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Posts by teflcat  

Joined: 29 May 2011 / Male ♂ 		Last Post: 21 Sep 2012
Threads: Total: 5 / In This Archive: 4
Posts: Total: 1024 / In This Archive: 811

Displayed posts: 815 / page 19 of 28
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teflcat   
3 Oct 2011
Life / Expats/Immigrants in Poland: Needy, Greedy or contributor. Which one are you? [118]

I'm currently working with a large charity/foundation in regards to helping them with a new model on raising money based on an existing UK model

I once tried to have a serious talk with a serious local guy who devotes a lot of his time to charity. I tried to explain the concept of sponsored swim/walk/run, etc, a way of raising cash which is old, tried and tested all around the world. Not, it seems, in Poland. I was trying to help but this guy just looked at me as if I'd just landed from another world. I suppose I had.

Re: thread. The first and the third. I left greed behind to come here.
teflcat   
3 Oct 2011
Life / How much money did you spend today in Poland and what did you spend it on? [33]

As an American, I always chuckle when I hear/read that. You know what I mean. A few years ago a British friend of mine asked me if he could pinch a fag. After a moment he smiled and said he guessed that was the wrong thing to say to a Yank. I just laughed and gave him a cigarette.

Reminds me of the time, as a British student, I asked an American exchange student if I could borrow his rubber (eraser). He looked a little shocked, so I promised to return it after I'd used it.
teflcat   
2 Oct 2011
News / Poland Parliament elections in October 2011 [944]

LOWERING of wages in public sector (think teachers))

I'm not sure it's possible to lower teachers' wages. As a university teacher I earn less than a shelf stacker in Biedronka. I'm not joking. Really, I'm not joking. Luckily I have a few other jobs that keep the wolf from the door.
teflcat   
2 Oct 2011
News / Poland Parliament elections in October 2011 [944]

Get this circus over with

Couldn't agree more. Let's be thankful we don't live in the U.S.
In the last parliamentary election there was a billboard the size of a freight train with the image of a PiS candidate who was clearly, going by the picture, in the terminal stages of chronic alcoholism. I had to walk or drive past this horrible thing for months. Now, the same poor bastard has his board up in the same place, but I must admit it looks better. Hurrah for photoshop.
teflcat   
30 Sep 2011
History / Did British public protest against the sell out of Poland to the Soviets? [286]

At the time of the Yalta conference Britain was exhausted, bankrupt, many of her cities were destroyed, and there was - truth to tell - little fight left in her. What more could be done for Poland, apart from diplomatic entreaties to Stalin at the highest level, it is hard to imagine. The British and Americans needed Stalin's help in finishing the war in the Pacific, it is true, but to argue that this is why they 'sold' Poland is simplistic in the extreme.

One element in all this which is often overlooked is the fact that there were thousands of allied prisoners of war in Poland (and perhaps hundreds of thousands in areas of Germany than the Russians were about to overcome) who were being used as bargaining chips, not to say hostages, by Stalin. He had a clause inserted in the Yalta agreement that gave the Russians the right to repatriate POW by means of their choosing, which, as it turned out, meant via Odessa, thereby prolonging their suffering and gaining time to further put the pressure on Roosevelt and Churchill. Fast exit by allied planes was denied. What could have been the reason except that Stalin's hostages could then be used in order to turn the screw? The plight of these men was not a minor concern to either the US nor the UK, and this factor, just one of many others, should be taken into consideration by those who wish to make this affair a simple one.
teflcat   
27 Sep 2011
Work / Looking for accommodation & teaching job in KATOWICE [78]

I once had a class of ten-year-olds in St. Petersburg. At any given moment one of them was liable to burst into tears, fall asleep, urinate or attack another child. I'm sure this behaviour is not unique to Russian children, and that is why it was both my first and my last children's class.
teflcat   
27 Sep 2011
Food / Is chocolate popular in Poland? [52]

The taste in PL seems to be for bars of filled chocolate. This sort of thing:

Very popular, but the best of the best, for me, is something from the Solidarność chocolate people (go on, get your own back pp). Chocolate-covered plums. You can get them in very attractive presentation tins, and shops sell them loose for about 23zł/kilo. They are fabulous. There are imitators who market inferior products, so beware. Accept nothing but Solidarność chocolate plums.
teflcat   
27 Sep 2011
Love / Foreigners: would you have moved to Poland if it was full of fat/ugly women? [42]

I've met more than a few who were just here for the money, I even know some who still come for the money (although admittedly now the cushy expat packages are generally a thing of the past, much of that money is the money that they will be earning after being promoted when they return home and are promoted).

No doubt. That's why I'm content to be a hayseed in the countryside. I had enough of braying red-braces types in the UK to last a lifetime.
teflcat   
27 Sep 2011
Work / Looking for accommodation & teaching job in KATOWICE [78]

I imagine there is a ban on meeting students of the school outside of school.

Don't tell me you're serious. I've never heard of such a thing (ok, maybe if your students are 12-year-olds). What right has a school to tell teachers who they can and can't socialize with?
teflcat   
27 Sep 2011
Work / Looking for accommodation & teaching job in KATOWICE [78]

I pity my students from those days, and so should you if you are honest.

I learned a lot on the job, it's true, but I came to the job with a thorough grounding in English (degree level plus CELTA). At first every lesson was a trial as I learned the ropes, but I think students got something from my classes even then.
teflcat   
27 Sep 2011
Food / What's your favorite Polish beer? [870]

Oh, I dunno. If you are the type that likes getting up in the night to rehydrate, and then suffer a blinding hangover in the morning, it's just the ticket.

Warka Strong is not for drinking all evening. Three made me thick-headed and wanting to go home. I'm sure it would be very good for cooking, though. Beef in beer perhaps.
teflcat   
27 Sep 2011
Work / Looking for accommodation & teaching job in KATOWICE [78]

It's OK Jack, they are like the old men in the gallery in the Muppet Show, jealous of your youth and optimism, especially the English teachers among them.

That's a little unfair, to say the least. Several posters above, including me, are English teachers in Poland. Most, if not all of us, have studied hard and gained years of experience in teaching. When we hear about people with no qualifications or the desire to gain them enter the market we feel that the status of our profession may be undermined.

It is a certainty that Jack will have several students whose command of English is better than his. How is he going to be of any help to them?

Imagine this were about any other job. Accountancy, say. I arrive without qualifications announcing my intention to start work as an accountant. I am functionally innumerate, but what the hell. I have no intention whatsoever of improving my education, and if other accountants don't like it, I'll offer to meet them and "discuss it further".
teflcat   
27 Sep 2011
Food / What's your favorite Polish beer? [870]

Tatra

$5.00 per can

becksi. That's far too much to pay for this beer. It costs under 3zł in Poland. Even with importing expenses your supplier is overcharging.