Travel / Help with a travel plan to Poland [72]


Ireland is positively toasty in winter compared to Poland. Winter in Ireland is like Poland at the times of the spring and autumn that I listed above. In January or February, temperatures in Poland can go down to below -20 degrees Celsius. Toss in a good wind and you'll freeze your balls off walking to the corner store unless you are properly bundled up in (real) wool, (real) down and (real) leather, which are bulky, heavy and costly. I'm living in Vermont, USA, now and we're in the middle of a nasty cold snap. It's -20 outside right now. If I just want to go out on the patio to have a smoke, I have to bundle up.

I understand what you are saying. You want to experience winter and snow. But I also know how they can greatly inconvenience travel. Like I said, if you do come in winter, keep the traveling to a minimum and spend more time in two places rather than bouncing all over the place.

Travel / Help with a travel plan to Poland [72]


You can't have near zero temperatures without the risk of paralyzing ice and snow. And believe me when I say that Poland is dark and gray in the winter time.

If you do come in winter, abandon all plans for visiting many places, and stick to at most two of the nicer cities that are tourist friendly and easy to get around like Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Toruń or Gdańsk, anchoring yourself in Warsaw at the beginning and end of the trip. And stick to train travel between them. While road travel and travel on less busy train lines can be paralyzed, the main train lines between these cities are rarely paralyzed.

Even in the summer time, Poland rarely gets hot enough to be considered hot and sweaty. Perhaps a week or two in August, at the most.

You do realize that you have to dress appropriately for winter weather, and that those clothes are very bulky and heavy, and a pain to drag around?

If you want cool, wet weather, then come during the last two weeks of April or the first two weeks of May, or the last two weeks of September or the first two weeks of October. You might even see snow during those times, but it won't be enough to paralyze travel.

Travel / Help with a travel plan to Poland [72]

When Poles go on winter vacation, they don't travel around. They pick a nice place and hole up there for the duration, as traveling around can be quite difficult. For example, I would spend my winter vacations in a seaside fishing town near Gdynia called Orłowo. Most of the time would be spent indoors by the fire with friends, or on very short city train rides to Gdańsk or Gdynia for a good meal and some limited sightseeing. I've also spent winter vacation in Cieszyn, Chojnice and Jelenia Góra.

Some people like to ski and do winter sports, and again, they pick one place and stay there. Zakopane and Karpacz can be a zoo at this time of the year with all the Polish tourists.

Save the snow for another time. It's not worth the risk of ruining your entire vacation because you are stuck and can't get around. And then there is the small, but real, possibility that there might not be any snow at all for the duration of your stay. Just slush and mud.

If you've never even seen ice and snow, take it from those of us who deal with it regularly an have an idea how inconvenient and tiring it can be, especially when you are traveling.

Travel / Help with a travel plan to Poland [72]

You're going to be so exhausted just from traveling and adjusting to new locations, that you are not going to have much energy to want to see much. It's way to ambitious. And are you planning on renting a car?

Again, seriously rethink coming in January and February, when the roads can be totally impassable because of ice and snow, and the days are short, dark and grey. If it warms up, then you've got to deal with the slush, which is worse than the snow. You are going to enjoy this a lot more in June, July or August. You won't have to be lugging around all that bulky winter clothing, the weather is sunny, warm and dry, and you don't have to worry about air and ground transport being paralyzed.

Study / Coming to Study in Poland after being raised In USA [7]

Tomorrow is New Years Eve. No one will be there until at least the 8th.

Study / Coming to Study in Poland after being raised In USA [7]


Why? What do you want to study? And where do you want to study it?


The place to start is with the admissions department of the university you wish to attend. They can answer your questions.

Language / Writing "to" and "from" on gifts in Polish. [41]

@The Elves

The name would be Felicia in Latin, not Felixa, which looks bizarre in Latin. And Felikska is an obvious mis-reading. There is no such name, nor has there ever been. As Kaprys said, it's hard to pronounce in Polish and doesn't follow Polish name-formation rules. Nor does it look Russian, Ukrainian or Ruthenian. It would be Felicja in Polish. Feliksa would be the genitive of a male name, as in "córka Feliksa", meaning daughter of Feliks.

Work / How is the job opportunities in Poland for my competencies? I am delivering business coaching services. [9]

Nothing that can support a family of four with two teenage children that have to go to an expensive private school. You'll have to aim for a much richer country in northwestern Europe for that, like Germany or the UK.

Travel / Help with a travel plan to Poland [72]


The weather can be downright awful at that time of the year. From May 1 to August 31 is when the weather is best. April can be cold and wet, as can November. September can be cold already, and October is usually cold. December, January, February and March are the worst months to travel because there is a real possibility that snowfall can paralyze air and surface traffic. It's not unusual to have two weeks of solid horrible weather from the beginning of November to the end of April.

Three cities are more than enough for two weeks. Four at the outside. In terms of tourist friendliness, I recommend Kraków, Wrocław and Poznań. Or Kraków, Toruń, and Gdańsk. You can also see a bit of Warsaw if you land and depart from there. It's a matter of taste, but Warsaw just doesn't have the charm that these cities do. Others may disagree, but I personally don't like it.

Białystok is not at all charming. The draw there is the countryside, which is incredible in the summertime. You could easily spend two weeks canoeing in the wetlands and river valleys that surround it. As for the city, though, a single day is more than enough to see all there is to see. Lublin just isn't set up for tourism like the cities I mentioned are. It has a lot of potential, but it just hasn't been developed yet.

Language / Help with idiomatic translation ... [48]


I've been wondering about that for years and have never come across even a single example of a true loan word from Romany into Polish.

Love / What do Polish guys think of Asian girls? [50]


Is there any reason YOU can't ask HIM out? Of course not.

Love / What do Polish guys think of Asian girls? [50]

@Thunderbee

Did you ever think of asking him to join you for a coffee so that you can get to know each other better? Life is a lot easier if you don't play games like a silly little teenager, especially mind reading games. As the Good Lord said, "Knock, and the door will be open unto you". And even if it isn't, then at least you know that you are wasting your time and move on to a more promising target.

Genealogy / Trying to find a town called Kadyz. [13]

The change occurred during the course of post-war treaty negotiations, after the matter of relocation of populations had already been settled. The original border proposal ran along the Nieman. During negotiations, it was decided to move it further west, closer to the Curzon line, without revisiting the question of relocating the ethnic Polish population.


Various and sundry, depending what Google searches in Polish turn up. You're not going to find a lot of this information in English.

Genealogy / Trying to find a town called Kadyz. [13]

It's a tiny village in a area that is still predominantly settled by ethnic Poles. There was a last minute change in the border negotiations after WWII that trapped them inside of Belarus, same as my surviving family members from neighboring villages.

Baran is an extremely common surname all over Poland, and Badura is fairly common, too, also found all over Poland. Neither name is unique to a single family; multiple unrelated families use these surnames. Chances of you being related to a random Baran or Badura are low, unless you can find documentation confirming the linkage.

Language / Help with idiomatic translation ... [48]

In Sumerian, it originally meant a clay tablet, the kind you see cuneiform written on. Then it meant a list of soldiers written on such a tablet. Then a list of government officials. Then a royal court. Then a throne room. Then a raised platform or bench along the walls of the throne room. Polish got it in the sense of carpet that covers such a platform.

@kaprys

This is an excellent example of semantic drift.

Genealogy / Trying to find a town called Kadyz. [13]

The reason I asked about Dupont is that many people from the area around Kadysz settled in Dupont. Very many. There are Baran's in Dupont, but that might just be coincidence. Baran is an extremely common Polish name.

Genealogy / Trying to find a town called Kadyz. [13]

@Ybscka

Which surnames are you interested in? And do you have any connection with Dupont, PA?

Genealogy / Trying to find a town called Kadyz. [13]

It's spelled Kadysz in Polish, and it's now in Belarus, right next to the Polish border. My mother's family comes from very close nearby.

Language / Help with idiomatic translation ... [48]

It's called "semantic drift" ("dryf semantyczny"). The meaning of words changes over time, especially when words are borrowed by one language from another. That's why false friends exist between languages, like prezerwatywa and preservative, or poligon and polygon, or szalet and chalet. Or my favorite, Polish talon and English talon.

Work / Should I move Wroclaw in 3M as a Rpa lead Developer from India ? [9]

I'm guessing that that means 10,760 PLN a month gross, which is about 7,100 PLN a month net. If you are single, frugal, and stay away from the Unholy Trinity of alcohol, tobacco and girls, and don't take any trips back to India, then you could theoretically save as much as 2000 PLN a month, or about 6,000 USD a year, which is not all that spectacular.

Again, there are much better jobs to be had in richer countries. I suggest you use your network to find one, especially if you have family to support or debts to pay off. Poland is a poor choice if saving is a priority.

Language / Help with idiomatic translation ... [48]

Dywan is another interesting example. Yes, it comes from Turkish, but the dy- part traces back to Persian, to Akkadian, and ultimately to Sumerian. It is only one of two words in Polish that have Sumerian roots, the other being kanał, which like the English words cane, canyon, channel and canal, all ultimately derive from a Sumerian root meaning "hollow reed".

UK, Ireland / I'm so confused where to settle down - UK or Poland? Advice please. [21]


Which leads to the one number that will decide the matter for you: how much money can you stash away in your savings or retirement account at the end of the month. In practically all cases, the amount is going to be several times higher in the UK than in Poland. That's usually a deal killer.

The only exception is if you get a job with a British company that does business in Poland, and request a transfer to Poland at British wages. This is easiest if you have a good track record in B2B sales with management experience, or if you have senior high-level management, administration or technical specialist experience.

Language / Help with idiomatic translation ... [48]


Actually, quite a few. And you are right to use the word Turkic, and not Turkish, as many of those words come from non-Turkish Turkic languages. Many of the Turkish Turkish words are in turn borrowed from Persian and Arabic.

We just had a question about the origin of the Polish name Tambur here. It turns out that the name is based on a root borrowed from some Balkan language, from Turkish, from Persian, from Akkadian, and ultimately from Sumerian. English gets tambourine from the same ultimate source, from French, from Italian, from Turkish and so on. That's quite a journey, across several totally different language families.

Language / Help with idiomatic translation ... [48]


Tuman has an interesting origin. It literally means cloud of dust, smoke or fog. At first, I thought it derived from a non-Slavic language, like Turkish or Arabic, but it turns out it's pure Slavic and related to the word "ciemny", meaning it is something dark.

Koczkodan derives from a Romanian word meaning "someone weird", which, in turn, is probably derived from a Turkish root.

Work / Should I move Wroclaw in 3M as a Rpa lead Developer from India ? [9]

@Rpa_0111995

I'm assuming you mean 100,760 PLN a year, which comes to about 8400 PLN a month gross, and 5600 PLN after taxes.

If you are single, you will survive and be able to lead a modest lifestyle. Savings are going to be very modest. If saving money, supporting a family back in India, or paying off debts is a priority, then forget about this job and look for work in a richer country.

On a global scale, the pay is very low: US $28,500 a month, less than toilet cleaners and burger flippers make in some parts of the US. Savings wise, it's really, really low.

Forget about recruiters and internet job sites. They rarely have any good jobs to offer. The best jobs are advertised only face to face, person to person in the real world, not online. So build up your network of personal professional contacts and use them to help you find a much better job in a richer country. Focus on befriending people who work or have worked in richer countries. Any job you find that way will be much better than anything you can find on line or through a recruiter. And no, Poland is not a good place for you to network. That will be a lot easier for you in your home country.

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

If you cannot afford to pay 100% of your study and stay in Poland without working, the Poland is not for you. There are no jobs for students from India. Make your plans on the very safe assumption that you will never be able to earn even a single penny in Poland. The same goes for all the other countries in Europe where youth unemployment is high: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Albania, Macedonia, Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal.

Studying engineering in any of those countries is no better than studying at a good engineering school in India. If you cannot afford to study at a good engineering school in a richer country like the UK, Germany, Switzerland or Sweden, then studying in India is your best option.

And if you are going to study engineering, study a field that will easily get you a high-paying job, like petroleum, geological or biomedical engineering.

Life / Moving from India to Krakow for employment - suggestion for good location to live with family [22]

That sounds like a lot, until you realize that that's less than half of what an equivalent job would pay in the west, and, much more importantly enables you to save an even smaller fraction. And no, the lower cost of living does not come close to offsetting the wage difference. The Indians you met are using Poland as a stepping stone to better paying jobs in the west. Foolishly, I think, because if they took the trouble to conduct a proper job search, they wouldn't need to waste a year or two stuck on a low-paying stepping stone, and could land a job in the west straightaway.

Life / Moving from India to Krakow for employment - suggestion for good location to live with family [22]

Ukes are a special case. They don't need work permits for temporary jobs.

Life / Moving from India to Krakow for employment - suggestion for good location to live with family [22]

The ads are in English and Polish because Luxoft technically has to give preference to EU nationals, and they have to advertise the jobs as part of the process of getting a work permit. The ads are mostly just for show. The jobs are actually filled by ads in Russian published in the Ukraine, or by staff that already work for them in the Ukraine.

And yes, the OP is going to work in a job that no one in Poland or the EU wants for the wages offered. That is the basis of the hiring company's application for a work permit. If it were a quality job that an EU citizen would want, he would not have been hired. He's getting a low-paid, dull and dreary job not because he's an Indian, but because he's not an EU national, and because he is willing to work for sub-market rates.

Life / Moving from India to Krakow for employment - suggestion for good location to live with family [22]

Luxoft is a Russian company with subsidiaries in the Ukraine. These jobs are going to Ukrainians and other former USSR nationals, not to Indians and Bengalis.