Life / Is living cost in Poland lower than Germany ? [32]


Where?

Travel / Upgrade of Warsaw - Zielonka - Bialystok train line (linia nr 6) [8]

Here:
skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=419239
you can trace the current progress.

Polish, but there is always Google Translate.

USA, Canada / Has anyone with a US or CDN passport recently been subjected to the "Passport Trap" in Poland? [29]

If you want to get a passport from an embassy, the service fee for doing it by embassy for you is high. If you go to Poland and apply for the passport on your own, then it's 140 zł, or even 70 zł.

USA, Canada / Has anyone with a US or CDN passport recently been subjected to the "Passport Trap" in Poland? [29]


140 zł (with 50% discount for children and students) is not so much taking into account that you have to pay it only once for 10 years (for children, if I remember well, up to 12 years - once for 5 years). And I managed to get my passport in something like a week - but that time I needed it quite urgently and I had luck that they managed to do it in a short time.

I have checked the price of the German passport - 59 euro for adults. Almost twice more. USA - 140 US dollars. A few times more. UK - 72.5 pound. Twice more than in Poland.

I wouldn't say Polish passport is expensive. And the ID card is even free of charge.


You can, it's not forbidden, but when you are in Poland, you are not allowed to make use of any other nationality than the Polish one.

I wonder if similar regulations exist in other countries, especially in the EU.

USA, Canada / Has anyone with a US or CDN passport recently been subjected to the "Passport Trap" in Poland? [29]


It's more about paying to your country at least the passport issuing fee, instead of just having the citizenship and doing absolutely nothing for the country. Those who live in Poland pay taxes here, so it makes sense that the country wants something from you when you come to Poland. But anyway in my opinion it should be so, that if you don't want to use your Polish citizenship, you shouldn't be forced to use it. You come to Poland as a Canadian citizen and you should be treated so.

Although when you come to Poland, you also automatically gets some laws resulting from your citizenship, like they cannot throw you out from Poland even if you stay here for a period longer than it is allowed for Canadians, or when you come to Poland, they cannot deny you entry to the Polish territory, even if you don't have all the proper documents (not expired ID or passport). You get some laws automatically, so it makes sense that you get also some obligations.


Theoretically if you want to do anything in Poland for which you need an identity document, they can demand the Polish passport or ID card from you, not recognizing the Canadian one, but anyone other than the public institutions is not even able to know that you have also Polish citizenship.

Love / Do women in Poland change their surnames to a feminine form of their husbands' surnames? [40]

So what should say the people living in villages in Poland which have names like Zgniłe Błoto or Biały Kał?

Study / Any Erasmus students in Poland? [16]

Anyway, if you know Croatian already, and it's your native language, it will be much easier to you to learn Polish. I would say the difference between Polish and Croatian is definitely smaller than between English and German. I was recently in Croatia, didn't speak any Croatian, and while maybe spoken Croatian was difficult to understand, the written text on information signs etc. wasn't so difficult, I could understand many things (although as I speak English as well, the English version was easier for me).

USA, Canada / Has anyone with a US or CDN passport recently been subjected to the "Passport Trap" in Poland? [29]

It seems that according to the Polish law, if you have Polish citizenship, you are treated in Poland as a Polish, and not Canadian citizen, and therefore to leave Poland you need a Polish passport. As long as you are a Polish citizen, any passport other than Polish is not recognized in Poland.

I have no idea, what it has to do with the international law, it's really crazy, stupid and looks like the Polish country actually just wants money from you for issuing the passport.

So it seems that you must either get Polish passport in Canada, or after coming to Poland, but in Poland it make take some time. From what I read, to get a passport you must have an ID card first, so you must apply for it and wait a few weeks until they print it, then again apply for the passport and wait a few weeks. The procedures while issuing a Polish passport in Canada do not seem to be different, but the price is much higher, and probably waiting time longer.

Or if you have a Canadian passport only, something which may work is coming back to Canada from another Schengen zone country than Poland. Nobody will stop you at the border within the Schengen zone since the borders are open, and for example in Germany it won't rather make any difference to them which citizenship you use.

Genealogy / If a person went to a Polish hospital (wartime) in the city would they likely have kept records of births? [4]

And before the war it wasn't common to go to hospital to get a baby, people were doing it at home.

Love / Do women in Poland change their surnames to a feminine form of their husbands' surnames? [40]


In Poland it's also possible and maybe not very popular but some people do so. Then it looks like: Anna Kowalska-Nowak.
It's also possible that the husband takes wife's surname, although I haven't heard about such cases.

Study / Vistula University in Poland. Any experience? Any student? [57]

Never heard of.

"Higher school" is nothing bad. But a degree of a public higher school is worth more than one of a private one (the opinion is that in the private schools they don't want the students to study, but just to pay money), maybe with a few exceptions in the whole country.

Public "higher schools" (also "academies" and "polytechnics"), unless they are "higher vocational schools" from smaller towns, are equally good as universities (polytechnics have even full university rights and call themselves in English "Technical Universities" or "Universities of Technology"), they are just specialised in something. For example "Main School of Farming" in Warsaw (probably the name they use in English internationally is different, I translate the Polish name literally) is a very good higher school, just specialised in fields connected with agriculture and food production.

Actually, they also have university rights and the name they use in English contains the word "university". The Polish name is kept due to the tradition.

Love / Do women in Poland change their surnames to a feminine form of their husbands' surnames? [40]

Yes. Nowakowa is somwthing with which you can informally call a woman in a talk, especially if you tell some bad things about her. "Ta Nowakowa, to zawsze chodzi w tym ochydnym zielonym swetrze". "That Nowak woman, she always wears this hideous green sweater". Or even neutrally, while you are talking about her and you don't want to be overcultural saying "pani Nowak" - but not if she is listening (and not if some her good friends are). It's not nice with respect to her to call her so. Generally, there are three possibilities:

- pani Nowak - which my sound too cultural in a talk with friends or relatives
- Nowakowa - which is a bit pejorative about her, although in an informal talk where she doesn't listen and she isn't exceptionally important for anyone participating in the conversation, it will be ok

- use her first name - but it doesn't sound good if you don't know her so well to call her with her name

Sometimes none of this possibilities fits well in the situation. And you cannot do much with it, sorry for that - you must choose one of these options or try to avoid telling her name.

The official surname of the woman is, of course, still Nowak. Nowakowa is only an informal way of expressing that you mean a Nowak woman, not a Nowak man.

Work / No ZUS paid (no national insurance) means no NFZ healthcare and (for EU citizens) no EKUZ card in Poland [7]


It's not really for emergencies only. It's for any treatment you may need from the medical point of view - but not planned treatment. If you, for example, need some kind of an operation, but it's nothing urgent and you can wait with that, you should return to your home country to have it.

The limitation is that this card (EHIC in English, EKUZ in Polish) works only if you are abroad for touristic purposes (and then it's validity is limited to a few months), or you are on an exchange as a student. Probably also if you are employed in your home country and going abroad is a part of your job - I am not sure about that, but it seems logic. It does not work, however, if you are employed in a different country. Then you are subject to the healthcare system of this country and you cannot use EHIC. Or, at least, you shouldn't and it's illegal to do it - in reality it might be possible.

If you are in Poland, you don't have any job (or you work on basis of some types of civil law contracts instead of a normal job contract), you are not a child, not a student, not retired and you are not registered as an unemployed person, then you are right, you don't have any insurance, unless you pay for it voluntarily. If you go to any doctor - you have to pay, and in case of an accident, the emergency and the hospital will issue you a bill.

It applies to the Polish nationals as well, not only to the foreigners.

But in such a situation - from the moment when you become not employed any more - you may be able to get EHIC from the UK, as a tourist. I am not sure about that, though. Maybe there are some restrictions on that and after beying employed in a foreign country, you cannot be treated as travelling touristically to this country in the UK.

BTW car accident is a special case, because then if you have to pay for all the medical treatment, the payment will be anyway covered from the civil liability insurance of the car with which the accident was caused. Unless no such person was determined - then you have a problem.



After a while of rethinking - no, you cannot since you are not insured in the UK. Unless the British regulations give each citizen right to free medical treatment regardless of whether they work or not. Theoretically it might be so, and I have no idea how it is in the UK.

Love / Do women in Poland change their surnames to a feminine form of their husbands' surnames? [40]

The correct form also for a woman is Bartosiewicz, or if she really has surname Bartosiewiczowa, then her husband would be Bartosiewiczowy. But as for me, it looks like someone wanted to have a little bit of fun reading this list. Cultured people also sometimes need fun.

Love / Do women in Poland change their surnames to a feminine form of their husbands' surnames? [40]


It used to mean "the wife of Mr Heller", regardless of her real surname. And "Hellerówna" - "the daughter of Mr Heller", especially when she is not yet married.

The thing you are writing about from the beginning refers only to the surnames ending with "-ski". Maybe some others as well. Let's say Kowalski. When a woman marries a Kowalski, she will be called Kowalska (unless she decides to stay with her original surname or take a double surname, but the tradition is that the wife takes the husband's surname). But this is exactly the same surname as Kowalski. Just in a different grammatical form. Look at it as at an adjective - because it behaves like an adjective. "Ten mężczyzna jest bardzo ciekawski", but "ta kobieta jest bardzo ciekawska". In the same way it works with surnames. And - it seems, that it works so with all the surnames looking like adjectives.

"Kowalski" and "Kowalska" are exactly the same surname, just in different grammatical forms. Which is sometimes not understood in the countries where in their main languages the adjectives don't change their form depending on the noun gender, and then in the credits of an American movie you can see female names with surnames ending with "-ski". And this looks just wrong. Although I have heard that Polish people living abroad sometimes decide to do so to avoid difficulties with public administration. But it's wrong and I really don't like that.

If, even in Poland, a woman marries a man called, say, Jan Adams, she will be still called Adams. Adams looks in Polish like a noun, not like an adjective. And there is many such surnames in Poland, I would even say most of them work like that. Even the most popular one - Nowak.

When she marries Jan Adamski, then she will be Adamska. Adamski looks like an adjective (even though it's a noun, like each name) and is declined like an adjective. A woman just cannot be called Adamski, she must be called Adamska. And the second most popular one (Kowalski) works in this way, although I would say there is less of them.

If a man is called Kowalski - his wife will be Kowalska. Jan (jaki?) Kowalski
If a man is called Kowal - his wife will be also called Kowal. Jan (kto?) Kowal

What is also interesting. A noun-type name being a male noun (e.g. Nowak or Kowal) is subjected to the declination in case of a man, but not in case of a woman.

M. Jan Nowak
D. Jana Nowaka
C. Janu Nowakowi
B. Jana Nowaka
N. z Janem Nowakiem
Msc. o Janie Nowaku
W. Janie Nowaku!

but:
M. Anna Nowak
D. Anny Nowak
C. Annie Nowak
B. Annę Nowak
N. z Anną Nowak
Msc. o Annie Nowak
W. Anno Nowak!

In case of women only the surnames being female nouns, and, of couse, those of the "-ski" type, will be declined.

In case of men - surnames are declined always. If the surname is a female noun - then it's declined like a feminine noun. After a masculine first name.

M. Jan Pluta
D. Jana Pluty
C. Janu Plucie
B. Jana Plutę
N. z Janem Plutą
Msc. o Janie Plucie
W. Janie Pluto! (about this one I have some doubts, but theoretically it should be so)

The exception was in the surnames of the nobility - the coat of arms names weren't declined, but now it's allowed to decline them as well.

So the old version is:
M. Janusz Korwin-Mikke
D. Janusza Korwin-Mikkego
C. Januszowi Korwin-Mikkemu
B. Janusza Korwin-Mikkego
N. z Januszem Korwin-Mikkem
Msc. o Januszu Korwin-Mikkem
W. Januszu Korwin-Mikke!

There is no much nouns in Polish that end with "e", so their declination is a bit awkward and people tend to avoid it, often leaving the name of this guy undeclined (or decline only the Korwin part, leving Mikke undeclined), but it's an error.

This version is now also allowed:
M. Janusz Korwin-Mikke
D. Janusza Korwina-Mikkego
C. Januszowi Korwinowi-Mikkemu
B. Janusza Korwina-Mikkego
N. z Januszem Korwinem-Mikkem
Msc. o Januszu Korwinie-Mikkem
W. Januszu Korwinie-Mikke!

Apart from surnames, to the nouns ending with "e" belong also geographical names. But the geographical names can end with "e" and look like adjectives. Like the town name Zakopane. What do we do then? IThe declination looks as follows:

M. Zakopane
D. Zakopanego
C. Zakopanemu
B. Zakopane
N. w Zakopanem
Msc. o Zakopanem
W. Zakopane!
The difference between the declination of a noun ending with "e" and of an adjective is only in the Narzędnik and Miejscownik cases - for nouns there is "e" in the suffix, for adjective there is "y" in the suffix.

And still all these refers only to those nouns ending with "e", which really cannot be declined in any different way, I mean, you cannot change the stem of the word. For example Zaosie declines normally:

M. Zaosie
D. Zaosia
C. Zaosiu
B. Zaosie
N. w Zaosiu
Msc. o Zaosiu
W. Zaosiu!

Or some of them behave like a plural noun:
M. Bratoszewice
D. Bratoszewic
C. Bratoszewicom
B. Bratoszewice
N. w Bratoszewicach
Msc. o Bratoszewicach
W. Bratoszewice!

Language / "Hardening" of soft-sign endings of certain plural Polish nouns [4]

As for me, the only difference (except for the accent) between "odpowiedź" and "odpowiedzi" in pronounciation is the presence or absence of "i" at the end of the word. The same with "niedźwiedź".

And as a result, "odpowiedzi" has one syllabe more than "odpowiedź".
jedna od - PO - wiedź vs. dwie od - po - WIE - dzi
jeden NIEDŹ - wiedź vs. pięć niedź - WIE - dzi
Accent changes because we usually accent the last-but-one syllabe, and here a new syllabe at the end appears - so the accent is shifted.


Really? Your examples (with errors in syllabe division) show that the accent is exactly on the penultimate syllabe (or it may seem that on the ultimate one, but it's because of an error, I showed the proper version). Rarely, in words like "mateMAtyka", "FIzyka", "MUzyka" - mainly names of sciences with a Greek origin, it's the third syllabe from the end, although Polish people tend to accent them also on the penultimate syllabe. There are also other exceptions, some result from the grammar, but the main rule is the penultimate syllabe and it doesn't change with the noun declination.

Nothing is hardened here. In the plural nominative/singular accusative etc. of these words there is just "i" added at the end, and that's all. The strike creating "ź" from "z" disappears, but this is because there is "i" after it, which already indicated the softening of the cosonant, this is only a spelling issue. "Odpowiedzi" is pronounced exactly like "odpowiedźi", just "odpowiedzi" is the proper spelling and "odpowiedźi" incorrect - don't ask me why, it's just a rule that you don't put the strike when there is an "i" afterwards. Probably because "i" after a cosonant in Polish somehow forces it's softening, it's almost always so in Polish, you will not find a hard cosonant and "i" after it. The exceptions are words with foreign origin, like for example sinus (s before i is not softened, it's not pronounced as "śinus"), but not always, for example nazizm is pronounced as "naźizm" (it seems that German was too tough for us and we needed to change the pronounciation). Or there is such an old soviet brand of lorries, ЗиЛ, which we write in Polish as ZiŁ (most Europeans do it as ZiL), and here we pronounce the "z" as a hard cosonant even though there is "i" after it. But never in typically Polish words, and even not always in foreign words, where it's hard originally.

Language / Difference between również, też and także in Polish. [5]

Też is most used, especially in the everyday language; także and również are rather for written texts, speeches etc.

Life / Is Hale Mirowska in Warsaw a large or small market? [3]

The interior should look like that: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Hala_Mirowska_wn%C4%99trze_05.JPG [big image] Hall in Poland

You can see it here: goo.gl/maps/n1X27esbNiy - there are 2 halls and a covered market area between them.

Here on Street View: goo.gl/maps/4nPfJcNAeDH2 you can see a lot of small sellers also outside, not to mention this market area between the halls.

Life / Closing Polish bank account and transfer money [3]

Go to the bank and just close the account. They will have to give you all your savings in cash.

The best is to have some money on it until the moment of closing it, it will make sure that it really gets closed, that the closing doesn't get blocked by any unpaid fees etc.

Travel / Which way from Poland to Croatia.... [30]

From Budapest to Cracow there is a few bus companies going: Orangeways, PolskiBus, Lux Express and Volanbusz. The prices are similar in all of them, but the most comfortable will be Lux Express.

You can also take a train (to Warsaw through Katowice), but it will be more expensive. Another option is a plane from Budapest to Warsaw, it can be cheaper than a train if booked early.

Language / How many tenses and cases in Polish? [33]

Exactly, it's normally used. It's sometimes replaced by Nominative, especially in very informal situations, but it's often used (for example you will never replace it with Nominative while speaking to someone who is more important than you, maybe except for family members) and it's not disappearing as some try to suggest.

Law / From A1 motorcycle license to A license in Poland? [3]

To get A category driving license in Poland you need to be 24 years old. The exception is when you have A2 category for at least 2 years, then it's enough to be 20. But you have A1, not A2. So if you are not yet 24 (or at least 23 so that you could make the course and tests now and get the document when you are 24), its too early. What you can get is the A2 driving license (for motorcycles up to 35 kW and power-to-mass ratio not exceeding 0.2 kW/kg).

Of course if you are already 24 (or almost 24), you can do the A category which is for all the motorcycles.

From what I know, you must do all: the course, the theory test and the practical test.

Po polsku / Ustawa antyterrorystyczna w Polsce [6]

Czekam na link do przykładowego artykułu, który tę tezę potwierdzi.

Life / Which is the best mobile network in Poland? [29]

I am not a fan of Plus and Polsat (this is the same company) from the time of the recent attack on their bank (yes, they have a bank too) when they didn't do much to make their system more secure and to get the money stolen from the accounts back on them, but they did much to make the information about the break-in not to spread.

But as a phone network they work OK.

Po polsku / Ustawa antyterrorystyczna w Polsce [6]


Z tego co mi wiadomo, to bzdura, obecne przepisy pozwalają na dokonywanie zatrzymań i przeszukań w uzasadnionych przypadkach także w nocy.


Bo każdy wie, że terrorysta posługuje się swoim własnym, autentycznym dowodem tożsamości. I że w razie potrzeby nie przygotuje się, i nie zdobędzie karty z innego kraju, gdzie rejestracja kart nie jest wymagana, albo istnieje tylko w teorii (np. Niemcy - po zakupieniu karty SIM, by aktywować numer, trzeba ją zarejestrować np. przez internet, ale można to bez problemu zrobić na fałszywe dane).


Czy to, że gazeta ta z obecnymi władzami specjalnie się nie lubi, od razu oznacza, że "zieje nienawiścią"? Przydałoby się tutaj trochę spokojniejsze podejście.

I czy możesz podać link do artykułu, w którym według ciebie dziennik ten utożsamia omawianą ustawę z walką z opozycją? Jeśli o czymś piszesz, to wypadałoby dać innym to zweryfikować.

Tu jest ciekawa i obiektywna analiza założeń tej ustawy:
zaufanatrzeciastrona.pl/post/czy-mozna-ustawa-zatrzymac-terroryste-analiza/

Law / What banks are people using in Poland? [50]

I don't know much about the offers of banks, especially those with physical offices where you can go and do something, not internet-only ones, but there is a comparison of bank accounts here:

najlepszekonto.pl/ranking-kont-osobistych
(mBank, Smart, T-Mobile, Inteligo are internet-only)

Here accounts in foreign currencies: najlepszekonto.pl/ranking-kont-walutowych
(Alior Kantor Walutowy is a virtual exchange office, not a typical account

Unfortunately Polish-only. Ask if you can't understand something, it's difficult to translate everything here.

Life / Which is the best mobile network in Poland? [29]


T-Mobile doesn't have an offer with a year-valid account for free (with some limitations), so I think a good idea for her could be one of the offers mentioned by me before - from Play or Plus. In T-Mobile she would have to pay 3 PLN every month for this service.

Although maybe it's worth this taking into account the offer from T-Mobile that you will have? Maybe you will have cheaper, or free, calls to T-Mobile, and more expensive to other networks?

It also depends on whether she will be using mobile data transfer.

Law / What banks are people using in Poland? [50]


In which bank? Usually you don't have to have any minimum balance, but when you don't have it, you pay more (or you pay, while normally you wouldn't pay at all) for having the account. And it's rather not about the balance, but about either income to the account within a month, or transactions made by a card within a month.


In most of the banks you can.

Life / Which is the best mobile network in Poland? [29]

I use Play and I have never had coverage problems. At least for calls and SMS'es. It might be different with mobile internet (in the past it was so, I have no idea how it is now). But for calls and SMS'es it's perfect. If you don't like Play, other operators also have such offers, but i case of most of them you have to pay something every month - here is quite an old comparison of such offers: gsmonline.pl/artykuly/roczna-waznosc-konta-na-karte (in Polish)

In Plus GSM: plus.pl/uslugi/rok-waznosci-konta
- you need any pre-paid SIM card and at least 10 PLN on the account (it will cost 10 PLN to start this option)
- you use the code *136*11*18#
- you charge your account with at least 5 PLN within 30 days
Then your account is valid for a year.

I recommend pre-paid rather then post-paid, it's just cheaper in most cases.


Yes, it's usually so that you can make calls and send SMS'es up to the level of your monthly fee. Often you have some SMS and calls more for free, or even totally for free (to the same network, to all mobile phones in Poland or to all the phones in Poland).

I'm afraid you must try to use Google Translate and study Polish versions of their websites.

Pre-paid is "na kartę", post-paid is "abonament", "mix" is something in between (either you sign a contract that you will charge your pre-paid account regularly with for example 30 PLN for a month - it's so in Plus and Play - or you pay a monthly fee based on a bill and you can make calls and send SMS up to this fee without any extra charges - in Orange and probably T-Mobile, although I am not sure about the last one; but in any case, if you use it up, you can charge your account like with a normal pre-paid).

Life / Which is the best mobile network in Poland? [29]

Ad. 2.
Probably yes, it is so with most pre-paids in Poland. If you want to have such conditions that you charge your account with so many PLN as you want and then have almost unlimited time, look at the Play "Rok ważności konta" offer (you must charge the account within a year with any amount, so it's almost nothing). The prices are then a bit worse, you don't have access to so good special offers, but this is the cost of that. You can activate it having any Play pre-paid card with a code *111*692*1# - but with a card sold specially for this offer you don't have to use any codes.

Ad. 1.
It's rather difficult to find such a thing even in Polish, not to mention English. The best is just to look at all the offers, at least of main operators, and compare on your own. There are 4 main operators (Orange, Plus, T-Mobile and Play) and many MVNO's, but worth looking at are, in my opinion, Red Bull Mobile (this is in fact not an MVNO, it's an offer of Play, but sold under a separate brand) and Virgin Mobile. Others didn't offer anything special from what I remember, and they like to disappear after a few years (Virgin Mobile is not likely to disappear since it's an international mobile network brand, RBM is in fact not an MVNO).