Study / The worst of Polish education. No wonder Polish universities are bottom of the list. [142]


Wow. You "know people who have done it". Whereas I have done it three times, and there are others here who can say the same. Being told conflicting information by civil servants, trailing from office to office when you could be working, pointless document after pointless document.

But then again, you "know people who have done it". Stop trolling.

Life / Bureaucratic issues in Poland - I sorted complex problem using the telephone and email [37]


Are you crazy - someone who wants to issue one receipt, as a one-off, has to trail around six different offices - in a precise order - on consecutive days!

I suspect you've never done it.

Life / Bureaucratic issues in Poland - I sorted complex problem using the telephone and email [37]

Unless you want to do business. In the UK, you just write out a receipt or invoice and declare any income on your tax return. In PL you need permission to conduct economic activity, a REGON (a pointless thing if ever there was one), prior registration with ZUS, prior submission to the tax office, a bank account number and a registered trading address. Oh, and a rubber stamp, which you can only get made if you produce originals of all the documents.

Not exactly business-friendly.

Language / Changing Polish punctuation? [23]


A forward slash. They have to do that because the Arabic zero looks like a decimal point.


The milliard too.

Study / A female Asian student considers studying in Poland [21]

Trolling. Especially since he/she/it just said this on another thread:



here
Either a troll or a madman.

In fact the OP should note that like everywhere else, people in small, out-of-the way towns might be racist for whatever reason, but in big cities (where universities tend to be) people are far less so. You should come to Poland, it will be a great experience.

Study / A female Asian student considers studying in Poland [21]


Yeah, but when you've eaten one, you feel like eating another 20 minutes later.

Law / The risk of investing in Europe has risen and Poland has suffered accordingly [90]


Go bankrupt?


I assume you mean Britain. Not that the economy's been "constricted".

Law / Is it possible to open a home based bakery in Poland? [14]


Maybe if you know somebody very well. I can think of at least one guy, not Polish, who has a food business in Warsaw that's entirely unregistered, but he's very, very careful.

Law / Is it possible to open a home based bakery in Poland? [14]

There were plenty of regulations then, but officials were 'persuadable'.

Study / Student Exchange to Warsaw University of Technology (PW), cost of leaving, budget [4]

Just about OK, but no more than OK, providing you rent a modest room, which is the most important thing. Transport is cheap, and food can be too. Some Poles get by on less than that, even in the capital, and Polish students commonly share rooms to keep costs down.

News / Which modern developments harm Poland? [83]


A few of us here should know about that. But the young seem to have very short attention spans nowadays.


Without a dining table in the home even.

In the UK, the decline of pub culture and the growth of suburbia, everyone staying at home in insulated bubbles, driving to the mall. In Poland, gated estates.

But above all, television. Too much, too trashy.

Study / The worst of Polish education. No wonder Polish universities are bottom of the list. [142]

Maybe we should start a PF investment club. ;-)

Seriously.

Law / Is it possible to open a home based bakery in Poland? [14]


Yes. As Delphi said, Sanepid.


Sadly yes. If you do it without registering you may well get away with it, but in a small town it wouldn't be advisable.

Good luck, anyway.

UK, Ireland / Registering my Polish girlfriend with the UK home office? [4]

No.

Most people don't bother and the onus is on the employer rather than the employee.

BTW, are you the Simon Jones that used to live in Warsaw. Friend of Peter M's?

Study / The worst of Polish education. No wonder Polish universities are bottom of the list. [142]

The thing to do is to remember her father's name and her name, pop the whole story anonymously on the internet in English and in Polish, copy it to a couple of free sites (outside Polish jurisdiction) and link them to as many fora and other websites as possible. Live by the sword...


I tried it myself when I was a kid (for a weekly test, not an exam). By the time I'd got the Latin declensions written small enough to go inside the bic biro, I could remember them. Still can.

Life / Animal Rights Movements in Poland [56]

Poles generally like animals and hate animal cruelty, as do I.

Mind you, much of Poland is agricultural, and rural people often have a different, rather pragmatic, attitude to animals than city dwellers, which I suspect the marchers were.

Study / The worst of Polish education. No wonder Polish universities are bottom of the list. [142]


I've seen sms cheating in PL once. In Saudi, they do it in real time using Blackberries.

Study / The worst of Polish education. No wonder Polish universities are bottom of the list. [142]


I never noticed any electronic wizadry, but lots of bits of paper, whispering etc. Once I was challenged by a young lady who asked me if I wanted some of them to pass and some to fail.

It isn't by any means unique to Poland, though. In some parts of the Middle East it is the rule rather than the exception.

edit

I just noticed Stu's post below. In some countries (I don't mean Poland, here) I wouldn't really trust doctors' qualifications. Too often I've seen a student who abyssmally failed exams get top marks when the results are published, because of who Daddy is.

Study / The worst of Polish education. No wonder Polish universities are bottom of the list. [142]

I was a teacher and saw it many, many times.

Language / An email translated from Polish to English using translator [24]


No misspellings there. Now run along - it's past your bedtime kiddywink.

Language / Polish diminuitive names [11]

Bzibzioh is right on both points. I would add, regarding Jarek, that his name is a diminutive anyway. Going further wouldn't be appropriate. When you speak to him and say "Cześć Jarku" (vocative case) this is intimate enough.

Language / Polish diminuitive names [11]

1. 'uś' (e.g.Kubuś) is very informal, like speaking to a child. Very much a term of endearment. Unless the person is called Jacek in which case Jacuś is just about ok, though only just. I would ask before using an 'uś' diminutive.

2. You should be flattered by this. It means they like you. It isn't disrespectful.
3. No problem, but stick to the standard ones (Arek, Wojtek, Ola, Piotrek) and don't be too creative. Some exist but don't seem to be used quite as often, more intimate somehow, e.g. Rafałek. Ewunia (for Ewa) also.

And, remember that Polish has a vocative case. Meaning that a guy might be called Wojtek, but addressing him to his face, people might say Wojtku.

Genealogy / Polish names derived from peasant animal names / from tools [9]

Looks like he was trying to prove he can do it without cutting and pasting from online surname guides. But proved he couldn't.

Language / An email translated from Polish to English using translator [24]


That would be a different word, 'Panowie', you clot.


PLK123 is right. So am I.


What????

Language / An email translated from Polish to English using translator [24]


'A gentleman' is is more likely, rather than 'boss'. Even more likely is 'you'. The Polish language does that - think "would Sir like a coffee".

In which case the phrase would read (very rough translation, but the meaning is there):

One day I was at a training session at which there were also people representing small firms within the industry. One of them was yourself, looking for ideas, and in fact maybe guidlines about who he ought to recruit.

"Guidlines" could also be recipe or prescription or model or even solutions, but in this context it will do.

Hope that's useful.

USA, Canada / Not everyone that lives or comes from America is RICH! [300]


It would be cruelty to horses. I'd post a picture of a Hoovercar, but really it was the poor who were hit in the last depression, and the poor who are starting to be hit now. If sh1t was valuable the poor would have no arseholes.

SUV and other Chelsea tractor drivers, well - their gasoline use and financial habits have hobbled several economies.


The Democratic Republic of Korea, you fool.

USA, Canada / Not everyone that lives or comes from America is RICH! [300]


It isn't as if I post here only infrequently!


Or hoik out the engine and attach a horse to the front.

USA, Canada / Not everyone that lives or comes from America is RICH! [300]


And you would be wrong.


So do some of us and not all of you. Given that there are counties in the US where the median household income is less than $20,000, we can say that definitely not everyone there drives an SUV. But used car lots are full of them, being sold because their owners either can't afford the gasoline or the credit. Or both.

What do you drive nowadays, by the way?

USA, Canada / Not everyone that lives or comes from America is RICH! [300]

Don't assume I'm Polish. But at least we know now what you think of the Poles.

Also don't expect people to believe that the Americans invaded Iraq in order to help them because they are "good people". Not even Sarah Palin pretends to believe that.

Remember - and this is very relevant to the thread - that in the boom and bust economy that is the US, oil supply is everything. Without a guaranteed supply at a price they can afford, some of those communities that have little or no public transport had better invest in bicycles to commute all those miles every day.

USA, Canada / Not everyone that lives or comes from America is RICH! [300]



Are you:
a) on drugs
b) insane
c) both

to all, please keep to the original topic.