Law / How will the Zloty be against the British Pound over the next 6-12 Months [45]

It's anyone's guess. One bank failure in Poland and the Złoty will suffer - as despite the now huge difference in interest rates between Poland and the UK, people still aren't putting money into PLN. I noticed some banks are now offering deals which pay 11% here - so they're clearly getting desperate for cash.

I think the likelihood is that it'll remain somewhere between 4-5PLN-1 pound, but exactly where is a good question. It's also possible that the PLN may weaken against the Pound if the flow of money being exchanged starts to dry up - but I don't think it'll ever go above 5 to the Pound again.

I certainly wouldn't place any bets on the Pound-Zloty relationship in the coming year.

Language / The Plural of Zloty? [46]

I asked a bunch of fluent English speaking Poles their opinion on this, and...

Two said 'zloties' - however, one says zloty in ordinary speech
One said 'zloties, but now I say it, it sounds wrong' - and agreed that zloty sounds much better
One definitively said 'Zloty, there's no plural in English'

So there's no hard and fast rule - I use one zloty, many zloty personally...but.

Law / How will the Zloty be against the British Pound over the next 6-12 Months [45]

I think it's stabilised somewhat at the 4.5ish level now - even with the interest rate cuts throughout the world, the Złoty just isn't being trusted at all by investors at the minute. It's perhaps foolish as the banking sector seems to be holding up fine here - but it's hard to tell.

It's funny, when I came here, it going below 4 seemed like a matter of time, but now...who knows?

Life / Reasons for moving to Poland [291]


Much to my benefit today, actually.

I was getting the bus to the school with two of my fellow teachers - but as one of my friends had got there way before me and the other one, she ended up with some dour businessman-type sitting next to her. Of course, we get there and start talking in English about all sorts of nonsense (which probably really did sound like nonsense to him). After about five minutes, he clearly had enough and got up and sat elsewhere, which was nice :)

Although my pet hate is when people on buses here will try and sit next to you on one of those slightly-too-big-for-one-person seats. I'm developing new ways of irritating them as we speak, grrrr!

Food / What's your favorite Polish beer? [870]

Freeq is bloody dreadful, don't go near it...the lime one was particularly upsetting as it was so crap :(

That Gingers beer is absolutely lethal though, to anyone from the UK, it just tastes like ginger beer from a can. It'd be far, far, far too easy to drink yourself to death on that stuff :/

News / What Poland can't do right [113]

Woo, let's tear most of £ódz down!

(I really, really hate that city...)

UK, Ireland / UK Sky TV in Poland [39]

No reason why it won't work - just that you'll need a big enough dish to get all the channels. Depending on the part of Poland you're moving to, you might need as large as a 2m dish - but certainly, your existing Sky minidish won't be good enough for all the UK channels.

The other thing is that you have to maintain a UK billing address and billing account - so if you're doing that, then it's a doddle :)

Law / Poland residency permit / registration questions. [23]

Okay, this might not be entirely accurate as the rules seem to change daily, but..here goes.

1) Yup. The owners of the place must give permission for you to reside there, and depending on the local authority, they might demand that all the owners turn up IN PERSON (yes, I don't understand this at all).

2) Yup, again. The concept of registration is that the goverment has an address to contact you at - to serve official papers/etc. This can be any address you want - it doesn't have to be the place where you reside.

3) No idea about the penalty, but it might not be the smartest move to move house and not have access to the old address. There's probably no way of checking, and once the new registration process comes in (that's been promised by Tusk, and was supposed to be implemented at the start of the year!) - but generally speaking, you want to make sure that you can collect mail from that address.

4) Yup - no problem. Again, it doesn't really matter where you're registered. Many people are actually registered at a different address to the place where they live - for example, students will live elsewhere, yet might be registered at an address in their hometown 500km away. The refusal for landlords to let people get registered is one big reason why the system needs reformed - it's a ridiculous situation.

It should be noted that as EU, there is next to no way of checking if you're complying with the rules or not. Many ports of entry to Schengen don't bother scanning passports, nor are stamps given to EU passport holders - so while the law might be that you should be registered within x time - there's really no way of checking. Non-EU is different though, as they'll have visa issues.

However - and you probably know this already. Not being registered means that you can't pay taxes or in fact do anything official with the state. This, again isn't a big deal if you're EU because you can just claim to be visiting - but I wouldn't risk it if I was non-EU. The possibility of getting deported from the Schengen area isn't insignificant, and I've heard stories about Americans falling foul of the 90 day rule - and subsequently getting banned from the entire area.

Law / Poland residency permit / registration questions. [23]


Aha, this is the common misconception. It used to be 90 days on a stamp (or a wave of the passport if you're EU) - but now, it's any 90 days in 180 days throughout the *whole* Schengen area. Therefore, border runs are now pointless.

Obviously, if you're EU, then it's no issue because there's no systematic record kept of entries/exits outside of stamps in passports. But non-EU have had a torrid time since Schengen because of the 90/180 rule.

Incidentally, did you get a stamp from Poland at all when you went to Ukraine?


Just goes to show how utterly redundant and pointless the system is - I can understand having a registered address, as it's actually a great idea having one official address with the State. But to make it so tedious and irritating to actually do so just means people won't bother.


Good question. They more than likely pocketed it - which is more than enough reason to demand proof that they actually paid it. If they're not forthcoming with it, just remind them that you can happily show the taxman your contract.

Law / Poland residency permit / registration questions. [23]


Almost a good guarantee then that they've been scamming the tax out of you. Just threaten them very bluntly - either they return the tax money to you, or you go to the government office to talk about it. If they've been pocketing the money (do you have a payslip at all?) for taxes - then they'll probably pay up to avoid the consequence of you telling all.


How utterly dodgy. But again, probably a good reason to use the contract as an excuse too - if they don't play ball with your tax money, then remind them gently that you can inform the relevant labour authorities too about their work practices.


Not the whole world, but many schools are definitely built on funny practices. I'm not even sure why - the money is so much that they don't have to be dodgy, yet it still goes on.

Law / Poland residency permit / registration questions. [23]


This seems to be unfortunately true. I'm lucky, the boss of my school is 27 and thinks like a young person in respect to things - we're given complete freedom, the only 'rule' as such is that we have to justify what we do. He does sometimes question us as to what we're teaching - but it's more out of curiosity and interest in the person than any sort of interrogation session. Nicely, he always feeds back to us what people are saying about us - so we can tailor our approach for each class.

I actually handed in a CV to one Brit-ran school in Poznan. To say 'miserable git' would be an understatement - he was so unbelievably sour faced, even before he saw the CV. I was too stunned at his attitude to say much - but with an attitude like that, he'll be out of business before long.

The worst schools to me seem to be the ones ran by people who were teachers themselves, but who aren't native - particularly the ones where they're only running the school but aren't owning it. They seem to have a dreadful, money first approach to teaching - which seems to include lying to people as standard.

The lack of professionalism in many language schools astounds me though. One other example was a rather big school in Sw. Marcin in Poznan. I walked in, said 'hello' and got met with a stony faced receptionist. Do they not realise that I could be there to talk about getting lessons for a large company?

Work / Would previous experience be necessary to teach english in poznan [22]


Should be easy enough, Poznan is a big city with a lot of schools.


To be brutally honest, you won't find anything worthwhile in Poznan during the summer. Most schools effectively close down over the summer - they might have a few classes for those that really want to learn, but really, not much will happen. The best bet is to come in August - people are hiring then, ready to start the new year in September.


They usually do ask for that, but at the same time, a lot is placed upon being available and ready to work NOW, so to speak. To be honest though, a lot is about appearance and personality - I know teachers here who have got jobs by simply walking in with a CV and saying 'I want a job'.

But in all honesty, I would wait until you're here before looking for a job. You simply cannot get the 'feel' for the city over the internet. I live in Poznan, and it seems most people got their jobs by actually going and handing in CV's and talking to people. Of course, once you're established, you can look for work well in advance of the start date - but for a beginner, I'd recommend just hitting the ground after doing the CELTA. You don't even need the CELTA in all reality - although it does depend what kind of teaching job you want.

But...as I'm here, and teaching, feel free to ask any questions. What I know...

English Unlimited - Odd school. They're based in a big huge old building, yet I think they do most of the teaching elsewhere.
Top English School - I think this is a Callan school, though could be wrong?
Native English - I went past here a few weeks ago. They didn't appear to have much in the way of teaching facilities, but they apparently only use native teachers. Located in a slightly dodgy place, though.

Haven't heard of the others, though.

Law / Laundromats in Poland? Good business venture or not? [90]


Unfilled for a reason, I think.

Law / Laundromats in Poland? Good business venture or not? [90]


Yes, it is.

Many students in Poland have the 'must return to mummy at the weekend' attitude - and many of them will travel a ridiculous distance to do so. The travelling with clothes part is just convenience - but until PKP wises up and realises that giving discounts at peak travelling times to students is ridiculous, the habit will continue.

Life / School system in Poland? [59]

There's one 'British' school that I know of. But you should be very careful with this - children attending this kind of school will be alienated from Polish life to a large degree, and many children are from a non-European background. This is fine and well if you are too - but it's not so good for a child to grow up in an environment if you are from a European background - particularly given the fact that Poland isn't very multicultural.

You might also want to consider the quality of the English being spoken by their peers - it may very well not be of a high standard, but the only option for many Asian families.

Work / How to find work in Warsaw "if u don't speak Polish" ! [176]

The only thing you'll probably manage would be manual construction jobs, washing dishes, that kind of job. Nothing well paying at all, to be honest.

You might be better off trying to get an English teaching job in somewhere that only cares about money.

Law / I WANT TO IMPORT SAUCES AT POLAND THEY ARE FROM MEXICO..can you help me?? [30]


It might be worth investigating Berlin for this kind of thing - it's only a 3 hour drive (even less if you don't have problems with traffic between the end of the A2 and the border) from Poznan and I suspect that you'd have far more luck there than in Poland.

Work / I want to move to Poland (but of course we need to find a good job) [117]

No, you're certainly not wrong. Poznań is wide open for something different - the amount of those 'Sphinx' restaurants around the place should tell you everything you need to know.

I'll drop you a PM, there's some things that you should definitely think about.

Work / Would previous experience be necessary to teach english in poznan [22]


As far as I know, Wrocław has a pre-entry questionaire combined with a possible interview - but a BA isn't a requirement. It's more about being able to pass the course - if you can show them that you know the stuff, they won't be demanding a BA.

It's worth calling them and talking about it - but I think they base it more upon actual ability in the language than qualifications.

Law / Setting up small business in Poland? [191]


All you need to do is go to the Urzad Miasta with the owners of the property and your passport. It's quite painless - in theory. The reality is that many owners of flats won't register you for whatever reason - some out of fear that they won't be able to remove you, some because they don't want anyone to find out that they're renting the flat out. If you own it, then it should be much easier.

When you go there, simply tell them that you arrived a few days ago. There's absolutely no way of checking (last four entries into the Schengen zone, I've simply had a quick look at the passport, no scans/etc) when you actually entered Poland for them - so don't worry about that.

I would talk to the tax office about you having paid taxes. It's quite likely that they didn't pay taxes for you at all - although it is possible that they did, it would seem quite likely that they were simply pocketing the 19% or whatever for themselves.

Work / Advice on Teaching English in Poland [709]

See, I'd say that a Callan school is a good way to start out - if you find the right school. The 'method' is dreadful, but it does let you loose on real, paying students who have expectations and demands. The great thing about it is that if you find the right school, you can experiment on people - with the benefit of being able to say 'right, that's enough, back to the book'.

One huge problem I've discovered is that a fair few people see themselves as being at a certain 'standard' just because they've completed six stages of Callan. Of course, they actually suck in reality - and you have the problem of dealing with their inabilities without being horrifically rude.

Seanus - question for you, out of curiosity. When you did the CELTA, was the whole thing focused on teaching you to teach the kind of English that Cambridge examiners would like to hear, or were they more realistic in terms of accepting how diverse English is?

Work / What jobs pay 10,000 zlotych per month? and Where can i find one? :o) [101]


I haven't fallen into this trap, mainly because of getting a couple of horrific hangovers early on in the year... But it must surely be true. Me and my girlfriend worked out a while back that we could go out, drink 3-4 beers each, a couple of shots of vodka (more than enough to reach the 'inebriated' point), get food and a taxi home, all for around 100PLN. I'm not surprised people end up partying constantly when it's that cheap - and you could easily knock 20PLN off if you take the night buses or the first trams ;)

Having said all this, I really should find myself something to do in the summer. I don't have to (being a typical canny Scotsman and all that...) - but well, sitting around is bound to get boring :)

Love / Top 5 Cities with most beautiful/ugly girls in whole Poland [65]

Poznan has turned into a city of fat people, it's official.

Either that, or the sun made all the monsters come out :(

Life / Parking Fines in Poland [26]


Jesus, imagine the costs to a country like Estonia if they wanted to prosecute Maltese citizens?

Life / Why is cheating at schools in Poland accepted?! [155]


Bollocks. There might be a lack of transparency to some extent in university tests, but how, exactly, do you propose to pay someone to pass the Secondary/High school exams, given that they're externally marked? The other exams barely count for anything.

The problem, and the only problem is a lack of a suitably harsh punishment for cheating in schools. Although I agree that the systematic approach to cheating is bad for Poland - they could solve the problem overnight by simply awarding a 1 for the entire year to anyone undeniably caught cheating. Likewise, universities could stamp it out by applying an automatic fail to the module in question.


That's their choice to do so. If it makes them feel good, great - it's entirely their choice if they want to cheat or not. Certainly as paying customers, they have the right to cheat if they so want.

What you or I think about people cheating in private situations is neither here nor there - it's entirely a matter for the individual.

Life / Why is cheating at schools in Poland accepted?! [155]


Nothing, but we're not the ones paying our wages. If they want to cheat, then it's their choice. You'll find that much more experienced teachers than you regard cheating in private schools as being nothing more than amusing - if they want to cheat, it's only themselves that they're cheating. Certainly, I don't think anyone regards 'CALLAN METHOD STAGE 9' certificate as being actually worth anything, or indeed having any integrity whatsoever.


Who are these people? I certainly haven't had any issues with people that have specific qualifications to do certain jobs. The only problems I've had here is with unskilled jobs, such as ticket inspectors. But relating to your own experience - what use is a certificate from a language school in the real world? Even the Polish civil service demands the FCE as the standard - private language school certificates mean nothing.


How do you do this, bearing in mind that you don't speak the language? I'd be very careful before slandering the medical profession in Poland, given that they often do an excellent job with a lack of resources. Or are you judging them on the basis that they don't speak English, like so many stereotypical ex-pats?


Actually, this is where your ignorance is shining through. It's actually arguable that as many teachers coming through nowadays tried all the different ways to cheat, then it's much harder for the children to cheat in school. But the problem with the system here is not the teachers, but the system itself - there simply are no effective sanctions towards someone that's cheated. But that's a matter for the Ministry of Education.

Certainly no teacher with any integrity whatsoever would wilingly allow students to cheat. What's the point, when they can't influence the external exams?


You really don't get it, do you? Private education in a language school is a business, not a vocation. In business, you pay for what you expect - and as private language teachers, it's our job to make people believe they can use the language. How they use it is entirely up to them - if they want to cheat, then it's their choice, because they're cheating no-one but themselves. They'll be found out quite quickly anyway, so why are you bothered about it?


A privilege and an honour? Are you living in cloud cuckoo land? Given the lack of job security and poor working conditions in many schools, it's certainly not an honour or a privilege. Even if you view it as that - you should be looking at why people are paying your wages. They're paying you to keep students happy - and if they have to cheat to be happy, then it's not an issue.


They had problems with Kwaśniewski, they had problems with Wałęsa, they had problems with Jaruzelski. Having a problem with the President is a common issue in Poland, and you can trace this right back to the start of the 2nd Polish Republic.

Anyway, Kaczyński wasn't voted for on the basis of his qualifications, so your argument is rather moot.


Feel free, but you're not going to get much of a favourable reaction. You don't understand the culture, you haven't lived here for long and you're frankly acting like the stereotypical ex-pat who can't get his Full English Breakfast when on holiday.

Cheating is deeply ingrained in the national identity. For better or for worse, it's accepted in Poland and while Western/Northern Europeans might see it as alien and strange and unacceptable - it's perfectly fine for the Poles. Leave them to it - it's their culture, not ours.

I can't help but think that you're looking at this from the point of view of a Brit who can't accept other people's failings but are willing to ignore his own country's failings. For instance...


Ah, because Poland is completely alone in having cheated in the past at football. No British born player has ever cheated, of course not. I mean, Glenn Hoddle never said anything about disabled people being punished for their sins or anything, did he? Course not.


Ahaaaa...Haven't you heard about the mysterious case of ballots going missing in Glenrothes after a very dubious by-election win by Labour, or the postal voting corruption associated with Labour in several places? The Polish electoral system is rather sound, as far as I know.


Goes on everywhere. The Skye Bridge is a rather famous example.


Because people never falsely claim benefits in the UK, do they? 800 million pounds was the last figure for benefit fraud in the UK. And that's merely the ones detected.


Why don't you complain to the Ministry of Education, then? Funnily enough, cheating in UK schools is much more difficult and punished much more severely - yet we have exactly the same cheating culture as Poland. Why, Mr Social Scientist?


That's a problem with the British Council and Cambridge, nothing else. If they were stupid enough to not schedule the exam at the same time everywhere, then what do they really expect? Are you seriously telling me that Brits wouldn't sell an exam the day before if they could? Of course they would.

Perhaps you should live here for a lot longer before trying to change the way of living.

Life / Why is cheating at schools in Poland accepted?! [155]


Do you not perhaps think that you'll meet significant opposition, given that you have next to no experience of Polish life and culture? Even ex-pats that have been here a while will often say that they're bewildered by some aspects of Polish life - so what makes you such an expert?


So you want to change the Polish culture, yet you still indulge in the very practice that are laughed at by many Poles? As for it being enjoyed...suffered is probably a far more accurate word, except they're too polite to say so :)

Yes, you are an ex-pat. I've still got my British passport, too. But when in Rome and all that...


The point is that you wouldn't go to a neighbours house and start demanding that they change their way of living just to suit you. The fact that you're not even here permanently is also significant - if you don't even intend to stay in the country, how can you expect anyone to take you seriously?


Morals? In ESL? Pleeeeease.... the business is more ruthless and cut throat than many other industries. Again, it's a business - morality doesn't come into it.


You're the one that seems to be struggling with the concept of the teacher being there to make the student feel good about themselves. You're not there to humiliate them, you're not there to make them feel bad - you're there to reassure and coach them. But what would you know about teaching, seeing as you're not a trained teacher?


The problem is that you're talking about private schooling. It's not comparable - in private schools, teachers are paid upon results. If a teacher fails everyone and doesn't guide them, then no-one is going to send their children to that school, are they? Again, it's a business - not a vocation.

I'm sure you'll find exactly the same behaviour in private language schools in the UK. Ultimately, private teaching is all about results - and you're paid accordingly. No-one wants to hire a teacher that fails, do they?


Aha, stereotypical ex-pat who gets defensive about his lack of knowledge.


I would be very careful if I were you. Calling a countries public and private sectors 'incompetent' isn't a great way to win friends, especially in a country with high nationalist feelings like Poland.

Anyway, in banks - I've had excellent service off mBank. Government offices? They bent the rules for me in Poznan, and I had excellent service from the Urząd Skarbowy. Hospitals? They're professional, although badly underfunded. Police? They let me away when crossing on a red light after realising that I was a foreigner, with a smile. Can't ask for more than that.

The problem is that you're associating cheating with incompetence, when it can be argued that cheating successfully is a sign of competence.


The language? I have started learning but it seems a bit more difficult compared to my French and Spanish learning days.....don't do it!!!....I'm 10 months in and I can say hello...and well goodbye!....perfectly btw![/quote]
So you were in Poland for 10 months and could only say 'hello and goodbye', yet suddenly you claim that you know lots more? And - given the date of the post (January) - you'll have been here for what, 13 months? If you're such a great teacher, I'm sure you'll be aware that 23 months away isn't exactly 'soon' when it comes to obtaining a passport. But hey, nothing like living in a fantasy world, eh?

Your girlfriend, hmm? You won't get a Polish passport without being married and living here for three years, for a start. Where you think you'll get this Polish passport from 'soon' is a mystery to me :)

I can't help but think (especially since you posted the thread about the millions of things that you would bring to Poland, and the fact that you drink Stella) that you're simply one of those delusional expats who believes that he's somehow important to the country. You claim to have worked as a teacher in many countries, which I find hard to believe. If you had done just that, you'd understand the value in keeping your mouth shut.

Incidentally, it's pretty shameful that you've been here so long and don't even know the word 'grosz'. Rather typical expat behaviour, really.

Law / English-speaking bank in Warsaw ? [33]


I can report the opposite - they've always rustled up an English speaker when I've called, even at absurd times in the morning.

The major issue with them is that their 'finance centres' are run as just that - finance centres. You have to go to the kiosks they run in order to find out about any banking issues.

mBank's internet service is only in Polish though, which is a major problem for anyone completely unfamiliar with the language.

Life / Driving test, English speaking driving school in Warsaw? [95]

It's running at 1700PLN in Poznan, so 2100PLN in Warsaw doesn't sound too bad to be honest. It's still a ripoff compared to the price that Polish speakers are paying (less than 1000PLN in Poznan!) - but to be honest, it's not like there's a huge demand for English speaking instructors in Poland.

What does the package include? 1700PLN here includes English materials, the compulsory 30-30 hours, plus the cost of the compulsory medical checks.

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


Minimum wage here is around 5zl an hour. I'd be very doubtful if you could make more than 10PLN an hour in a bar (unless you were somewhere that tipped very very well) - though others may know better.

Is your Polish good enough to work in a bar environment?