News / How will BREXIT affect the immigrants in UK and Poland. [1114]

Well it looks like old Blighty is out. No need for panic though. It will take years of faffing about and 'talks' for this process to be completed. I do think that the EU is heading into a process of devolution and reformation. It's inevitable because the whole thing has become unwieldy. Big organizations need to move with the changing times, otherwise they tend to go out of business.

Life / Poland after one year of living here [105]


Oddly enough I've found that Polish people are delighted when you have a go at the local dishes. But having said that I think they do like to try something different. They are interested in food and curious about the cuisine of the British Isles and they also like to have something 'special' when they go out visiting. There's always the danger that they won't like it however so I would suggest a combined menu of Polish and English dishes. I usually do a classic English cake or desert. Poles have a sweet tooth so it's a safe bet. English cakes are so much nicer than Polish I have to say and Poles seem to agree. They simply gobble up a lemon drizzle cake or a coffee and walnut sponge with thick icing - yummy.


Well there you are now - that could be his new hobby! Anyway he doesn't have to cook the whole dinner, he could just one or two simple dishes and wifey could take up the slack:)


You can't go wrong with a good old afternoon tea - easy peasy even for a novice. Everything is ready well before the guests arrive so there's no last minute sweating and panic in the kitchen as the doorbell rings or the 'excuse me I must go and stir the sauce' routine. Also an advantage is that everything you need for it is actually obtainable in Poland although the white bread here is not the same so the sandwiches will be somewhat compromised :( However you can manage a selection of tomato, cucumber and smoked salmon for the little triangular sandwiches, home made scones with fresh cream and delcicious raspberry jam, use another batch of the scone dough for some cheese scones (very easy to make), victoria sponge with jam and a dusting of icing sugar on the top, The rule for the novice is avoid pastry, fruit cakes and anything with yeast as these are tricky and require experience. Otherwise knock yourself out!

By the way it's soooo easy to make your own jam and now is the time to do it with all that lovely fruit around.

I suppose the only problem with all this is that poor Luke says he needs to lose weight so perhaps cooking is not the best hobby for him, unless he concentrates on the healthy, low calorie options. Could also be fun!

Life / Poland after one year of living here [105]


That's actually very true. Once a Pole decides to unbend and talk to you, you can be stuck there for an hour. You stop to exchange a quick hello and expect to talk for two or three minutes, but no, once they get a head of steam up, beware!

Also if they decide to befriend you, they will pursue you relentlessly! So if you want to be friends with them, my advice is do the same. They'll understand :)

Finally, though they can appear cold and not very friendly, a lot of Polish people are actually quite shy and especially with a 'foreigner' they're sometimes not sure of the cultural norms of your background and they don't want to say or do the wrong thing and perhaps offend you. Our neighbours are elderly and appear very austere and unsmiling. On Christmas Eve we knocked on their door with a little gift for them. The husband took my hand and kissed it and then burst into tears! I ended up hugging him even though I don't know them very well and it was quite a breach of Polish formalities for me to do that. But since then they always smile and stop for a quick chat when we meet.

Life / Poland after one year of living here [105]


What about us Irish? 'We're European you know!

News / How will BREXIT affect the immigrants in UK and Poland. [1114]

Or could it be that the French would like to get out themselves and would like the UK to pave the way? They are a large enough nation to feel that they could go it alone. I think some kind of devolution of the EU in its present form is inevitable but with former members retaining some special relationships with each other. It's no big deal really. It would mean a few decades of a bit of a mess but isn't that the way history works.

Work / A PhD Moving to Kraków, Poland! Salary, housing, spendings, nightlife, English knowledge. [14]


Hi Einsiedler. Wow, 2,500, that's very little. You'd better start putting a few pennies in you piggybank now if you can afford to, as a bit of a nest egg would be good to fall back on especially if any emergency expenses arise. Also, I don't want to be a negative Nelly but don't assume that they will keep their word about the salary increase. Even if it's in writing in the contract they may not necessarily honour it. Poland can be like that. You might get an increase but it might only be half the amount promised. Your best bet is to try to drum up some business with the French lessons.

Poles love all things French and they think the language is beautiful so if you're a native speaker you've a good chance of finding students. You could possibly even give some kind of grinds to students of French at the university? Also as your subject is science there might be some opportunities there if the students speak good enough English but I'm not sure, the technical vocabulary might be a bit of a problem.


Oh it will, believe me! Anyway, that's the right spirit with which to approach it, good luck with everything:)

UK, Ireland / How might Britain`s withdrawal from EU affect Poles there and here? [474]


But that's a very small number Doug. The only Poles who could qualify to vote are those who have British citizenship and that's a tiny percentage. I believe it's around 1%.


Only Irish and Commonwealth citizens living in Britain.

Life / In Poland, are women and girls obligated to wear head scarves in church? [36]


This is a mantilla. It's a Spanish custom but was very popular in Irish churches too, stopped during the 1980s. My aunt lived in Madrid and sent my mother some rather magnificent black lace ones but you could buy really cheap white ones that looked like a bit of old net curtain! A woman is still required to wear a mantilla if meeting the Pope, it has to be a black one I believe.

Work / A PhD Moving to Kraków, Poland! Salary, housing, spendings, nightlife, English knowledge. [14]


Paulina you're what we'd call in Ireland 'a lovely girl', going to all that trouble looking things up for the OP :) You can still qualify as a 'girl' in Ireland up to your mid-fifties:D

Work / A PhD Moving to Kraków, Poland! Salary, housing, spendings, nightlife, English knowledge. [14]

Hi Einsiedler.


I would say that's a big fat 'no',if you mean an apartment with a living room and separate bedroom. In Poland apartments are not described in terms of the number of bedrooms but the number of rooms overall so in local terms you're talking about a two room apartment. Paying for a bedroom that sits empty most of the day and is only used for sleeping is an unknown concept amongst the locals! People who earn 3,000 a month would be living in a studio apartment or perhaps even in shared accommodation.

In addition to the rent you will most probably be required to pay the 'czynsz'. This is the monthly service charge that all residents/owners pay on their apartment. It covers refuse collection and standing charge for water though if you have a meter, the meter will be read a couple of times a year and you'll have the water bill to pay. However it can be spread out over the year and paid per month. The czynsz might cover the central heating and gas supply if there is one. In the older buildings the heating is often a communal system where it's switched on in October and runs till April. You're charged a standard rate for it through the czynsz regardless of how much you use. If the flat has a self contained central heating system, you'll pay that as a separate utility. Electricity is separate too. You'll have to organise your internet, that's not too expensive. I pay 60PLN per month for unlimited. I don't have a tv or landline phone so I don't know what those charges are. If you have internet you can use Skype for your calls and that will save you money.



Got it in one Paulina! Well look it's like this. Someone from western Europe, from an average background, will not be accustomed to the adjustments you have to make in order to live on that kind of salary. Locals have a thousand ways of saving money on small purchases that are literally bred into them almost from the cradle and they don't even stop to think about it. But the OP will have to learn that.

Here's a few examples. When you're on that kind of money, be prepared to go the bakery just before closing time and you'll get bread at half price. If you have a Bazar or Targowisko near you (kind of open air market) you can sometimes pick up bargains in fresh produce on a Saturday afternoon if it's about to go off and they want to get rid of it. This is particularly true of seasonal fruits and veg. Investigate all the shops in your neighbourhood and find out which ones have the lowest prices for each item. Poles on 3,000 a month don't go to one supermarket and fill up their trolley. They go to a number of different shops. They might buy bread at a particular bakery, frozen veg in Lidl, eggs in Biedronka. They will not pay even a few grosze more than they have to for anything. Many people buy clothes in secondhand shops where you can buy garments by the kilo for a fixed price. Or they buy from stalls in the Bazars. Also they don't eat out, buy takeaways or a sandwich for lunch. Even in the office where my husband works, people bring a packed lunch or yesterday's leftovers. You don't grab a cappucino on the way to work, you bring a flask. You don't jump into a taxi if it's raining or you have heavy shopping. For Poles on that kind of salary everything is a considered purchase. For Westerners, even the most thrifty and sensible of us are accustomed to impulse buys or a bit of spur of the moment self-indulgence.

There are cheap chain stores like C&A but very often the prices are comparable to Western Europe. If you're earning 3,000PLN a month, that's not even 800 euros so..........I recently bought a pair of Reebok trainers and they cost 300PLN. There was a pair of Nike that I also liked but I simply wasn't prepared to pay 500PLN for them. It's often cheaper when you live in Poland, to buy online from Ebay or Amazon but with shoes I don't risk it because of fitting issues. But you can see that if you're earning 3,000 you won't be buying Nike very often.


Do PHD students generally expect to be able to save?? I've never known any who managed it! Anyone I've known who was doing a PHD always had some part time job and was usually only able to manage because they had a partner working full time or parents who were in a position to help them out.

I took a quick look at the link to apartments provided by Paulina. I see there's a couple of studio flats to rent for 750 plus czynsz of between 200 and 300. So just over 1,000. They specify that the czynsz is for water and refuse so you have your other utilities on top. Best to budget for 1,300. Then you have your transport costs which shouldn't be too bad, a little over a hundred or so, leaving you 1,600 for food and everything else. To be honest Einsiedler life would be a bit of a misery on that amount but if you get some students for French it would be ok.


1,750 plus electricity on a salary of 3,000PLN - I think not! I presume you're just using that as an example of the range of prices because the OP simply couldn't afford that. He'd have to gather nuts and berries to live off in the winter at that rate!


I would be wary of that wording. It's very vague. I've heard tales of people renting in such circumstances whre the utilities are in the landlord's name and who ended up being charged considerably more for the utilities than their landlord had intimated.

UK, Ireland / How might Britain`s withdrawal from EU affect Poles there and here? [474]

Here you go Johnny. You can own certain types of guns but only with the proper permits/license:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firearms_policy_in_the_United_Kingdom

UK, Ireland / How might Britain`s withdrawal from EU affect Poles there and here? [474]

Contradictory testimonies of eye witnesses are part and parcel of such events and if this comes to trial no doubt the witnesses will be cross examined in order to try to get to the truth of that. The cafe owner who witnessed the events insists that the killer shouted either 'Britain first' or 'Put Britain first'. However it's unlikely to come to trial as it would have to be a plea of 'not guilty' which is hardly likely in the circumstances - unless of course not guilty on grounds of insanity.

UK, Ireland / How might Britain`s withdrawal from EU affect Poles there and here? [474]



Do you mean that there's no proof that the murderer was a racist thug or that there's no proof that she was a campaigner for refugees?

independent.co.uk/news/people/jo-cox-obituary-the-labour-mp-who-campaigned-tirelessly-for-refugee-children-a7086141.html

The guy who murdered her was heard by witnesses shouting 'Britain first' during the attack. Here's a bit about him:

telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/16/jo-cox-mp-everything-we-know-so-far-about-thomas-mair

Seems that he had mental health issues and had been receiving treatment. He had shown far right political leanings in the past including white supremacy. He may not be a thug as such but he would certainly appear to be a racist. I don't think he selected her randomly or was going around armed with a gun and a knife on the off chance that he might bump into an MP. She was chosen because of her politics and that's a fact.

News / Good-change government raising minimum wage in Poland, cutting SB pensions [213]


Did they retire on their 80th birthdays on a full pension? :D

Study / Tuition Hours in Polish Universities [20]

Believe it or not that includes tutorials! I understand that for arts courses there's a huge amount of reading to do which can be done at home but all the same........

Now when I was a 'gal', in art college we did appallingly long hours, 8.30 till 5.00 five days a week with two evening classes from 7pm to 9.30pm and we had to sign in and out when we arrived in the morning and when we left the building! Of course most of the hours were spent on practical work obviously.

When I did my Montessori teacher training it was very intensive. Three days a week in lectures from 9.00 to 4.00 and two full days each week in supervised teaching practice with a two week block in each term and a month long block following exams in May. Not to mention all the assignments, essays, projects, designing and making teaching materials and keeping a teaching practice diary. As recently as the 1970s students at the main teacher training colleges in Ireland frequently lived in and on Sundays they had to attend mass, being checked first for their skirt lengths and that they were wearing a black mantilla, white was forbidden for some strange reason. There were also up to 80 children per class in some of their teaching practice placements!

UK, Ireland / How might Britain`s withdrawal from EU affect Poles there and here? [474]

Thought this might be of interest to anyone who hasn't seen it, as it draws information together from a range of polls and is updated twice weekly.

economist/blogs/graphicdetail/2016/06/britain-s-eu-referendum

UK, Ireland / How might Britain`s withdrawal from EU affect Poles there and here? [474]



Are you American by any chance? That's a real American English construction in the above sentence. It's also a rather American point of view. British politics are rather different and you certainly won't see the end of well established parties, nor will you see a massive swing to the right. Britian isn't mainland Europe either.


It could be a lot sooner than that. Remember what happened in Ireland with the Lisbon treaty where the public voted 'no' and were then told to have another go! First referendum was June 2008 and the second one was October 2009.

News / Poland leads in child well-being -- UNICEF [75]

Well if you look back a hundred years ago in the British Isles there was a great deal of material deprivation but it wasn't so much through poor choices, but rather through the structure of society at the time. The poverty we have today is different in that materially the state provides better for people than it ever did in the past and yet still we have children who are literally going hungry.

News / Poland leads in child well-being -- UNICEF [75]


Absolutely. And there are certain universal basics that can be measured and compared such as whether a child has adequate nourishment, access to education,health care and so on. I would say that overcrowding is a serious issue in Polish homes, especially in urban areas in flats and apartments. The form in which the questions are put to children doesn't really reveal that. The questions should be 'how many people live in your home?' and 'how many rooms are in your home?' but the question asked is 'do you have your own room?'. Now I've known Polish kids who talk about their 'room' when referring to the place where they sleep but it's not an actual bedroom. On one occasion a fourteen year old girl enthusiastically invited me to see 'her room'. It was a loft bed in the kitchen ; it was very nicely built with an area underneath for her desk and computer and she was so proud and pleased with it. It's quite possible that she would answer that question with a 'yes' but it's not a bedroom in the accepted sense of the word.


Yes and it's the same in Ireland. Having worked for years in disadvantaged areas I can confirm that this is definitely the case. Parents are not always selfish or intentionally neglectful of their children but a good many of them waste money on silly things and ignore the basic essentials, so the child gets taken to the toy shop every Friday for a new toy but comes to school without breakfast, has a takeaway or MacDonalds two evenings a week for dinner and then when the money runs out, a bowl of cereal for the other five.

Work / Average salary for software engineer in an IT company in Poland with a 7 year experience in Java/J2ee Eclipse. [15]

Salaries are higher in Warsaw. But as for the rest, if the position carries the title 'senior software engineer' it could be anywhere between 12,000 and 20,000PLN gross per month, depends on the company, your exact experience and how relevant it is to the post you're applying for. Try looking on the website 'glassdoor' for information on salaries, company reviews etc.

Life / Undercoat for gloss paint not available in Poland? [6]

Thanks Johnny. I've done quite a bit of painting over the years. If I was in Ireland or the UK I'd know exactly what to do but in Polska it's a different story. I haven't seen water based gloss here. I don't like it that much actually because I find it's not as hard wearing as the oil based variety but it's lower odour and of course brushes can be cleaned with water instead of using spirits which again is very whiffy. Satinwood paints and eggshell paints are my favourite (don't know the American equivalent) but I don't know what the Polish version of those would be, if any.

The staff in the paint shops here are not that helpful/knowledgeable in my opinion. There is still that tendency in Poland to take the attitude that if they haven't heard of it, it doesn't exist. Their faces just shut down and they're not even interested in trying to suggest some alternative from what they have available. Also they're staffed largely by men who clearly think women have no business meddling in this sort of thing.

There was an Irish candid camera show years ago where they errected a sign in a hardware store 'Unaccompanied ladies will not be served'. Oh God, it was funny. A woman came in and wanted to buy something. The man behind the counter then directed her attention to the sign and suggested that she ask a male customer to request the item on her behalf. This was the Ireland of the 1970s where that kind of thing might just have happened for real. Would you believe I found it on YouTube:

youtube.com/watch?v=l4mp_MFr7qc

In case you don't catch everything the second customer says, when her patience finally runs out (the Dublin accent you know), it includes 'would you go 'way and get stuffed' and a few invocations of 'Holy Jesus'.


Not sure it's worth it Johhny. It's only a couple of doors, not very exciting!

Life / Undercoat for gloss paint not available in Poland? [6]

Jon I knew you'd come to the rescue, may I say that in this instance you are my fairy godfather :) So basically I suppose the best option is to go for the exterior primer. Fabulous though my decorative schemes are, I can't quite see myself and Mr A heading over the border on a quest for undercoat. Interesting though that you can get it there. Thanks very much for your help.

News / Poland leads in child well-being -- UNICEF [75]


Some families are not capable of doing that without support. How do you propose that a family deals with a teenager who is showing symptoms of schizophrenia or a ten year old who's started sniffing glue? How do you propose to assist a family of five living in a one room flat with a substance abusing adult in the household? Health services need to be involved in these situations.

News / Poland leads in child well-being -- UNICEF [75]


Yes. But much as people complain about the NHS, it is generally pretty good. I know that in Poland palliative care, patient advocacy, rehab services etc can't compare. It takes money as well as a change in attitude to develop those things.

News / Poland leads in child well-being -- UNICEF [75]


However if you look at 'health and safety' you will see that Poland scored badly, much worse than the UK.

News / Poland leads in child well-being -- UNICEF [75]

Poland ranks overall 14 out of 21 nations surveyed which isn't great.


But is that because they're physically active or undernourished due to material deprivation? Poland scored very poorly in terms of childrens' material well being, ranking bottom out of the countries surveyed. Stats can always be quoted in such a way as to put something in a favourable or unfavourable light whilst not telling the whole story.

UK, Ireland / How might Britain`s withdrawal from EU affect Poles there and here? [474]


Well the Republic recognises all people born on the island of Ireland as Irish. I was just making the distinction because some people might think that Irish citizen in this case, for voting purposes in Britain might mean only those from Northern Ireland if you get my drift. And yes the country's name is officially Éire (Ireland) and not Republic of Ireland which is merely a descriptive term :)

Work / 13000 zloty salary enough to save 9000 zloty with normal living in Poland? [37]


I stayed in one for a couple of weeks about ten or eleven years ago when we were flat hunting. It was great crack altogether. A former colleague of my husband who had an 'in' there got us a room that happened to be free for a while. Basically it was a one room flat with a separate windowless kitchen and bathroom. The kitchen was really basic, There was an ancient gas cooker,no fridge, but it was such a cold winter that we just put the perishables out on the balcony and they were fine! There was also nothing in the way of pots, pans or utensils but some friends lent us the necessaries for the duration. The studio room was quite large with two double beds and a dining table and four chairs. No telly but they would rent you one for a small charge. I think there might have been some kind of a common room or bar type thing on the ground floor somewhere but I didn't investigate.

The guys living there were alright, we were never disturbed by people being rowdy or anything, although the sound insulation was non-existent and the shift workers in the flat next door were clearly audible having a bath when they arrived home in the middle of the night, splashing vigorously and breaking wind in a most regrettable but undoubtedly necessary fashion:)