Love / Polish wife is threatening me to pay child support 1000zl per month. [40]

Terabaap, do you REALLY think that any court in Poland will allow him to take the child to USA? Think again.

News / What really happened at the Krakow restaurant? [53]


Normal attitude would be to serve them. You might be talking about SOME people attitude, but this does not constitute majority. No matter who guests are, restaurant is a business, and most of business owners treat them as such, regardless of sentiments or lack of thereof for any ethnic groups.

Work / Is 7000 PLN net per month....a reasonable salary in Katowice [40]


Company I work for (branch in Poland) makes around 90-100 mil USD/month. 55% is gross margin around 10% is profit after all costs. They employ ~750 people, in the factory, but there is sales force - so let's look at 1000 people altogether - including executives.

Therefore the total gross margin (55% out of 90 mil USD) would be approx. ~ 50 mil USD/month.
If you take 3-4% of gross margin (just a bulk figure) for salaries, that gives 1.8-2 mil USD/month - 3-4% of GM going to salaries is actually not that much.

Knowing that most "regular" people will earn around 1000 USD/month (probably 70% of all employees), middle management perhaps 2000 USD/month (maybe 20% of all employees), senior management maybe 5000 USD/month (maybe 7.5% of all employees) - don't you think that final 2.5% (which represents 25 people who are executives) has potential to earn well in excess of 10 000 USD/month (30 000 PLN?)

And all this within your rules.

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


I absolutely agree. I lived in Kielce, and in late 80-s level of English taught in my school was at least decent. The woman was horrible, but she did speak very good English and she was a good, demanding teacher (possibly too demanding). I finished school with fair English (considering it was only taught twice a week) and only needed couple of months in UK to gain confidence and be able to communicate. I think that in many cases the inability to speak foreign language is not caused by lack of knowledge, but lack of confidence. I was stunned when my young cousin with very good English point blank refused to speak to my husband when we were in Poland. He wasn't plain rude - he was shy.

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


Absolutely right Boletus. This has been one of most common transporting means for many years for most students, not just in Poland :)

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


True - but that refers to many areas of life, not solely travelling. In terms of traveling - a lot had to do with access to money. If you had money, you could travel. There were hassles, but many people managed to do it. The true issue is that to be able to do it - in many cases you had to rely on illegal means - like getting "dewizy" on black market, bribing officials to give you your passport. Remember also that traveling in those times was more expensive - think about air fares. This were times when being a flight assistant was a top-job (especially in Eastern Europe, but even in other countries it still had the "glam" factor). And look about now?

The bottom line is - yes, you are right that in terms of choice people from Western Europe or USA has all the options. But usability of those options at those time was more limited than now, so differences were probably not as visible.

In terms of individualism - Polish people are very defiant. If you tell them to go left, they'll go right. Just for the sake of it. So suppression of freedom probably resulted ion growth of individualism rather than suppression.

Life / Is Poland a poor country? [578]


Milky - plenty English and French expats in South Africa, even more in Emirates.
Does that mean that UK and France are poor countries? No - it just says that there those people got better paid jobs overseas than in their own countries.

I don't think Poland is a rich country, but not poor either. Not by global standards at least. Even by European standards they would probably be somewhere in the middle. Poor only compared to "old" EU and USA.

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

They could still travel to other countries from Eastern Block. I was refering to proximity of the travel average Kowalski or average Smith was likely to undertake. If you are talking about all countries then there is no comparison.

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

4 eigner, this is not about "could" but about "would". And would they? I met plenty English in 90's that only ever went to France, Spain or Portugal.

USA, Canada / Getting a VISA to USA by a Polish person nowadays [339]


That's because only the determined ones go through the hassle of actually getting the visa (+ small % of business people and legitimate tourists). The issue is that USA made it so difficult that most people that would go there on holiday only just don't bother.

Life / Is Poland a poor country? [578]

Size of a TOOL is always important :) we are talking about jobs where you use brain as tool...

USA, Canada / Chris Gets Dumped on the Bachelorette for Being Polish! [52]


WTF??? You mean some Polish people HIDE their nationality from their prospective partners???

Life / Is Poland a poor country? [578]


Absolutely true. I remember one candidate - no experience, education - not bad, but because he just came back from USA where he was on some exchange project, he thought that sun shone from his a***. He was quite good, so we wanted to offer him job, but then he started re-designing his work contract. He was told firmly but politely that many candidates are happy to work under this contract and he got the job... He had the job for about 4 hours. We waited for him at 8.30 next morning. Before lunch he called and told he had some issues finding transport to work (obviously public transport + 15 minutes walk are not good enough for a young prince) and we told him that since he couldn't find solution to such problem he doesn't need to bother any more.

Life / Is Poland a poor country? [578]

Gdyniaguy, FMCG is one of those industries. With right education it's relatively easy to understand the sector. I'm in hiring position and believe me, especially at entry level we are quite open to complete novices.

Milky: unfortunately you are right. In some cases men like the perks.

Life / Is Poland a poor country? [578]


I'm sure they do - in lower bottom slave employment sector where sleazy undereducated pigs get to be bosses. Do you really think a normal employer that has a job to be done cares about breast size?


Not true. All depends on the level of the position. Mostly - employers look at education (relevant) + experience.

Polonia / Work permit for Polish married with Indian boy [5]

Some info: blsindiavisa-poland.com/content.php?pid=MTU

Real Estate / What do you pay in rent/mortgage in Poland? [144]

Lwowska, this is only real if you add all costs after paying off the loan. It is higher than UK, but lower than in many countries with higher inflation. I don't know what mortgage interest rates are now in Poland, but mine taken a while ago a.d paid off already was around 7% pa

Love / Need help/advice polish girl :( British and Polish girl relationship. [26]

Looks like you made up your mind! All the best!

Love / Need help/advice polish girl :( British and Polish girl relationship. [26]


Is this the type of trust you want to have in your relationship? Knowing that your loved one won't be messing around because she has no time? Believe me - if someone wants to cheat, they will find time... You either have to take the plunge and start trusting this girl (no matter what) or leave her. If she breaks your trust, then it's a different thing, but at least you tried.

Love / Need help/advice polish girl :( British and Polish girl relationship. [26]


There will always be some ex somewhere... If this is your only problem, they you must deal with your trust issue... Maybe you can go with her?

Love / Need help/advice polish girl :( British and Polish girl relationship. [26]


Yep - I agree, this girl seems bad news.
The issue is - you can't expect that she will change. She won't, and even if she does for a while, she will go back to old habits.

You either have to accept her the way she is, or leave her. The fact that she didn't "waste time" to go to bed with you means nothing - after all, you didn't waste time either ;-) but the way she's been carrying on, well... Quite a different story...

Genealogy / My Grandfather was born in Poland and migrated abroad - Can I get a Polish Passport? [68]


Not just US. You can have dual citizenship, the only thing is that if you come to Poland on Polish passport you are considered Polish in all extent of the law.

Usually nothing terrible unless you do something illegal and get arrested...

Travel / How come no one ever seems to pay for the bus in Poland? [63]


They all get out of a bus to sort out the "issue". They get bonuses for catching fare evaders, they are very unlikely to let go of their prey...

Real Estate / What do you pay in rent/mortgage in Poland? [144]


Same here... Small flat in Warsaw. Not really income generating because my cousin lives there (after some problems with tenants) and she can't afford much, but completely mortgage free.

Monthy levvies are around 320 zl (czynsz, maintenance fee, water), electricity around 150 zl (no gas), Internet I think 80 zl (not sure about speed, but no cap).

Travel / Is it safe to travel to Poland? [194]


Wow! You make Poland sound like South Africa... Actually WORSE, as I travel around a lot and never had any problems (in Poland or South Africa...)

Love / Dating in Poland not able to speak Polish [24]

Thank you ;) My spelling is awful though! Thanks Heavens for spell check!

Love / Dating in Poland not able to speak Polish [24]


I know exactly what you mean, because after being in South Africa 2 months, I was told that my English improved :-} by an Afrikaans individual whose English wasn't exactly flawless... And I came to South Africa having learned English for over 20 years, out of which 10 years was spent in UK, living and working among English people... Somehow, I think he thought he was being appreciative, so I decided not to take offense... Annoying as it may be, I really think those people did not mean to be rude to you.

As for some people "thinking" they speak language better than somebody else... Yes, this can be very frustrating, especially if you are getting nowhere in the conversation... But what do you do? Try to prove them wrong (in which case they get defensive and whatever you are trying to get them to do will probably not happen...) or let it done and over with as soon as possible? Sometimes the latter works better than bursting their bubble.

Language / Spelling of Family in Polish? [6]

Wulkan, it's RODZINA (unless your roGina is a joke...)

Language / Spelling of Family in Polish? [6]

Rodzina (not rogina)

Love / Dating in Poland not able to speak Polish [24]

It's patronising, but I'm not sure I'd call it double standard. I think it's just a mental shortcut people are taking by assuming that English is good enough to communicate accross the world and that everyone knows it. Regardless of how unfair it may be, English became most common communication language accross the world. That's probably why you got reactions like that, people simply didn't think that someone would make effort to learn their language well. I don't think they were being nasty, just insensitive (or perhaps a bit ignorant)