USA, Canada / Use of Polish language at work in the US [11]

Maybe an American woman speaking Polish?
;)

USA, Canada / Use of Polish language at work in the US [11]

You all have pretty much confirmed for me what I suspected - that knowing Polish is not particularly useful when looking for a job in the US for a couple of reasons. One reason being that Polish people in the US can speak English too. Another that US companies which need a person who speaks Polish have a lot of people to choose from (Polish-speaking folks in the US). Also those companies which need a person who speaks Polish are quite few.

I am American and I live in Poland. I can speak Polish moderately well and my husband is Polish so he can obviously speak well ;) My husband was offered 2 jobs in the US where he could use his Polish. One job required 2 languages besides English on an intermediate level and another job didn't require Polish but they did find it useful as the company has a major client in Poland. What's the problem? Health insurance :(

USA, Canada / Use of Polish language at work in the US [11]

You are right Sledz that Spanish would be more useful when looking for a job. It's a pity I didn't realize during my 4 years of Spanish classes in high school.

My husband speaks English very well so that's not an issue for us.

Thanks again everyone for your input.

[if you want signature, you need to become a Gold member]

USA, Canada / Hopeless case for a US tourist visa or fiancee visa? [6]

If you are planning to get married in the US, I would just apply for the fiance visa. It is true that they are meticulous but it is worth a try. After receiving the fiance visa there is a time limit to get married in though and then after that you have to apply for a residence visa and so on and so on. I don't remember the fees for the visas but I don't recall that they were financially burdensome. The burdensome part may be in collecting all the paperwork that you need esp proving that your finances are sufficient to support your spouse.

Good luck and keep us posted!

Life / Which Polish product you can easily do without? [51]

Sidolux grave cleaner to make your grave stone super shiney. And the sweet condensed milk....in a tube. I don't get it???

Food / Pierogi Dough [30]

In my experience freezing raw pierogi dough does not give good results. Anyhow, the dough is not so difficult to make that it warrants preparation ahead of time. I know that you have a lot of dough to make but we just quadruple our recipe and get the person with the strongest hands to mix it up. I often freeze pierogi after they are cooked and cooled and they are still pretty good after thawing.

One tip from my mother-in-law: She (and now I can say we 'cause I have successfully learned how to make pierogi) always uses freshly boiled water in her dough and then mixes it with a wooden spoon until it is cool enough to use your hands. It reduces stickiness. I have experimented with the hot water and regular water and it really does make a difference esp. when you are just learning how to make them and stickiness can be a big problem.

Another tip about the blueberry pierogi- When I made them from my google recipe, I had a problem with excess juice from the blueberries and also bursting and squirting blueberries when eating. My m-i-l suggested not adding sugar to the filling but instead adding sugar and cream or sweet cream to the top when serving. It really reduced the mess and my white tablecloth is very grateful.

Now if I could only get my gołąbki rolling technique down. They come undone every time!

Good luck with your pierogi!

kielbasastories.blogspot.com

Love / I'm getting married to a Polish guy and need advice before visit his family; gifts, topics, customs [82]

Good luck with your visit. From my experience the "in-laws" will probably try to feed you a lot and will often give you a second (or third) helping without asking. My advice: Bring some trousers with an elastic waistline.

Love / I'm getting married to a Polish guy and need advice before visit his family; gifts, topics, customs [82]

It should be noted that in Poland direct eye contact with strangers can be held for a longer time than is acceptable or comfortable for some visitors. I also get the sense that some people expect you to give them a stare and that it would be rude not to- I'm thinking about a woman dressed for an evening out- so I always oblige. (I heard that women dress to impress other women anyhow)

We have a house in the village too and we get our fair share of staring (I call it gap-ing). At the same time we bought our house, a German/Polish lady bought an old mill to turn it into a restaurant. The local gossip was that I was that lady (not true) and that I planned to make a brothel (not true). When confronted by one very brave neighbor, I cleared up the confusion and joked that if a brothel was moving in at least there'd be jobs in the area. My joke didn't go over too well.

kielbasastories.blogspot.com

News / Crucifixes to stay in Polish schools [364]

I can give you the perspective of a parent with a child in school in Poland.

First, I feel that church and state should be separate. My parents wanted me to receive a Catholic education so they sent me to private Catholic school and to catechism at church. I think those were the proper places for my religious instruction.

My daughter has just started "school". It is pre-school which starts from age 3. At the 1st parents/teachers meeting, we were informed that if we wanted our kids to attend Religia that we would have to sign them up. We didn't. Later on, we were asked by the Dyrektorka to write a declaration that we DO NOT want our child to attend. We did it. This week, we were told that the classroom teacher also needs an original declaration that we do not want our child to attend Religia. I think that they are trying to pressure us into allowing our child to attend because they have to do something with her during that lesson...or maybe they want to save her soul ;)

For those readers who may still be unaware, Religia in Polish schools is Catechism not Religions (of the world). Even though the teachers insist the lessons are very fun and general, it is still Catechism. At the first lesson they were taught the sign of the cross (the father, son, holy spirit, amen) and that good little boys and girls go to church.

It is true that Religia is optional. She does not have to go and she is not the only one who does not attend. In fact, a lot of kids do not attend. But someone said this is a majority/minority issue - I don't agree. This is a separation of church and state issue and even further a separate but equal issue. My daughter and the other children are given care during the Religia equal to the kids who attend Religia, but already the opt-outs are showing signs of feeling worse than the other kids. Some readers may not care, saying kids have to toughen up and learn about real life, but when it is your kid and it is about such a personal issue as religion, you may understand me a little better.

As a note, many parents who want their children to have religious instruction at school have decided not to send their children as the school could not provide any information about the person providing the instruction nor could they provide a program of instruction for the year.

There are not any crucifixes in the pre-school.

kielbasastories.blogspot.com

Real Estate / Foreigners can now buy houses in Poland [55]

My company offers about the same service but in a different region and we also provide language lessons. We don't have office space anymore as it hardly ever got used. Everybody wanted us to come to them. I think these are reasonable combinations of business activities and they do not detract from each other as some here have suggested.

I am also not Polish (but my Polish is on a good enough level to, for ex, take my client to the bank and open an account, arrange to lease a vehicle, those types of things) and I don't find that it is a problem in this business. Many of my clients feel good knowing that I have been through the same process that they have and can live here happily and that Poland is a "normal" country. Some of my clients feel that it is a green light to bad mouth Polish people which is not cool, but I try to nip that in the bud.

I've rented a flat, bought a flat, bought a house, got married, leased a car, sold a car, bought a car, taken a mortgage, been to court, been to hospital, been attacked on the street, and much, much more here in Poland and for those reasons I feel that I can offer valuable advice to my clients. It was said that the gentleman above has not lived in Poland long enough to give such advice, but he can always hire someone who can assist in areas he is lacking.

I do not have a mini-skirt, however ;)

Good luck!

kielbasastories.blogspot.com

Real Estate / Foreigners can now buy houses in Poland [55]

Hmmm, if you think it would improve my business...

Real Estate / Septic systems in Poland [11]

We have a so-called ecological septic system. I was freaked out when the seller/installer asked us if we wanted a tank with a bottom or without. Yes, please, without so all the sewage can seep into my basement. That is illegal by the way. We have a very large piece of land so our system takes up a lot of space (underground) and required a lot of digging and installing. It cost 3000 PLN and we have never needed to empty yet.

And about mistakes made as in the posts above-Our installer connected tank 3 to the system and connected tank 2 to tank 3. He also connected tank 1 to the house but he didn't connect tank 1 to tank 2. Unfortunately for him, he had to return to do it after we had started to use the system.

kielbasastories.blogspot.com

News / Crucifixes to stay in Polish schools [364]

Correction to my post: There are crucifixes in our Pre-school. The shipment of crosses just arrived and they are now hanging on the wall along with the crowned eagle and the children's art projects.

Work / Education in Poland - system and structure [118]

I have lived in Poland for quite some time and I can assure you that the opinion of Karolina that Poles are better educated than the British or Americans is quite a common opinion here. I have encountered countless times the opinion that Americans are uneducated excluding those who attend the best internationally known universities.

I am American, educated in America so I do not want to agree with that opinion but I sat next to a classmate at university who asked me where Mexico was on the map and another classmate who spelled "education", "ejucation". In addition, I was a teacher in the US and had to teach my high school students the CONTINENTS and BODIES OF WATER!!! I also had a student who couldn't read and I had to fail him. His failure was overruled by my supervisor. I think a lot of kids fall through the cracks in America and many people are under-educated for whatever reasons.

I have noticed that students in Poland have a lot more material to learn by heart than in the US. Has anyone else noticed that?

kielbasastories.blogspot.com

USA, Canada / Differences in How Polish People Raise a Child and How Americans Raise a Child [149]

I agree that most of what you describe can be attributed to your wife's own personality but I think the dressing the child too warmly is a Polish thing. I am American with 2 small kids in Poland and often have complete strangers (esp older women) inquire if my children are cold. Inquiring is too polite to describe it. In fact they are usually insisting that my children must be cold to which I ask "Czy my sie znamy?". Sorry but for me 50 F is not cold enough for a snow suit.

You might also begin to notice that (in my opinion) many Polish moms and grandmas are obsessed with their kids food consumption. On one hand it is good, they make a lot of homemade things which I as a "Polish" mom do too but many moms/grandmas cannot tolerate it when a child skips a meal because they simply are not hungry. It's a big issue between my mother-in-law and I.

USA, Canada / Differences in How Polish People Raise a Child and How Americans Raise a Child [149]

Sokrates-You made me laugh :)

I am one of those backwards American mothers but the difference is I am raising my child in Poland. Yes, it is no big deal if a kid has a pacifier or a bottle when they are 4 or 5 but what for? Neither of my children ever used a pacifier and could drink from a cup at one. Why? Because they wanted to learn. They still had a bottle and later a no-spill cup.

I am sad for the 4-year-old girl from my daughter's pre-school who still drinks from a bottle and eats jarred baby food and baby teething biscuits while my daughter is "King of Breakfast" awarded not for cleaning her plate but for feeding herself. Even my 1 1/2 year old is proficient enough with a spoon to feed herself a lot of things and she does it because she wants to. She screams, "Me do" or "Ja sama" and I oblige. Maybe that's backwards to some people but I think it is natural independence.

USA, Canada / Differences in How Polish People Raise a Child and How Americans Raise a Child [149]

I also cannot stand those herbatki monsters who insist that I am harming my child because I have never given them herbatka. I even found research done that those dill (koperek) herbatki CAUSE gas not alleviate it, but Babcia knows better. BTW some people give their infants glucose from the pharmacy.

When you have a baby in Poland, a midwife comes for a home visit at least once. The midwife who came for a visit with our second child wrote us a long list of things our 2-week old baby needed including herbatka and medicine for loose stool. Any experienced mother should know that infants have loose stool for some time and that it is normal but if a so-called medical professional advises Polish moms to do it, those moms can be confused. Add that to the pressure coming from Babcia and well, your head can spin.

And about the antibiotics, it depends on the doctor really. Our family dr is quite conservative about prescribing them but when I visit another dr at the practice I am sure to get antibiotics for our kids no matter the illness. At our last visit (for a hacking cough) she declared the kids healthy and acted like I was wasting her valuable time and then prescribed my kids 7 medications one of which was an antibiotic. I politely asked for an explanation and then demanded an explanation when none was given. I was asked to leave the examination room and to take my kids with me. I made an appointment immediately for "our" doctor who told us antibiotics were not needed and with some syrup our kids were fine in a couple of days. Hacking coughs often come at the tail end of colds for smaller kids and while they sound awful are often not serious.

kielbasastories.blogspot.com

USA, Canada / Differences in How Polish People Raise a Child and How Americans Raise a Child [149]

C'mon, be creative! Do you really need a bedroom and bed for sex with your spouse? Assuming that you have more than one room in your home, what's the problem?

Both my kids are asleep now, so I'm sure you'll all understand why I must excuse myself from the conversation ;)

Food / WHAT DID YOU EAT FOR POLISH EASTER TODAY? [45]

Do you take a symbolic amount of food in your basket or everything? The first (and last) time I took my basket to church with my mother-in-law (packed with just a small amount of food), we stood in church next to a lady who had everything, whole links of sausages, a whole loaf of bread, a whole root of horseradish, etc. Does anybody do that anymore? BTW, my basket was horribly underdressed ;)

kielbasastories.blogspot.com

Food / WHAT DID YOU EAT FOR POLISH EASTER TODAY? [45]

When I was a child in America, we did the Easter egg hunt thing after church. I heard that here people do an Easter nest. I've only heard that from a couple of people. Is it regional or maybe old-fashioned or maybe "new"-fashioned? Has anyone heard of that?

kielbasastories.blogspot.com

Real Estate / Multiple owners of agricultural property in poland [2]

I bought a property (agricultural land plus house and out buildings) that at the start of the process had 6 owners. During the process of buying one person died and then there were more owners who had inherited their part. After the inheritance issue was taken care of, all of the owners set one owner as their legal voice in making decisions about the property. That made the further negotiations and paperwork easier. Having said that, all owners were required (for some reason) to come to the final signing of the contracts, etc.

If I understand you correctly, the land was inherited by 3 people, you being one of them. Maybe one of the heirs could be assigned as the person responsible for the land while leaving the ownership of everyone intact. It is also possible to assign some guardianship to someone who is not the owner to take care of formalities such as paying the taxes if you are out of the country.

Good luck to you!

Work / Working in Poland in a Non-Polish Speaking Job? - How? What? (no teachers!) [16]

I'll go next:

Now I'm a teacher but I started out working for an American company as PR Director. I couldn't speak any Polish at all then.

USA, Canada / Differences in How Polish People Raise a Child and How Americans Raise a Child [149]

Before coming to Poland, I had heard that Polish parents spank their kids more than American parents. I had also heard that Polish students were master cheaters. While I have found that indeed Polish students can find ingenuous ways to cheat, I haven't noticed that any more of my Polish friends spank their kids than my American friends.

Maybe spanking is going out of style, so to speak, esp with the popularity of the Supernanny tv show??

Life / Kindergarden / daycare in Wroclaw [4]

Hi-
Pre-schools/kindergartens have "recruitment" periods when you have to fill out some forms and count up your points. But that's for public schools and it is only once a year. You may have better luck finding a private pre-school/school. Are you thinking about an English-speaking place or Polish-speaking? Do you know what part of the city you'll be living in?

Feel free to send me a pm or email and maybe I can help.

Good luck!

USA, Canada / My wife wants to return to Poland...but I want to stay in the US [155]

Jozek-
I really feel for you esp considering your fear that your wife may take your child to Poland and never come back. When we had to make the same decision, we lived together for a couple of years in each country and then sat down to hash out the details. I am American and my husband is Polish and we are both fond of Poland and America. The conversation between us was not each one of us defending our own country. Honestly, we were not sure which place would be better for us. At that time we chose Poland and here we are. Sometimes we second guess our decision but we re-evaluate and move on trying not to idealize the other country and demonize the one we are living in. If possible go with your wife for an agreed trip explaining that you cannot move now. Collect info about jobs, prices etc and try to sit down and have a sincere discussion about what would be best for your family as a whole, not just your wife.

Good luck and take care.

USA, Canada / My wife wants to return to Poland...but I want to stay in the US [155]

Funny. You are right about one thing. We won't thank you :) But honestly speaking I do not see this as an aspect of the female mind. How many men still think they can fit into a 32 inch waistband despite all other factors (stomach, mirror, scales) indicating otherwise. Maybe it is some survival mechanism related to self esteem :)

Anyhow, the "child's best interest" is always important but in this situation it doesn't really help them decide. First of all, let's remember that Jozek is still currently married and wants to be married and raise his child (if I remember correctly 2 years old). The child's best interest would be served probably if they stayed together in whichever country they can do the best in.

We often think of the child's best interest in divorce when we are comparing 2 countries with dramatically different standards of living (there was the case a few years ago with a little boy between Cuba and the US). Poland and the US are not so dramatically different, making the decision even more difficult.

USA, Canada / PolAm style Thanksgiving? [35]

Hi -

Regarding turkeys in Wrocław:

One year I asked at Epi market if they could order me a fresh, whole turkey. They did but it was a bit pricey. Another year (after we found "our" butcher) we asked our butcher to arrange a turkey for us. Just as good, half the price. Frozen turkeys are available at Carrefour for sure. This year we are not doing the whole bird either. It is just too much hassle and I don't really enjoy having my arm up to the elbow in bird.

Happy Thanksgiving

PS Sweet Potatoes are cheaper at Piotr & Paweł than at Epi :)

USA, Canada / PolAm style Thanksgiving? [35]

I think it is more of -no good deed goes unpunished.

Language / How can i teach my child Polish language? (I'm Russian, my wife is Polish) [35]

I think first you have to decide what languages you would like your child to speak. After that you teach your child those languages just as anyone teaches their child a single language. Supplement with reading materials and dvd's.

We would like our children to speak English and Polish (we live in Poland). We started out with each of us speaking our own language only but that left our kids a little deficient in the English department. Now we speak English at home and Polish everywhere else. The result is that we have 2 little bi-lingual kids who at this moment prefer Polish. It will be up to us as they grow older to supplement their English but luckily we are equipped for that. Really, for now it is just as simple as speaking to them.

Good luck!