Australia / Poland residency for an Australian citizen without marriage? [6]


edited...
Anyone with kids with an EU passport is entitled to legal residency on family grounds (right to be united with the family) in Poland. That "lawyer" above is clearly clueless - there's no "may" and no "special circumstances" - it's a straightforward decision.

Life / Life in Poland - feeling lonely and don't want to socialize much! (anyone feeling same?) [93]


That's not normal... If you're going to try and live like a king here, you'll find that the costs add up very very quickly. Harry can tell more, but from what I've gathered from him, a very good dinner here can set you back over 500zl easily.

For what it's worth, I was in Kraków a couple of weeks ago and stuffed my face for 60zl including coffee. It wasn't exactly a high class restaurant, but the food was decent, filling and hit the spot wonderfully.

Real Estate / How to buy an apartment in Poland - can I pay in full cash? [20]


I wouldn't even try and take in that kind of cash. They can seize anything over 10,000 Euro if the source isn't adequately documented - and who would risk 300k at the hands of Polish Customs?

Best just to transfer it into Poland and pay by bank transfer like a normal person.

Life / Advice needed on Dental implant in Poland [119]

A ridiculous amount of spam here.

My advice hasn't changed - dentopolis-poznan.pl/eng is thoroughly recommended for those that want work done. I'm thoroughly happy with their service - they consult on everything before doing it, and the price list is very transparent.

News / LGBT hate speech to be banned in Poland [208]

It's not banning free speech. You're free to say what you want, provided it isn't inciting hatred.

By the way, the same laws already exist in defence of religion.

News / LGBT hate speech to be banned in Poland [208]


So you're saying that Polish people are so out of touch with society and so badly prepared that they need such laws?

Poles are, after all, protected by the same laws.

Life / Life in Poland - feeling lonely and don't want to socialize much! (anyone feeling same?) [93]

Life is always going to be tough in a smaller place if you don't have an established network there regardless of what country you're in.


Do bear in mind that what seems "rude" to us isn't necessarily rude. The word proszę for instance - when you learn Polish well, you'll find out that the word is implied in many cases.

News / LGBT hate speech to be banned in Poland [208]

That's quite a remarkable view by all accounts.

Fortunately, these laws should mean that everyone is equal in the eyes of the law and is protected accordingly.

News / LGBT hate speech to be banned in Poland [208]


It's very interesting that people seem to think that abusing Poles should be a crime, but abusing homosexuals shouldn't be a crime.

News / LGBT hate speech to be banned in Poland [208]

So in other words, you're thinking about men licking anuses without any real scientific basis.

I mean, it's your life.

News / LGBT hate speech to be banned in Poland [208]


Care to share with us any statistics on that particular practice?

The fact that you've used the word "rampaging" there suggests that you're more familiar than you care to admit with homosexuality.

Travel / Change PLN to USD in Poland [7]


If it's a large amount, order it in advance so that they've got enough physical cash on hand. Banks in particular don't tend to hold much USD to hand, and even many banks won't have much EUR beyond a few hundred.

News / LGBT hate speech to be banned in Poland [208]


Or even better, deporting them back to their favela.


I said in Poland, not in some British council estate.


Hate crime through and through, although in the specific context of football, I'm sure Widzew give just as bad back.


As long as it's not attacking them personally. There's a huge world of difference between saying "gays must die" and saying "I don't agree with the methods used by xxx to corrupt our children".


I'd wonder more about the person posting such sex practices to be honest :D

Anyway, nothing special, there aren't any special practices that only homosexual people indulge in. Describing their sexual behaviours is really nothing special.


It might be ignorance (because like heterosexuals, they are very varied), but it's not hate crime.



Do you see any difference, Polo?

News / LGBT hate speech to be banned in Poland [208]


Actually, people have been prosecuted for this in Poland. Perhaps you'd do well to actually live here?


Dunno, conservatives seem to cry when someone insults God or their guns.


I think it's rather how the opinion is made that matters. Calling on someone to "kill all gays" is an obvious hate crime - but saying "homosexuality is immoral" isn't (in a private setting).

Language / The lost literary languages of Poland [54]

Lyzko, stop! You are referring to nothing more than the nationality marker that ALL nationalities had within their internal passports. It wasn't anything peculiar to Jewish people except the fact that they were recognised as a nationality (narod) in their own right. Even within Soviet Russia, there was an astonishing amount of nationalities - and one was not only a citizen of the USSR, but also a citizen belonging to their own nationality too. Theoretically, a Jewish person would have belonged to the Jewish Autonomous Oblast if you wanted to identify them with a particular territory within the hugely ethnically diverse USSR.

Yes, there was some persecution of Jews in the USSR, but it had absolutely nothing to do with the nationality marker in their passport. They were simply considered to be one of the constituent peoples of the USSR, on an equal basis to Estonians, Chechens, Ossetians, Georgians and all the many others.

The nationality marker in the internal passport really had nothing to do with Nazi Germany's policies.

News / LGBT hate speech to be banned in Poland [208]


If it's a play, seems fair to me. I don't believe in censoring such things - it can open people's eyes.

I actually think there could be some artistic merit in it, particularly if it was from the point of view of typical blokersi. They are so woefully unrepresented in the arts that it's about time that someone did something from their point of view.


Hate speech, without a shadow of a doubt.


No harm in citing research as long as the right of rebuttal is there.


Only a point, but if the prosecutor in Poland shows interest in the case and gets a European Arrest Warrant issued, it could make life very difficult for the person in question. You're right that the USA wouldn't show much interest in deporting the person (they show much more interest in getting people deported to the US for trivial things...) - but that person could easily get arrested in London and extradited to Poland for what they've said online.

Having said that, American citizens seem to be quite able to dish out vigilante-style justice online...

News / If Poland were in the Eurozone... [39]


Do you know why?

People claimed that the Euro increased prices because they (wrongly) counted 1 Euro = 2DM. It's actually 1.95something - so they were losing 0.05DM on every Euro that they thought they had. The same problem existed in France, where it was traditional to tip 10FF to Parisen waiters. People then started tipping 1 Euro instead - which was only 6.5something Francs.

The evidence has shown that the price increases were pretty much statistically insignificant - and later conversions to the Euro such as the Estonian Kroon and the Slovak Koruna kept dual pricing for a while afterwards to discourage any attempt at profiteering.

If you understand economics, have a look here - ijcb.org/journal/ijcb07q4a1.pdf- it shows that the actual Italian inflation (which was perceived to be astronomical) was within 0.5% of the official rate, or within the margin of error for the statistics in question.

Language / The lost literary languages of Poland [54]


Lyzko, I don't know how much is just ignorance, but in the case of the Soviet Union, it didn't reflect what you think it reflects. It rather reflected the nationality of the passport holder, and Jewish people were recognised as forming a distinct nationality under Soviet law. Under Soviet law, everyone was obliged to state their "pyataya grafa" - which made sense given that the Soviet Union by name alone was a union of many, many different and diverse peoples. Yugoslavia had a very similar concept - in their case, sovereignty lay with the Yugoslav republics AND the constituent peoples.

Jewish people did not have a "different class of citizenship" in the USSR. They were citizens of the USSR and of their nationality.

Language / The lost literary languages of Poland [54]


Lzyko, I'm sorry, but stop speaking nonsense. They were recognised as Polish citizens just like every other person in the II RP.


Utter bollocks. If you take one look at shop names from the 1920's and 1930's, you can see a huge amount of Jewish-owned businesses. Polish Jews (although suffering some discrimination at different points) were very much involved with commerce and public life in Poland.

If you take a trip to the Old Synagogue in Kraków, you can see election posters from those times. The names are very much Jewish in many cases.

Please don't spread such nonsense - the II RP wasn't perfect, but nor was it a country in which they were marginalised and persecuted en masse.

As for language, please remember that Polish was the language of the administration. Maybe not all Jews were bilingual, but most of them would have least understood Polish and spoken it to a certain extent.

Travel / Change PLN to USD in Poland [7]


Absolutely. You can change as much cash as you want at kantors, although it would be wise to make special arrangements for any serious amounts of cash. You can even negotiate the rate online with some kantors - I did this just yesterday, and got 4.13 (when buying Euro) when the interbank rate was 4.12005. If it had been a serious amount of cash, they were willing to go down further.

Banks will not really negotiate on the rate unless you're transferring regular large amounts of cash (i.e., a minimum of 10k EUR on a regular basis).

Law / Polish Business Immigration and TRP/TRC [14]


No, you need 5 years of temporary residency plus 3 years of permanent residency.

It's more or less standardised across the EU, but one advantage of Poland is that residence permits can be granted on a very low level of income compared to Germany for instance.

Language / Polish word 'musisz' = need in English? What about 'potrzebujesz'? [11]

Is potrzebujesz ever used in the context of "you need to do this" as a command and not a question?

News / LGBT hate speech to be banned in Poland [208]


Already is. Not very familiar with Poland, are you?


Quite irrelevant. The Polish authorities have no problems prosecuting people for things they've written online regardless of the location of the server.


There's a difference between criticising and open hate speech.

News / Have PO (Platforma) operatives in Poland fallen into a panic? [332]


I don't think there's any rules on the official start of campaigning - the September start is based purely on when the two big parties will have agreed to start properly as it's after the summer holidays.

Kopacz and Szydło have been on the campaign trail for weeks now, as has Petru from NowoczesnaPL.


I think they can still recall the Sejm if they want, although I suspect that PO will be quite happy to let Duda make a fool out of himself in the first month or so without their help.

If he does veto anything, it's like manna from heaven for PO. They'll be able to portray PiS as "same old, same old" - and it will hurt them. Duda's best bet is to work with PO and not to do anything that might arouse any attention whatsoever.


Mix of both, as far as I know. I think one of the referendum questions is about abolishing state funding of parties?

News / Have PO (Platforma) operatives in Poland fallen into a panic? [332]


It's started already - I've seen quite a few PiS posters in/around Wrocław over the last few days.


The election is actually at a very unfortunate time for PiS - PO still have nearly 3 months to pass laws, yet PiS will have their President in power. Yet a single use of the veto between now and the October elections will result in a huge amount of negative press going the way of PiS.

Interestingly Polonius, from a quick scan of the news, it looks like people from both PO and PiS are discussing the possibility of a Grand Coalition after the election.

Life / How much money should I save to move to Poland? [17]


Yes, exactly. I'm fond of IKEA because I can change it frequently and easily. The thought of buying solid wood furniture (or worse, that bloody second hand Dutch furniture!) fills me with horror - it's bulky, it doesn't look nice and it screams of something that my grandma would buy.

Back to the topic please, this is not a discussion about IKEA

Law / Norwegian lad wishing to get a car driver's license in Poland but it's expensive [13]


Of course he can. A sworn translator can assist.


I don't want, they just have it available ;)

Apparently there are quite a lot of Spanish speakers turning up to justify it, particularly in faceless corpos...

News / Have PO (Platforma) operatives in Poland fallen into a panic? [332]


There's no chance of it reaching that. PO and PiS have ignored the JOW issue because they don't really care, and even the referendum on the new constitution failed because of that 50% barrier.


Even as a very anti-UKIP voter, you're absolutely right. It was criminal that UKIP (and the Greens) got a huge amount of votes and a couple of seats - while the SNP won almost all the seats in Scotland with less votes. The only advantage of JOW is that people like Kukiz can win seats in the Sejm based on winning in one area - he has no chance under the current system.

I wouldn't object to the German system, which seems to work well.