Work / Doing my course in Krakow, working in EFL in Poland (newbie questions) [43]


Er...it's really not an elite job at all. It can pay well by Polish standards (comparing to mid 20's Poles), but given the lack of "good" ESL jobs in Poland, it really doesn't do much for one's career.

As for competition - no sweat off my back, I don't work in-school for anyone. Most of my clients are with me because I offer stability, so really, not the same market at all. In fact, the biggest threat to most ESL teachers in Poland is from useless American "native speakers" who only want beer money while they study medicine or similar.

But the ESL market in Poland isn't a land of milk and honey either - I've heard quite a few stories this year of schools cutting natives hours. In fact, I know some very experienced teachers who are teaching Callan/other "methods" this year - why, I don't know and don't understand, but it's certainly the case.

The best advice I could give a newbie teacher is wait until September and find something stable for a year, preferably in a smaller town - because they might throw accomodation in.

Work / Doing my course in Krakow, working in EFL in Poland (newbie questions) [43]


One problem - native speakers of English tend to have **** language skills.

Work / Doing my course in Krakow, working in EFL in Poland (newbie questions) [43]


What I've noticed is that there's significant dissatisfaction among people with schools in general - I can't help but think that this is directly caused by the Polish DOS obsession with "methodology" at the expense of keeping people happy.

Quite a few of my students have came to me after getting pissed off with language schools not giving them what they want.

USA, Canada / PolAm style Thanksgiving? [35]


How much did the duck set you back?

Work / Doing my course in Krakow, working in EFL in Poland (newbie questions) [43]

Poland is becoming just like Western Europe - there can be a lot of money to be had, but you need contacts and experience to get them.

Life / Polish Pay As You Go Phone SIMs - do all have compulsory recharging / top up? [11]


Play offers a year's validity of credit, which is about as good as it gets here.

Travel / Experiences in Restaurants in Poland [10]


Good - means I don't pay for something that I don't want or need.

Incidentally, the only places I've ever seen this are bottom tier restaurants.

News / Local elections in Poland, EU citizens should register to vote [57]

Ah, resorting to insults when you have nothing intelligent to say.

What's it like waking up to the reality today that PO and the SLD effectively control Poland?

News / Local elections in Poland, EU citizens should register to vote [57]


Exactly - so the parties would be forced to get those individuals under their wing. Not an easy job, and would make the national parties far more accountable. If they failed, the national parties would have to contend with strong coalitions at the provincial level. A few strong independent Sejmiks could easily come together and pose a real threat to the national parties - in short : win-win for everyone.

The apathy shown by the national parties towards these elections is a huge problem.


Would be far better than the current situation where your local council member has no influence at all over national policy.


Can't be that hard - easiest way would be for the Gminas to elect someone to an "electoral college". That electoral college has to elect 30 members from among themselves - as simple as "most votes wins". If all 30 members don't get elected first time, then a second round and so on until all 30 seats are filled. Disallow candidates from voting for themselves, problem solved.

News / Local elections in Poland, EU citizens should register to vote [57]

That's only because the system encourages it. If the gmina level elections suddenly had much more importance, then you'd see the parties pay much more attention to them. Think about now - the national parties don't care if "Jan Kowalski" gets elected to a local gmina council, because he has no influence over them. But if he suddenly has influence over the Sejmik elections - and the Sejmik has much more power, then we'd see far more relevant elections at the gmina level.

Win-win situation.

News / Local elections in Poland, EU citizens should register to vote [57]


No, I think they would be best to be elected on the basis of the gmina elections. The Sejmik have little to no power - and most people don't care about them. Elect them on a proportional basis according to results in the gmina elections, job done.

Of course, in a perfect world, we would keep the Sejmik elections and grant them much more power. But sadly, the consensus in Poland is for a strong central government.

News / Local elections in Poland, EU citizens should register to vote [57]


The worst thing for them is that it's not a total disaster - the Sejmik results will give Kaczynski just enough support to stay in position until the Sejm/Senat elections.

But when you dig into the results, you can see what a disaster it was for them - barely 10% in the Poznan Presidential election for example. About the only thing that this election is telling us is that Kaczynski's strategy isn't working and that the SLD's strategy is.

Not a bad result for the PSL either.

News / Local elections in Poland, EU citizens should register to vote [57]


That's for the absolutely pointless Sejmik elections, not for the whole country at all. Even just now - it was 50/21 in Pomorskie. Good result? No.

They've still lost ground from the 2006 elections to the "Sejmiks", and worse still, they're not even getting into the 2nd round of many of the Presidential races. Heck, they haven't even managed to get into the 2nd round in Krakow!

But returning to the Sejmik elections - it's 10/6 in favour of PO. It was 8/7 in the Presidential election. You call this a good result?


Do I have to remind you for the millionth time that PiS and Kaczynski promoted spending more than PO have done? While PO were reigning in spending, PiS were screaming "SPEND, SPEND" because America was doing just that.

End result : America is ******, while Poland is doing ok.

News / Polish GDP per capita has dropped ! [30]


Yes, prices are rising. As are wages. It's called 'convergence'.

News / Polish GDP per capita has dropped ! [30]


Erm...do you really not understand that although the amount of zloty might have dropped, what you can buy for that zloty has increased dramatically?

News / Local elections in Poland, EU citizens should register to vote [57]

Oh dear. Looks like PiS couldn't even force a 2nd round of voting in Warsaw.

Work / Doing my course in Krakow, working in EFL in Poland (newbie questions) [43]


Over-saturated.


Not particularly good. It's fine if you're already on the ground and known to people, but otherwise, forget it - unless you're fortunate enough to chuck in a CV just as another teacher leaves. It's just not a good time to pick up anything worthwhile.


Not quite so over-saturated, but at that time of year, you've got the same problem - the schools have their teachers and timetable in place for the year. If you can be flexible and are willing to work hard in building a timetable, then it might not be so bad. But - to give an example in Poznan - the schools tend to rely on calling up known faces if something comes up.

It also depends on your own financial situation - those who can pick and choose tend to be much better off at this time of the year.


Could be an option - native speakers are much more in demand in small cities/towns than in the major cities. They're also much more likely to hire you at a distance than any school in a big city. The other huge benefit is that they're much more likely to allow you to develop - unlike many school directors in big cities who expect perfection straight away.


Count on 2000zl a month as a newbie. Could be lower in small towns, but generally speaking, this is what to aim for. It can go up rapidly (4000-5000zl a month in a big city is easily achievable with a bit of work) - but to begin with, 2000zl a month is realistic.

News / How can Poles make a conscious choice about elections? [15]


It's all down to the candidates themselves being absolutely useless. There's even several examples of election committees not managing to put together any sort of web presence here in Poznan - and for that, they're pathetic.

I've never understood why the smaller committees are so dreadful at this - it takes enough effort to get your name on the ballot, so why not do something?

For what it's worth, my two votes (I don't get to vote in the provincial election for some reason) both went to candidates who had a web presence.

News / Will Komorowski be Poland's worst ever president? [72]


Hahaha. Yet another person who only believes what he wants to believe.

Actually, Komorowski is a model Catholic - he has a wife, several children, has great personal relations with several bishops and so on. Calling Komorowski a "liberal" is about as idiotic as it gets - he's conservative through and through. As for abortion - can you provide me with one scrap of evidence that suggests that Komorowski is pro-abortion? Course you can't.


Well done, you've just shown how clueless you are. The "Centre Agreement" was actually headed by Jaroslaw Kaczynski. And - just to add to this - may I remind you that Jaroslaw Kaczynski is pro-trade union, pro-welfare and generally very socialist in nature? You know, one of the biggest groups supporting "Law and Justice" is - surprise - the Solidarity trade union. Let's not forget that the same Kaczynski supports state-subsidies towards all manner of inefficient State owned businesses. Komorowoski doesn't.


Cute. They didn't have conservative values at all - in fact, they had very socialist values. I know Americans are generally too dumb to understand this, but the Kaczynski twins were classic socialists. Look at their supporters - many of them rely on government handouts. PO voters tend to be financially independent. Who is "conservative" here?

Now, get lost. You don't even understand how the Polish Presidency works - so really, you don't have a clue.

News / Polish GDP per capita has dropped ! [30]


Last time it happened, they lost badly at the next election.

The best result for Poland would be something around 35% PO, 20% SLD - a solid majority in the Sejm, yet both sides forced to work together to find common ground.

USA, Canada / PolAm style Thanksgiving? [35]

Hmm. There's that really high end supermarket nearish the train station - I don't know what it's called, but they might be able to sort you out with something.

You're right though, never seen a whole turkey here either.

Life / Any there treatment centers for unmarried in Poland? [36]


Hahaha, well done Nathan - you got a rise out of the usual suspect. :)

Law / Would be an honor to serve in Poland. Can an American pilot transfer to the Polish Airforce? [14]


Serving under American command no doubt, as well.

Law / Does a normal Polish citizen working from Polish home need to pay tax for foreign works? [23]


Maybe. I don't know how employment with a foreign-based company is handled in Poland legally. I'm not even sure that Poland recognises employment with an employer that isn't registered at all in Poland.


As I said, it's possible. But what happens when the jealous uncle reports him? The Polish taxman isn't known for being weak. In fact, they've forced (wrongly) several businesses out of business, and have refused to follow orders from the Supreme Court.


Indeed, and keep detailed receipts of spending, along with proof of maintaining a residence outside of Poland.

Really, for the sake of not paying 19% tax, is it worth it?

News / Local elections in Poland, EU citizens should register to vote [57]


But at least they've done something, eh?

What did PiS achieve, apart from using the security forces to spy on the independent media?

Merged thread:
Who voted today?

me :)


Far too many. The whole structure seems deliberately designed to the Communist way of doing things - and doesn't appear to have been thought out rationally at all.

There's absolutely no need to have the powiat structure, and if the smaller gminas find that their interests aren't being expressed, then they can join together to form bigger units.

Law / Does a normal Polish citizen working from Polish home need to pay tax for foreign works? [23]

Not a Polack, I suppose.

Law / Does a normal Polish citizen working from Polish home need to pay tax for foreign works? [23]


And I bet that was with the British system, not the Polish system ;)

The biggest absurdity I've been hearing here is the way that they'll fine you, even if you go directly to them to admit the mistake. I know someone who went over the VAT limit entirely accidentally, they realised that they needed to register and went straight there - only to get a fine equal to the amount over the threshold (8000zl). Nuts.

I still maintain that the biggest threat doesn't come from the taxman snooping, but rather jealous family/neighbours.

Law / Does a normal Polish citizen working from Polish home need to pay tax for foreign works? [23]


In theory, yes. In practice, they're not going to buy it - living in a flat by yourself would be a telltale sign, as would almost any aspect of modern living. Then there's the simple, easy part that a Polish bank account will be paying interest - which will then be paid to the Urzad Skarbowy automatically. If you claim that the money is in an offshore bank account to pay for the flat/modern living/etc - then they'll want to see the details of the offshore accounts.

Don't forget that most people would crumble under investigation anyway.

About the only way to get away with it would be if you have rich parents who actually sustain your costs of living and who can demonstrate that they're paying for you to live.

Life / Picking up BBC television in Poland [41]

With most programmes paid for, and probably nowhere near the amount of content as available on the UK version.

Law / Does a normal Polish citizen working from Polish home need to pay tax for foreign works? [23]


Then he is still liable for taxation. It really doesn't matter how he earns the money - for tax purposes, he's resident in Poland and therefore must pay tax.

Renting a flat would almost certainly provide the tax authorities with the evidence that he's earning money from abroad if he's not showing up on the Polish tax system. Bear in mind that some Poles can be bitterly jealous, even towards their own family - all it takes is one bitter uncle to report him and he'll be in a world of trouble.

I'm also reliably told that the usual punishment for tax evasion is a fine equal to 100% of what's owed, plus the original tax owed.

I'm not sure on how it works from your point of view, but as he's legally resident in Poland, something tells me that you should be registering with the social insurance institution to pay his social taxes as well.