Genealogy / Koch, Kostbar, Kormann surnames from Paproc - Can someone tell me where this is Poprotz, Poland? [13]

Check out Paproc. There's a place called that in Wielkopolska and also in Podlasie. But gien the Germanicized spelling Poprotz, the Wielkopolska one is more likely. Both have Wikipedia pages.

Work / Do Polish workers get cheated on hours? [15]

In PL (like many other places) it's a trade-off. Good money, good fringe benefits, long hours; or bad money, few perks short hours.

Work / Some cold, hard facts about teaching in Poland for newbies [101]

Empty it into the coffee machine like the rest of us do.

USA, Canada / Moved back from Canada to Poland:). Here are the reasons why. [868]

I've generally been happy with the coffee in PL. In Coffee Heaven it seems good. Dunno about Starbucks - it looks a bit of a skank. Good coffee beans in the shops!

Real Estate / Buying a flat in Krakow; prices are still falling? [200]

Makes a lot of sense.

Real Estate / Good suburb in warsaw for house [23]


It's mostly in the borough of Mokotow, but nobody would call it Mokotow in conversation. It's nearer Wilanow. A very nice area, but due to being a short drive from the city centre, prices are high. A very very safe area due to all the diplomatic residences, which are patrolled by the police.

I like Wawer, which is outside the city limits but nearer than, say, Ursus (a toilet) or Wlochy (a pleasant but somewhat run-down suburb). It's a good area.

Real Estate / Good suburb in warsaw for house [23]


This is the OPs second thread in a week. The other was largely ignored because he asked for specifics, which few people could give. But there were a few clues about what he wants.

Sadyba though, is a classic suburb. Quite a nice one too, though on the expensive side. Good for expats - since communist times and maybe before there's been a foreign community. Plenty of diplomats and good restaurants and shopping.I lived there for five years,on the Sadyba/Dolny Mokotow borders.

The European definition of a suburb would be a residential district outside the city centre.

Real Estate / Good suburb in warsaw for house [23]


It has Polish-style suburbs. Being in Europe, that's no surprise. Sadyba, Wilanow, Ursus,Zoliborz etc.
If you mean residential areas outside the city limits, there are plenty of those too. Piaseczno, Komorow are two examples. One of the posters here lives in Komorow, and I lived in Sadyba.


Evidently.


Not just you. It's spot on.
gs_s
What sort of home are you looking for, cheap, mid-price etc, what's important to you in a district? Where are you from? Some people here might know both cities, and that can provide a point of reference.

Real Estate / Buying a flat in Krakow; prices are still falling? [200]


The paranoia is dripping from your posts.

Life / What do Polish people do for fun? [18]


Rotary in PL is mostly in the cities.

Real Estate / Buying a flat in Krakow; prices are still falling? [200]


Wow


Yet growing, and no bubble in Krakow property prices.

News / What must be done to improve politics in Poland? [72]

There needs to be something new. PJN doesn't appeal not least because of the idea of Poncyljusz and Kaminski getting any power, and right now I can't see anything better than PO, lacklustre though they may be.

Real Estate / Buying a flat in Krakow; prices are still falling? [200]


Milky who claims on his (mistake filled) website that Polish is the hardest language in the world to learn. Harder than Arabic of Japanese. Wonder if he's tried Navaho...


I don't think there are any reliable figures for it, only media reports in both countries.

News / What must be done to improve politics in Poland? [72]

So do you prefer PiS to PO then? Somebody must. Just not enough for them to win anything.

News / What must be done to improve politics in Poland? [72]


Not least because the idea was never thought through. Just the PiS tactic of generating hot air while actually doing nothing.

Language / Polish regional accents? [141]

Accents change with time, some faster than others. It's happened in the UK too, due to post-war migration and the influence of TV. Depends on all sorts of things though, including sociolects. Not long ago I heard a recording of Florence Nightingale's voice - very clear and somehow sounding more modern than The Queen when she was younger.

Old Polish films from the thirties seem almost a different language than today's Polish.

News / What must be done to improve politics in Poland? [72]


Because PiS failed in the attempt. As with most other things they tried.

Language / Polish regional accents? [141]


Because as you suggest, a lot of the people there came straight from the east, from rural communities. I like the Podlaski accent, but the nicest, purest accents I've heard are from (very posh) old people who grew up around Wilnius.

Gumishu mentions the long vowels of £omźa - a nice sound, but the singsong rythm that you get closer to Białystok is somehow special.

News / What must be done to improve politics in Poland? [72]

Have you heard also of their failed PiS attempts to tax the personal income of Poles working abroad.
Did they a/ think that those Poles should pay tax twice, b/ think that Poland was more entitled to the money instead of the place the people actually live, as if it were a tax on ethnicity, c/ not care or d/hadn't thought about it much?

But since they were removed from office they weren't able to do much damage.

News / What must be done to improve politics in Poland? [72]


That's part of it all. They only managed to assume power by forming a coalition with a party of criminals and a party of racists. In the election in which they were removed from office those parties too were wiped out, and the Polish people showed they wanted Platforma/PSL.

News / What must be done to improve politics in Poland? [72]


Yes - but remember (if you knew in the first place, which is unlikely to say the least) that UK citizens lose the right to vote after a short period of absence anyway, and that Poland (illegaly) discouraged non Polish EU citizens from registering to vote. Whereas in the UK, Polish migrants are encouraged to register.


Irrelevant, since British residents in PL don't get it. Until someone gets a lawyer and goes to Europe. And that would really cost the authorities.

News / What must be done to improve politics in Poland? [72]


As their idol Lech Kaczynski said when PiS (briefly) got the Warsaw mayorality "Teraz kurwa my".

Fortunately the people of Poland have shown they don't want PiS. They didn't even let them complete a whole term of office.

BTW, gumishu, what was the unemployment figure under the failed PiS regime?

Live, rather than "are living". The rest is pure comedy!

Work / English tutoring help - do we need the TESOL certificate to work in Poland? [33]


Never in 11 years, though I've occasionally helped out a friend when her barmaid has been off sick. The customers could barely believe it!

Real Estate / information about Bialoleka Warszawa (Warsaw area) [8]


Yes. Quite a well known one, for historical reasons. A grim looking place, but tucked away on the edge of the district.


Better start a different thread for that. BTW, "subern" is not a word in English. Perhaps you're thinking of 'suburb'.

News / What must be done to improve politics in Poland? [72]


A few years ago (prior to EU entry) the embassy were guessing 8,000. This was based on the number of people who'd registered with them and includes people who identify as Poles but with British passports. The British Embassy in Warsaw is comically useless - and I suspect the figure today is many times higher.

Nobody really keeps a figure, and Polish bureaucracy (and nationalistic issues due to a highly compromised history of national independence) is such that they don't recognise the British minority in the same way that the Polish minority is recognised in the UK. What's the point? Reciprocity - Poles in the UK get quite a good deal, especially if they have school age kids, are looking for social housing or need to claim benefits. This should work both ways. Look at the various hurdles when you want to vote or join a Trade Union.

What can be done to improve politics in PL?
Relect PO, keep PiS where they belong, in obscurity. On a city level, keep out the PiS/SLD mafia. Above all, remove the communist style immunity from the law that politicians and even some civil servants enjoy and rigorously prosecute corruption, from a 10 zloty bribe to a million zloty kickback. Overhaul the scandalously inefficient legal system, so trhis can be dealt with quickly and not drag on for years. Publish the full names of those arrested or convicted like freer countries do. Not just "Jaroslaw K" etc. And stop managers in the public sectoe employing relatives.

Work / Some cold, hard facts about teaching in Poland for newbies [101]


That seems to be the same around the western world. Which is why one of the key skills (and this isn't for amateurs of kids on some 'gig') is to reconcile those two and still be on top of the situation.

I'm sometimes irritated by threads on PF like "My girlfriend and I are plannin' on bummin' around Yoorup when we leave high school and wanna catch a gig teachin' for a few weeks. We only need to score enough money for food", Equally ones from people a bit more serious but haven't heard of the usual internet forum for EFL teachers (which after all, is pretty well known throughout the profession).

But your advice is as usual, sound.

Work / Some cold, hard facts about teaching in Poland for newbies [101]

I'd pretty well go along with what Delphi has said, but add that in Warsaw both earnings and cost of living are much higher than in the provinces.

Also, in-company work tends to pay more than language school classes and is more likely to go on through the summer. Though the work is more demanding and senior managers (you are not the first or even the fifth native speaker teacher some of them have had) don't usually want 25 year olds. Unless they're pretty or charismatic or exceptionally good at teaching. Ideally all three.

The market is changing fast in Poland right now, and not for the better. People have been saying this for years.

Work / English tutoring help - do we need the TESOL certificate to work in Poland? [33]


Yes, if you want to do a half decent job. Remember people are paying for the lessons.


Maybe at a summer camp.


That doesn't ring true.

Real Estate / information about Bialoleka Warszawa (Warsaw area) [8]


I doubt it's even Warsaw's largest. The one at the back of Elsnerów looks bigger. Poland's biggest is in Wronki, in western Poland.

Europe's largest is in France, and the local jail near where I'm from in the UK is many times larger.

Białołęka prison isn't very big. It's rather scruffy looking though, like a few Kruszczówki buildings with a wall round. It's probably Poland's best known - the Poles interned Polish dissidents, like Adam Michnik, there.

Why not visit, so you can have a look.

Love / Sexual diseases! Please tell me how I go about getting tested in Poland? [103]

When I was young and poor I used to have to clean one. It still gives me nightmares. the owner never ever changed the jacuzzi water. Some other pretty bad things there too.