Study / School of Polish for Foreigners at the University of Lodz [43]


Oh dear. That's just embarrassing now - using unregistered accounts to post "good" things is never, ever a good idea.


Again - the University offers all this and more.

Study / School of Polish for Foreigners at the University of Lodz [43]

Indeed, why would anyone go there when the University of Lodz has a very, very well regarded department that teaches Polish to foreigners?

No sense whatsoever in studying in a private school in Lodz - the university does a great job there.

USA, Canada / Why are Polish restaurants not successful in the USA? [698]


Perhaps you should come and visit and see for yourself?

Real Estate / Poland's apartment prices continue to fall [1844]


That's no surprise - Krakow is a very attractive place to live, while Berlin has 20% unemployment and a creaking transport system.

Compare Krakow to another thriving provincial city (let's say Graz) - and you can see the true state of affairs.

Real Estate / Poland's apartment prices continue to fall [1844]


That's exactly what's happening in Poznan - no-one wants to buy new flats, but the 'exposed' units are doing just fine. It's a lot to do with the build quality - anything being offered below 5000zl/sqm is likely to be built on the cheap.

News / Polish Students Striking in Lithuania [80]


It's a question?

Same could be said for Poland - can you really have a nation without the majority of its elite?

Genealogy / How common is it for other people of Polish origin to discover they are actually Jewish? [127]


I think it's the stereotypical work ethic more than anything else. I know a Jewish family in the UK, and to say they're hard working is an understatement. All of them are successes, but they also put a vast amount of time into learning, studying and practising - far more than their non-Jewish compatriots.

Travel / Overstay in Poland (banned from entering Shengen for a few years?) [8]


If you want such a ban, go to the airport, speak to the border guards and explain the situation. I'm almost certain they would have no problems with banning you from Schengen for several years.


If you don't draw attention to yourself, it's a 50/50 chance. If you tell them - then you're almost certainly going to get banned.


I don't think they even use prison as a punishment for overstaying - as I recall, those that come in through Ukraine are sent to some horrible detention centre in Ukraine. Not sure about Belarus/Russia, but I think they're kept in secure accommodation until they can be deported - but someone from the US, they're just going to throw on the plane, surely?


Heck, he might want to ask for a several year ban ;)

(that'd be a first - "Sir, please ban me from Schengen for 10 years, my boss is insane")

Work / British English teacher moving to Poznan - work opportunities? [25]

What we tend to do is use our own strange grammar in some ways, though - for instance, 'my hair needs washed' or 'the cat wants out' - both grammatically incorrect, yet I'd say them naturally. But yes, it's all to do with accent - I only found some success here because I don't have much of an accent at all.


Alas, he sounds like another one of those who came here because some girly said it was a good idea...


Edinburgh Morningside accents are fantastic, I wish I had one myself. It's clear, it sounds fantastic, it's usually perfect grammatically - aah. I love.

Don't mention Indian English to me. Kindly stop, as they would say ;)

(still - I find Indian English brilliant for teaching with - always a good exercise to see who can figure out what)

History / Chance of Lwów once again became coming part of Poland [344]


Perhaps you should read more books, then.

Life / The Blame Game (Have you ever noticed that a Polish person is never wrong!?) [205]

To be honest, why does the State need to be helpful? It's a pain in the ass when you go to an office and have to wait behind some moron who couldn't read the information - especially when I always make sure that everything is 'right' before going. I was in the local ZUS office a few days ago - and some prat didn't even bother to fill in his NIP and REGON before going to the window. I mean, seriously!

Perhaps the 100,000 extra explains why the service has dramatically improved in the last couple of years, then?

Life / 'Turkish' Conmen on the A4/E40 Krakow-Wrocław stretch.... [25]


Not really, but if they do, they'll be clearly marked if they want to pull you over. In general though, unmarked cars are pretty rare in Poland - it's unlikely that they'd just be patrolling on the motorway for the hell of it.


It wouldn't have been great danger - apart from to your wallet ;)


They're doing a crap job of getting it - they keep sitting in the same old places in Poznan that anyone with half a brain avoids speeding in. Mind you, there's always cars pulled over...

(I'm very much of the impression that the police presence on the roads needs strengthened, significantly, even if it takes away my ability to do 100km/h on a 70km/h road late at night...)


For me, that's just an instant reason not to stop - too many scams involving cars inviting people to pull over. Another variant involves pointing at your wheels as if there's a problem - like anyone on the motorway would bother looking at other cars wheels.

Life / The Blame Game (Have you ever noticed that a Polish person is never wrong!?) [205]

Things are definitely getting better - I had a case when I went to register my right to vote. First of all, the woman refused to even try - so we told her that the law allowed me. She tried, but couldn't find how to do it on the computer - so her, and a bunch of other workers got together to figure it out. And they did - they admitted they didn't know about it, but they didn't have any issue with processing it once they found out how.

I honestly think that a lot of problems here are caused by not being prepared - usually, the law specifies exactly what is needed, and it's your job to deliver it, not the clerk to tell you what's needed.

Life / Poland's population predictions [59]


These are absolutely useless - you can't throw ethnic Germans/Lithuanians - who actually hold Polish passports - in with actual immigrants.

Work / Advice on Teaching English in Poland [709]


Without a doubt, 60PLN/hour as a bare minimum. But ask them what they can offer - however, for negotiating, start at 75zl and go no lower than 60zl.

Work / Advice on Teaching English in Poland [709]

How long is a piece of string?

It's impossible to say without more information - what's the job? how many hours a week? where? how much travelling is involved? what kind of students?

However, general consensus is that anything less than 60zl/hour in Warsaw and you're being screwed.

News / Polish publicly-funded pre-schools have put up their prices [7]


Where? Certainly not in many places. In fact, in many places outside of the major cities, 400PLN will get you a private nursery. In fact, I'm familiar with one public nursery - and the highest cost paid is 180zl a month, plus food (which is about 6zl a day for everything).


No they don't. Have you actually been in a nursery, or are you basing this all on some hysterical news report?

Incidentally, what's wrong with declaring up front? Nurseries are often owned by private owners, who need to be able to issue invoices for payment - and no nursery in Poland is going to take a kid on post-payment terms due to the general Polish mentality.


I fail to see how 400PLN (truth is, it's usually quite a bit lower) a month is "unaffordable" to someone who works full time in Poland.


Some do. Plenty of others don't charge so much. In fact, 1000zl usually is only found in decent nurseries in nice locations in big cities. Again - the vast majority aren't paying anything near this.

Life / 'Turkish' Conmen on the A4/E40 Krakow-Wrocław stretch.... [25]


No question about it - never pull over for anyone, and if you see someone that's in distress, call the police and let them deal with it.

Lots of noise, "family" - it's quite obviously a scam.

News / Why Is French On Poczta Parcel Waybills? [13]


It's nothing to do with the EU and everything to do with the Universal Postal Union having French as the official language.


Royal Mail haven't got a clue, I reckon - they seem hell bent on destroying their business, though I suppose it didn't help that the UK government decided to allow a free-for-all with postal competition too.

Study / Is there an elementary school with English as a main language in Poland? [14]

No. Your child, in the public schooling system, will be left to either sink or swim. There's no money to provide special classes for such children - it's your obligation to get him 'up to standard'. The schools won't help - after all, how can they, when there's 30 other kids to deal with? In fact, it gets worse - right now, the attitude in Poland is that if a child doesn't speak Polish, there's something wrong with him - and they may attempt to place him in a special school for 'disabled' children. The Roma have got terrible problems with this at the minute - and it may happen to your child, too.

He probably won't fail (generally speaking, teachers will just give a pass grade and ignore him) - but it's hardly satisfactory education.

If you can't afford to put him into private schooling, then you should have done a better job of teaching him Polish.

News / Polish Students Striking in Lithuania [80]

A really, really good article.

News / Poland Parliament elections in October 2011 [944]


Rzeczpospolita suffers from one thing - it's still partially owned by the Polish Government. One accusation that was thrown at PO recently was that their attempt to sell that share was somehow "punishment" for supporting Jaroslaw Kaczynski - yet - does anyone really think that the Government should own newspapers? PiS actually scored a massive own goal after it was revealed that they were spying on Rzeczpospolita journalists - despite that same newspaper leaning (slightly) towards them.

But really - the only difference between Rzeczpospolita and Gazeta Wyborcza these days is that Rzeczpospolita tends to view things from a nationalist perspective while Gazeta Wyborcza views things more from a European/international perspective. Interestingly, unlike in the UK, there's no 'war' between those papers.

(interestingly, did you know that Rzeczpospolita used to be the mouthpiece of the Communist Government? No big deal, but an interesting footnote in history)


The problem is that it's manipulated by politicians on all sides. It's just nonsense - if Poland isn't able to have independent public media, then it should be closed down and the money used for better purposes. This country struggles to fund medicine for old people - why bother with a cash-sucking thing like TVP?


You'd think public TV would stay out of it though, no?


That was exactly the problem. PiS almost straight away manipulated TVP for their own agenda, and the private media turned on them as a result.


No such thing as neutral media in Poland. Although - "Tygodnik Powszechny" does a pretty good job of coming close. It might be a Catholic newspaper, but it's actually admirable for giving a platform to all views, not just the ones they personally agree with. It's by far the best "non-partisan" news outlet in Poland.


Public media shouldn't be taking *any* sides. It's funded with our taxes (well, except, no-one pays it).

Wouldn't you be pretty upset if the BBC suddenly took sides in an election campaign? I would be...

Life / The Blame Game (Have you ever noticed that a Polish person is never wrong!?) [205]


Very often the case - not just in Poland, but all over the world.

What an utter ***** though - I can almost understand why some men choose to turn their partners into dribbling, dependent slaves.

Work / Job opportunities with Hungarian-Swedish-English languages in Poland? [51]


Oh yes it is - it's very much a "forgotten" city in Poland.


True, but it's still a nowhereville.


No, the impression that it's screaming for foreigners is simply the fact that it's not a particularly attractive place to go for "teachers". I'm telling you this based on personal knowledge - people just don't want to live in Bydgoszcz.

News / Why Is French On Poczta Parcel Waybills? [13]


Still alive and kicking - look - royalmail.com/delivery/delivery-options-international/airmail/faqs

Life / The Blame Game (Have you ever noticed that a Polish person is never wrong!?) [205]


Pawian - shall we start a thread about Polish parking? Of course, there are forums dedicated to this - but PF could have one, too ;)

Life / What are the requirements to get a cell phone here in Krakow? [22]


I'm confused about what's so difficult about going into a shop, buying a phone (how hard is it to say "dzien dobry" and then point at a phone?) and...plugging it in.

For that matter, why didn't he just bring a phone with him if it's so difficult?

I'm just waiting for the inevitable "I've been told that I have a week to leave Poland..." thread after he doesn't bother to get a residence permit.

Life / The Blame Game (Have you ever noticed that a Polish person is never wrong!?) [205]


They're starting to really enforce this as well.


The point on my driving licence is proof of that one :(

It's fair to say that with driving, there's plenty of laws that you should be aware of, despite them not being explicitly signed.

Life / The Blame Game (Have you ever noticed that a Polish person is never wrong!?) [205]


Seanus, you've reminded me of something -

It's truly fantastic the way that you can take a document to an office, hand it in (and get it stamped) while getting a copy stamped for yourself. Imagine sending something off to HMRC and asking for a stamped copy to be sent back?


What I've found with them is that the easiest approach is simply to quote the relevant law at them and remind them of their responsibilities. Never fails to work.

Life / The Blame Game (Have you ever noticed that a Polish person is never wrong!?) [205]


See, another thing here - all this stuff is outlined in law, and if the companies don't follow it, they'll automatically lose in court. I know one case where someone got away with not paying a huge bill to TP - simply because they failed to follow one step in the law. The judge automatically threw the case out. From the side of the business, it's also good - there are set steps to follow, written in the law, and the court will recognise them as valid without fuss or relying on precedent.

The system isn't perfect, but it seems more logical here.


Not a chance :/

It still amazes me that you can have personal contact with decision makers here, instead of having to talk to some worker drone on the front line who might (if they can be bothered) tell someone that you need to speak to them.