USA, Canada / If America is so bad, why move here? [254]


and yet, sooooo many people have come here.....and millions continue to.....every......single......year. it MUST be a total $hit hole.

reading posts like this absolutely crack me up. this guy's got it all figured out. just another young kid who just got done reading a month's worth of statistics about "us vs. them" and is just running with it. He's an over the top holy roller on top of that.

listen young whipper snapper....your life is not going to make some miraculous change by moving to Poland. you are who you are and if you think going to Poland is going to somehow transform your life, you are mistaken. all the things you want in life are nowhere more readily available than in the good ole' USA. it's simple dude.....don't be a statistic! just because "the average American does x, y, and z" doesn't mean you have to as well. I lived in Poland for 4 years and never wore a track suit, didn't practice religion, didn't watch soccer, thought Polish beer kinda sucked, refused to eat paczki for breakfast.....I could go on and on. You're trying to run from something and whatever it is, it is going to get right on the plane with you if you decide to move. Do what you want, but "the cure" doesn't lie in Poland, a place you know next to nothing about.

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


it sounds nice but there's a reason most people don't live that way anymore. like anything else, it comes down to money.

the middle class especially is and has been deteriorating which is why one middle class salary cannot support a family anymore. the days of "Daddy is a fireman and mommy is home washing dishes with a bun in the oven" are over. people aren't making conscious decisions not to live like that, they simply can't swing it on single income.


anyone? oh I don't know, what about women ages 18-25 that have no interest in children yet and need money to....uhhmmm.....eat and stuff. how about when she's already had her children and they're all in school? for a 35 year old woman with 2 kids, both old enough to get on a bus and go to school, what lies ahead for her if she doesn't work? some may enjoy just sitting at home, but to question why anyone would opt to go to work is a bit extreme, no?

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


This forum is just full of quacks.

I can't post here much anymore, it's just so full of bullshit artists and misinformed internet jockies, but stuff like this gives me a good laugh from time to time.

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


Not my quote.


Again, not my quote! Get it together, people.

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


surely there must be some Poles on this forum that would cite many things in their lives, their families' lives or their friends' lives that have prevented them/others from procreating without mentioning "Hollywood".

money, opportunity, quality of living, housing situations, so on and so forth I'd think would rank much higher.

It absolutely blows my mind how far people will go to blame America for absolutely anything. This one in particular is truly bizarre.

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


this is so bizarre. Poland's got an abysmal birth rate and the first thing you bring up is Hollywood?

Language / The most effective methods to learn the Polish language? [56]


not really. poles that speak polish speak polish, but can't teach (generally). you gotta know what questions to ask.

beware of the polish teacher that claims they can teach you polish.

Life / Free Poland Health Care - Paying minimal to no Zus [105]


I am not arguing whether American doctors are worth $200,000 a year or not. Not the topic of conversation. Now you're expressing your opinions.

I commented on your terrible inaccuracies. That's how this got started.

No, Polish doctors do NOT make 2/5 of what American doctors make, contrary to what you were trying to convince others of (and regardless to whether they're worth it or not).

Life / Free Poland Health Care - Paying minimal to no Zus [105]

i read the whole post and it's just so completely obvious that you have NO concept of what life is like here in any sense, especially the health care system, that i'm not even going to explain anything further. it's just not worth my time and it's embarrassing reading any more of this.


Inevitable. The same BS you come out with every time, hoping to save some face by resorting to personal attacks. off topic, uncalled for, and completely false. it's the equivalent to school kids fighting over something and when the one loses, with nothing else left to do but accept defeat, he says, "well you smell so neeeaaahhh!"

So in the spirit of your style of debate, and in regards to your "2/5" comment, I respond with, "liar, liar pants on fire."

Life / Free Poland Health Care - Paying minimal to no Zus [105]


And a rich guy who just bought a Porsche paid more for it than the school teacher that just bought a Toyota Camry.

Oh, and there's a reason why people come to the USA for medical school, why we have some of the best universities in the world, and there's a reason why the USA ranks #1 in emergency medical care.....because we have amazing doctors that work in amazing facilities and guess what, it costs a lot of money. We also have a very strong military and guess what, that costs a few schmeckles as well. Do Americans have access to great health care with all that said? Yep. Do they pay very little to nothing for their health insurance premiums? Yep. Are they covered till they die after the age of 65? Yep.

What the hell is your point man?


No, it comes out of the company's pocket because they're earning tons of money. What are you suggesting they do differently? Pay us more instead so we can pay our premium on our own and deal with all the paperwork, rather than having their HR department take care of it? Maybe we should I'd rather let the company do the leg work, people that are trained and have years of experience working with insurance companies, and just pay my tiny fee every month for all that service. You also get additional discounts when you go through the company like special rates on gym memberships.


A $20 deductible is going to "discourage" someone from going to the doctor and getting treatment? Let me answer that because I live here......no, it doesn't.


oooh you'd love that, wouldn't you. hahaha, you want America to suck so bad......


It "sounds like" two things:

1) Another pathetic attempt at a diversion. You claim Polish doctors earn "2/5" what American doctors earn, I point out how terribly false that is, and you respond to it with random posts about the American health care system? Swwwwwwiiiiing and a miss. Don't think it went unnoticed.

2) You're copying and pasting stuff you have absolutely no understanding of. That's obvious. You thought that last passage was some big criticism of the health care system here and it surely is not. If you lived and worked here, you'd see how ridiculous that post was.

The question now is just how stupid do you want to look. I'd suggest cutting your loses and moving on to another thread. You know, like you normally do when I expose how full of $hit you are.

Life / Free Poland Health Care - Paying minimal to no Zus [105]


yes, we do.


it says nothing. the numbers you posted do not equate to "an American pays a lot for medical coverage".

I know all you're armed with is Wikipedia and whatever other mung you manage to dig up on the Google, but i'd suggest you go back and read my post about what we pay for health insurance here, at this point I'm sure you read it (but don't know why you choose to ignore it).

Americans receive medical coverage either through their employer or from state/federal government.

Any average paying job at a reputable company pays for the majority of your health insurance premium. To give you an idea, before I left for Poland I was working for a mid sized company, it was about 1,000 employees at the time, and I paid $25/month for health insurance, fully covered, soup to nuts, with the copay system I illustrated for you in that post. $25/month for american health care? Yes, please.

If you have a federal job, you don't pay anything and are fully covered, plus a pension which is fully vested after 20 years.

If you have a state job, how much you pay varies state to state, just like city to city varies, but it's still minimal. State/city jobs also come with pensions which fully vest anywhere from 20-30 years of service.

Why is our government health care spending high? Mostly Medicare and Medicaid, two tax funded programs that make sure that the poor and the old are taken care of using state of the art facilities and top notch doctors and nurses. You get what you pay for, and I'd say that's money well spent.

Oh, I almost forgot: "2/5" is a completely fabricated number invented by Delphiandomine and all this crap you're reading now is him trying to save face, only what he's writing is him kicking himself in the face. With golf shoes on.

Life / Free Poland Health Care - Paying minimal to no Zus [105]


What "eyewatering bills" do you speak of, man? Did you not read my post a few days ago where I laid out, in detail, what the average health insurance policy in the USA provides you with and the copay system that goes with it? it was in response to YOUR post, I'm quite sure you didn't miss it. I can provide you with the info again if you'd like.

So NO, it's certainly not "safe to say" when you have the facts, facts of which you either don't have or choose to ignore. Time and time again, you prove to have absolutely no concept of the American health care industry yet you just can't help yourself but to make up completely fabricated data and statistics about the USA and hope people believe it.


Quit the diversions. What the minimum wage is between Poland and the USA is completely off topic. We are discussing how much doctors in the USA earn vs. Polish doctors. Why? Because you fabricated some completely bull$hit data and I gladly provided PF with the facts. That is all I'm concerned about here.

Doctors are loaded in the USA and we pay very little to have them at our disposal.

Life / Free Poland Health Care - Paying minimal to no Zus [105]


What are you talking about? How are Americans getting "absolutely screwed"?

We should probably start this off by saying that you pulled "2/5" out of your Scotish a$$. Par for the course.


you've completely lost me. this obviously isn't your bag.

Life / Free Poland Health Care - Paying minimal to no Zus [105]

Keep working it out, plenty of others on here are more than willing to help you along.

And while you're at it, don't think you can use this as a diversion to ignore the rest of my post. The numbers are there. Feel free to comment.

Life / Free Poland Health Care - Paying minimal to no Zus [105]


The avg starting salary for most doctors in the USA is around $200,000. An emergency room physician, according to salary.com, earns roughly $250,000, and that's of course average, not what a 20 year doctor takes home:

www1.salary.com/ER-physician-Salary.html

Surgeons and such obviously take home much more. $400,000+

$1 = 3.34 zloty.

Do Polish doctors earn an average of 267,200 zloty per year? Do ER physicians in Poland earn an average of 334,000 zloty per year, or roughly 27,833 zloty per month?

Just fact checking.


Did I read this right? Your "end of story" statement is that plates from Boleslawiec appeared in stores on a recent roadtrip? By that logic, everyone in China must be loaded, they got crap everywhere.

You truly are amazing, dude.

Life / Individualism in Polish culture...Is it almost Nonexistant? [170]


ah yes, it naturally boils down to this in most threads.


that, and the bible, only that was written reeeally reeeally long ago.

Life / Free Poland Health Care - Paying minimal to no Zus [105]


Oh but pantsless, the reason why you think that's true is because you're unsuccessful and poor and don't spend any time with wealthy people (at least that's what he tells me).


yep. i've heard plenty of these stories.

Language / The most effective methods to learn the Polish language? [56]


you need a good teacher, preferably someone not Polish. they take too much of the grammar for granted and don't have a "feel" for why it sounds like complete insanity when they say, "well because it's komu/czemu." oh yes.....yes of course. komu/czemu. crystal clear now (that's sarcasm).

Polish grammar needs to be explained delicately, systematically, and easily digestable because your student can go from super motivated to "I'll need beer if we're going to continue" in all of 20 seconds.

find someone that learned it from scratch that speaks your native language and you'll be better off, assuming they know how to teach.

when i was in poland i seriously considered doing just that, being a native english speaker - beginner polish teacher for foreigners because i'd watch Brit after Brit after Scotsman after Irishman after American being taught beginner Polish and just see how nothing whatsoever was registering during lessons and I knew I could do it 100 times better.......but i decided to leave the country instead.

Life / Is it McPoland? [63]


You don't of course, have to order the Big Mac with FF and a large Coke, either.

In general I find it to be a bad idea citing "Polish food" on its own when comparing to McD's. I would assume McD's goes into the preservatives more than your avergage milk bar fare (but even that I'm not totally sure of, I'm assuming based on heresay), but if we're talking fat/sugar/calorie content, one should be more specific when referring to polish milk bars in general.

Life / Is it McPoland? [63]


haha, that's funny.

i used to go to a milk bar near Wroclaw University, I'd get pierogi in a pool of butter and fried pork cutlet. mmmmm mmmm good. i believe it had somewhere in the vacinity of 3,948,293 calories.

Life / Is it McPoland? [63]


again, not defending McD's, but do you have any proof of that?

Life / Is it McPoland? [63]


i have a pound of chocolate at home.....

Life / Is it McPoland? [63]


I would never defend McDonald's, but out of curiosity, what was their agreed upon replacement meal?

Life / Is it McPoland? [63]

let us not forget there's a zapiekanka/tost shop around every corner, and no, a 12" long kielbasa on a long roll is not healthy folks.


that is a very misleading statement. many americans want nothing to do with fast food. you'd be amazed at how many fitness freaks there are in the USA. go to any major city in the USA and you will see more runners and cyclists in one day then you'll see in an entire year in Warsaw/Poznan/Gdansk/Krakow. it was one of the most glaring differences i noticed when i moved to Poland. i'd go weeks without passing a single fellow runner on the streets of Wroclaw.

I was in Washington D.C. last weekend, you literally can't drive for 30 seconds without seeing someone jogging/cycling on the sidewalks, it's a huge part of their culture there.

back on topic, my opinion is no, Poland will continue down this trend. life is getting busier and busier and convenience is the new crowned king in most developed countries. some people avoid fast food better than others but fast food isn't going anywhere, we can only hope that it gets healthier.

Life / Free Poland Health Care - Paying minimal to no Zus [105]


farse.

if you're middle class or above, your employer pays your medical insurance almost entirely.

if you're poor, you're covered by Medicaid.

if you're over 65, Medicare.

if you have pre-existing conditions, you're pretty much protected by Obama's healthcare reforms.

and the 2.65 million Americans that work for the feds, well their medical is paid in full by the government.

the stories of people losing their houses, sure, it has happened in a country of 300+ million people, but is it the norm? does it define the American health care industry? it surely does not.

Let's look at the facts. I can provide them for you all because I live and work here and have a leg to stand on:

In the USA, women go to an OB/GYN every 6 months. Mamograms are done once a year after the age of....I think 40.

Everyone from the age of 2 years old goes to the dentist every 6 months for a cleaning, gets an x-ray once a year. We have nice teeth for a reason.

Physicals are given once a year unless of course you're ill, then it's obviously more frequent.

Eye exams are given twice a year.

My wife and I pay zero....that's right, zero dollars for health insurance, it is paid in full by her company. Her OB/GYN visits I believe alternate free/$20/free/$20, so one fully paid, the other has a small copay. Mamograms are free. Our dental visits go the same way. free/$20/free/$20. Eye exams the same, plus I get $130/year towards contact lenses or new glasses. Your yearly physical is free with most health care providers.

We're not wealthy and my wife isn't a US senator. Sure, most people don't get it totally free, but any good job here and you're paying peanuts for health care.

The people that struggle with health insurance in the USA generally are lower class people that are in and out of lousy jobs and have constant lapses in their health insurance. Cashiers, gas pump attendants, landscapers getting paid under the table mostly, bartenders and waitstaff....they are at risk of falling ill and not having insurance. Obama's new policy that allows parents to insure their kids under their health insurance policy till the age of 26 is greatly remedying that though.

The problem with the USA's health care system is maternity leave. It's abomidable. 4-8 weeks at home and back to work. sucks.

So now that we've established that the vast majority of people in the USA don't pay more for health insurance than people in Poland, fill us in on how we "can't compare" the US system with the Polish system. Because now we have facts to work with.

Life / Individualism in Polish culture...Is it almost Nonexistant? [170]


Hi! Elephant in the room here, nice to meet you.

Clears his throat (or trunk I guess).....drum roll......Hey Delph, what do you know about Polonia..........living in Poland?

I'll take a step back for a second, let me help you out. We'll take it slow:

Here's what PolkaTagAlong wrote:


That's her opinion/observation. Do you have a rebuttal? Do you agree/disagree? Make your point. If you have one.

While you're at it, construct a new thread titled "Why I hate Polonia in the USA" so that instead of routinely derailing perfectly good threads on this forum to continuously spread your never ending agenda to trash Polonia in the USA, you'll have somewhere to default to. Just remember, every time you post something on that thread, you're commenting about a culture you've never actually seen.......ever. Because they live in America. And you've never been there.

Language / Verb Aspect: Dawać vs Dać [17]

again, what i am trying to convey to JosephK is that you can't use "bede + infinitive" or "bede + past imperfect" as a crutch. it will ruin your polish.

think about it, it's the easiest thing to do for an English speaker. "I will + verb". It's easier because there's less to learn and it "sounds" and "feels" like English (I'm assuming the OP is a native English speaker) so once again, i can't stress enough that you need to learn how to conjugate verbs in all their forms and not just memorize 500 infinitives and think, "bede and then I'll just throw the verb at the end and i'm all set!"

i'm starting to get repetitive but i think you get what i'm saying.

Language / Verb Aspect: Dawać vs Dać [17]


no. what i am saying is you should say "zrozumiem", etc.

poles will say "oh yeah it's fine" but you need to break the habit. there are certain "bede + imperfect past tense form" that are at times the preferred version or let's say they are used often, but you gotta learn the "true" forms to learn polish properly.

if you don't take this advice i can promise you that you will start to hear forms of verbs that you will not recognize and it will kill your comprehension.

Language / Verb Aspect: Dawać vs Dać [17]


the point i was making is that he should not use that structure "as a crutch" because he'll never learn proper forms, he'll just keep using the infinitive which is a road to failure.

Language / Verb Aspect: Dawać vs Dać [17]

most verbs in Polish have 2 forms, perfective and imperfective.

Main uses you should learn at this time:

The perfective form is going to be simple future and simple past.

Imperfective will usually be your present simple and progressive past forms (and sometimes a kinda sorta version of present perfect).

brac/wziac

biore - I take
bralem - I was taking

wezme - I'll take
wzialem - I took

you can't use a perfective past form with "byc" when constructing future tense. i.e., you can't say "bede dal" or "bede wzial", you would simply use the conjugated perfective form "dam" or "wezme". it's a btch, but it's Polish.

learn the perfective/imperfective forms and fight with all your inner strength to not say things like "bede isc" or "bede pojechac" or something. you will never learn proper Polish if you keep using it as a crutch. Don't speak Polish like the Chinese guy at your local 'Yummy Taste' speaks English.

take notes all day long on verbs you need every day, look up both perfective and imperfective forms, and absolutely hammer conjugation exercises till you can roll with them. it's the only road to good Polish.