Travel / Dreamliner for Lot Polish [27]

Best to avoid. No real reason for them to do long haul anyway.

Law / Forex Market in Poland [16]

It's no bad thing. The Financial Times referred to the Polish habit of getting Swiss Franc and Euro mortgages as "an act of collective madness", and rightly so.

Food / What made in Poland produce would you recommend [110]

One of those things that's good if it's made well and dreadful if it's made badly. Most restaurants don't take much pride in it and I've more often than not had it served Iuke warm and over salted/under seasoned.

It comes into it's own when it's home cooked (and piping hot).

Law / Value of Zloty and UK £ in Poland [21]

Exactly. At least the bonds are a safer bet, but Poland is caught in the same trap as the UK. Their bonds are too solid.

Law / Value of Zloty and UK £ in Poland [21]

Now if it were that simple, the moon would be made of green cheese. As you well know, a country has various mechanisms by which they can effect change in the exchange rate.

Naturally there are a whole range of factors at play. Not least the flow of raw materials and manufactured goods in and out of the country as well as commodity prices and food availability.

Rather than trying to revive a pointless argument you lost in another thread, why not tells why you think the zloty recently rose in value?

Law / Value of Zloty and UK £ in Poland [21]

Poland is a heavy exporter of agricultural products and manufactured goods. It is very much in the interest of the Polish central bank to keep export prices low.

UK, Ireland / Living with Poles in London [16]

I'm surprised you need reminding:

https://polishforums.com/uk-ireland/poles-like-british-culture-62745/

UK, Ireland / Living with Poles in London [16]

A doctor, are you?

UK, Ireland / Living with Poles in London [16]


Are you still writing forged letters from public bodies and terrorising immigrants with them? Remind me what the police said when you were caught last time.

UK, Ireland / Polish city that's moved to Britain [120]

As I remember, the Societe Generale case made certain very specific allegations about commercial activities by a company's board. In short, there were grounds for action. A newspaper saying that a town has tramps, boarded up shops and that some young people have left to work elsewhere isn't grounds to sue.

Life / Polish vs British vs American - Clash of cultures [390]


A decade of training suggests they are very far from 'out of place'. You may as well say there shouldn't be a male midwife, or a female urologist.


Would you really prefer a village or community to have no secular focal point and for people to drink alcohol at home, either alone or in little groups?

I remember taking my Polish partner to the UK for a visit, years before Poland's EU entry. He was amazed and impressed that people of all ages and both sexes were there, that people were chatting to people at other tables, even to people they didn't know and that very old ladies were a. in the pub at all and b. tapping their feet to the rock band who played.

Life / Polish vs British vs American - Clash of cultures [390]


On a side note, people called 'Sir Whatever' aren't usually noblemen, just gentry.

Re, your question, at the time the Southern US was settled by British people, in a family of quality, servants and outsiders would have referred to adults other than the head of the family as Mr John, Miss Jane etc. This continued into the Twentieth Century, but would only be used in exceptionally formal occasions today. The practice is similar to that of Geman aristocracy, where the head of the household is der Graf Von Scheissenhaus but his son, daughter, brother, sister etc is Graf Herman, Grafin Helga etc.

UK, Ireland / Polish city that's moved to Britain [120]


Now those are a little different from your chav photo, aren't they? 30 year old pics of rather tweedily dressed royalty. £ódź women are less likely to go round Biedronka dressed like The Queen than in track suit bottoms with holes in.

UK, Ireland / Polish city that's moved to Britain [120]


Very up-to-date. I'd rather not say why, but I'm quite knowledgeable about what cosmetic products are sold in which country.


That's not a comparison. One is a newsreel still of a demonstration, the other is a panorama of a rebuilt and ossified part of the city centre. Perhaps I should post a picture of The Grosvenor Estate in London and say its a comparison to a picture of Polish police dragging nurses into armoured vans in al. Jerozolimskie during the PiS-era strikes.

UK, Ireland / Polish city that's moved to Britain [120]


Slapper-style. Big here, though usually reasonably soigné.

Large companies like L'Oreal make especially garish shades of makeup for here, Eastern Europe. The further east you go, the stronger the colours have to be to suit the local market.

UK, Ireland / Polish city that's moved to Britain [120]


That isn't fashion dearie. It's just a chav.


I have. I spend a lot of time in Eastern Poland and I see women like that all the time. Often with holes in the ass of their pants and lurid make-up. Some people just like to dress like that. I saw a guy in a bar today, early/mid twenties, having a drink with a couple of crusties. He was a huge guy, wearing one of those computer printed anoraks that were all over the place here about 4 years ago. Either he had very bad taste or had just finished a long stretch.

UK, Ireland / Polish city that's moved to Britain [120]

Their dark reason was to keep people reading, and to appeal to their market.

A shame though that a lot of people might take it at face value.

UK, Ireland / Polish city that's moved to Britain [120]

Wow. I've never seen it that quiet.

The article is slanted in order to hold he attention of a readership who've mostly never been there. This is normal. There have also been some pretty daft articles about the UK in the Polish media.

Equally, there could have been an article about Manufaktura, the film school, Piotrkowska at night etc. I remember reading such articles in the UK press, but I suppose that it's more interesting to discuss on internet fora when people are offended.

UK, Ireland / Polish city that's moved to Britain [120]

One the one hand, sometimes people don't like their city to be criticised by outsiders, on the other hand, there was a bit of truth in the article.

I agree with Hipis about the photo of Piotrkowska though. It certainly wasn't the middle of the day. Probably dawn on a public holiday.

UK, Ireland / Polish city that's moved to Britain [120]

It was probably just an off the cuff statement from their press office. Trying to sue would be a pointless waste of money they could better spend elsewhere.

If it were feasible, every other guidebook would be sued.

Work / Opportunities for English speaking actors in Poland? advice on teaching conversational English [13]


Sorry, I had a look via the search function but couldn't find. It might have been a discussion in the Random Chat, which is deleted every now and then, or on a thread about something else or on another now defunct forum that I posted on at the time the article came out.

It looks like the reporter for much of the second half of the article just spoke to people in an expat bar that used to exist, kind of bar room braggarts with a free drink inside them.

Re. the acting. I have a friend here who gets a few roles a year, but it's mostly adverts, bit parts, fake gameshow contestant work and as an extra and he spends a hell of a lot of time chasing it and schmoozing the right people. I strongly suspect that a percentage of money sometimes goes back in the direction of casting directors.

UK, Ireland / Polish city that's moved to Britain [120]

I doubt they'll get very far. A city trying to sue a newspaper because they disagree with an article would just be laughed out of any English court. Should they try to sue in a Polish court they could only sue the tiny number of outlets that distribute the newspaper in Poland and would probably still get nowhere. In any case, Mr Murdoch has better lawyers than the city of £ódź.

Law / Registration as a Sole Trader in Poland [21]

There are probably 50 threads here already about that and I would suggest using the search function. However.

Basically, you need to go to the town hall and fill in a form specifying the types of work you want to do. They can't refuse any more to let you do this. They will give you a piece of paper. You need to take that to the tax office and fill in a form specifying the method of bookkeeping you will use and giving a bank account number. Contrary to the advice that some tax offices give, you don't need a separate bank account. You also need to go to the Main Office of Statistics (GUS) and get a pointless number called a REGON. Another bit of paper. You used to need to take that back to the tax office and may still. The final thing you need to do is to register for social insurance (ZUS). You will need to either be registered at an address (this ends soon) and/or have a document from the owner of a property giving permission for the registered office to be there.

The order in which you need to do these steps has changed over the years and there are certain inconsistencies from city to city but basically the town hall is the first step and the ZUS is the last step.

You may find it easier to pay someone to do all this, however it is worth mentioning that the people who do it for money don't always do it either well or quickly and may give you incorrect information. If you do it yourself, you may find it easier in a small town rather than a city. I did it once in Warsaw. The whole process took just over a week and involved a lot of waiting and a lot of pointless form filling. Keep all documents.

You need to complete all these steps in order to get the rubber stamp made up, without which you won't be able to issue a bill for any work done.

A correction. Re. a tenancy agreement, as far as I remember it doesn't need to specify commercial use however it certainly mustn't contain a clause forbidding it. Even though registration at an address ends soon, there will still be a need to prove your right to operate a business from whatever address you give. If you have a friend with an office, they can give you a (signed and stamped) letter to say you have permission to operate from that address, however that letter is for the tax office which may put some people off doing it.

If you are not a citizen of an EU member state, there may be further complications about proving the basis of your presence in PL. I had to do that before but not after Poland's EU entry. You will, in any case, find out during the process.

The order in which you need to do these steps has changed over the years and people here have reported certain inconsistencies from city to city. I did it twice for myself in Warsaw and a couple of times for other people. The whole process took between a week and involved a lot of legwork, form filling and waiting in queues. It also obviously needs to be done in Polish. You will also need to show photo ID like a passport at each stage.

Be aware that bureaucrats in Poland are not known for either consistency or efficiency and in the dozen or so years I have been here there have been numerous small changes in the way they interpret the rules. The tax office is by far the worst and you may find that on Monday you are told one thing, on Tuesday you are told the opposite and on Wednesday you find that neither are correct.

Be aware that you may (and almost certainly will) be given conflicting advice by people who say they are 100% certain the are fit. This is normal here. I can confirm that the steps above were correct when I did it and I doubt there have been more than minor changes since.

Good luck and enjoy!

Work / Opportunities for English speaking actors in Poland? advice on teaching conversational English [13]

Polish friends who do this say that parents are becoming more demanding and try harder to beat the price down. Sometimes they arrange lessons with two or three people who've advertised and choose the best.

The improvement in language teaching in schools doesn't bode well for this sector though however I agree that native speakers, especially ones who speak Polish, could do well, providing they can fit enough lessons in. This needs both advertising and word of mouth and there is still the issue of how many lessons can be fitted into suitable after school/weekend slots, especially since this sort of work usually involves travel, often to outer suburbs.

I agree that there need to be high personal standards. I know of one Polish lektor who was arrested recently for making a pass at a teenage pupil.

Life / Some questions about Imieniny (Polish Name's Day) [14]


There are also imieniny for Old Testament names as well as modern Polish ones, neither of which type are on the calendar.

Work / Opportunities for English speaking actors in Poland? advice on teaching conversational English [13]


Gigs?


That article from 2005 is bullsh1t. There's at least one thread here already about it. During the week it was published one of the people who claimed to have a 30 million euro property portfolio sent his CV to me wanting to do $20 per hour English lessons and another of the 'successful expats' (who was sleeping on someone's sofa) had been pestering me for an interview but never turned up because he was hung over most mornings. Also the lady who is quoted as saying that you can live in the city centre and have a cleaner for £500 per month subsequently denied saying anything of the sort to the reporter.

If you are looking for English teaching work here, you should be aware that there are basically three types.

In-company work, where you would be doing lessons for people usually at a high level in companies and be expected to have excellent pedagogical skills and solid experience. People who do this as a career often register a business and deal direct with the client if they want to earn a good hourly rate however one needs to be established here to get the work and also spend a lot of time chasing it. HR Departments get offers every week from training providers both large and small who at the moment are undercutting each other. The people you would teach have usually had plenty of teachers before and to make a go of this you need to know what you are doing. Fees for lessons in that sector are being driven down at the moment and as ever, the bottom line of the bill is the important thing for the person who holds the budget. Hence they increasingly choose cheap over good.

Teaching people who have signed up for lessons at private language schools. Doing this, you would be competing with Polish teachers of English who are often very good at their job and often prepared to accept low wages as well as native speakers of whom there is a surfeit and who are taking ever lower wages. There has been a spate of private language schools closing over the last few years and they are having to charge less and less, with an obvious knock on effect on wages. The are also a lot of people from the UK and Ireland who have come to Poland with partners/spouses who don't speak Polish, have no teaching (or often any other) qualification and need some sort of work. They are easy prey for the individuals who run such language schools and as a result some schools are now paying not much more per hour than McDonalds. If you aren't an EU citizen you would be lucky even to get work somewhere like that. Your friend is, by the way, right. The market in Krakow is flooded with (mostly young, inexperienced and unqualified) people all chasing the same few jobs.

Korepetycja, teaching usually school kids after school. This can pay a reasonable hourly rate however unless you can be in more than one place at a time, you can only usually do one per day and the market for this is also saturated. The newspapers a full of small ads for it every day.

This is the situation in Warsaw at the moment. Friends who still teach here are not generally optimistic.

News / Warsaw Modlin Airport is finally moving [29]

Most passengers either get the bus to the nearby station or a coach to Warsaw. Both are frequent though the train services aren't great and the coach can get stuck in traffic jams when it gets nearer Warsaw.. It's possible to pre-book the coach via the Wizz Air website, however on the whole Modlin is not a good airport and its worth checking out BA flights to Warsaw. When you look at Wizz Air's extra charges for baggage etc as well as the hassle of travel from Modlin to Warsaw it's usually a better option.

Flights from Modlin a also economy class only and there is no lounge.

UK, Ireland / Polish city that's moved to Britain [120]

I tend not to go wandering around in the night, but £ódź is a nice place to go for a walk. Stara Praga too.

Life / Polish vs British vs American - Clash of cultures [390]


Probably not much during my lifetime and not at all nowadays.

Hard to imagine anyone using 'Panno' in an office nowadays, and even in formal workplaces here I suspect there isn't much Pan and Pani among colleagues.

UK, Ireland / Polish city that's moved to Britain [120]


Perhaps. In some ways Lodz is a bit of an ironed out Bradford or Huddersfield. Even Preston, or Middlesborough.

It's one of my favourite cities in PL. uniquely atmospheric, the kind of place where it's nice just to walk around. And of course it has a rich history as the westernmost city in the Russian Empire.


I doubt 'most people' ever gave a thought to the matter. Sailors had long known it was not.


A great future ahead.