History / Lwów, Wilno ... kresy - Poland have lost enormoust part of our heritage... [389]


Better than murdering your own citizens, like what happened in Lwow.

News / Poles don't have a heart for math... says The New York Times [84]


Doesn't look like it at all.

I'm still wondering how people can complain about a positive article.

Work / Part time English speaking jobs in Krakow? [5]

If it's just about building your resume, then it shouldn't be a problem to find work experience, even with just basic Polish. On the other hand, if you do want paid employment - just think - who is going to hire you with basic Polish over a Pole with average English for the same money?

USA, Canada / American...Polish Resident...Returning to the land of milk and honey [103]


But he lived in a fairly big apartment....?

Law / I am married to a Polish citizen. How can I get residency? [36]


You don't even have to beg to live here. Just come here, open a business and pay ZUS every month, along with applying for a residence permit every year. It's unheard of for Americans to be denied the residence permit based on self employment, unless your business isn't making enough profit and you aren't declaring other sources of income.

Really, couldn't be easier. You can get permanent residency after 5 years as well, so even easier for you.

You don't need us to advise you on how to buy a flight, right?

Life / Polish clergy or lawyers: who's better? [2]

Seems fair enough - the Catholic Church should give up the preferential treatment, and in return, they can be treated like every other foundation out there. No argument from me.


No better, no worse. It's always a minority that ruins it for the majority - and the RCC isn't immune from this. There's always a conflict between traditionalists and modernisers in almost every organisation.

Having said this, I'd rate the RCC above the Polish military - at least the RCC has repeatedly in recent years held its hands up to say "sorry".

Food / What is the traditional number of Wigilia courses in Poznan area? [13]

It's 12 at my girlfriend's home. Including carp, yuck!

Real Estate / Poland Housing prices in July 2010 [129]

You still can't afford to buy.

Nothing new.

Life / What's up with the trains in Poland (the whole system in complete chaos?) [25]


Because otherwise, PiS will antagonise the various railway companies to go on strike. Likewise with the SLD - all for political points. It's such a big job (vast redundancies needed, a vast amount of money needed to pay for it all) that it can't be done without political agreement. Of course, in the very unlikely event of PO winning a clear majority in the Sejm and Senat next year, they can go ahead without worrying about anyone else.


Exactly. But the problem is that the people demand their uneconomic services at a price that allows them to travel. For instance, look at the amount of students who would whine if they couldn't afford to travel home every weekend - and this is the real problem. Having a public service is fine and well, but who can afford to pay for this?

For instance - take the (now closed to passenger transit) line from Jaslo to Chyrow(UA). Is there really any sense in subsidising this line, when there is frequent bus transport along the line? The speed is now limited to 20km/h - how much money is it going to cost to repair this entire line, and for what?

Trains make sense in busy corridors - but they don't make much sense in rural backwaters.

Life / How do the Polish feel about air pollution in their cities? [35]

Last time I checked, the life expectancy of a Pole was about 4 years less than the UK. Bear in mind that Poland is much poorer, and there are areas of somewhat extreme poverty - coal doesn't make much difference.


And where is the money coming from to pay for this electricity, as well as paying to improve the transmission networks? The electricity supply can be very unreliable in rural areas - what use is electric heating if it keeps failing?

Life / What's up with the trains in Poland (the whole system in complete chaos?) [25]


The problem is that pumping in tax money isn't going to make things better. There's examples where newly-renovated PKP Intercity carriages were left to rot - and if the "good" company can do this, what hope does Przewozy Regionalne have?

The railway problems in Poland are just way too complex to solve without total political agreement - and that won't happen, because PiS are the party of lazy moustaches.

Life / What's up with the trains in Poland (the whole system in complete chaos?) [25]


But DB and SBB are also expensive compared to Poland. Look at the cost of a single ticket from Frankfurt (Oder) to Berlin - a 70km journey is about 10 euro. The same journey in Poland on the same class of train (Regio) is about 2.50 euro. Yet the costs aren't 4 times less - if anything, Przewozy Regionalne's costs are quite high.

If public transportation is a right, then you need to look at the amount of public money needed to bring them up to scratch. DB and SBB have spent a small fortune - and both of them have very, very high fares compared to Poland.

You could even look at NS - they aren't doing too well in general. I'd actually only rate SBB in Europe as being a quality operator - and this is all because the Swiss have absolutely poured money into their network. Yet - their trains aren't particularly fast either, but that's because the Swiss were pragmatic enough to choose reliability over speed.


I don't think they work at all - and this is part of the problem in Poland.


But SNCF isn't perfect either - the TGV network is incredible, yes - but how much did this cost France? SNCF Proximités isn't exactly great either - the local train network in France is rather poor on the whole.

The problem in Poland is that the railways need massive, massive investment to bring them up to scratch. Look at the state of some lines - for example, Sanok-Kroscienko-Chyrow(UA) or Leszno-Glogow. In fact, on the first line - the line is actually in better condition between the PL/UA border and Chyrow than it is on the Polish side.

There really is no quick answer in Poland. Still, EIC is nice in general, and the night trains are of a generally decent standard (no complaints with Poznan-Przemysl or Wroclaw-L'viv). The TLK trains are also improving quite quickly - though they are hit or miss. I'm also told that the new "RegioEkpress" trains are quite good.

Life / How do the Polish feel about air pollution in their cities? [35]


When coal is cheap and abundant, while gas is expensive and not available to be produced domestically - are you surprised?

For what it's worth, Poznan and Wroclaw (except the centre of Wroclaw) don't seem particularly polluted.

News / EU SITE PRESENTS ROSY POLAND (high level of a secondary education) [10]

In the UK, it's an accepted career choice among those at the bottom of society to become baby machines.

Life / What's up with the trains in Poland (the whole system in complete chaos?) [25]


But this is exactly the problem - to allow Pawel and Magda to get to Warsaw, you have to inconvenience the people who generate the profits.

Poland cannot afford to subsidise the railways - and they aren't profitable in their current guise. Look at DB - they have a wonderful service in general, but how much did it cost? Likewise with SBB - again, wonderful service, but at a ridiculous cost. Even the UK is pouring billions upon billions into rail, yet it's still not perfect.

Poland needs to decide if they want the railways to be independent, or to be a public service. Right now, they're neither.

News / EU SITE PRESENTS ROSY POLAND (high level of a secondary education) [10]


Completing secondary education isn't the same thing as obtaining the Matura - so it's meaningless.

Life / What's up with the trains in Poland (the whole system in complete chaos?) [25]


Nothing wrong with Poznan-Warsaw these days - the standard is high, they're comfortable and the high price discourages the riff-raff from taking them. Just compare the average clientele on EIC as opposed to TLK - there really is no comparison.


Virgin just doesn't compare to the EIC product - I'd rather have the big, roomy EIC trains than the cramped cattle wagons that are Pendolinos. I'd actually be inclined to say that EIC trains are equal to East Coast in their offering.

The whole problem with PKP Intercity and Przewozy Regionalne is that the people demand they run uneconomic trains. If the will was there to redraw the entire network and change things for the better - we would see a drastic change. Of course, it would mean Pawel and Magda wouldn't be able to travel from their village to Warsaw by train - but who cares?

Life / What's up with the trains in Poland (the whole system in complete chaos?) [25]


Add me to that list. It astonishes me that I can go 700km on the highest standard train for about 40 pounds - with the ticket bought 10 minutes before departure. Impossible in the UK, and the train standard is above UK standard.


It's the logical consequence of what successive governments have attempted to do. I'm not surprised there was chaos - PKP Intercity and Przewozy Regionalne aren't working well together, for a start.


Yes. It's all due to inept management from the transportation ministry, combined with a workforce that doesn't want to modernise and a huge section of society that demands very cheap tickets.

Law / Any good business ideas - what Poland needs? [114]


What kind of budget are we speaking about?

I'm told that the magic number for starting a business in Poland is the 200,000zl figure.

Work / Native English speaker from the US better than from the UK to find a job in Poland? [24]

What is your degree in?

To be honest, an English degree doesn't count for that much anyway - because most (sensible) employers know that we don't study English in the same way that they do. The requirement for a degree is just a way of separating out people, nothing more.

(for what it's worth, no-one has ever asked me for my degree certificate here!)

Work / Native English speaker from the US better than from the UK to find a job in Poland? [24]


As long as you're self employed, you don't need a work permit for doing any work that your business does. That's what makes it much easier for Americans - they can start working for schools as soon as they get the business registration completed :)


Private schools. You need a Masters degree, with a recognised "right" to teach in schools in order to work in Polish public schools. I've heard of exceptions, but it's generally the rule.

As for who hires more - hard to say. I'd say though, that a Callan school is much more likely to take a shot on an unproven American than a non-Callan school.


If the ability is exactly the same, there should be no difference. Of course, we all know that sometimes, students just want a certain age/sex/look of teacher and nothing can change that. The worst is when they claim that it's the teaching at fault - yet it's obvious that they just want a woman to stare at.

At least for me personally, age means nothing, only ability. It's worth pointing out that many "older" Polish teachers lack empathy compared to the younger ones.

Work / Native English speaker from the US better than from the UK to find a job in Poland? [24]


Yep, much more likely.


No no - what you do is come here, register as self employed, use the self employment to obtain legal residency (as you own a business here - so you can be resident legally) - and use the self employment to approach schools. It's the easiest way for Americans - you are employed by your own business, and your business invoices the schools directly :)

Work / Native English speaker from the US better than from the UK to find a job in Poland? [24]


Tell me about it - I resorted to growing a beard at one point! But it can work in your favour too - just be prepared for idiotic comments about "needing to look older". My advice is simply to ignore such nonsense - if someone wants to criticise you for not being old enough, they're not worth listening to.

EU citizens don't need work permits, nor do those resident here on the basis of marriage to a EU citizen. You also don't need a work permit if you have your own business - which - Americans can set up legally here. You get hit for 350zl a month social taxes (850zl after two years) - but you can register as a self-employed language teacher and avoid the need for work permits.


It's hard to say - rural areas will be more desperate and will be willing to go to the effort of getting the work permit/etc, but cities are easier to pick up hours in. Certainly, I'd say to avoid Krakow and Wroclaw - though as I understand it, there's still a lack of native teachers in places like Bialystok and Lodz.

My suggestion would be to try and land a job in a Callan school for your first year. Usually, such schools will have "traditional" classes too - and you can strong-arm them into giving you a few of those classes. You can then use that year to "find your feet" in Poland - with the bonus that Callan schools require no preparation at all. I started this way, and I moved into corporate teaching - it's not a bad way to start at all.

Some people will be critical of this approach, but I found the first year of Callan teaching to be invaluable when it came to discovering how people think - I didn't have to go home and stress about preparing more classes.

Work / Native English speaker from the US better than from the UK to find a job in Poland? [24]

I'm seeing a distinct trend for schools to only hire US teachers who have their own business - or to hire those who don't need work permits at all.


My advice is not to come blind, but rather to come to Poland with a job offer already in place. The job market simply isn't stable enough to guarantee that you'll pick up enough work within the time limit - and depending on where you go, there can be a hell of a lot of competition.


Sadly, this kind of nonsense still prevails here. I started at 23 as well, and suffered quite a bit with this - Poles do seem to prefer older teachers. But if you look older, problem solved ;)

News / Why is Poland developing so slowly or in the wrong direction? Who is responsible ? [317]


Oh yes. There's a huge problem with this in Poland - driving is probably the best example.

You can see it with anything that's "public" - if it's for the public, it can be destroyed. There was a huge fuss not so long ago in some osiedle where the administration had banned outside visitors to the playground - because the outsiders were destroying the playground.

Love / Concerns about Polish Family / Child Support Law [68]

You joke, but where foreign legal systems are concerned, especially the Polish system (which is renowned for strange judgements and baffling illogical decisions) - anything can happen.

Love / Concerns about Polish Family / Child Support Law [68]


That's what you think.

Bear in mind that if she gets pregnant by someone else, it's not beyond the realms of improbable that a Polish court could rule you as the father.

Love / Concerns about Polish Family / Child Support Law [68]


Doesn't matter. If you're serious about your STANDARD PROCEDURE, then you won't go near her until after the 6 months date has expired and the second test comes back negative.

But you shouldn't be going near her if you aren't willing to shoulder your financial responsibilities. Polish law, thankfully, has no time for such men.

Love / Concerns about Polish Family / Child Support Law [68]


If you're so paranoid, the pill, plus the coil, plus wearing two condoms should ensure no risk whatsoever. Or you could do the responsible thing and simply not sleep with the girl if you aren't willing to risk it financially.


Right, so if it's standard procedure for you to insist on full testing, you should know that HIV tests should be done initially between 2 to 12 weeks, then again after 6 months to ensure a negative test result.

I suppose you, as your STANDARD PROCEDURE will be waiting six months?

For what it's worth - a Polish judge is going to **** you over royally - end of story. No different to how the CSA would treat a Polish man in the same situation.

Law / I am married to a Polish citizen. How can I get residency? [36]


Then you can obtain legal residency on the basis of owning a business.

Simple.