Work / What are the job opportunities in Poland for a young Italian with a law degree? [72]

In general, Europeans spend much longer in school than is the preferred custom here in the States. The result however, is that European doctors, lawyers, professors, managers etc. tend on the whole to be far better trained, multi-lingual and broadly knowledgable than Americans across the board.

My "American-style" advice would be to remain in Italy, acquire the necessary training and start earning money. Afterwards, a brief stint in a neighboring EU country certainly couldn't hurt your cv any:-)

Work / What are the job opportunities in Poland for a young Italian with a law degree? [72]

Or the reverse:-)

News / Does democratic Poland guarantee it's LGBT citizens respect for human and civil rights? [1169]

Your own former premier Wałęsa has made some highly controversial comments about gays! Figure he's not exactly with Pope Francis on that one either:-)

Work / What are the job opportunities in Poland for a young Italian with a law degree? [72]

...meaning an American degree just might not be recognized/acknowledged by a leading Polish university as well as vice-versa??

Work / What are the job opportunities in Poland for a young Italian with a law degree? [72]

Time out, guys!

Ahemm, rarely are foreign degrees "transferrable" anywhere outside the home country:-) Embarrassed to say I know of a German dentist, aka maxio-facial/plastiofacial oral surgeon (tooth extractor, to youLOL) who wasn't able to work in, of all places NewYork City, with a degree from a top dental college in Munich!! No bull.

Admittedly, a Harvard, Columbia or Oxford degree in almost any subject is pretty damned tough to turn down, there are plenty of other fine institutions whose degrees don't pass muster away from where they are issued.

Work / What are the job opportunities in Poland for a young Italian with a law degree? [72]

Chimismi, do you speak Polish or at least intend to learn any? I ask because it would greatly enhance your prospects as would conversely for a Pole working in Italy to learn Italian:-)

USA, Canada / Getting a VISA to USA by a Polish person nowadays [339]

I keep reading in our local paper that the US government's trying to eliminate visas for Poles coming to the US!

Work / Advice on Teaching English in Poland [709]

Still, I only wonder how someone can ever truly get what Poles, for that matter any foreigner, are honestly saying in a language not their mother tongue. When I tried it in Germany, where I taught English for a while by the way, I became so frustrated I had to switch back to German. Despite vociferous protests from my interlocutors, I simply found that too much was lost in poor, makeshift translation.

In Poland, I always gave my Polish partner the benefit of the doubt. Usually though, I'd end up being polite, nodding acquiescently and then walking away shaking my head. And these guys were the ones considered "above-average" fluent:-)

Language / Przypadki (Polish language cases) [59]

Learning ANY language as an adult with little to zero prior background in that language, I like to compare with re-wiring our brain circuitry and blasting off in our virtual spaceship into a new galaxy. This is oddly enough what it can feel like for some of us.

Polish, even more than German, for an Anglophone is rife with unfamiliar territory. Cases are oddly the least of the problem. I myself discovered that, for example, as soon as I stopped trying both to translate into German, eventually to stop comparing Polish aspectual distinctions with tenses, I made a lot more progress that I might have otherwise!

Dictionaries are frequently the equivalents of an incomplete road map for someone who already knows the destination and more or less how to get there. They can be helpful for the most rudimentary issues, e.g. spelling, plural markers and the like.

Other than that, I've found them of little use, even less so for more advanced translation.

Language / Przypadki (Polish language cases) [59]

If "biznis" no longer adheres to standards as it once did, then what's the point in practicing it at all? Fact is, non-native speakers of English were far more appropriately modest about their "NON-native" speaker status than many are today! Once, a Pole, German, Italian abroad (or at home) was painfully aware of the poverty of their English language skills, usually and correctly, apologizing to native English speakers (for which they were mosty forgiven) at not speaking as well as the foreigner spoke THEIR respective language.

That all seems to have changed and when one encounters so-called multi-lingual European youth, one has the feeling they're empowered more by arrogance than by abilty, often drawing from the lowest rather than the highest common denominator of what riches modern English has to offer.

Stick to the topic please

As one poster already commented on the comparison between Polish and German case morphology, German is also "repetitive", that is, many identical endings can be confusing for first-time learners especially. Polish masculine accusatives vs. genitives present however different issues of semantic meaning, not merely usage:-) Distinguishing "virile" from "non-virile" masculine nouns doesn't even exist in German, therefore requires special attention for beginning, sometimes even intermediate, Polish speakers:-)

Language / Przypadki (Polish language cases) [59]

Wrong, zrozumienic!

It is precisely this LACK of world standard which has led to the downfall of English as a language of culture and erudite conversation:-)

Perhaps only the OED is a sort of standard bearer of modern English, but then, not of American usage! At least German, Polish and French have standard and their speakers take aesthetic pride in their language!!!!

H.L. Mencken once tried, but failed:-)

Language / Przypadki (Polish language cases) [59]

OK. Thanks! See, the pitfalls, oh' the pitfalls (of Polish)
:-)

Study / Is it worth studying in Poland? International Business for a student and a part time job. [16]

Dominic means that fields calling themselves "Int'l. Business Marketing" etc. are so nebulous that they have little incremental value to an employer. Perhaps you might teach with such a major and earn a moderate income as a university lecturer, just not in Poland with her glutted job prospects.

Fact is, without "łapówki" (bribery, liberal palm greasing!!!!) in Poland, don't even bother:-) Welcome to the Black MarketLOL

Study / Is it worth studying in Poland? International Business for a student and a part time job. [16]

Welcome to PF, Abir!

It depends upon what you're studying? This is not meant as a facetious answer:-) Furthermore, I'd try to get a serious handle on the language, ideally BEFORE coming to Poland. Even memorizing a few phrases of greeting on the plane over will tend to make a positive on your Polish interlocutors.

At universities, almost all academics, particularly the under fourty set, will know English to a decent extent. Over fifty?? Aehhh, it depends on their background as well as what they teach. I.T, lit.crit., linguistics, law etc., most assuredly. Music, agronomy, hard science?? Much less so.

Language / Przypadki (Polish language cases) [59]

English is an analytic, Polish, a sythentic language! Case in Modern vs.Old English is reflected in words themselves rather than permutations of morphological change, e.g. " my house" (mój dom) vs. "I'm going to my house." (Idę do mojego domu) etc. Polish signals change through altering the basic word composition, whereas English doesn't.

Most intriguing for non-Slavic native speaker Polish learners such as yours truly is the accusative/genitive switch when using certain masculine virile "animate" nouns, e.g. "Widzę stary pies." vs. "Widzę swojego brata." Both "pies" and "brat" are masculine, though "pies" is NOT "virile" and "brat" is. "Widzę budynek" is accusative, not genitive, because "budynek" is masculine "INANIMATE"!!!!!

Took me a while to get used to this logic:-)

Work / How to find work in Warsaw "if u don't speak Polish" ! [176]

Pleasure, Yanusiu:-)

Yanu,

Kak dela? Co słychać? = How's it going?

I suppose you've gleaned thus far that there are sundry false friends between Polish and Russian (not to mention words which don't exist in EITHER languageLOL).

Language / Przypadki (Polish language cases) [59]

Even NATIVE-born "bilingual" speakers invariably fall back on their "first" mother tongue, in your case Polish. At least you're honest about it! Far too many foreign-born native speakers deem themselves "fluent" in English, knowing often the words, but not always their meaning. I remarked in English to a Polish acquaintance of my wife and mine several days ago "My, your son's gotten much bigger since the last time we saw you guys!" Her response ( suddenly slighly miffed-looking),"Yeah, well he's not gotten any smaller, Marek!"

This individual had lived in the UK for a number of years prior to arriving in the States and has the cocky assurance of European youth. Nonetheless, her knowledge of English culure...severely lacking:-) And naturally, she won't admit such, claiming my wife and I didn't understand HER!!!

LOL

Work / How to find work in Warsaw "if u don't speak Polish" ! [176]

..and with Ukrainian as a first language, boy, you're practically home freeLOL
Indeed, I did wish you luck. Proszę bardzo:-) You're most welcome.

Dobrej zabawy! (Have fun!)

Language / Przypadki (Polish language cases) [59]

Polish can indeed be mastered by a native English speaker, only don't expect it to be easy. Also, as with many Europeans, the Poles can be arch contrarians, you know:-)

My heartfelt advice is merely to keep plugging away, and never to accept no as an answer from any Polish native speaker who maintains you won't be able to learn Polish as he/she has English. It's usually a big joke!

SLOG ON, FELLOW LEARNER!!!

Work / How to find work in Warsaw "if u don't speak Polish" ! [176]

Yana,

At least you'll have the advantage of being able to learn Polish more easily than our Chilean friend:-)

Powodzenia, Yanuszko!

Language / Bought "Rosetta Stone" software and trying to learn Polish... [59]

...and hopefully not a last glance, NocyMrok:-)

Sadly, as with certain other languages in dire need of good PR, many take one look at Polish grammar, turn tail and run like the Devil, as far away from Polish as possibleLOL

Other lesser lights don't even bother, preferring to rely on the imperfect (and scarcely ever to improve) English of their Polish interlocutors; also a serious mistake!!

If I had to learn Polish at my age using Rosetta Stone.....I'd at best be able to order a meal, say a few courtesy phrases, read an easy paper, recognize some structures and that's about it:-) The more involved aspectual distinctions, much less the reasons why etc..., forget it!!

That's only my observation.

Language / Bought "Rosetta Stone" software and trying to learn Polish... [59]

If only to flog a dead horse (at the risk of being my usual boring self), ROSETTA will gently assist in:

1. gen'l daily chat
2. exposure to spoken Polish on the A-1/B level
3. allow the unannointed the priceless treasure of hearing native Polish speakers in their element

Apart from that????!!

Keep walkin':-) The infection of inflection, those quirky numerals, etc.. not within a thousand kilometers of the STONE.
lol

News / Does democratic Poland guarantee it's LGBT citizens respect for human and civil rights? [1169]

Thanks! Most of your responses make sense, especially the one about the purging of the intelligentsia under Gomułka:-) Yep, that'll do it every time!

News / Does democratic Poland guarantee it's LGBT citizens respect for human and civil rights? [1169]

I repeat, when abouts was Poland transformed from a "hotbed" of tolerance into a kind of oasis of the primitive and xenophobic? Surely, no single factor's to blame here:-)

News / Does democratic Poland guarantee it's LGBT citizens respect for human and civil rights? [1169]

So what happened??

Life / Marketing Speak or mumbo jumbo talk from Poland? [22]

Gibberish knows no national or linguistic boundries, people! All that is necessary for psychobabble to further take root is for the passive out there to keep doing less than nothing about it:-)

lol

Language / Which is harder: Pole learning Russian or Russian learning Polish language? [57]

The native speaker though, always has the advantage! German comes more naturally to me as a native Anglo-Saxon speaker of English.
Russian will come easier to you as a native Pole (..your English though, is not half bad, I have to admit!).

Language / Which is harder: Pole learning Russian or Russian learning Polish language? [57]

And there's the rub: both SLAVIC native speakers! On the other hand, German for me as a native English speaker with a background in Latin, was almost a romp in the park:-)

Language / Which is harder: Pole learning Russian or Russian learning Polish language? [57]

As is usually the case with foreign-born learners, my errors are predominantly aspectual in nature! Declensions? Well, sure! But then more or less comparable with any Pole of average to above-average intelligence learning English after slightly under four years (..with only ONE trip to the country).

:-)

News / Does democratic Poland guarantee it's LGBT citizens respect for human and civil rights? [1169]

For whatever my observations are worth, I was only in Poland once, yet have close contact with Poles as well as Polish ex-pats here in New York on a routine basis. I've observed that even the stablest demoracies are often rattled at their foundations by expression of true personal freedom, one of them, being a person's sexual preferences! Poland I believe is no different. Poland considers itself a "Republic", democracy of the Catholic faith, whose Church teachings command her citizens to act as they are ordained to. Therefore, the concepts of freedom regarding human rights for all and the doctine of Adam & Eve would appear to be gently in conflict, shall we say:-)

As an American, I can only recall too well a line from the most iconic films from the '60's, "Easy Rider" (1968). Towards the end, Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson are talking, at which point Hopper asks sort of non-plused, "George, why do they hate us so much?" Nicholson's character brilliantly and prophetically replies "They don't hate US, Billy Boy! They only hate what we represent. You know, when folks out their see people who are truly "free", some of 'em just can't handle it.."

Poland, America, even Italy and many so-called democracies in the world sure talk a good game about democracy, freedom and equality. Yet when it comes time to deliver, they more than not, fall dismally short!