Work / Polish qualifications, what are they worth ? [137]


Might be changing now thanks to the Bologna system...

Work / Do Polish employers regularly fire pregnant workers? [4]

Thanks but my wife has friends who were fired soon after taking maternity leave. She also used to work in an HR department where the management team would pressure her into doing the same.

It sounds like the usual thing - you shouldn't get fired but everyone ignores the regulations...

Work / Is it normal for companies/schools in Poland to be rude? [116]


As Pantsless says, not worth spending time on. I can inderstand what you've written here from the context and remember that many natives also say fink fought and free.

The big problem with schools in my opinion is the huge burdern they carry from the public sector - the chaos, the apathy and the lack of concrete results.


Spot on. This should be part of a CELTA course, but then again anyone not in denial learns it in their first year. Is this also typical of the rest of Poland?

UK, Ireland / Brits to protest against foreigners in the workforce, including Poles. [289]


Thanks for taking the time to write, whatnext. Sorry to hear about your situation and I hope it improves soon - these things go in cycles after all and things can only get better as the song goes. Many folks in your position would be beating on the Poles by this stage (metaphorically) and it's good to see you have a view of the bigger picture.

The way I see it, it's an issue for the factory owners and other big fishes in the UK; They want migrant labour because it's cheap and disposable, two trends that have been running hot since herr (frau?) Thatcher's term back in the 80s. This screws the British worker, screws the Polish worker (working at minimum wage for 3 years in a factory in Walsall when you have a degree?) and ultimately screws the rest of the local community.


I totally agree. I would add legislation to force employers to offer the same conditions to Brits and foreign labour (if it could be done) but the government will never agree to this when there's so much cheap fresh foreign blood to be poured into the machine. The only way is to wait it out to when Poland's economy starts attracting the workers back, and it will soon - not everyone wants to work abroad.

Best of luck to you and your husband

Work / International House - Kracow school - any chances of being offered a job there [59]


It's a sad fact that the English teaching market in Poland is driven by price not quality. School owners want bright and bouncy 21 year olds straight off a degree, ideally with a CELTA, who are going to entertain the customers and not have an opinion on teaching. They'll complain that 'natives are unreliable' when these 21 year olds stay in the pub till 2 in the morning on a weekday but it's a fair trade at the end of the day because they won't start demanding better standards like a more experienced teacher would (eg Being paid. On time. As agreed)


Very tempting. Do that for two years and save up - you could move back to Poland and take the next 5 years off....


Who was teaching you? Magda and Basia?

Work / International House - Kracow school - any chances of being offered a job there [59]


It'll give you a lot of tricks to help you through your first few weeks in your first job but it won't really help you deal with the management or the biz in general. Remember that teachers are the ******* of education - everyone beats on them: management, students and even other teachers.

Still Krakow is a beautiful city and a perfect place to study for a month or so. Things might have changed over th last few years but the staff used to be some of the best I've met. Worth considering if you've set your heart on a CELTA.


You had a dishwasher? And a washing machine?

Work / I'm interested in teaching in Poland and I need some help. [33]


It sounds like PASE has changed a lot from when they did the inspection on my old school - it was joked that all that was required was to take the inspectors out for a meal and give them a nice hotel room. They missed the lack of work visas, the poorly coordinated programmes of study and the irregularities with teachers' contracts.


So true


Thanks! Help yourself to a coffee it's over there by the station

Study / Is Poland a good place to study for Black Africans? [90]


True, but to be fair Poles will stare at anyone they think is the slightest bit different to themselves - nationality, social class, other side of town, richer etc...

Work / I'm interested in teaching in Poland and I need some help. [33]


This is the kind of guy you're competing with to get a place in a language school. Don't worry you'll be ok.

There's a big list of contact details for private schools here: ang.pl/szkoly_jezykowe.php

Otherwise, sticking to the bigger chains will usually guarantee more professionalism. Bell and IH always pay on time and they at least make an attempt at teacher training and care.

History / Why will Poland always be the puppet of America? [159]


I find that hard to believe, as anyone who can appreciate a gang of clowns throwing pies at each other can appreciate Polish politics

Food / What's your favorite Polish beer? [870]


Maybe so - a lot of the Polish breweries have been taken over by the big multinationals and they look to cut costs. It might even be that their own beers are just pumped out in Poland but under a Polish brand - Zywiec is basically Heineken these days...

Study / American Muslim girl thinking to go to Medical school in Poland... [87]


Congratulations! Keep in touch - it's good to know a doctor or two.

Study / American Muslim girl thinking to go to Medical school in Poland... [87]


Be prepared for a lot of staring and giggling from people in the street. They do it to everyone though because most of them have lived a very limited life. Violent / aggressive incidents are very rare or unheard of but you might well get unfriendly behaviour in offices from time to time. Then again, that's the same for everyone...

History / Poles in the Napoleonic era [224]


What was bad about Napoleon anyway? If he had unified Europe, there wouldn't have been any world wars

Study / American Muslim girl thinking to go to Medical school in Poland... [87]


Not really. A number of Americans study at Lodz medical school. I guess it's cheaper than the states.

Study / American Muslim girl thinking to go to Medical school in Poland... [87]


Shame. The problem is these little idiots always do this kind of thing when they know they can get away with it. A female colleague got her crotch grabbed by some Polish while she was walking past the school we were working. Of course the pervert ran off as soon as he could.

.. and you can whistle if you think you'll get any help from passers by...

Study / American Muslim girl thinking to go to Medical school in Poland... [87]


What did you do?

UK, Ireland / English teenager refused service at Polish shop [87]


Wait until you have to go to a town hall or other civic office and ask them do to something for you. Oh, you just wait.

Life / What can citizens do to make Poland a better place to live? [125]


Well, in Poland maybe. They've long been loathed in Greece and Spain as beery troublemakers. Possibly up until now most English coming to Poland were expat children or middle class academic types hoping to learn the language or break new ground in 'Eastern Europe'. Cheap travel really brought the worst side of the UK to Poland.

Language / Is rosetta stone any good for learning Polish? [51]

Just out of interest, how much would a Pole in the UK charge per hour for Polish lessons? You could buy a coursebook and work through it together - most younger Polish emigrees will have had language lessons at some point and they'd have an idea what the score is.

If it's only 10 pounds an hour, for the cost of Rosetta stone you could get 14 hours of lessons with a native speaker...

Life / What can citizens do to make Poland a better place to live? [125]

If you use public transport :

- Take a bath or a shower every day
- Wash your clothes - if you can afford a packet of cigarettes, you can afford washing powder
- Wait until people get off before you push your way on
- Don't bring your pram on the tram at rush hour
- Don't stand with your head in front of the ticket canceller thing
- Don't sit with your legs open at a 45 degree angle

Basically, try to treat your fellow passengers with a little consideration.


My neighbours dump all sorts of trash in the segregation bins. Complete waste of time trying to educate these people.

News / Poland Should Beef Up Military [286]


So your point here is that the Army saved Poland? No, Celinski, as you say, the army was massacred and Poland was occupied. Poland's liberation came not at the hands of the military but decades later at the hands of the free market and the hands of the common people.


Why should I do that? The military watched the borders. The military provided backup when the police couldn't do their job. The military effectively ran the country during martial law.

Armies enforce the will of whoever's in power - they don't save people.

News / Poland Should Beef Up Military [286]


??????


I hate to break this to you Lotnik, but Poland's army hasn't done squat for Poland for the last century. they got their arese handed to them on a plate by the Russians. the Germans and the Austrians. During Communism, the armed forces enabled the government to enforce their control over the people.

No, what got rid of communism and ensured Polish independence was not the glorious armed forces. It wasn't even Pope John Paul. It was the market forces sounding last orders for the Soviet empire and the dogged will of the people who stood up for themselves and unionised against the government. History will show that a few thousand priests and Solidarity members did far more for Poland than all the hundreds of thousands of servicemen who died to keep rich men happy.

But that doesn't make good cinema does it?

News / Poland Should Beef Up Military [286]


No, common knowledge actually. Even tribesmen in the Amazon rainforest know about Poland's track record. I suggest you do a project on it when you get to high school LOL

News / Poland Should Beef Up Military [286]


I hate to tell you this but getting your arse handed to you on a plate over and over again doesn't qualify you as being a warrior nation.

Language / Word order and swearing in Polish [44]


Well now you mention it, it could also be emphasis ie "What are you doing"? Rather than someone else"

Work / Would previous experience be necessary to teach english in poznan [22]


It could be. Let's see what's on the net

eslbase.com/courses/poland/

I see it costs about 800 pounds to do your CELTA at IH Krakow. Nice city and you'd be able to work on your Polish while you're over there. I don't gno if that covers acommodation but it shouldn't be that bad if you share with someone else for the month. Food's cheap

Unfortunately there are no links for Poznan courses from the page but maybe try IH Poznan?

Yeah sorry - when I said 'try before you buy' I meant you can get a feel for the job and the lifestyle before you enter fully into the white slave trade. You'll be able to get some pointers on what to look for and what to be careful of when signing up with a school. That kind of stuff!


And working as a teacher in Poland is probably not the best way to go about this...


Please...... don't. These courses are pretty much worthless from what I've heard. Some only allow you to teach the other course candidates in make believe lessons. NOTHING can prepare you for the terror of your first couple of weeks in the job better than getting your arm right up the didactic u-bend on a proper course full of real, clueless students. Don't touch the internet. you're throwing money away if you do.

Work / Would previous experience be necessary to teach english in poznan [22]


Why not look for a TEFL course in Poland over Summer? that way you get to 'try before you buy'. Some of them are pretty good.

Otherwise, you may well find that teaching qualifications are not that necessary to get a basic job in a private school or even to find private lessons to tide you over - You can probably scoop up 2000 zloty a month on cash in hand privates and yuo can get by on that.

The better teaching jobs will go to people with experience and qualifications, agreed, but this is more because they have shown they are safe employment bets rather than that they are good at their jobs. Teaching in Poland is a price led market, not the qualiity-led market it should be.

Good luck!

PS All those schools sound pikey - I don't know anything about them but the names are just so .... pikey

Language / Word order and swearing in Polish [44]

It feels more natural to me too. In English the swear word often gets placed before the stressed syllable / word and I was wondering if it coul dbe the same in Polish.