Life / Are people in Poland 'made' to give money to their parents? [25]

There is such a thing as alimony for parents.

pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alimenty

It's meant to be used in some extreme cases, I've never heard of anyone involved with such a situation.

Work / No English Speaking Jobs in Poland...At All? [34]

You speak English perfectly. What other skills that are useful outside of teaching/translating jobs do you possess?

Work / I got a job in Krakow for 3500 zl Brutto...is it ok ? [33]

If it's your first job of this kind then it's a ok salary, otherwise it's quite low.

IT analyst is a very broad term, so it also might strongly depend on what skills you are going to be using, in which industry etc. Generally speaking unless you feel that the experience to be gained is very valuable or unique, you might want to keep eyes open on some other possible opportunities.

Work / I got a job in Krakow for 3500 zl Brutto...is it ok ? [33]

According to a salary calculator like [gazetapraca.pl/gazetapraca/0,91738.html] 3500 gross would be about 2500 to your bank account. That is assuming that you participate in all pension contributions, health insurance etc.

Life / Fascination of Poles with German Laundry Detergent [16]

It's an old subject, often discussed in the media as well: tinyurl/332z3nz

Food / Is Polish food still more natural than in the West? [142]

Corellation does not imply causation.

"With a decrease in the number of pirates, there has been an increase in global warming over the same period. Therefore, global warming is caused by a lack of pirates."

Real Estate / Is this a bad time to buy an apartment in Poland? [142]


Why should it change? Why do you assume that the 'ex-commie countries' approach is worse?


People prefer to have their flats finished according to their own taste or vision. It's not a matter of cheapness, quite the opposite actually.

Real Estate / Is this a bad time to buy an apartment in Poland? [142]


Cost, cost, cost - and I thought that it was the Poles who were cheap according to the PF members :)
Buyers get to choooose on which kind of a throne they will be sitting for next dozen of years, it is very important to have such freedom. It's the exact opposite of the 'ex-commie' years where everyone had the same equipment, furniture etc.


That is an exagerration. I moved in to a newly finished building with over 100 flats as one of the first inhabitants. There was drilling, sure but not continuous nor taking years. In short - nothing to write home about.


It would be ridiculous if you were led to believe that you are buying a finished apartment.


Sure, but the point is that they don't have to. My work colleagues have spent weeks deciding on what kind of wood to put on the floor or where to put the bay in the wall for TV. It was funny from my perspective (maybe I am the cheap Pole?) but it's good that there is such possibility.

You keep seeing the subject as a half-empty glass and I'm telling you that the natives prefer it this way because it's better (to us, maybe not to SeanBM).

Real Estate / Is this a bad time to buy an apartment in Poland? [142]


What an absurd comparison.

Cars usually come in various colours, with different engines, with different quality of interior and with many optional components that can be installed. As for the clothes example - seriously...

On the other side each flat is completely unique - and when I want to buy particular one and the bathroom is finished with for example dark tiles or has a tub instead of shower then that is a problem to me. Maybe you in the same position would be ok with this but please acknowledge that majority of Poles prefer it this way.


It does not matter what people in other countries think. Maybe it's a waste of time to them, but not to us. Capiche?


No, I haven't. I assume that it automatically invalidates my preference of deciding by myself on the standard of my apartment.


Oh, they have a choice - a female friend of mine had her small flat finished by the developer. People simply mostly choose not to take this option - if it was otherwise then everyone would be following her path and developers would be doing their best to make some more money on the finishing. Capitalism, yay!


There are no procedures involved, only free market deciding what is good in given context.


That's very nice of you to drop pearls of wisdom around the 'ex-commie society' that does not know any better. Thanks!

Real Estate / Is this a bad time to buy an apartment in Poland? [142]


You don't see the difference between buying a car and the apartment. Wow. You also conveniently ignore the fact that you can very often get it finished by the developer if you ask for it. It's just that not enough people ask for it to became a default.


I did consider the alternative when I had a choice to let the developer finish my flat or do it by my own means (that is by paying a chosen crew to do the work according to my preference at any detail). But I never bought a real estate abroad so it does not matter as I don't have the comparison.


That's the end of the discussion with you.

Work / Enterprise Content Management / Electronic Records Management - how good in PL? [10]

Can you be more specific on what your job is or should be?

Records management and archiving are very important in all financial institutions as they are obliged by law to maintain them.

So any bank or any IT company having banks as clients would be a good target.

Work / Enterprise Content Management / Electronic Records Management - how good in PL? [10]


The general consensus is that working for the government in Poland is a bad idea from financial and from personal development perspective. You'd probably suffer while not being a native speaker. Another thought - you might want to investigate whether there are any securite clearance requirements for certain posts and how does the procedure of obtaining it relate to foreigners.


It is dominated by the natives for sure, but if you pick an the international bank the English might suffice, as usually most processes and teams working on following them are from various countries etc. The only catch that I see is that in some positions you might have to rely on polish legal documents and in such case a language barier might be a problem.

You chose a line of work that seems to heavily depend on written word - unfortunately it does not make it easier to find a job in a foreign country.

Language / Are the context of these Polish sentences correct? [101]

These translations do not make sense at all and would make any native laugh.
Unfortunately computer programs are very bad at translating to Polish language.

Law / Polish business haven't got a clue: Discuss. [72]


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solaris_Bus_&_Coach

I can't be bothered to bring up more because you are obviously trolling.

Life / Fail to send mails to o2.pl or tlen.pl [4]

Your mail server might not be properly configured from o2's perspecive. There are some details on how they determine whether to let in or block emails from particular domain:

pytanie.o2.pl/index.php?dzial=faq_ask&nr_site=1&nr_kat=30&nr_ask=242&nam_kat=Najcz%EA%B6ciej%20zadawane%20pytania

Here is a generic contact form that might let you get in touch with the company:

poczta.kontakt.o2.pl/?dzial=form&mode=form&cate_id=26

(I'm assuming that you will be able to translate.google.com these pages - feel free to ask otherwise)

News / Independence Blood Bath on Polish roads over the long weekend. [69]


Are Poles supposed to be outraged by the number of victims? It's an old statistics repeated after ever single long weekend.

It's not that we don't care - it's rather that we can't do anything about it aside from not drinking and driving ourselves.

Life / What is going on in Polish Music [128]


It's Natalia Kukulska - 'Wierność Jest Nudna'.

Edit: If you like good pop then you might want to give a listen to:

Patrycja Kosiarkiewicz - youtube.com/watch?v=UilPJ9gGo5U
Kasia Stankiewicz - youtube.com/watch?v=RsxAK8Lu0-o

Life / What is going on in Polish Music [128]

You will find many good songs on Polish Radio 3rd Channel's charts. This website allows you to browse through all of its weekly results starting from year 1982 until now: lp3.polskieradio.pl/notowania/

The audience of this channel has pretty good taste and many songs stood the test of time and became classics. It's also interesting to look at polish tastes in foreign music over the years.

Law / Polish business haven't got a clue: Discuss. [72]


I did the same about a month ago after finding out that UK amazon enabled free shipment to Poland for orders above 25 GBP (CD's for 4 GBP, here I come!). The package left the store on monday, I had it on my desk on thursday.

For every unhappy noisy customer there are dozens satisfied ones who remain silent.


Whatever, you ********. :P

Law / Polish business haven't got a clue: Discuss. [72]


Yes.

Language / Village and towns in Poland with hard to pronounce names [22]


Maybe virtual Poles at ivona.com will suffice :) Just enter the text and click 'czytaj' to hear it spoken. The accents are sometimes unnatural, but the spelling is usually very close to the real thing.

Life / Poles lead Dutch in e-nonsense (social websites) [9]


This question reveals some deep-rooted complexes that you are suffering from, buddy.