UK, Ireland / Why can't unemployed Polish people on benefits just leave UK and go home please? [240]

Not as simple as that, I'm afraid.

If you had no income whatsoever, no benefits, no hope in life, you'd travel to a nearby country where there's workable and a safety net as quick as you could. And a certain amount of the prosperity of Western Europe is because Eastern Europe was trapped under a particular economic system for decades.

Enoch, by the way, was wrong.

Travel / Pub Quiz in Warsaw? [19]

Last time I was there there were several setters and one guy asked questions that had ambiguous answers. The standard is generally high though. Usually quite tricky as pub quizzes go.

I like the fact there's a cash prize - extra excitement!

Re. Żywiec, I agree it's muck, but imagine the gloom when I see a pump selling English beer and it's not real English beer at all, just that flat insipid cat's discharge that southerners drink. If they can get Boddies, Stones and Sam Smith's here in Dubai, they can surely get it on Emilii Plater.

Travel / Pub Quiz in Warsaw? [19]

Isn't it on topic? After all, there's only so much you can say about the quiz itself...

Before you sadly cut in when I was adding the stuff about the quiz, I'd written that the quiz is usually very well attended and the landlord does his best to make you feel welcome. The questions however are only as good as the person who sets them on any given day, so the quality is sometimes good but not always.

The beer is unfortunately southern, but at least there's Zywiec.

Avoid the food though. I made the mistake of eating there a second time hoping the first disaster was a one off. It wasn't.

Travel / Pub Quiz in Warsaw? [19]

I had some spectacularly, laughably bad food there. Otherwise it's Ok and the landlord is indeed thoroughly nice. Southern beer though, but I suppose you can't win them all.

The food by the way was allegedly steak and kidney pie but was really a bit of very bland kidney stew (no steak) and a seperately cooked square of frozen puff pastry.

The OP has asked about pub quizes. please keep on topic.

UK, Ireland / Calling all Brits! Travel in England advice [32]

Especially the frothing ale. That and four national parks, beautiful pennine scenery and a gorgeous coastline.

And if you book via eastcoastmainline's website it can be cheap to get there. I found London to Leeds first class for £32

Genealogy / Is the Surname Yang Polish? [14]

It could be a Polonisation of the Scots name Young. There was considerable immigration from Scotland to Poland over the years, including to Silesia. There are a few surnames like that.

UK, Ireland / Calling all Brits! Travel in England advice [32]

Have a look at the Yorkshire Dales. The Lake District is jammed with tourists, Northumberland isn't but it's a bit wild. The Cotswolds are expensive and prissy.

The Norfolk Broads are flat but nice.

Think about Yorkshie ;-)

UK, Ireland / British people more intelligent than the Poles? [53]


That would surprise many.


Which was my point entirely. It seems however that "one of the most intelligent people on this forum" missed that.


And "one of the most intelligent people on this forum" also missed the post immediately before.

UK, Ireland / British people more intelligent than the Poles? [53]

Oooooh no. Despite all the tests and exams I've invigilated, a certain neutrality is suitable here.

Work / Moving to Warsaw, teaching but hoping to deviate into business environment [16]


Remember that's what expat teachers get, and even then they tend to work freelance - the average wage slave gets a far lower hourly rate. Though they do however work 7 or 8 hour days. As a language trainer, you will probably work between 3 and 5 hours a day (some dream of having 3 hours daily!) without paid holidays etc.

UK, Ireland / British people more intelligent than the Poles? [53]

Worth mentioning that a lot of the IQ results thrown around on a nation by nation basis in Europe are based on self-administered tests which leads one to speculate whether (say) the Swedes are more or less likely to cheat than (say) the Italians. I will not pass judgement here on the reliability or honesty of self-administered tests in Poland.

UK, Ireland / British people more intelligent than the Poles? [53]


It didn't open mine, since on this forum we're used to people from Poland rubbishing data that doesn't present them as they wish to be presented.


The Stamford-Binet IQ tests that 'polish patriot' favoured produce those inaccurate results, however as I said, they're flawed. No human group has more or less innate intelligence - IQ tests measure learned intelligence. I seem to remember saying that half a dozen times here.


Check out the meaning of xenophobia.

Australia / Australian citizen wanting to go to Poland for as long as possible - needs Polish Visa [49]


You don't really see them in Warsaw. There's a long term contingent of washed up EFL teachers often staying because if they left they wouldn't see their kids. Most of them do know how to teach, and not all are European.

The real problems are out in the sticks, where they've gone to live in their g/f's hometown with unreasonable expectations. The lucky ones are collecting rent from a flat or house at home.

Australia / Australian citizen wanting to go to Poland for as long as possible - needs Polish Visa [49]


This is true.


Poland is filling up with people who don't know when to use an apostrophe let alone the difference between a defining and non-defining relative clause and in any case don't know how to actually teach it who've come because their gf/bf is Polish. Why go through the hassle of sorting out a work permit for someone when there's a ready supply of bods who don't need them?

Australia / Australian citizen wanting to go to Poland for as long as possible - needs Polish Visa [49]


Pretty well, though some Callan schools will employ almost anybody. They will however pay someone of stufdent age absolute peanuts.

Love / Do I need to be Confirmed in order to get married in the Catholic church in Poland? [41]


This is true. Different dioceses interpret the rules (which are that you should be unless there's a reason to the contrary) differently - in Poland they favour it. However....


..... this is sadly very common.


This is sensible advice.


They have 1 TV channel. If they want it on the digital platform, all they have to do is file their accounts like all the other stations have managed to do, instead of insisting on being swathed in a very unchristian secrecy.


Most of whom neither attend church nor follow the rules.

UK, Ireland / British people more intelligent than the Poles? [53]

Very eloquent reasoning, but one which history and science doesn't support.

UK, Ireland / British people more intelligent than the Poles? [53]

In a way yes. More about the structure of education; what is and isn't a University and precisely who is included.

UK, Ireland / British people more intelligent than the Poles? [53]

You do realise that the PISA scores are selected university students? I wonder what the results would be like if they were spread across some of Poland's less esteemed higher education establishments. The type that some countries give university status to and others don't.

The findings of the original posts seem the most accurate. They certainly cover a fairly rounded set of criteria.

Interesting that you're getting so worked up about it that you're spending time copying and pasting stuff about students.

UK, Ireland / British people more intelligent than the Poles? [53]


You realise that's the flawed Stamford-Binet scale. Not really used any more. And for that matter only one range of it!

No surprise though that you choose an older and less respected test that suits you.

UK, Ireland / British people more intelligent than the Poles? [53]

Rather a lot, really.

Work / Moving to Warsaw, teaching but hoping to deviate into business environment [16]


If it's a "lesson hour", meaning a 45 minute unit, it's about the going rate for in-company lessons in Warsaw.

UK, Ireland / British people more intelligent than the Poles? [53]

Do you know many of either, Crowie?

UK, Ireland / British people more intelligent than the Poles? [53]

Try The Listener crossword - an absolute killer. Worth mentioning that cryptic crosswords work better in some languages than others.

Law / Does Poland encourage theft? [8]


Don't you have a difference, meaning felony and misdemeanor?


That's not true. A guy was extradited fairly recently for stealing a packet of budyn worth 1zl.
theguardian.com/uk/2008/oct/20/immigration-extradition-poland-lithuania-law

Nevertheless, the courts have to balance the cost of a prosecution with the damage to society.

Language / Do these sentences make sense in Polish? [12]


Make sure you tell them it's the same the other way around and perhaps remind them that some of their 'professional' Polish to English translators aren't much better.

News / Ania Lisewska, Polish Woman, Wants To Have Sex With 100,000 Men for Guinness World Records. [55]

She could lose a few kilos too.

Law / I was fined for not having a tram ticket in Poland. How does this affect me? [68]


That's nothing. Until a few years ago they used to wait on the bus route from the airport and the driver would phone them if likely candidates got on. The only English they knew was "you will be deported" and "fifty" (the going rate for a bribe from a foreigner - for a local it was 10). Thankfully that's now been stopped. Also, in the days before it was electronic, when there was a little clip thingy that you used to punch your ticket on, they'd often say "niewazne" (invalid) if they thought a passenger was foreign.

I once gave a verbal earbashing to one who tried it on, only for him to reply "you don't understand our culture"! Culture indeed....

One thing that most out of towners don't know is that in Warsaw they always, always travel in pairs or threes. If there's one guy on his own, especially at weekends they are almost certainly doing on their day off, topocket bribes. You can call their bluff.

Travel / Trail of the Eagles' Nests (trail with 25 medieval castles between Kraków and Częstochowa) [8]

It's maybe the nicest bit of Poland, castles or not. Some of the castles are excellent, some are just bits of ruin however the scenery is nice, the area is cheap and it's very worth visiting.

Law / Under Polish law, is an absent parent entitled to claim an income from their child?!?! [4]

Yes, it can happen.

There was a feature in Gazeta Wyborcz a while ago about the hardship it sometimes causes. You need to take advice from a good lawyer on the particular issues of your case.