Travel / Trips around Wrocław and in Lower Silesia region [11]


Lower Silesia is to Silesia as West Virginia is to Virginia or Lower Saxony is to Saxony.

In other words, Lower Silesia is not in Silesia, and has very little in common with it nowadays.
When modern Poles say "Śląsk" (without a qualifier), they usually mean either the area formerly known as Oberschlesien (Upper Silesia), or województwo śląskie, depending on context.

Dolny Śląsk is usually not included except in some contexts having to do with prewar history. People from Dolny Śląsk generally do not consider themselves Silesians (unqualified). They may consider themselves Lower Silesians, but not Silesians.

Even the origin of the local population is different. The (almost entirely German) population of Lower Silesia was expelled after WWII and replaced by Polish refugees from the eastern areas of Poland that it lost after the war. There were few Slavic inhabitants before the war.

In (Upper) Silesia, not all of the Germans were expelled, and there was a significant amount of Slavic inhabitants before the war.

Województwo dolnośląskie almost, but not quite, coincides with the pre-war Niederschlesien. Ziemia Kłodzka was historically never part of Silesia, but of Bohemia.

A good part of Niederschlesien now lies in Województwo Opolskie, as does a good part of Oberschlesien (About half and half).

Województwo Śląskie, on the other hand, contains large areas that were never part of Silesia, like Sosnowiec and Częstochowa.

Travel / Trips around Wrocław and in Lower Silesia region [11]

Leave Wrocław

Church of Peace in Świdnica
Castle Książ
Osówka underground nazi factory complex
Chapel of skulls in Kudowa Czermna

Stay in Kudowa Zdrój

Daytrip 1: For the religious crowd, the sanctuaries in Wambierzyce and Bardo

Daytrip 2: Gold mine in Złoty Stok,
Cave of the Bear near Kletno

Leave Kudowa, go to Karpacz through Czech Republic, stop in Trutnuv for brunch/lunch

Arrive Karpacz, visit Wang Chapel

Sleep in Karpacz

Day trip around Karpacz, go to top of Śnieżka mountain

Next day, leave Karpacz,

Waterfall between and Podgórżyn and Przesieka
Park Miniatur and uranium mine in Kowary
Jelinia Góra old town

Go back to Wrocław

Work / Career as an English teacher in Warsaw Poland [28]

I think your using the terms "plenty" and "very nicely" rather freely, Jon.

There aren't many English teachers in Warsaw that consistently bring in more than 5000 PLN net a month (which is the minimum amount I would even consider calling "nice"), and very few earn over 10,000 net, which is what I would consider "very nice".

Those who earn more than 5000 PLN net are a) highly qualified specialists in legal, medical, scientific, technical or financial fields; b) established for many years with a good reputation and a sold customer base; and 3) gifted self-promoters who know how to effectively market their services.

No newbie is going to strike it rich unless he works off his butt for years and years. Fifteen years ago, this was a move worth considering. Now, much less so.

Life / Living Costs and life in Poznan? [70]


Basically not worth coming to Poland for that little. Factor in airfare and the fees for your residence permit, and you're not going to have much of an existence.

Work / Advice on Teaching English in Poland [709]



Maybe if you had studied a STEM field (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), you'd be a lot more satisfied with your job.

In any case, you're highly unlikely to find a decent job as an English teacher in Poland. When you factor in your airfare, the cost of getting a CELTA certificate and the cost of getting a residence permit, as well as the fact that you will be working only 30 weeks out of the year with no income for the other 22, you'd be very lucky indeed to break even the first year. God forbid if you get sick and have to miss some work. You'd have nothing in the way of a rainy day fund.

That is, if you find someone willing to hire you and give you enough hours, which is difficult for non-EU citizens. It's too much hassle for someone with your qualifications (which basically amount to nothing, as you yourself admit).


Follow your feeling. Teaching English in Poland just ain't for you.


No one gives a rat's a$$. If you really want to help people in need, go back to school, learn something useful that helps you get a job, and then you can donate a significant portion of your earnings or volunteer doing something a lot more useful for them then teaching English.

You could really make a difference if you dedicate yourself to improving yourself.

Language / Help needed as I would like to know all the diminutives in Polish and how to form them? [4]

Szczoteczka is a double diminuntive. Szczota --> szczotka --> szczoteczka

Basically, you're not going to be able to form diminutives in Polish until you are EXTREMELY proficient in the language. There is often a change in connotation, and a radical change in meaning, when you form a diminutive (just like in Spanish, only much more complicated). This is not a task for beginners in the language. Learn basic and advanced vocabulary first, get fifty or so books behind your belt, and THEN you can start playing around with diminutives. Precious few foreigners use them naturally. It's a difficult skill that will take you many, many years of hard work to learn. After living in Poland for twelve years and reading A LOT, I still don't have a native feel for them.

Work / Studies In Poland, is it easy to survive on part-time jobs? [259]


Basically, not a chance. Your experience is essentially useless on the Polish job market. And without speaking Polish, your options are essentially non-existent. Make you plans on the very safe assumption that you will not find work.


Again, none. You will not be able to earn anything in Poland, so make sure you have plenty of money BEFORE you come.


You'll need about 2000 PLN a month. And a bit more for the first two months. If you have less, look elsewhere. If you don't get a dorm room, it can cost you 3000 PLN a month, or more.


Polish is a very difficult language, and English helps no more than Chinese or Swahili. In the two years you will be here, you will probably be able to learn only very basic Polish. It may not be worth your while to bother learning Polish at all except for a few basic expressions.

Real Estate / Buying a property in Poland to rent out from the UK [82]


Have to agree with the others here. First of all, you're not going to be able to buy anything rentable for 30,000 AUD. You'll need at least three or four times as much to buy a decent one-bedroom apartment.

Second of all, unless you have ABUNDANT experience buying and renting out real estate in distant countries, and very good knowledge of the local market, the chances of you ever making even a single penny on this investment are zero.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but your plan is, frankly, doomed to failure. There is no point in pursuing it any further. Invest in something you know about.

Real estate is not for dilettantes. All the more so real estate way on the other side of the planet.

Work / Insurance / Customer Account Specialist job salary question is Warsaw [6]

There isn't any point in relocating to Warsaw if you're making less than 4500 to 5000 PLNNET. A low paid call center job is unlikely to do very much to enhance your resume.

Work / Cost of Living, Average Salaries and Job sites in Poland [263]

Any particular reason why your accountant can't answer these questions? That would be the appropriate way to get a useful answer, not off of some anonymous clowns like us on the internet.

Work / Salary and cost of living information - Krakow [257]


The advertised price is only the money that the owner of the apartment gets.

On top of that, the association that administers the building that the apartment is in gets an additional fee of anywhere from 300 to 600 PLN (not included in the rental price you see advertised). This covers things like building and grounds maintenance and improvement, as well as garbage pickup).

Then you generally have to pay separately for utilities: heat, electricity, gas, cold water, hot water, telephone, internet and cable TV. The one that can greatly affect you budget is heat. An older apartment may be cheaper in terms of the advertised rent price, but turn out to be a lot more expensive if the windows are not in good shape and you have to pay more for heat.

Therefore, expect to spend anywhere from 600 to 1200 PLN more than the advertised price for the apartment overall, including all fees and utilities with heat.

So the apartment you see advertised is going to cost you 1600 to 2200 in total. Maybe a little less if your lucky, or more if you're not. Make you plans taking this into account.

Work / Is it possible to work whilst studying in Poland? [20]


Extremely unlikely that you will find an employer that is going to go through the trouble of getting a work permit for you. Your safest bet is to assume that you definitely not be able to work, and make your plans in accordance with that assumption.

Work / Finding English teaching jobs in Poland [19]


Yes, that's true. Most jobs in schools start in October and last until June. There is precious little work to be had during the summer, and what little there is has already been snatched up by more established teachers. Furthermore, many schools pay reduced wages for summer courses. So don't waste your time trying to find work for the summer.


The boat for English teaching in Poland sailed long, long ago. The economic crisis has shrunk demand significantly while simultaneously increasing supply as unemployed British and Irish slackers, drop-outs and recent grads have gravitated to the larger, attractive cities in Poland in search of cheap beer, easy poontang, and jobs. They have driven prices down quite a bit as they are willing to give lessons for 20 or 30 PLN an hour out of desperation. Work in schools has also decreased as fewer companies are generous in footing the bill for classes for their employees. Also, there are more native Poles that can do a decent job of teaching English at the lower levels, so schools are less willing to pay extra for native speakers.

Forget about the large cities especially Warsaw, Kraków and Wrocław. The competition is to fierce there for a 23-year-old to become established whether as a teacher in a private school or as an independent tutor, so forget about that path. You might get a job in a lousy school for lousy wages, thinking that it would at least be a foot in the door. Sorry, but working for a crumby Callan method, Direct method, Avalon or Berlitz school just ain't gonna open up any doors.

If there's still opportunity to be had for native speakers, it's in small towns off the beaten track way out deep in the provinces, in places that are never mentioned in the tour guides, especially in Eastern Poland, where native speakers are rarely seen, and therefore are still in demand. Places like £omża, Chełm, Sejny or Limanowa. Of course, these jobs are a lot harder to find and are riskier, but the pay to cost of living ratio is higher than in the bigger cities.

My advice would be to give up English teaching altogether and go back to school to earn some salable qualifications while you are still young. English teaching is going to do little for you in terms of career development, and as a career, it has no future, even in places like the Far East. If you're doing it for a year or two for vacation, adventure or just plain ***************, have fun. But don't expect to make any money from it, and you won't be disappointed.

Work / Career/work opportunities in Poland for a guy with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology? [5]


Basically none. Poland is awash with unemployed psychology graduates, and even those with a masters degree have a difficult time finding work. Furthermore, healthcare and public sector work in Poland is extremely poorly paid, especially at the starting level. Without a good working knowledge of Polish, there is basically nothing you can do in a clinical setting.

Your only chance is to find work at a western company and get transferred to Poland and work for western wages. Probably in something like HR or marketing. This is not likely to happen, though, for an entry level flunky, especially in a non-technical field.

Otherwise, it is extremely likely that the only work you will find is cold-call sales and low level debt collections for a call center, a truly lousy job that pays too little for you to survive on as you don't have any salable skills or experience.

Your mistake was studying psychology instead of something useful engineering, science or other math-intensive fields. There is a worldwide glut of psychology graduates. If you were an IT engineer, there might be a chance of finding work in Poland, although at wages much lower than in the West.

At this point, the best bet for you would be to return to school and get some serious salable qualifications in a math-intensive field with good job prospects. You can use your bachelors from a prestigious German university to get into a good graduate program in a math-intensive marketable branch of applied psychology like market research analytics or econometrics. The factor that is most strongly correlated with future earnings and savings potential is the amount of advanced applied mathematics you have studied.

The other thing you can do is really beef up your language skills and get work as a translator. However, that's not all that easy to do if you are not a native speaker of English and don't have an in-demand specialty like law, science, medicine, finance or something like that. I did that myself, and made a lot of money by Polish standards translating clinical science into English.

Bottom line is that I can't see even the faintest hint of a future for you in Poland. At best, a very poorly paid dead-end job that you will end up trapped in. Sorry that this is not what you wanted to hear, but at least you have a way to make up for past mistakes and position yourself nicely on the job market if you invest the time and energy. Moving to Poland at this stage in your life would be career suicide.

Work / Advice on Teaching English in Poland [709]


Public school teachers in Poland make extremely little money. As a foreigner, it is far to little to support yourself, never mind a family. Even as a native English speaker, you will still be making to little to justify working in a public school. The only way to do that would be as a volunteer project while living off of your own savings.

In fact, there is no way you could earn enough teaching anywhere in Poland to support yourself, your husband and three kids.That just ain't gonna happen, no way, no how. Sorry, but if you're looking at this from a financial angle, it's a recipe for disaster.

Law / Agricultural subsidy in Poland and European Union (investments in livestock) [8]

Like Lolek said, chances of getting a subsidy for agricultural production are slim to none. Agricultural over-production is a huge problem in Europe, especially dairy, and EU policy is geared at decreasing production in the agricultural sector overall. Drastically. Especially in Eastern Europe. Dairy overproduction has caused a nasty economic war in the EU for the past forty years, so if you're planning on entering that area, expect fierce exclusionary policies and extremely strict production quotas, and no help from anyone. In fact, expect a hostile reception and you won't be disappointed.

That having been said, there are possibilities if you are planning a very innovative integrated and eco-friendly operation that concentrates on high value-added regional, craft or artisan specialty products, with the emphasis being on integrated. However, that takes considerable education, qualifications, experience, skill, expertise and tons of work to pull off. Another possibility is gene banking in cooperation with universities and breeding centers.

As far as guidelines and regulations go, you will have to find a real consultant in the type of agricultural you are interested in. The place to start is SGGW or your local AR. You're totally barking up the wrong tree by looking for information about this on an internet forum. The ONLY way you are going to get any useful information is by plunking down the cash to consult with an actual expert.

All in all, agriculture in the EU is an investment that is highly unlikely to pay off for dilettantes. If you don't have considerable education and experience yourself, in agriculture, business and dealing with EU regulatory policies, probably the best advice you will receive is to steer clear of the whole business and plant trees instead.

Work / Scope for working in Poland after completion of Masters In Environmental Engineering? [6]

For environmental engineering, a bit lower in the States for starting BS, about 50k, and a bit lower for starting masters, about 75 k. Which is why I recommended the more lucrative fields of petroleum and geological engineering. Depends a lot on your specialty and experience, and, of course, who you are working for, but generally, environmental engineers are not the best paid on average.

Work / Scope for working in Poland after completion of Masters In Environmental Engineering? [6]

A degree from a Polish university is no better than one from a good Indian university. Your chances of finding work are remote to zero, and if you did, the pay would be low. Poland is not one of the richer European countries. Recommend that instead of environmental engineering, you study petroleum, geological or biomedical engineering. Your lifetime earnings potential would be three times higher, and you will always be able to find a good job anywhere. Find a good program in India.

Work / Teaching at a Polish University - PHD required? or being a foreigner enough ;) [45]


Most Poles do not have habilitacje, so it doesn't matter at all what most Poles would be happy with. And I'd be pretty pi$$ed off if I were bringing in only 3500 PLN a month after studying for 15 years. That's what I got as a teaching assistant when I was a grad student 30 years ago in the States. A mere $14,000 a year. Peanuts. And to drag my caboose half way across the globe for so little would simply not be an option. At all.


I have to agree with this. You're out of your element, Lenka.

Work / Teaching at a Polish University - PHD required? or being a foreigner enough ;) [45]


If they're making decent money, it's because they are not working as an employee of the university, but are receiving money from various grants, like I was. The university pay scale is meager and inflexible, and is determined solely by the ministry of education.

Grant money, on the other hand, can be spent at the discretion of the recipient, as long as they adhere to the grant guidelines.

For example, I was paid from an EU grant for translating and advising. The other way professors and scientists make money is by freelance consulting. The actual pay they get from the university itself is lousy: about 3500 PLN a month for an adjunct.

Work / Teaching at a Polish University - PHD required? or being a foreigner enough ;) [45]

With a doctorate and plenty of experience, and a very high level of Polish, I made a lot more money working with universities and PAN as an independent translator and advisor than I ever could working for the university itself. With a mere masters, though, no one is going to pay you decent money for anything.


Baloney. There are no "rather well paid jobs" at Polish universities, for Poles or foreigners. Adjunct professors with habilitacje don't clear more than 4000 PLN a month, and most earn a lot less. A lecturer with a masters is going to bring in less than 2000 PLN a month under the very best of circumstances, if they get hired at all.


The overwhelming majority of Polish academics don't earn near enough from their universities to have a decent life. Full professors top out at a mere $30,000 a year. Most consult on the side for supplemental income, or even as their primary source of income.

Wages at Polish universities are determined by a schedule determined by the ministry of education. Individual universities and departments have little in the way of flexibility to negotiate wages on a case by case basis. No matter how desperately they need someone, they have to pay them according to the schedule. Same as with the University of California system.

Work / Living in Katowice (programmer, 3000 PLN) - is it enough? [65]


Basically not worth moving to Poland for so little. You'll survive if you're very frugal and careful with every penny, but don't expect much in the way of comfort or things like travel or entertainment, and saving up even a little for a rainy day fund is pretty much out of the question. Unexpected medical expenses, for example, would be enough to wipe you out.

Katowice ain't a pretty city by a long shot. It's a grimy mining center.

Fine if you are a recent grad and want to get a year experience for your CV, and you absolutely cannot find better work elsewhere. Otherwise, not at all a tempting offer.

Work / Job at HP in Wroclaw, what salary should I expect and Is It negotiable? [29]


That's the bare minimum you should consider taking. Depends on how much they need an Italian speaker. If they're desperate, you have a chance. Otherwise, keep looking for a job that pays at least that much.

Work / Teaching at a Polish University - PHD required? or being a foreigner enough ;) [45]

Have to agree that the chances of finding work are slim to none, and if you do manage to find anything, the pay will be abysmally low, and not worth the bother even to think about. You wouldn't be able to survive on it, never mind be able to justify the costs of moving to Poland. This isn't a viable option. Your being a foreigner adds basically nothing to your employability. Native English speakers with masters degrees are dime a dozen in Poland now, so you're nothing special. There have been major cutbacks at Polish universities recently, so job prospects would be very poor.

Work / Job offer from IT Giant in Katowice, Poland (UNIX specialist). Information on tax and rental costs needed. [65]


Sorry to hear that, Paritosh. Try going to Warsaw on the weekends. There's a lot more to do there than in £odż. And make some friends. Don't be shy. I wish you all the best of luck!

Work / Job offer from IT Giant in Katowice, Poland (UNIX specialist). Information on tax and rental costs needed. [65]


Huh? It's rather optimistic.


And that's what I'm optimistic about. This is a senior engineer with eight years experience as a UNIX specialist. Pretty much in demand just about everywhere. I highly doubt he will have much trouble finding a much better job elsewhere. He's a shoo-in.


He can also move on to greener pastures directly from India. No need to use Poland as a stepping stone. And possibly even smarter financially in the end, and certainly in terms of networking and family comfort. It's going to be MUCH easier for him to effectively network in India than in Poland, and that means a lot in terms of finding a good job.


Except that this guy won't really be "in the EU". He will have only temporary residence status, and they would have to do everything from scratch again as far as work and residence permits are concerned. On paper, he might as well be back in India. The fact that he's physically here really doesn't make that much difference. The only possible advantage I see there is that he can fly in for an interview.


Not by a long shot. About a quarter to a third for IT engineers compared to the richer countries of Western Europe. Maybe it's 2/3 if you count in Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece, but that would be meaningless.


I'm assuming he currently has a job in India, so it's not a choice of working in Poland or being unemployed.


Poland and India are at about the same level as far as technical education is concerned. Any differences in the acceptability of degrees would be minor. The "Polish engineers have a good reputation" is largely a meaningless mantra. They don't have a bad reputation, don't get me wrong, but not a stellar one on a global scale.

Briefly, can you explain what advantages this guy would get from coming to Poland versus staying in India for the time being and continuing to look for a better job from there? I can't see any. Big ones, at least. Whatever small short term financial gain he may derive is going to be more than offset by the drop in quality of life for him and his family. They are going to be away from their families, friends and networks in a strange place where they don't speak the language and they will be outsiders in an ugly city in a poor country with a terrible winter and there will be zero chances for the wife to find work and I can go on and on and on. Whatever small advantages there might be seem not to be worth the bother of making the trip.

Work / Job offer from IT Giant in Katowice, Poland (UNIX specialist). Information on tax and rental costs needed. [65]


And I did. The lower cost of living in Poland would go nowhere near offsetting the much lower wages. Not by a long shot. No matter how you cut it, the pay is low on a global scale in terms of future savings potential in absolute dollars. Like I said above, at best, the OP can expect to set aside about $12,000 a year if he takes this job. Maybe a little more if he and his family live very frugally, but not much more. That's about a fifth of what he would be able to save if he got a comparable job in the States, apples to apples. Over five years, that's a difference of at least $200,000. He could send his kid to Rose-Hulman or Harvey Mudd for that, cash on the table up front.

Really, Jardinero, your ideas about cost of living in Poland are off by a wide mile, especially for higher level foreign professionals with families. I've pointed that out to you several times before, and again I'll say that you are under some sort of romantic delusion.

For your part, you're not factoring in the lower standard of living this family will have in Poland, especially as far as opportunities for advancement and self-improvement are concerned. Both financially and professionally, it may well turn out that taking a job in India for the next five years would be a better move than working in Poland. And it will almost certainly be more pleasant than living as isolated outsiders in one of the ugliest cities in Poland. Even if the job were here in beautiful Wrocław, I would not recommend that the OP take the job unless he were truly desperate. And with his qualifications and experience, he has no real reason to be. He's a shoo-in for a better job elsewhere.

The savings in living costs in Poland only pays off if you are living entirely off of previous savings, like I am. It doesn't work if you have to earn a living, except in rare cases where you are being paid at Western rates, which this guy isn't.

Work / Job offer from IT Giant in Katowice, Poland (UNIX specialist). Information on tax and rental costs needed. [65]


You must be joking. That's a measly $56,000 a year. Qualified engineers from the UK or Germany that could do this level of work wouldn't even get out of bed for so little. As monitor said, it's about what a recent grad gets there. And yes, the reason that the company is bringing in someone from India is precisely because it's getting harder and harder to find a Pole who will get out of bed for that little money. Or, as Monitor pointed out, even someone from Bulgaria or Romania. Those that can have fled West. The pay is three times as much. They can't afford to turn down about $100,000 a year.


Point well made. Thanks.


That's an incredibly expensive price to pay for access to the job market in the EU. One that the OP, with his qualifications and experience, can easily forgo. This guy isn't just some recent grad. He has plenty of hair on his chest. He just has to learn to thump it.


Ummm... you do realize that women can become engineers, too. If I were to recommend something (which I am about to), I would recommend something like petroleum engineering, geological engineering, biomedical engineering, financial engineering, financial mathematics, actuarial mathematics or econometrics as first line choices. With an well-earning husband, she can afford to study at a good school. Languages would be aiming low. They are splendid as a side interest, I agree, but they don't put bread on the table. They do put the butter on it, though. And salt, as well. I have two language degrees myself, German and Classical Languages, and I taught myself Danish and Polish. They make doing science at lot more fun.


Extensively. I've written, coauthored or translated over 500 scientific papers and ten books in the last twelve years alone, and God knows how many before then.


Most pathologists work with living patients. The autopsies are a side hobby. A pathologist is a specialist in diagnosis. Most of my career was spent diagnosing leukemia and other blood disorders in children.


I was thinking about mentioning that, too. I have to admit that after 12 years of living in Poland, even I turn my head when I see a dark-complected person walking the streets. And that's in Wrocław, which, by Polish standards, is pretty cosmopolitan.


The investment in time and effort would be so great that I would recommend that the OP and his wife not even bother. Even if he did stay for five years, it probably wouldn't pay off. As I said above, Polish isn't a "plug and play" language like English or Hindi. Saying even the simplest things requires a lot of grammatical gymnastics. After twelve years of professional translating here in Poland, with reading skills that greatly exceed those of by far most Poles, I still have a difficult time with the spoken language. I operate mostly in English, as will the OP.


I concur, except that I would cast the net a bit wider in Europe, and also include the Anglosphere, particularly the States, and Australia, too.

Work / Job offer from IT Giant in Katowice, Poland (UNIX specialist). Information on tax and rental costs needed. [65]

Like I said, have a few good long talks with experienced senior engineers who know your personal situation better. I see no reason to accept the offer, but I don't know anything about you and your situation except what you've written on this thread. You can show them what I've written here and ask them what they think.

Work / Job offer from IT Giant in Katowice, Poland (UNIX specialist). Information on tax and rental costs needed. [65]


Laughed out loud when I read that. I used to spend every winter school break in Orłowo because it was so beautiful and peaceful. Walks along the cliffs in heavy snowstorms are among my fondest memories. Very romantic. And bedtime activities were excellent, as well. Something about the air from the bay.


That's true. Skiing and winter sports are close and there is lots to do. But inside the city, it's horribly depressing. As for infrastructure, generally true, except that the city is split in half by the train line, and it is a major hassle to get from one side of the city to the other. And that's coming from someone who lives in Wrocław, with its God only really knows how many branches of the Odra and over 200 bridges (still not enough). Why there are so few ways to get under the tracks in Katowice, I never figured out.

Kidding aside, winter can be a terrible shock for people from warmer climes. Every year I hear international students here in Wrocław freaked out about it. Already in November. They can't get used to the idea that it's a 24-hour a day deal, as far as the eye can see, for months on end. I think a lot of them have the impression that it lasts for an hour or two in a small area and happens only a couple of times during the season. I've known students who've packed their bags and gone home. One Kenyan student I knew seriously thought the world was coming to an end, and that wasn't a particularly bad winter at all. Another time, I took an Egyptian student with me to visit friends in Jelenia Góra. It happened to be the day of the first real snow that year. He couldn't get over the fact that there was snow not only in Wrocław, but every along the way all the way to JG. "It's EVERYWHERE", he kept on repeating. In horror. He spent the whole weekend right in front of the fireplace, and we couldn't get him to go outside with us even for a moment.

On the other hand, I took a Pakistani student up there once, and he jumped naked into the ice-covered mountain stream along with the rest of us on New Years Day. He really enjoyed it a lot, to the point where we had to explain to him that he would end up with hypothermia if he spent too much time in the water. He couldn't get over the fact that the icy water was warmer than the air.

Actually, autumn is a bit of a shock for them, too. "Why are all the trees dying?"


That's funny. I'm a pretty ascetic Buddhist, and money isn't the main issue for me. I took a twelve year break from a pretty lucrative career as a pathologist to come to Poland and help out young people. On the other hand, money is a much higher priority for a person with a wife and kid, such as the OP, who even intimated as such in his first post.

The advancement issue is more important, and by no means in terms of cash only. Job satisfaction for an engineer very much depends on being part of the creative and innovative elite, rather than doing boring drudge work that no one else wants to do. The former lifts your soul. The latter destroys it, especially if you are not being adequately rewarded.

Even so, there is no particular advantage for the OP to come to Poland, financial or otherwise. If he were single and not as experienced, like Paritosh, for example, I would say "Go for it". But with the wife and kid, priorities are different. Very, very different.

You seem to think that I'm saying that Poland is a bad place. That's not what I'm saying at all. I'm saying that there are better places than Poland for the OP. Don't you agree?