't even know the name of the area, you'll find it a struggle. However, if your dad bought a house then he should have registered his ownership of it. The register, the "księgi wieczyste" is held by the local district court. It can be searched online but unfortunately, they only offer three search options, search by the registration number, address, or plot number and as you have none of these, it's no use to you. The only thing I can suggest is that you contact them. The best thing to do is write to them. They won't give you any info over the phone, they won't usually respond to emails (especially if they're in English). If I were you I would write a short letter, pay to have it translated into Polish, it won't cost much and send it registered. Give them your email address so that they can reply to you that way if they prefer. Generally officials in Poland take notice of registered letters so you have some chance of getting a response.

ksiegiwieczyste.pl/gdansk?gclid=Cj0KCQjw0PTXBRCGARIsAKNYfG1bM3cmFyQQ_KFEcgp-Egjq3c-8MZkBSxjr1DzLKwh91LiAZ8mWAPwaAulaEALw_wcB

The address to write to is:

Sąd Rejonowy
Gdańsk Pólnoc w Gdańsku
Piekarnicza 10
80-980 Gdańsk
Poland

Was your father actually living in Poland? You say your dad was friendly with some Poles. You should be aware that if he bought the house from them, it may simply have been a cash in hand deal, not witnessed by a notary. In that case it's not legal and the ownership might never have been registered. If it was legal and registered, then your father should have received a document from the court a few months later but if he left Poland before he received that document, then the Polish people from whom he bought it could have failed to send it on to him. It would be quite possible for them to re-register the property back into their own names later. In theory they shouldn't be able to, but there was quite a lot of bribery and corruption in those days and a few quid handed to the right person was all it took to do that kind of thing. A bent solicitor or notary could arrange it easily, especially as everything was purely on paper in those days, very easy to tear up a document in the archives and replace it with another.

USA, Canada / Polish or American Education? [180]


Only if you count unofficial ones, that is people who had already won the Nobel prize before attending the University. Officially, they come in at around number 4 - still pretty impressive. But there are apparently 16,000 students, not 2,000.

USA, Canada / Polish or American Education? [180]


To answer your original question, it's 36.

USA, Canada / Polish or American Education? [180]


Dirk, QS and The Times were one and the same until 2009, so yes, people involved in education have very much heard of QS. According to your favourite source Wikipedia :

"Generally, the QS World University Rankings is regarded as one of the three most influential university rankings in the world, along with the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and the Academic Ranking of World Universities."

I don't know what kind of search engine you have but the QS rankings come up first with Google when I search. The trick Adrian is to look not at the name of the website, but at who publishes the ranking, thus this site:

topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2018

is the one for QS and it's the first hit if you search 'top universities in the world' which is what you should be searching for. Of course if you search 'american universities best in the world'.................... :)) Incidentally the CNBC rankings were created by US News??? Basically they made up their own.

I deliberately didn't cite The Times one as it's English and I didn't want to be accused of bias but the Times 2018 world ranking is as follows:

1. Oxford

2. Cambridge

Joint 3rd/4th California Inst of Technology and Stanford

5. MIT

6. Harvard

7. Princeton

8. Imperial College, London

9. University of Chicago

10. ETH Zurich

The interesting thing is that once you get outside the top twenty, it's a much more mixed bag. 39 of the top 100 are located in the USA, so just over a third, which is what you'd expect given the size and wealth of America. The top 100 represents the top 1% of universities worldwide btw. So anyone who makes it into the top 100 is doing well. But when you break it down by subject area, even humble little Trinity College, Dublin makes it into the top 100 for Arts and Humanities :) Let's take a cross range of subjects:

Archaeology: of the top ten, only three are in America and four of the top five are in the UK.

Medicine: with your chosen university ranking The Times, three of the top five are in the UK.

Computer science: three of the top five are located in Europe, two in the UK.

Arts & Humanities: three of the top five are in the UK.

Of course to some degree rankings have to be taken with a pinch of salt for many reasons - and other than a handful in each part of the world, there is really very little to choose between a university ranked number 30 and one ranked at number 80. To be in the top 100 means it's of the highest standard. Also rankings are not just about the quality of teaching and learning but money and links with industry, research and development etc. Sometimes, for that reason, American universities can offer opportunities to the best of their students that others can't.

But if you compare Stanford (16,000 students, founded 1885) with the École Normale Supérieure (ENS) of Paris (2,500 students, founded 1920) Stanford has 10 Nobel Laureates and the French Uni has 13. Stanford hasn't claimed a single Fields Medal in maths (it's a highly prestigious award from the International Mathematical Union) while the ENS in Paris has 11. So when you say that America has all the top universities the evidence suggests otherwise. Plenty of universities around the world that are as good and better.

As to primary and secondary education, as I say I'm not going to waste my time trying to explain why that matters but I'll just say that somebody shouldn't need to do two years of further general education courses AFTER they finish what's supposed to be basic education. One should leave school with an adequate level of literacy, numeracy, logical thinking skills, study skills, general knowledge and an interest in the world, to prepare you for life.

USA, Canada / Polish or American Education? [180]

Wrong, as usual :))


You're speed reading again. Last time I checked Oxford University was in the UK, not America, so that makes two, not one. Depending on the ranking organizations, it varies. Zurich for example consistently comes in the top ten, as does Imperial College, London. In the current QS rankings half the top twenty are NOT American.


Again Adrian, what's 'you', I thought you were European?? You're American sweetie pie, don't fight it, embrace it, enjoy it :))

UK, Ireland / My package from Poland to the UK will not pick up anything! PLEASE HELP! [8]

A few people already answered you query on another thread a couple of days ago.

polishforums.com/uk-ireland/poland-posting-mail-51256/#msg1639910

Study / West Pomeranian University of Technology, Szczecin - Good or Bad?! [5]

Hi Maltieca. Here is a link to all the courses at Sczecin from the computer science faculty which are taught through English :)

erasmusplus.zut.edu.pl/fileadmin/pliki/erasmus_plus/courses_list/Faculty_of_Computer_Science_and_Information_Technology_2018_2019.pdf

I noticed that the textbooks were in English, so I don't think you need to worry. Course notes won't be in Polish!