PolishForums LIVE  /  Archives [3]    
   
Posts by dr_rabbit  

Joined: 8 Aug 2009 / Male ♂ 		Last Post: 30 Sep 2016
Threads: Total: 5 / In This Archive: 5
Posts: Total: 90 / In This Archive: 83
Speaks Polish?: Niezbyt dobrze

Displayed posts: 88 / page 2 of 3
sort: Latest first   Oldest first   |
dr_rabbit   
1 Sep 2011
Polonia / Inquiry about invitation letter to Poland (I'm from the Philippines) [12]

@dr_rabbit, actually hes a nice person so far, he need that for the invitation letter since my personal details is there. Im just hoping and praying for positive feedback.

All the best. 20 days isn't a terribly long time. Just be careful and keep yourself safe. You might want to contact the Philippines Embassy in Warsaw to ask them what life is like for Filipinas living in Poland. It looks like they have a close-knit community there. philembassy.pl

If everything does get sorted out, I'd recommend you register yourself as a Filipina moving to Poland with the embassy. Also, even if you sort everything out with your friend, it would be good to have a plan B. There's always the old saying to think about: "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is".
dr_rabbit   
30 Aug 2011
Polonia / Inquiry about invitation letter to Poland (I'm from the Philippines) [12]

i already email a scanned copy of my Passport

What did he need that for? People can use your passport to steal your identity. If you don't actually know him very well (only met him over the internet), you might have to do more than find a new friend: you might have to cancel your passport and inform officials so that someone doesn't conduct criminal activities in your name. I don't mean to be alarmist but if your "friend" really has disappeared you will need to take all these things very seriously. All the best.
dr_rabbit   
30 Aug 2011
History / Has Poland ever participated in any big wars (except WW2)? [73]

Sokrates

You made no point apart from being anti-Polish and trolling.

You are right Sokrates, you are the master of the universe. Just tell, oh great one, where I need to go for my reeducation training.
dr_rabbit   
29 Aug 2011
History / Has Poland ever participated in any big wars (except WW2)? [73]

The way you painted them yes, it does make you anti-Polish.

All you do is prove my point that they are interesting points in History and worth discussing. I didn't paint anything anyway, but, you know, I'd love to have an endless pissing contest with you on the internet.

Tell me what’s the difference between doing Warsaw Pacts’ bidding and NATOs’

You raise an interesting point. I guess because Polish forces came directly by land from Poland, it gave a stronger impression of Polish involvement. And then, of course, is the commonly used name of the alliance, which also suggests a much stronger Polish involvement. I think the interesting things are how these actions are perceived more than anyone else. However you are right that the Polish involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq is also controversial: however, impartial historians will place much less emphasis on Poland's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan than they will on the 20th century military history of Central Europe.
dr_rabbit   
29 Aug 2011
History / Has Poland ever participated in any big wars (except WW2)? [73]

Sokrates

I'm sorry you're an anti-polish troll

If you say so. You should tell my mother-in-law that!

who entered here with a bunch of biased remarks and tried to derail the thread

Haha, I entered here with a bunch of remarks about 20th century Polish military history and you proceeded to derail the thread with your breathless accusations of my trollery. I do find the glorious military successes of Mieszko I and Jan Sobieski interesting, but failing to mention them because I chose to discuss a couple of episodes in 20th century history does not make me anti-Polish.
dr_rabbit   
29 Aug 2011
Work / Graduate Certificate in TESOL - respected by potential employers in Poland? [17]

[b]delphiandomine[/]

non-teaching jobs without fluent Polish, so forget about that idea - unless you possess something that is highly in demand in Poland.

Yeah, I'm not under any illusion about that. There's one way to learn languages: the hard way :) I'm on track now, but I'll need a couple more years at least to get fluent enough for employment. I'll be sure to present my naive ideas before your brutal altar again before we make the move ;)
dr_rabbit   
29 Aug 2011
Work / Graduate Certificate in TESOL - respected by potential employers in Poland? [17]

OK thanks for your responses everyone. It seems that there are no two ways about it: I'd better come to Warsaw and do a CELTA. Seeing as its at least a year before I come, I'll come back for more advice when I know I'm coming - who knows, by then all you guys might have all the work sewn up and I'll have no chance without a PhD ;)

Edit

PWEI: "A non-CELTA course doesn't always count for nothing but it very simply puts you immediately at a disadvantage to candidates who do have the CELTA: a prospective employer has to decide whether they want to either research the course you did so as to check whether it is any good"

Its good to hear not everyone thinks it counts for nothing - If they did want to bother to research the course, it would take them about 15 seconds to find the course description page that I posted, as the University's website is pretty well optimised for google searches :) Nonetheless, I think the others have given me good advice - I'm very likely to be better off using the three months here earning some decent coin if I'll be lucky to have it respected as much as a CELTA from a school in Warsaw.
dr_rabbit   
29 Aug 2011
Work / Graduate Certificate in TESOL - respected by potential employers in Poland? [17]

delphiandomine

The usual reaction of most employers is to put it in the bin - it's CELTA or bust here. Truth be it, the CELTA has evolved into being a basic qualification - and while employers will consider an MA to be equal, your course simply won't cut it - even if it's just as good (in fact, it's likely to be better).

That's a shame: I guess that is a unique attitude to Poland? By the way, are you saying that from the perspective of an 'experienced' applicant or as an employer? I appreciate your comments but I do find it quite hard to believe that it would count for nothing. I'm reasonably confident of my ability to make a good impression in other aspects of applications.

nicnierozumiem

so true, maybe do an M.A. that has a certificate or diploma as part of it, that cuts the cheese.
But if you want to move faster then the 4 or 5 week RSA/Camb/Trinity thing is the most widely accepted. As DD suggested, maybe do it in Poland, as that puts you right on the spot for job hunting afterwards, and you will get an idea of the job market etc while you are studying.

At this stage, I really only want to be in Poland as a working holiday (if I'm going to be teaching English), likely for a maximum of 2 years, so doing a Masters would be over the top. I guess spending 5 weeks of my life doing CELTA in Warsaw as opposed to 3 months of this other course is a reasonable proposition. It certainly would cost me less money that way. My real desire is to be able to 'hit the ground running' in Warsaw, that's all. I'm also wondering, if I had to study in Poland, I might prefer to study Polish so I could maybe apply for non-teaching jobs.
dr_rabbit   
29 Aug 2011
History / Has Poland ever participated in any big wars (except WW2)? [73]

pawian

It is not a problem for me to discuss Polish hideous actions like 1938 or 1968.

I thought it is just stupid to provide them as examples of major wars and Sokrates agrees with me on that.

Except I provided them as examples of minor conflicts, because I thought the scope of his topic "major wars involving Poland" was unmanageably broad and I thought he might get more out of doing a narrower topic. I don't think there is any rule here saying "someone who is interested in talking about a sub-topic of something is a troll".
dr_rabbit   
29 Aug 2011
History / Has Poland ever participated in any big wars (except WW2)? [73]

I never said or intended to imply that :)

I didn't even intend to make a comment on responsibility or right-and-wrong. I just think its historically interesting! I'm happy to admit to not knowing the politically-neutral historical descriptor. Sokrates is astoundingly quick to call me a troll, a prick, and anti-Polish. He's welcome to withdraw those comments - no hard feelings.
dr_rabbit   
29 Aug 2011
History / Has Poland ever participated in any big wars (except WW2)? [73]

isthatu2

But that was an epic fail, no one I know has ever heard of it,and Im a WW2 nerd on a dozen different forums :)

I wasn't aware that everyone has to know about something before it can be a valid topic for discussion on a forum! :)
dr_rabbit   
29 Aug 2011
History / Has Poland ever participated in any big wars (except WW2)? [73]

Czech and Polish relations were around a regional border conflict

It shows no such thing. You are offended by me using a common albiet potentially impartial title of a small conflict: I'd suggest you stop your adhominem attacks and tell me what you think that conflict should be known as. The OP asked if Poland had been involved in big wars: everyone knows that it has, and posted good examples for him. Further to this, I was suggesting a couple of more modern topics if he wanted to narrow his scope to be more in line with the scale of his research project.

I like twentieth-century history: the fact that it was incredibly unkind to Poland, and that small actions such as events in Zaolzie in 1938 were used against Poland on an international level by Goebbels' propaganda machine is very interesting. The extent of Poland's involvement in the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia is another interesting topic, because the liberalisations in Czechoslovakia could have spread to Poland and improved things for Polish people much earlier than they eventually did. It reveals a lot about the level of pressure Soviet political and military leaders could exert over Poland at that time.

Another example: the 1951 Polish-Soviet territory exchange isn't well covered in the history books I have, for example. The fact that the Soviets essentially stole 480km2 of nice towns, fertile soil, and rich coal deposits in exchange for an equal area consisting of some unproductive farmland is an interesting historical research topic which reveals a lot about the level of control Stalin exercised over Poland at that point.
dr_rabbit   
28 Aug 2011
History / Has Poland ever participated in any big wars (except WW2)? [73]

pawian

Nope. The OP was OK. It is Dr Rabbit who took an attempt at silly trolling.

Sokrates

One can't shake the feeling that your suggestions were a not so subtle go at Poland in a very negative way.

Well you both have pretty thin skin then: Polish relations with Czechoslovakia in the 20th century are a topic that is focussed enough to write a historical account of for the purposes described by the OP. The two historical topics that I mentioned are very interesting from the perspective of military and political history - I had no intention of describing them in "biased" terms. It's true they reflected badly on Poland: I'm not afraid of discussing that.
dr_rabbit   
28 Aug 2011
Work / Graduate Certificate in TESOL - respected by potential employers in Poland? [17]

PWEI
Thanks for replying: I get it that a CELTA is the usual standard for teachers in Poland, and that there are a million TEFL certificates somone paid 5zl for on the internet.

However I am also thinking about what will be useful in other countries: the CELTA school in my city seems to be a tiny private training place with no international reputation other than its CELTA accreditation, whereas the University has international credibility, especially in Anglophone countries, even though the GCertTESOL is not an "international" qualification.

Also, I can get the cost of the GCertTESOL refunded whereas the CELTA would cost me the equivalent of 7200PLN in my city.

Has anyone managed to get a good teaching job in Poland with a non-standard University-taught ESL qualification? Anyone employed someone with one?
dr_rabbit   
28 Aug 2011
Work / Graduate Certificate in TESOL - respected by potential employers in Poland? [17]

Hi Everyone,

I'm considering coming to live and work in Warsaw with my Polish wife, but if so it won't be for at least 18 months. The University in the city where I currently live and work (Wellington, NZ) offers a [victoria.ac.nz/lals/study/postgraduate/graduate-certificate-tesol.aspx] - Graduate Certificate in TESOL. I am wondering whether this would be respected by potential employers in Poland. Its a 12-week course with 10-15 hours of face-to-face classes per week, and includes teaching practice and assessment. From what I can tell, it is taught by highly qualified and experienced university lecturers and ESL teachers.

I don't think it is accredited to any international programme. However in general, from what I understand, qualifications from Victoria University are well respected by employers in USA, Canada, UK etc: would the same hold to a certain extent in Poland? The training institutions offering CELTA here look less desirable to me, and I'm keen to get qualified before I come to Poland.

To be completely honest, I'm wondering whether or not I do want to do English teaching. However I have had a year's experience as a tutor at university (this was taking classes of undergrad Art History students), and I have given quite a few one-on-one and group music lessons in past so I reckon these might help me with the confidence aspect of giving English lessons even if it counts for little to my potential employers. I also have a BA(Honours) in English Literature and Art History.

Thoughts on the suitability of this qualification and my general prospects in Warsaw teaching English - which might just be for a couple of years - would be greatly appreciated.
dr_rabbit   
27 Aug 2011
History / Has Poland ever participated in any big wars (except WW2)? [73]

Don`t forget the 1919 War for Cieszyn Silesia, when the Czechs attacked southern Poland. :):):) To most people`s surprise, they won! :):):):):)

Haha, subtle differences in the description of military conflicts can really cause some controversy. Regardless of the history, its not disputed that the Zaolzie military action was used as propaganda to an ultimately very large detriment to Polish interests, which is why I suggested it to the OP.
dr_rabbit   
27 Aug 2011
History / Has Poland ever participated in any big wars (except WW2)? [73]

Choosing wars of poland as a project is like doing a project on "global companies of the USA". Any student project on the topic would be so broad as to be meaningless. If you are really doing this for a university course you should do something like the 1938 Polish annexation of "Zaolzie" or the Polish involvement in the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, where the topic is sufficiently narrow to be meaningly covered in a project.

But perhaps you could clarify: are you an 8 year old kid or an 18 year old freshman?
dr_rabbit   
27 Aug 2011
Work / What kind of job can I find, can I make descent money in Poland? Coming from Canada. [33]

Indeed, his behaviour also strikes me as odd and You sir might very well be right on the money.

Yeah, obviously everything in his post is LIES. He doesn't live with his Polish grandparents, he doesn't have a Polish uncle, and he's never been to Canada. Obviously he's trying to redocument himself because he's half Persian (what does PERSIAN mean?)

Eurasian: I would suggest that you ignore the sorts of people who are immediately frothing at the mouth with suspicion because you mention Persian heritage. I'm not that much older than you, but I made a decision not stay in Poland (although I never lived there I spend months there) and return to New Zealand to be an adult and get a masters and pursue my career. The choice I made is going well for me, but I think about what might have been as well. I really did want to learn Polish, I really did want to get all around central europe, I really did want to experience Polish culture from the core. I have no Poland-specific practical advice for you, but it sounds like you have a firm base in Poland already: if you're living with your grandparents, 1500zl per month should be enough for you to have plenty of fun? No doubt you will be able to fit in Polish language study without changing your job, but if you do want to be a bar tender in the first instance you should just apply for jobs and see if you get them. Marginally useful bar courses are offered the world over.

If you want to fall in love and be a family man and have kids, then go back to Canada and study something and start on the 8-6 treadmill. If you just want to be a young guy enjoying his life, stay in Poland a bit longer!
dr_rabbit   
26 Aug 2011
Law / How long is the waiting period after applying for Polish citizenship via marriage? [29]

Poland really needs to start looking into the whole fake-marriage thing more intensly

Well I really hope they just don't make everything more difficult for everyone. Smart immigration reform can happen and incentivise desired immigration while screening fraud more accurately, but frequently its incredibly blunt and has disincentivises the good as well as the bad immigration.
dr_rabbit   
26 Aug 2011
Law / How long is the waiting period after applying for Polish citizenship via marriage? [29]

I'm fine with Poland making citizenship difficult, but getting any sort of work visa through marriage (which would allow Polish people to bring their foreign non-EU spouses back to Poland, and, you know, build a life there and make a contribution) seems to be a massive ordeal. I think it is self-defeating for Poland that I am very easily able to get essentially unrestricted open-ended work visas anywhere in the EU with little or no expense based on our relationship, but Poland's process for getting a similar permit is so difficult. At a minimum I think they should really have some sort of 2 year visa which can be granted easily, which can roll over for the genuine candidates.

Perhaps someone will be able to explain the options - I've talked to the consul here and he suggested the easiest thing for me to do would be to get a working holiday visa because that way they can sort it out here and it doesn't have to go to Poland and get processed through the Wojewodztwo! Seems crazy to me. By the time we want to go to Poland, we will have been married at least 2 years. I'm a NZ citizen.
dr_rabbit   
18 Aug 2011
Australia / Australian Spouse Visa For The Polish [13]

From the website

Phone enquiries:

For all telephone enquiries about visa and immigration in English and Polish, please contact the Europe Service Centre in London. The Centre provides information, advice and application forms for Australian visas and citizenship. You can contact the Centre on +48 22 30 03 924, repeat 48 22 30 03 924, between 9am and 4pm London time Monday - Friday.

Telephone number: +48 22 30 03 924 (local call costs apply)

If you have specific enquiries about the Australian visas, please refer to: immi.gov.au/contacts/forms/europe/

--- ---

Call the London line and ask them mate. It may be that you lodge it with Berlin but they will be able to tell you.
dr_rabbit   
18 Aug 2011
Australia / Australian Spouse Visa For The Polish [13]

It says lodge in London here: australia.pl/wsaw/Visas_and_Migration.html

I've looked into visas to Australia for my Polish wife (as a NZ citizen its similar to being an aus resident). Its reasonably expensive but straightforward as far as I remember, though obviously I didn't do it.
dr_rabbit   
17 Aug 2011
Life / Cost of raising a child in Poland [21]

How much a month a baby should cost average stuff like food, jars etc... clothes , medications, not including child care.

Why do you care? You're living the dream in the UK aren't you?
dr_rabbit   
17 Aug 2011
Love / Don't want others to join us at a table - is it normal for Polish girls to get angry? [161]

I sat with a screwed up face after a while and told her I was getting jealous while he was away from us. she told me not to worry, he is just friend and shes out with me. basically I ****** up in my reaction but the other two are not without blame.

Sorry man, you stuffed up. I've been reading your story with interest, but basically, if you had brought it up with her and she had reassured you, you should have been happy with that and said "OK but I really want to spend some time just with you tonight" and then 10 minutes later made a firm suggestion to her, in front of him, to leave with just her. If you did that and she didn't come, that would have been when you would have been right to get upset.

Its seems like after bowling she just wasn't in that much of a romantic mood and wanted to hang out at a pub so you could get to know one of her mates. I know that jealousy sometimes turns us into A@@h@@@s, but we need to know when to suppress that instinct. On second date, you have no right to "control" the situation.
dr_rabbit   
17 Aug 2011
Law / How do you get your Polish passport if you live in Poland? [17]

the last four border crossings I've made have all been monitored by police who were pulling in cars at random.

Just re-read your post: true, we still could get stopped at a random check. However seeing as the process takes so long, its practically possible to get it before we go next. However we will definitely get it pretty much ASAP because an EU passport is a good thing to have!
dr_rabbit   
16 Aug 2011
Law / How do you get your Polish passport if you live in Poland? [17]

Save yourself the hassle and travel into Poland on a Polish document.

I appreciate your concern, but considering the process that is going to be involved in getting the Polish passport (looks like over a year), its not possible for us to wait that long to visit Poland. I think it would be a much larger violation of the long-standing arrangements for free travel of citizens between NZ and Germany for them to concern themselves with enforcing nonsensical Polish laws that have no international relevance by harassing a NZ citizen and NZ resident travelling with their NZ citizen baby on a NZ passport. I do appreciate that the Polish officials must be treated with caution however.

Pip - it seems that you're right. However we might do some of the steps while in Poland - registering vital documents, perhaps. We're certainly not going to get around to doing all that before we go there next time.