Law / Residence permit in Poland. Starting an own business is enough to get this? [14]


Are you doing a degree? If so have you nearly completed it? I'm just wondering because how would you continue your studies if you move to Poland? There is no way you could live on that salary in Warsaw. I suppose if you live with your sister you could just about manage but after you've paid her something towards your keep, your budget would be really tight.

News / Berlin terrorist attack -- Poland's ethnic homogeneity a true blessing [436]


Ironside, to whom are you speaking? Not me I hope. I wasn't the one who made the initial comparison. In fact I said:

News / Berlin terrorist attack -- Poland's ethnic homogeneity a true blessing [436]


The Troubles is a euphemism used by both the British and Irish governments to refer to the conflict in Northern Ireland. It's always referred to as 'the Troubles'.

bbc.co.uk/history/troubles


Lenka I've lived alongside Muslims for years, both in England and Ireland and never had any problems with them at all. They were my neighbours, my local chemist, my bus driver, my doctor and in recent years my pupils when I was teaching. The only sign I ever saw of them being difficult were the few complaints from Muslim parents about things that were against Muslim beliefs and which they wanted us to respect in school. School policy was that it was a Catholic school in a western country and we couldnt' go along with that. They accepted that. I never had the impression that any of them would take out a fatwa on us or come charging up the school yard waving sabres.

Nonetheless Islamic terrorists (as opposed to Muslims) claim to be acting in accord with and indeed as dictated by their religious faith and use Islam to justify their acts.


Anyone who commits deliberate acts of murder can hardly call themselves a Catholic and yet..........people focus on the Troubles of recent years but in the centuries of conflict on the island of Ireland, scores of practising and very devout Catholics committed murder repeatedly, or were prepared to do so to free Ireland from British rule. Michael Collins' last act on this earth was to respond to one of his men who realising that he was still breathing asked him' Mick do you repent your sins?' whereupon Collins squeezed his hand. All the patriots of Ireland and indeed of Poland, knew they were committing sin and placed the fate of their souls in God's hands. Those commiting murder in the name of Islam claim that they are not commiting sin but are, quite to the contrary, doing God's work on earth.

News / Berlin terrorist attack -- Poland's ethnic homogeneity a true blessing [436]

I'm getting tired of pointing this out but that never stopped me yet so.............here goes once more.

There is no valid comparison to be made between the present Islamic terror campaign and the troubles in Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland conflict was a political one and the religions of those involved were incidental. They never bombed or killed in the name of Catholicism or Protestantism but in the names of Republicanism and Unionism. They might just as easily have been aetheists.

Genealogy / Why did(do) Poles sometimes have German first names? [28]


What were the christian names like in either of those families? Any Wilhelms or Andreas's??


Where is the nearest area to that, where you can see a concentration of the surname and what are the christian names like in those families? People in those days didn't generally move that far from the place where they were born. I'm Irish, not Polish, but in my own family, on my maternal grandfather's side the largest concentration of his surname is in Limerick where the family first arrived from England in Norman times and you can see a clear pattern of migration eastwards with smaller and smaller concentrations of the name in each successive county in a westerly direction.


I don't know how common it was but German men certainly did marry Polish women in the Prussian part of Poland and I imagine that there is an even greather likelihood of it in the Austrian part as both would have been Catholic for a start and it was the least repressive administration. Usually though it seems to be the men marrying the women.

Genealogy / Why did(do) Poles sometimes have German first names? [28]

Now that's very interesting. So his father was 'William'. Well there is no exact Polish equivalent of the name William as far as I know, so this would suggest to me that your great-great grandfather may well have been Wilhelm and this would explain why he named his son Andreas, if there is a German or Austrian connection in your family. Great-great grandpa Wilhelm may have had a German mother, not necessarily father, and been named for her father perhaps. Who can say........however, you say that your family's surname is unusual/uncommon. In the absence of any other knowledge about your own branch of the family, I would start putting out feelers to find any other people with that surname in the area your great grandfather came from and see if you can find any German naming pattern. Catherine would be Katarzyna, a common Polish name for girls.

Genealogy / Why did(do) Poles sometimes have German first names? [28]


As Galicia was very poor it seems highly unlikely that any Germans would want to migrate to it. There were plenty of rich cities in Germany where there would be far more opportunities. What I would do is look at other names in your great grandfather's family and see if there's a pattern of German names. This would indicate that perhaps one of the family married a German at some point and the naming reflected that. If Andreas seems to be an isolated case of German naming, then it could be that they named him after a friend or benefactor, somebody who was kind or good to the family. Or they felt the German name would be a help to the child in later life in his social advancement though that seems unlikely if the surname is obviously Polish, a bit pointless really. There is always the possibility that he was christened Andrzej but changed it to Andreas when going to America because it would be much easier for Americans to pronounce. Perhaps somebody advised him to do so.

Life / Good place to live in Poland (if you want to move on)? [66]


How old is your son? The younger the better. I presume he doesn't speak any Polish so it will be quite a struggle for him at first. Polish schools do not provide any language support or Polish classes for foreign students and Polish is not an easy language to just 'pick up' unless you're a speaker of another Slavic language, that helps a bit.

You can survive on 6,000 if you budget really carefully but you will by no means be 'comfortable'. 8,000 net would be a lot better but as Dominic says you will struggle to save anything out of it. There is really no point in leaving your homeland to struggle for survival in a foreign country unless you have a clear set of short, medium and long term goals and some contingency plan in place if it doesn't go according to your original vision.

Genealogy / Why Polish aren't white?? [272]

Another troll. However we can't let 'it' whatever its gender, have the last word here. Isn't it remarkable how these ignorant lumps who've never been outside Hicksville or Ba Diddly Boing, Idaho, are such experts on everything 'European', not to mention anthropology, sociology, history and human biology.

History / Catholic Irish or Scottish Immigrants to Poland [3]

I'm Irish and have never heard of Catholics going to Poland. The Catholic gentry who could afford it often had their children educated in France during the Penal Laws when education was forbidden to Catholics, but large scale emigration from Ireland only really kicked off in the nineteenth century and most people went to America and Australia. You might be confusing them with those earlier Irish who migrated to Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. These were mostly soliders fighting in various foreign armies. For example in the early 17th century over a thousand Irish soldiers fought in the Polish-Muscovite wars but they did not remain in the Polish army and did not settle in Poland. By the way I love your username!

Classifieds / Studio Apartment in Poznan, Poland [8]

You do need to be careful when dealing with any strangers in Poland as there is a bit of a scam culture. However most websites are simply portals where estate agents or private individuals advertise their properties for sale or rent so it's the individual landlord whom you're dealing with who is the potential scammer, rather than the website itself. Your best bet is to just book yourself into a cheap student type hostel prior to your arrival and then physically visit the office of the agent and give them you requirements. Private ads are a bit riskier and will be more difficult especially if you don't speak Polish or have a Polish friend to help you. It has been known for people who don't own the apartment to somehow manage to get hold of keys to an empty place, rent it out, take a large deposit and a month's rent in advance from you and then a few weeks later, the real owner shows up!

Work / Salary for a senior software engineer in Poland [195]

Now that's very interesting. 3000 zł is an absolute joke. Clearly they underestimate your intelligence if they think they could get away with offering you peanuts like that so I'm not sure you'd be very happy working for them in any case. Just ask yourself, what sort of people are they to make an insulting offer like that? Anyway it sounds like you have every chance of getting a good job with a decent salary if you just keep plugging away at it. Good luck!

Work / Salary for a senior software engineer in Poland [195]


I'm afraid that will confuse the OP even further! The bottom line is that when you go to a website and look at details for an apartment they usually show two separate figures, one for rent and the other for czynsz and the two added together is what the tenant will have to pay each month.

@ Fappper, yes, as the job is advertised at 9,000-10,000 zł then I would say definitely press for the 9,000. Now the thing is obviously I haven't seen your CV, don't know your skill set and I don't know how you answered the interview questions or whether they gave you a techincal test and if so, how you did. Any of those things could have influenced their offer of 7.5. Perhaps they really feel that it's a fair offer, but they could just be trying it on to see how cheap they can get you. Polish employers are not generous even with their own so don't take it too personally :)

If the offer falls through, then as I say, keep looking and if you keep getting the same low offers, then maybe look at your skills and consider adding to them in your spare time by teaching yourself another programming language or something.

Classifieds / Studio Apartment in Poznan, Poland [8]

Fappper you need to go to google Nieruchomości and you'll get plenty of websites. What's included in the rent will vary with each apartment.

Work / Salary for a senior software engineer in Poland [195]

The problem is that it's hard to determine exactly how much you'll pay for rent and bills as sometimes the cynsz covers gas and electricity and sometimes it doesn't. But you would certainly need to budget around 1500 per month for rent and bills. Food, I suppose a thousand would cover it and allow another 200 for internet, phone and transport. So your bare minimum expenses at just survival level each month would be 2,700. You can save whatever is left over but you will have to dip into it at some point for clothes (especially for the Polish winter), maybe a vist to the dentist or doctor or some other emergency. You certainly won't live a 'handsome' life and bear in mind you will be living alone in a foreign country so add that to lack of money and you have a recipe for quite a miserable existence. Peter Olsztyn was pretty much spot on when he said if you're very tough you could save 2,000zł. No matter how many times you ask the same question, you'll keep getting the same answer because it's the truth! You're being offered a very low salary for somebody with five years experience. My advice would be that if you're not in urgent need of changing your present job, keep searching until somebody offers you 10,000 gross.

Work / Salary for a senior software engineer in Poland [195]

Firstly Fapper Poles don't use the term 'bedroom'. They describe apartments by the number of rooms apart from kitchen and bathroom, so you're looking in local language for a one room apartment which is how they describe a studio.

Sorry but your employer is talking rubbish. Here's a link to a Polish website showing 1 room apartments in Poznań. As you can see one of the cheapest is 700zł but if you click on the ad you'll see that there's a czynsz of 400. The cynsz is a service charge which usually covers water, rubbish collection and sometimes central heating. It's often very high. The czynsz is always going to be at least 400 on top of the advertised rent. So your total cost will be 1100 per month. There is also what they call 'minor charges' for electricity and gas every two months. Beware of such vague contracts. The minor charges can turn out to be considerably more than minor and you're locked into a lease agreement.

otodom.pl/wynajem/mieszkanie/poznan/?search%5Bfilter_enum_rooms_num%5D%5B0%5D=1&search%5Bdescription%5D=1&search%5Bdist%5D=0

Work / Cost of living in Gdańsk, average salary for experienced software engineer in Poland [64]

If you just want your child to attend nursery school for the sake of social interaction, play and general development, then you'll find that a Polish pre-school will serve that purpose quite well, regardless of the language issue. Young children generally adjust quite well after a short time and your child will even begin to pick up some Polish.

News / 60% of Poles say Szydło's government should resign [238]

Well it's fairly obvious that their days are numbered. Her Nibs has no credibility at all and they've made complete fools of themselves over the Donald Tusk thing.

Work / Finance Work in Poland - is it hard for a non-Polish speaking person? [35]

Well I wasn't being nasty. I was just thinking that the easiest way to get the info you need is to ask for it at the source. A few euros spent on a phone call is a small investment when you're considering spending thousands on tuition. What about Skype anyway? Also why call them yourself with your broken Polish when your wife is a native speaker. Could you not ask her to do it? Incidentally would your studies be in English or Polish, because if so that broken Polish will have to serve you well.

Work / Finance Work in Poland - is it hard for a non-Polish speaking person? [35]


Why don't you phone them and ask them? It may take a few phone calls to sort it out but it's the only way to get definite information.

Food / What are favorite herbal teas in Poland/especially loose leaf? [15]

Maricka, unforuntunately for your purposes, there are very few Poles using this forum, so you may not get enough responses to be useful to you. However, I can tell you that herbal teas are very popular in Poland. There are shelves and shelves of them in all the big supermarkets and there are many specialist health shops.

Here's a useful link:

msp.gov.pl/en/polish-economy/economic-news/5676,State-of-the-Polish-tea-market.html
It states that herbal tea has a 14.2% share of the tea market in Poland.

And here's something from the subject which was discussed previously on this forum:

polishforums.com/food/poland-favorite-herbal-teas-especially-65335

A tea that''s popular here amongst those under forty, is Yerba Matte which gives quite an energy boost and is often drunk by the 'young professionals' in place of coffee as they consider it a healthier option.

You might find that googling 'tea drinking habits Poland' could turn up more detailed information.

Good luck!

Study / Poznan University of Economics or University of Warsaw ? [25]



The original plan was for her to live with her Babcia in Warsaw. That would cut out the rent expenses which is the major part of the budget for most people. I imagine her parents would then contribute a certain amount each month to Granny for additional food bills etc. Also perhaps Slavic's parents feel that living with Granny would ensure that their daughter behaves herself, no wild partying etc under Granny's watchful eye!


If she lives with her Babcia she'll be talking Polish all the time I imagine and I'm sure she'll see quite a bit of the extended family and get a taste of real Polish family life.

So I'm not sure that the options you suggest, though excellent, have any added attraction for her parents. It will be interesting to see what their reaction is.


That's an excellent point. Slavic, I'm not sure if you're aware but the college contact hours/lectures in full time degrees are very high in Poland. It's pretty much five days a week and can be a full forty hours a week.

Study / Poznan University of Economics or University of Warsaw ? [25]

The problem with other European universities Slavic is that you're up against the same issue of language. You're restricted to choosing study programs offered in English and I couldn't comment on the quality of those, wouldn't have a clue. Your only other option is the UK or Ireland as those are obviously English speaking countries but the cost of living there is very high for an American student, that's presuming you could get accepted.Your GPA is just about the minimum required and your ACTs are probably below the minimum.

Your dilemma seems to be that somehow you and your parents have formed a picture over a period of time that you could save money by studying in Poland and at the same time gain a certain European gloss (a bit like the old finishing school concept) so now you're finding it hard to let go of that idea. Sounds to me like your parents have that typically Polish trait - stubborn! Look, it's like this. Either you take a year out and go abroad purely for the cultural experience or you start your studies at home in the USA and if your parents really want the cultural thing for you, you might be able to do an exchange year with a European uni during your degree. The bottom line is that you shouldn't be compromising the quality of your education. You should let go of the old dream and set yourself some new goals and dreams :) Achievable ones....the most sensible thing to do is to take one of those offers from a good American college or if money is really a serious problem preventing you from accepting them, explore the cheaper or no cost options that Dominic suggested. You're just starting out in life and this is just the beginning of your real education. Sometimes in life we can't get what we want by the quickest route, we have to take a more roundabout way, but as long as we get where we want to go in a reasonable length of time then that's ok. I know people seem to be a bit snobby about community colleges but they're a good starting point so don't dismiss them completely.

Regarding your fluency in Polish, if you have two languages swirling in your head and that impedes your ability to communicate complex ideas, then you're not fluent. You're heading towards fluency but not quite there yet. The reason you can't write long essays is because you've never really persevered with it. If you enrolled in a degree through the Polish language it would be demanding at first, but within a year you'd probably be completely fluent. I suspect that you enjoy writing in English and have developed a certain style over the years but you can't achieve that quality and style in Polish which you find frustrating but don't dismiss your ability to do a competent essay po Polsku. The sad fact is that wihere degree studies are concerned it's not so much about your talents as a writer but often more about serving back to the examiner the same stuff that's been dished up on the course you've studied. You don't really need to be brilliant or outstanding or especially original, you just need to give them what they want and include all the key points that you're supposed to have absorbed.

Well anyway, let us know how it goes with your parents and good luck with everything. Stay strong!

Study / Poznan University of Economics or University of Warsaw ? [25]

Maybe if you go to college in Chicago you could get some kind of summer internship in New York as a kind of compromise? I suppose everybody is chasing them but it's always worth a try.

Study / Poznan University of Economics or University of Warsaw ? [25]

Sorry but something doesn't add up here. Last week you were saying that studying in Poland had always been yourdream, now it's your parents' dream. Last week you were worrying that your 'very average grades' (your own words) wouldn't be good enough to get you into a Polish university but yet you have received numerous offers from great American universities - which your parents won't let you accept............it just sounds weird.

Study / Poznan University of Economics or University of Warsaw ? [25]


Yes Uncle Dom, that's what I done diddly said, diddle I? :))



Which of course the OP won't be able to provide. Even if she'd completed the degree the university probably wouldn't or couldn't give her that information. I think foreigners have absolutely no idea how unhelpful Polish bureacrats can be. So really she can't know until she's potentially wasted three or four years of her life with a degree that will be of no use to her.

I just linked to those equivalency things to give Slavic some idea of how the system works but yes, the bottom line is that there's no way of knowing until you do it for real. Also you're undoubtedly right that an English language progam will be of very basic quality. Your profiling of the students attending those courses is spot on.


Once again you speak the truth oh Wise One.

Study / Poznan University of Economics or University of Warsaw ? [25]

Ok, I managed to find this information for you in terms of equivalence which gives you some idea of credit transfer between Poland and America:

"Ultimately, it is the student's home institution that decides how the credits and grades earned at the Jagiellonian University will be entered into their home institution's records. Many US colleges, for example, consider 2 ECTS points to be 1 US 'credit hour'.

Some North American institutions use the following equivalences for grades:

2.0 = F
3.0 = C
3.5 = C+
4.0 = B
4.5 = B+
5.0 = A

Please consult your home institution before assuming that they will follow any specific system of interpretation or equivalence."

You need to familiarise yourself with the European Credit Transfer stystem (ECT) and the Polish grading system.

Here's a link to the full explanation:

ces.uj.edu.pl/undergraduate/credit-transfer-from-study-abroad

ECTs

are determined by the number of hours required to complete each module/course in a study year. Your Polish transcripts will give ECTs which an American college can then convert into the American equivalent. Roughly a three year undergraduate program will give you 180 Ects if I remember correctly.

ec.europa.eu/education/resources/european-credit-transfer-accumulation-system_en

Here's the American system explained and it has a section on converting ECTS into American credits with an online calculator:

mastersportal.eu/articles/1110/what-you-need-to-know-about-academic-credit-systems-in-the-us.html

This is about transferring to an American college from Europe. It has a transfer profile section where you can search colleges in America for their requirements. Your choice of law school might be on there:

collegetransfer.net/ContinueMyEducation/ChangeSwitchTransfer/TransferStudentCenter/ForInternationalStudents/tabid/997/default.aspx

Study / Poznan University of Economics or University of Warsaw ? [25]

Hi Slavic. You're back! I thought you were going to study political science and economics in the USA? The University of Warsaw is certainly reputable but that doesn't necessarily mean that the degree you choose will be ok for law school. The only way to determine whether the degree obtained in Poland would be acceptable for American law school is to contact the law schools you're interested in and ask them. It may not be easy to get a definite answer from them however. Institutes of higher education usually decide these things on a case by case basis, unless they have an arrangement in place with other education authorities/individual 'partner' colleges, so they usually ask to see a detailed syllabus for the degree you've studied in order to determine the level of the content. So unless they've had applicants in the recent past who've done the same degree as the one you're considering, then they won't be able to give you a definite answer. The same thing goes for the transfer business.

Another thing you'll find when you start dealing with any official stuff in Poland is that though things have improved there, it can still be difficult to obtain information that is easy to get in more 'Western' countries and the process of accessing information can be slow. However it's worth contacting Warsaw University and asking them whether any students from the English language medium degrees have transferred back to American colleges during their studies. You'll probably need to phone them as Polish offices of all kinds are notoriously bad at responding to emails and you won't get a definite answer straight away. It will take a bit of chasing up. Now in Ireland, where I'm from, you can actually get to talk to a Prof from the course you're interested in, they're extremely approachable but that's not generally the case in Poland unless the college has an open day. However it's often the best way to quickly access really useful information.

As to getting accepted, it really depends on the number of applicants they get but even if your grades are a bit borderline, they will probably squeeze you in if they can, because as other posters previously mentioned, they really do want the money.

Law / I bet that many of you forgot to register in the Poland's municipality office [13]

But, Terri you're Polish aren't you? I always thought you were. Poland will always consider you a Polish citizen regardless of your British residency/citizenship. Why would you have to register as a foreigner??

Study / Need advice with admission to the University of Warsaw!! Please help!! [26]

I'm genuinely sorry that you feel your dream crumpled. That's very hard to deal with alright. Look, you could still go ahead with your plans to study in Poland but it depends on what your objectives are. If you just want to a) get a basic undergraduate degree to pave the way to law school and b) save momey, then you can meet those objectives. But against that you have to weigh up the quality of the degree you get, whether it will help you to acquire good study skills and truly further your broader education and what employment/further education prospects it gives you, should you decide not to pursue law as a career.