Work / Teaching at a Polish University - PHD required? or being a foreigner enough ;) [45]

I know a few foreigners who work in the university system. Some have got jobs recently. Most university departments will see good foreign qualifications gained within the EU or America as a definite plus. Also, if you're lecturing in e.g. South American studies and you're from South America then an obvious plus. Pay may not be great but enough to have a half decent life and you're probably not in it for the money anyway.

Life / Business customs in Poland - liquor gift, courtesy toward women [9]


Really disagree on this one. It would be a bit odd for a man to not hold open a door or offer to do so for a woman in a business context in most reasonable circumstances in Poland. A woman may of course shoo a man through first then it's OK to accept. It is NOT the same as in England where it really doesn't matter either way.

Language / A little Polish grammar. Masculine, animate objects. [64]

If you want to say a general - This is - To jest - is used for all genders. This is a nice place. This is my father. etc - To jest.

If you say it in a different more specific way e.g. This woman is my mother. Then you use gender specific articles and words. Ta kobieta jest moją matką.

Language / Perfective vs Imperfective - grammar [150]

OK my Polish grammar really isn't great however I feel there's a difference in meaning between the first 3 and number 4.

No. 4 for me is - Arriving home (closest translation) , Jan felt someone was there. i.e. someone was still in the house. Whereas the top 3 seem to be 'someone had been there.' So in Polish you can use the present tense 'jest' to mean the past in some when it's part of a clause.

Language / Perfective vs Imperfective - grammar [150]

OK but Będac - is a imieslow / particple - which must be used in the sentence to make it clear that the 'someone had been there'


So is it clear that 'ktos tam byl' means 'had been'? It seems to me this translates as - 'Being back (sic) home Jan felt somebody was there.'

Language / Perfective vs Imperfective - grammar [150]


Thanks for this. People always say Polish has easy tenses and only a couple but this isn't true. They have to use complex participle phrases to describe past events occurring before another past event The 2nd example is an example of a perfect participle in English really.


Anyone want to have a go at the above?

Life / Golden Wedding in Poland, the protocol for giving gift for a wedding? [58]

400pln is enough for an average middle income couple to give. 500pln would be generous. Anything above this would mean you're very closely related( A cousin once removed isn't that close) or you don't really care about money. Considering you're not even attending, anything would be generous.

Language / Perfective vs Imperfective - grammar [150]

How do you say - I guess it presents the same problem -

'Every day, on his course he learnt 10 new words.'

Or another one that shows the tense limitations perhaps -

When Jan arrived home he felt someone had been in the house. He touched the TV it was hot so someone had been watching TV. He opened the bedroom door and to his surprise the dog was running on the running machine. He turned it off and sat down to think.

How does past perfect translate into Polish? If you use just a perfect verb in the past in Polish how do you know the action happened before the past event being described rather than after.

Life / Green light -crossing over tram tracks [4]

Thanks adameczek


I note in the above you mention a right turn. Because I had 2 situations one - a crossing where I made a left turn and had green arrow and I had to give way to the tram and oncoming traffic of course.

Then another where I had a left turn but it wasn't a crossing only a left turn over the tracks and a green arrow - oncoming traffic seems to have a red light and I guess trams the same.

Also I've noticed where a car is stopped and has a green arrow to turn right but wants to go straight on. A car will come from the other lane and basically overtake the stationary car to make the right turn. Is this legal? It happens quite a lot.

History / Ordinary Polish people who collaborated with the Communist authorities? [28]

Bren is using the word collaborate. The evidence suggests less Poles collaborated with the SB as did East Germans with the Stasi. I think it is taboo with ordinary people but scandals are regularly splashed across the news about some famous politician who supposedly collaborated.

At its height in the 80s it's claimed there were 84000 informants. I'd agree it was a difficult time and it's easy to judge from today's perspective. However, many informants were in a privileged position when Poland entered the free market they had many contacts and often got rich. I think there could be a case for naming prominent politicians and businessmen as informants to give the public knowledge of how they possibly came to be in such a privileged position. Was it through hard work or collaboration?

This thread is about ordinary Polish people collaborating, not politicians/businessmen. Please keep to the topic.

Language / A little Polish grammar. Masculine, animate objects. [64]

Very basic rules plus examples in English - just expanding on Wlodzimierz's comments. You can check out the Polish equivalents for homework. :-)

Nominative (mianownik) - base form - usually the subject of the sentence is in this case.
Genitive (dopełniacz) - show's possession, or number - English that would correspond to Genitive - John's book, Sun's rays, 5 cars, few beers.

Dative (celownik) - indirect object - we have a remnant of this in the use of whom / him - I gave the book to him. (him would be the dative). Question - To whom did you give the book? - whom is the question form

Accusative (biernik) - direct object. Whom / him also equivalent in English. Whom did you see? I saw him
Instrumental (narzędnik) - with something - I write with a pen. I go by tram. / with a pen and by tram would use the instrumental case

Locative (miejscownik) - most common at / in . I am at the pub. I am in the house - at the pub and in the house uses Locative.

Vocative (wołacz) - commonly used when you're summoning someone. Agnieszka come here. - Agnieszka would be in the vocative.

Language / A little Polish grammar. Masculine, animate objects. [64]

Pretty hard to give you a rule as will vary depending on the case system used. This is where it all gets tricky.
If you want to know the plural in the nominative - en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Polish/Nominative_case
If you want 2 basic rules for the nominative that will mean you make a lot of errors but probably you can get away with it -

For living things
- i - for hard consonant ending words
- y for other

For non-living
- e

Beyond this you've got to look at the link I gave you as there are MANY different forms beyond these two. The last couple of letters change sometimes, -owie for title, jobs, family members etc. Polish is a language of many rules. I won't use the word exceptions as that suggests there are main rules..., which I don't think there are.

Travel / Ryanair travel by air - subtle scams to be wary of [98]

I have had no major problems flying by ryanair. They are cheap and the service also reflects this but I think they do a good job considering what you pay. if you don't like it fly BA or Lot. I know the rules they are clearly displayed. If you're not sure about the extras buy them separately. The www is not the nicest in the world but you have to simply engage your brain and concentrate. It's not hard. I remember when I had to travel to a travel agent's - it took at least an hour out of my day now it takes 10 minutes on a website at home anytime of the day. I also used to pay return flights wawa - London in the 90s £180 now 15 years later 1/3 of this. Not many things cost less. Fantastic!

Language / A little Polish grammar. Masculine, animate objects. [64]

We're taught these are exceptions but in fact there are rules or patterns based on the sounds of the words.

Feminine Gender and Declension
3 types
a. hard stems with Nsg.(nominative singular) in -a, as kobieta woman, noga leg.
b. functionally soft stems with Nsg. in -a or -(yn)i as ulica street, ziemia earth, gospodyni landlady.
c. functionally soft stems with Nsg. in -Ø, as kość bone, twarz face, noc - night.
Functionally soft stems include stems in potentially soft labials like krew krwi blood
The surface stem of nouns with Nsg. in -Ø is usually the same as the Nsg.: twarz face, stem twarz-, noc night, stem noc-. Since the NAsg. ending is -Ø, the NAsg. may contain a mobile vowel; a hardened labial consonant; the result of an o: ó or ę: ą shift; or some combination of these: krew blood, Gsg. krwi, stem krØw′-; sól salt, Gsg.(genitive singular) soli, stem sol-; głąb depth, Gsg. głębi, stem głęb′-; wesz louse, Gsg. wszy, stem wØsz-. The surface stem of nouns in -(yn)i ends in -yń-:

gospodyni, stem gospodyń-.

noc night (c-stem)
Sg. Pl. Sg. Pl.
N noc noce
G nocy nocy
D nocy nocom
A noc noce
I nocą nocami
L nocy nocach
V nocy noce

Travel / Poland traffic signs are confusing.. Do you agree? [30]

Good advice thanks. I'm living here so just need to accept it. I kind of understand the principle get the traffic moving but both as pedestrian and driver it's not ideal. I've been nearly hit as a pedestrian a number of times. I would have been if I hadn't been watching the car. As a driver also I've had to stop suddenly at a crossing to give way and then nearly been rear ended. So it's a bit stressful not only for foreign drivers; I've seen this happen often enough to locals.

Travel / Poland traffic signs are confusing.. Do you agree? [30]


It is confusing when you are turning right and need to cross multiple lanes of traffic sometimes giving way to them and have cars behind you on your tail and then suddenly come across a pedestrian crossing where you're not sure if they have green or not as there are no lights for you - through in some poor light as it's snowing or dusk and yhis is dangerous and confusing. It's stupid!

Also the faded yellow signs for stop are no good. They should be red. The give way on the right is sometimes ridiculous - sometimes there are no markings on the road where to stop and the road you're on is straight and decent but there's a random yellow sign saying give way to a small side road. Makes no sense

Life / Jack Strong ( Film about Colonel Ryszard Kuklinski ) [48]

There were a lot of regime people in seats of power in government, civil service, secret service, police, army well into the 90s. That's an indisputable fact. Don't think it would have been easy for him to come back and deal with these people to improve the country especially as his skills set was only in army affairs. Most Solidarnosc leaders went straight into politics as they already had populist support and their aim was to shake up the system.

Also, the Soviet army didn't leave until 93. It all comes down to your definition of 'country'. Many educated Poles don't see any problems with what he did. They saw the PRL govt as a puppet govt to the Soviet regime. Soviet soldiers stationed in many bases in the country was evidence of this coercion. In the end his actions had little ill effect on the Polish people, in fact only positive as they may have hastened the end of the PRL.

Life / Jack Strong ( Film about Colonel Ryszard Kuklinski ) [48]

Both his sons died there. Also, there were a lot of ex-commies still in power in the 90s. He needed guards when he came back to visit.

Real Estate / About to move to Warsaw. Any advice on where to live? [31]

Choosing where to live is very subjective. I've lived all over Srodmiescie, Stara Praga, Centrum, most parts of Mokotow. They're all OK but I want a decent park, a safe area, no winos, decent cafes / pubs, restaurants but not hectic, a stone's throw from Centrum and under 20pln taxi ride. So the area around Pole Mokotowskie trumps it. As an expat there's no point living any further out as amenities dwindle and the sea of apartment blocks grows.


Defining something as overrated is disagreeing with other people's rating of it. Quite a lot of people like living there so the houses increase in value and prices are high so these people rate it above other places in Warsaw. So you disagree with a lot of people.

Real Estate / About to move to Warsaw. Any advice on where to live? [31]


Muranow and Mirow - both urban and going through different stages of regeneration. Muranow maybe - some nice parts, small parks but for me not a nice neighbourhood feel. If you want to be closer to the action OK. A few new developments around- just make sure you find the right corner. Mirow - would not recommend at all. Dead at night and still down at heel. Being regenerated but wouldn't touch it for a good few years.

Depends really on what you want and what you're used to. You won't find Mokotow overpriced if you're used to living in Paris and the U.S. I think Stary Mokotow is good value for money. Safe, quiet, nice shops and cafes.

Real Estate / About to move to Warsaw. Any advice on where to live? [31]

Stary Mokotow is nice - especially the area around Pole Mokotowskie. It's near to town and the action but lots of green areas if you want to relax. There are some new developments like Eko Park that are nice. If you like old buildings there are plenty that are being renovated and period properties can be nice and have more character than new developments. I'd only recommend moving into a period property if the whole building has been renovated as your neighbours could be drunkards on a lifelong lease given under communism. Other areas could be around aleja Ujazdowskie - it's quiet and near to a large park. You could live right in town e.g. around Plac Zbawicela and you'll have plenty of places to eat and visit. But it's noisy and the urban and still under regeneration. I wouldn't recommend going into the soulless suburban areas like Ursynow or Wilanow. Ochota isn't that bad. It's mixed and areas are quite OK. Not as nice as Mokotow.