News / Will many Poles migrate to Germany in May 2011 (after opening labor market)? [157]

Careful guys, you are mentioning Turks again. Me and BB had our last diversion on this wiped by the Mods.

Life / WHO IS CONSIDERED TO BE POOR IN POLAND? [8]


Some politicians would say it is people who shop in Biedronka.

News / Will many Poles migrate to Germany in May 2011 (after opening labor market)? [157]


You're probably right, but when any group start getting bigger there's always some pr1ck who'll use it as an excuse. I hope it doesn't happen, of course...

News / Will many Poles migrate to Germany in May 2011 (after opening labor market)? [157]


Wanna bet?


Yeah, send 'em all to Serbia.

News / Will many Poles migrate to Germany in May 2011 (after opening labor market)? [157]


Funnily enough, I recall a Spanish minister saying something like "We could have X number of Poles or X number of Africans, so we'll take the Poles"


Yeah, but there was also a Polish boxing world champion and a Polish Eurovision entry...

News / Will many Poles migrate to Germany in May 2011 (after opening labor market)? [157]

Poles moving to Germany?

Hmmm, perhaps I should start trying to teach German... "Was machst du in dein freizeit?"

bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13222354

Life / How could things have gone so wrong (Poland church dress code) [195]


I got married in a kilt, (it was pretty big cos all the guests fitted into it) and while up at the altar i looked up and saw JC in a belted plaid and a bare chest!

Genealogy / Burial listings for Polish cemeteries. Where to find them online? [12]

I'd suggest church death records, if possible. If you know the area your family were/are from, try writing to the diocese office to see if they have any records.

Sometimes I have found death records but no graves (a few decades of Polish winters can wipe out a grave marking) or the graves/cemeteries are no more.

News / Poland's Lost Generation [172]


Perhaps it is because they feel betrayed by those who are/were in power. How many of those graduates were able to find any work in PL, let alone work worthy of their qualifications? Let's face it, a few years ago the average British graduate ended up working on phone lines. The realisation that spending 5+ years earning a degree, being unable to find a job and then finding a waitering job in UK pays more than a qualified job in Poland can be pretty demoralising.

Having been reared in the post-communist era, I suspect many of them were spiled in a way their parents never were and saw the chance of making money being shown on TV, films etc become a reality. Being able to have a full fridge, a nice car (without waiting in a queue for months) was a dream of their parents, so perhaps they were instilled with his dream too.


This is a good point. Speaking with some people i know here in Poland, there is a great frustration amongst many about the close-mindedness, old-school attitudes of businesses and academia. Many young academics go abroad to study because they can get PhDs quicker and then return and get a foothold amongst the dinosaurs.

Language / Too many English words in the Polish language! [709]


Wow, I bet there's more from Arabic. Amazing how many words in English are from Arabic.

Study / Summer camp for English speaking kids in Poland? [30]

This any good?

ecotravel.pl/oferta,11337786,polska,poddabie,osrodek-wczasowy-lazur-polska-pomorze-srodkowe-poddabie-kolo-ustki,oboz-jezykowy.html

Try asking I companies that have holidays for kids.

News / British man accused of molesting teenagers in Poland [74]


Weird thing is that I once worked as Santa Claus (the real one was busy, so he asked me to stand in, kiddies!). We were expressly told not to touch the kids or let them sit on your knee. It was the adults who kept insisting to the kids to sit on our knees! Never let them, tho'!

News / British man accused of molesting teenagers in Poland [74]


In Scotland I used to work as a kids' entertainer. I was chatting to another entertainer, who was a former cop. I asked him if his 'police' status got him more work and he said it did, because people felt inclined to trust him more. He also commented that one entertainer lost a lot of work because a kid once said, "Oh, I like Uncle X because he lets you sit on his knee!" Word went around and his bookings dropped. Thing is, it could have been totally innocent but in today's climate nobody takes a chance...

Life / Where did the books of British Council go to [10]


Yep. Typical British mentality in such institutions: do bugger all, let the 'opposition' gain ground and then lament about it and wail that everyone should want it 'because it's British'!

History / The smallest Poland ever? [115]


Less money to spend on road repairs (if that's possible),

Less money spent policing the borders, perhaps.

UK, Ireland / Do Poles and EU Citizens exploit the British welfare state [129]

Well, apparently it isn't the Poles that cameron is moaning about, it is the British.

It's funny how he goes on about families being dependent on wlefare culture. That was one of the flagstones of the Divine Margaret's Empire.

UK, Ireland / Do Poles and EU Citizens exploit the British welfare state [129]

I sometimes ponder taking Polish nationality and moving to UK...

UK, Ireland / Do Poles and EU Citizens exploit the British welfare state [129]

Well, with all the jobs being shifted from UK to Poland, i reckon more brits will be coming over to try it here.

UK, Ireland / What do you hate about England and English people? [142]


Do Blair or cameron count as "natural disasters'?


Condems are working on that one...


I think it comes from a time when only the rich could afford sugar, and so had rotten teeth, and the poor sold their teeth to the rich (really!).

uk.health.lifestyle.yahoo.net/Raunchy-NHS-video-attempts-to-lure-young-people-back-to-the-dentist.htm

UK, Ireland / Do Poles and EU Citizens exploit the British welfare state [129]


We do. We only elect a new one because we get bored moaning about the old one.


You are assuming they are foreigners and not British muslims. And yes, if someone is born in UK, I consider them a citizen. However, even if they are foreigners, did UK force them to come? I'm sure they enjoy a right to protest which would have had a few swords swinging back home, as well as all the welfare handouts which Britain wants to give them (thus depriving the Polish of theirs ;-))

UK, Ireland / What do you hate about England and English people? [142]

What I hate about the English is that they are generally incredibly tolerant (not saying they're not bigotted, but they do show remarkable TOLERANCE) and just lie back and let others criticise them.

Likewise, the leaders have a habit of expecting everyone to jump with glee at the idea of English superiority, without doing anything to maintain it.

Sports: Oh, we don't need investment, we'll win because we're English (like in 1966).

Education: Oh, everyone speaks English, so why bother learning another language (oops, got that wrong, that's the Scottish... see University of Glasgow).

Investment and research: Well, why bother updating it, it's as good as it was before...? of course people will always want English quality...

Law / Let's see how good is your Polish income tax law knowledge :-) [8]

In my experience the system works thus: work your behind off, pay loads of tax each month and then at April you get told you owe them even more...

Life / Where did the books of British Council go to [10]


A bit like the BC.

I suspect they distributed books to their favourite schools, or just moved them elsewhere.

Funny, a friend of mine works in BC in London. Recently a friend of mine here in Poland wanted to know about teacher swaps with UK. I emailed my mate in London and he suggested she contact education section in Warsaw... turned out it closed about 2 years previously...

UK, Ireland / Do Poles and EU Citizens exploit the British welfare state [129]


Bit like the damn Americans who come to Europe and just nip across a border to renew their tourist visa... It's so funny watching them panic as they EU widens and they find themselves deeper and deeper into Schengen and nowhere to just nip over the border to...


How about they have been using Polish et al to allow them to rip off their own British workers, who do not have an option about whether to stay or go home? How about the banks etc giving benficial rates to the incomers which long term reasidents and natives of UK can't get?

How about the fact that a section of the Black community in UK saw the influx of Europeans as a deliberate attempt to "re-whiten" UK, whilst denying visas to commonwealth citizens from Africa etc?


Care to give us a link? UK has had non-white communities and citizens for centuries. There have been Arab communites in north England for over a century. We have had non-white MPs for years... And look what happens on this board when Poland has a Black member of the sejm.

I think a better example for you to cite would be the "Polacy go Home" campaign after WW2.

All in all, Britain really must be such a nasty place that all these internationals come to live and work when we keep hearing everywhere else is sooooo much better. Next you'll be telling us the nasty, horrible British are going around with big nets, catching poor, innocent, oh-so-holy foreigners and forcing them to come and work in UK...

UK, Ireland / Do Poles and EU Citizens exploit the British welfare state [129]


Of course, they follow the example of the British

News / British man accused of molesting teenagers in Poland [74]

I'm amazed that some folk use any excuse for a bit of international name-calling.

It is a valid question to ask about how "every" report about a crime is somehow turned against Poland, but that wasn't really point here. The point was to highlight the weakness in the system in Poland... Yes, UK has flaws, huge flaws, but it has acknowledged that there is a problem which needs to be addressed. The Polish system does not seem to have done that. Plain and simple.

Personally, I like the fact that a certain amount of common-sense is still alive in Poland (unlike UK) and parents are still able to let their kids live happily without the idea there is a paedo behind every tree. However, that there seems to be little use of safeguards within the system in this day and age is worrying, and just sitting back, name calling at Britain because of a past history is a little childish... are people content to let this kind of thing happen again and again just because of what Britain did 50 years ago?

News / British man accused of molesting teenagers in Poland [74]


It's probably because the lack of checks makes it easier to gain access that he came here.

I reckon it's only a matter of time before things start going the way they have in UK.

Example, In UK I offered to accompany my sister and her young son on a school trip to the zoo and to help supervise. I was told it wasn't possible because I wasn't CRB'd (crime check). I pointed out that I was, but was told it probably wasn't for that particular region.

Poland, I work with kids in a school (no check), I have been supervisor of groups of young teenagers (no check) and been the only adult with them on international bus travel (no check), I've run theatre workshops (unsupervised) with kids and at risk adults (no check).

British system is a bit tight-@rsed at times but it's there to protect people. Polish system is still surprisingly trusting.


Is this a recent thing? When I moved to Poland in 2002 I walked straight into a job at a (non-public) Liceum/gymnasium with no checks and without even having a teaching qualification.

On another subject raised, about camps etc, a few years ago we ran a summer camp in a local holiday centre. The centre was also hosting a group of martial artists from warsaw. While our kids were staying in the centre's rooms, the MA guys were camping, as were some youngsters from a sailing club. One man attached to the MA group started harrassing some young girls in our group, even trying to get into their room. We complained to the management and to the organiser of the MA group. The organiser said he couldn't do anything as the guy wasn't one of his MA guys, he was a 'friend' of one of them and not really part of the group. Also, although being the organiser, everyone had come 'on their own', so he couldn't tell anyone to leave. The management backed his position and did nothing.

We informed the organiser of the sailors' group and he said he was already aware of this man's 'interest' in young girls. Still the management did nothing. It was the last time we used that place!

Language / Polish Poetry: Should one only translate into one's own native tongue? [39]


Indeed, I know a woman who was raised in Macedonia, having both Albanian and Turkish parents. She was schooled in all three from a young age, as well as learning them in the home.

Likewise, I have Polish friends who are teaching their children, from the cradle, Polish and English. One friend has a 5 year old daughter who speaks better English than some Brit kids I know.


I'd say it depends how much it is necessary to convey the meaning. I had a macedonia colleague who translated Seumas Heaney (Irish poet) into Macedonian. Anyone familiar with heaney's work will know it is often multi-layered and full of colloquialisms (or even invented "colloquialisms" and phrases). I asked how he managed to convey all these meanings when the macedonian words often lacked the (same) mutliple meanings as the English words.

He said, "You sometimes just have to choose one of the meanings and go with that one," Likewise, he was translating a poem about a woman ironing. I realised the rythym of the poem was the same as the rythym of ironing... how to do that when a language has a fixed stress pattern? Maybe you can't.

USA, Canada / Travelling to Poland from the U.S. on a expired Passport [43]


I was once refused entry onto a flight from UK to Poland because my passport was due to expire before my return flight. I had to get another ticket to return earlier before they'd let me on.