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



Keep 'em coming, BRS ! :o)


Interesting!

Work / English qualifications to start Teaching English In Poland. Is degree of some sort needed? [123]


No I don't know that. That sounds like sales spiel for an IT training college, and teaching is something a person has to experience with a good many individuals to gauge whether it works for them or not. It's not like going to an open day at BT to see if you've a head for heights and enjoy putting wires on telegraph poles.

Volunteering to teach (there are such brief roles, see the links above) is not the same as dealing with a student who has paid hard cash for results.

btw I'm not sure BT do those open days, it was just an example that came to mind ;o)

Work / English qualifications to start Teaching English In Poland. Is degree of some sort needed? [123]

Thank you Kaz, however IIRC TEFL is not the same qualification as CELTA. It would appear CELTA is the qualification most sought after.

I have no intention of paying any money for a TEFL or CELTA course until such a time as I am sure I can teach effectively, it is too much money to ambitiously speculate. It's unlikely I'll find a school that will take me sans CELTA, but if I do find one and like the role of teaching English, I'll then do some sums and if it looks do-able then I will enroll at a CELTA course.

For anyone browsing, Barnet/Southgate (N London/Herts) college has a CELTA for £850: barnetsouthgate.ac.uk/courses/search/static

I don't know the rules, but at some colleges you can get the course for free if low income/unemployed.
For example, this college is £1600 usually or nil/zero if at the Concessionary rate, it seems: ocvc.ac.uk/Study_with_us/Subject_areas/Teaching_training/Ox ford/Part_Time/Certificate_in_English_Language_Teaching_To_Adults_CELT A_OXCTE50DB1213012012.aspx

Or under half price here for Concessions: learninharrow.org.uk/site/custom_scripts/php/course-details.php?CID=4662

Work / English qualifications to start Teaching English In Poland. Is degree of some sort needed? [123]

Somewhere in the UK I assume. Crikey! Oh 'eck! A school here in Wroc told me to get a CELTA first, they told me it was 700 quid at the place mentioned above. Anyway, a grand in 1992 would be like two grand now, perhaps more.

Work / English qualifications to start Teaching English In Poland. Is degree of some sort needed? [123]


I was told that one was £700, it's obviously gone up.

Yes, you should do well, when the well-established schools are hiring they do of course want the CELTA, so you've got a far better chance than without it. I don't think you need be discouraged by what you've read in this thread. It's just people like myself who don't want to spend £850 unless we know we'd like the job. It's too much for me to speculate. Someone I know of spent £1K on a CELTA course in the UK to work in another country that he'd visited as a tourist for a month in the past (not here) - he came home pretty quickly as he didn't enjoy teaching there at all, and unless he ever changes his mind he wasted the £1K plus the flights etc. But, other people think teaching is great. I'm not sure I will,

And yes, welcome, p.m. me if you want to meet for a mini tour or a beer! (You're not a member here yet so no one can email you.)

News / 2000 tonnes of asbestos in Wrocław? [12]


Thanks, and obviously, I hope that's the case, but that's not what some of the UK warning literature implies about its hazardous nature. Am just hoping it was not asbestos dust. But, with my luck...


There was a lot of thick polythene covering the building, but the wind was strong and things were falling and coming away, including that powder. There was no one working there when I was under it, so they probably didn't discover the wind damage until the next day.

Work / English qualifications to start Teaching English In Poland. Is degree of some sort needed? [123]

There are a couple of native speaker teaching roles in Wroc at the moment, advertised on Gumtree -

190 clicks for one, 130 clicks for the other (posted in August)

Having checked the links from Mullerice's post - very few posts are on there, and what there is stipulates CELTA etc,

Work / English qualifications to start Teaching English In Poland. Is degree of some sort needed? [123]

I will have a look, but I think to teach English properly I would need more knowledge than I can hope to gain in a short time, particularly the grammar side of things. Using grammar correctly is not the same as being able to explain it (I'm not brilliant at either of them!)


Thanks.

I shall end here for now and say cod bless!

Work / English qualifications to start Teaching English In Poland. Is degree of some sort needed? [123]

Thanks for the comments and posts - I will post again if I find a school to hire me. At the moment, of course, looks very unlikely that I'll end up anywhere except out-of-pocket and suckered. Will keep looking but anyone browsing this thread would be well-advised to do a CELTA before they come to Poland (if they are 100% sure they want to teach and can do it). Can I also say that there are not loads of vacancies even for those with the basic CELTA - it is not easy at all to find yourself working somewhere decent.

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

Yes, thanks for posting that example, Avalon. Perhaps if anyone knows of a similar site, they could point to it.

Work / English qualifications to start Teaching English In Poland. Is degree of some sort needed? [123]

Yes, probably!
What do you think about what the school said to me, re demo lessons for each student and needing to speak Polish ideally?

Work / English qualifications to start Teaching English In Poland. Is degree of some sort needed? [123]

I am not denying you make very good points, I don't disagree. My viewpoint is I don't know if I'm going to be able to stand it. I have taught other subjects one to one before and it was bearable but I didn't have to fork out £1000 to teach them. I can't teach those subjects here unless I learn to speak Polish - highly unlikely inside of 3 to 5 years.

Additionally, I need income now, not to outlay £750 or £1000 now. So, for whatever reason and whatever poor planning or lack of foresight on my part, that's the predicament.

Additionally, if it is true that a person needs to speak Polish before being able to explain grammar, then I can forget it :o)

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

Is there any Polish website, like the UK Nethouseprices website, that shows how much a particular residential property sold for in 2005?

EG "Ul. Skarbowcow 200C, sold 0203/2005 120000PLN, sold 04/10/2011 195000PLN, sold 12/10/2012 170000PLN"

This would allow potential buyers to comparisons between then and now - for whatever reason. Must be a website that does that!!

Work / English qualifications to start Teaching English In Poland. Is degree of some sort needed? [123]

The cost is the problem - a lot of money to invest and then discover either I can't stand teaching or I can't do it well!

(Course cost in the SE of England is £1200 to £1700, depending on the institution. At Wrocław colleges, I have been informed the course is from £750 approx.)

Work / English qualifications to start Teaching English In Poland. Is degree of some sort needed? [123]

I tend to agree, just wanted to run it past a few experienced people here in case for my disadvantaged position (non CELTA, newbie) it was the norm.

Thanks for posting :o)

Work / English qualifications to start Teaching English In Poland. Is degree of some sort needed? [123]

Went for an interview today, very informal.

Proprietor said "You really need to be able to speak Polish if you're going to explain English grammar to the student. If we hire you, you will need to do a free demonstration lesson of an hour with each student so they can see if they find you acceptable. After that, they pay for tuition if they continue with you. Would be 2 to 4 hours a week approximately at most."

I wasn't hired anyway, but found it interesting to discover what the school potentially required of me, as a non CELTA and potential newbie. I suppose as a CELTAless newbie that's the best one can hope for. If I'd paid for a CELTA and heard that, I'd be regretting the money I forked out.

Love / How would Polish people react to a forginer in Poland? [36]

:o)

If only eh!

Love / How would Polish people react to a forginer in Poland? [36]

In this city, it tends to get moderate attention but not usually unpleasantly. Of course, they could be thinking yet another Briton here, we're over-run with them like rats, why won't they go back to their own country, they come here, they take out jobs, they take our women, they open shops everywhere selling mature cheddar cheese, they look unwashed and in old-fashioned clothes, perhaps Ryan Air will go bust and they'll stay in England where they belong...? Jeez I hate these English immigrants everywhere...

News / Who controls Gazeta Wyborcza?? [216]

I've met some nice PiS politicians and some nice PO politicians, plus a few Pelikot candidates who were very pleasant too (in the past 2 years)

I am going to really unintentionally annoy some of you and say that I found all 3 parties spoke a lot of sense on different issues. I didn't agree with any of them (or any other party) on all the issues.

I also don't consider myself competent enough about Poland to know the ins and the outs fully or what's best for her (apart from the fact I am non communist and would oppose communism) but I like to think the Polish electorate know best and I truly do hope that they will study the candidates carefully next time, not necessarily guided by any newspapers, and make the right choice for a peaceful, prosperous country.

Most of the Poles I meet are very nice individuals, and I would wish them nothing less than every success in Poland or wherever they choose to go.

Of course, in the UK, it seems whoever we vote for, the same government always gets in! So people like me are not really going to bother voting any more because it's just a waste of time - they say one thing and do another. Perhaps that happens here too. One thing readers can be assured of: no one's going to grant me a vote in Poland so any incorrect assumptions I make about any party won't be utilised in any ballot :o)

News / 1.3% birth rate = Poland's slow death [221]

Seems to be plenty of kids here in Wroc - make terrible noise on public transport, prams everywhere.
The other week a grandmother asked me to help get an occupied buggy up some steps on to the tram. The other person helping suddenly let go and the buggy nearly tipped over, I grabbed it quickly and have had back pain ever since. The agony I'm in much of the time now reminds me of that fact all the time, not to mention the several in different flats that cry and scream and run around like crazy in my apartment block.

News / Who controls Gazeta Wyborcza?? [216]


Well, if they are then it's quite recent. My home town in Essex has church after church, every few streets.
They are not as well-attended as they used to be - but to say British people are atheist is not so. Many are muslim, many are Christian, and of course other denominations too numerous to list.


Source: humanism.org.uk/campaigns/religion-and-belief-surveys-statistics (UK Humanists' website)


blog.echurchwebsites.org.uk/2011/09/18/uk-religion-final-tables-2011-census/(echurch website, UK)

News / Who controls Gazeta Wyborcza?? [216]

I very rarely see the hard copy of it, my praise of it is conditional upon it not turning into some sort of celeb-idolising rag like much of the British press, with endless nonsense about what Cheryl Cole is up to, who is in the Big Brother house, David Beckham's latest bathroom suite, what's on X-Factor etc etc. If GW starts doing rubbish about Only The Music, Polska X-Factor and similar, I'm not even going to bother reading the online version any more (although in any case I believe they might start charging for access? PIANO paywall or some such?)

I don't mean to offend if you're a fan of any of those shows, but to me they're just so uninteresting, the last thing I'd want is to be faced with in GW is page after page of Celeb Goss.

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


Yes, that would be my worry in some cases now too. I would not say every development had succumbed to that, but I would certainly think harder than before. Problem is, can anyone tell before purchase unless they are very expert indeed? You would surely need to see what materials went in and what's hidden in the structure. I certainly would not have the knowledge for that. I might be able to spot something already starting to show signs of a fault but not be able to otherwise look at a building and spot what was omitted (unles very obvious!) and could cause subsidence or cracking etc.

News / Who controls Gazeta Wyborcza?? [216]

So, I chatted with a probable right-wing political type yesterday (can I stress that I am politically impartial, I really am).

I said to them: "Why do you dislike AM? He spent 7 years in jail opposing communism, did he not? Why the problem with him?"

The reply was: "He wrote books in prison, was given privileges. Why do you think that was?"

I responded: "He behaved well or all prisoners were given those privileges?"

They responded: "No, think about it."

I asked: "You don't think someone would suffer any period in jail for some sort of charade do you?"

They replied: "Yes."

My obvious reaction was one of disbelieving my own ears.

So, having looked into things since my last post, my own view is that Michnik seems fine to me. But, I also think Kuklinski was indeed closer to hero than anything negative, I definitely do not agree that he is a traitor. Neither did Clinton when he was the US president. Can anyone give me an impartial link that proves Kuklinski did it for lots of cash and not primarily for moral reasons? I do not agree that an oath sworn to the army has any validity when you have reason to believe you'd be promoting oppression of your own countrymen by not blowing the whistle. As a citizen, I would expect my servicemen to do what is best for my country and my freedoms, not keep to some oath just because it was sworn. That's like Nazis shooting prisoners because they promised they would. Doesn't make it right, doesn't make it anything other than murder.

Some quarters maintain that Kuklinski may even have prevented a serious war at that point in history - looks to me like they have a good point.

The CIA have an interesting (positive) page about him, as you might expect of course
cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol44no3/html/v44i3a03p.htm

Here's a 2 minute video about him
youtube.com/watch?v=oGKFM0Q_8f8

Here's a long, Polish documentary on him
youtube.com/watch?v=gfF4usEfTI0&feature=relmfu

I read (as best I can!) GW and looks pretty OK to me. Seems a bit childish at times with some of its criticisms, but no newspaper is perfect and am yet to find any journalist or editor anywhere in the world who has managed to do their job without offending someone somewhere.

I look at both sides - I have read GP and FP, as well as GW. The truth is out there - somewhere. Seems in this life what's true for someone is not always viewed as the plain truth by someone else. I used to think the truth was simply the truth, but experience has taught me people just don't always see it like that no matter how obvious it may be to others, and I probably will never know why.

News / Who controls Gazeta Wyborcza?? [216]


Thanks for the reply, sorry this is short as am pressed for time at the moment.

I agree with much of what you say, but not sure I agree about Kuklinski or that General J. From what I have read about the former, even on Wikipedia, and some documentary which I think was about him, he seems more of a hero than "spy".

Even Clinton wanted Kuklinski exonerated, did he not?

If Kuklinski helped bring about the fall of communism, not sure why anyone Polish and non-communist would think he was not a hero. Baffling in many ways. But perhaps my knowledge is lacking. I would obviously be a non-communist if I had to wear a badge :o)

News / Who controls Gazeta Wyborcza?? [216]

If Michnik was anti-comm (although his parents were comms?) and spent (how many?) years in prison for opposing comms, why do some political parties (perhaps P i S, am not sure) not much like his newspaper and not much like him?

Anyone tell me - genuinely don't know.

Will check back tonight. Thanks in adv.

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

Bit short of time today so cannot double check the translation, but if I read it right then ...

abandoned residential developments in Wrocław - the sites have been abandoned, and the buyers are left out of pocket so far

wroclaw.gazeta.pl/wroclaw/1,36743,12387612,Klopoty_dewelopera__ Nie_buduje__ludzie_bez_pieniedzy.html

However, not sure exactly why this is unless people are turning to renting - because Wroc seems a lot busier this summer than last. They're not all tourists! Seems more people have moved to the city from villages or towns. Just try to walk along Krzyki and see how many people are around, rushing here and there, on bicycles and on foot, in cars and on the trams etc. Busier than last August for sure. The population is either swelling or they've forgotten to go home after Euro 2012...

Work / Finding work in Warsaw / Poland as an English private tutor [63]

Kind of you to offer that to me or who it was aimed at (a zenski?) ;o)

Yes, wise advice, but believe it or not that's what I've been offering the handful of schools here that I know of - "a few hours" I called it, it's exactly what I have been pitching and getting my Polish-speaking helper to ask them. As we go to press, no joy. Too much competition here in Wroc or just unlucky with the schools I approached. Dunno...

Work / Finding work in Warsaw / Poland as an English private tutor [63]


A-lev @A


Thanks, I don't know where to find students - I offered to teach a very nice shopkeeper for free (really nice bloke) but he didn't even want free lessons! I used to teach IT 1 to 1 in the UK when I was self emp there. Didn't do too badly, got recommended, didn't really have to advertise much after 6 mths. But was no great big income either so I stopped it after a few years.