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Posts by Rogalski  

Joined: 8 May 2009 / Male ♂
Last Post: 24 Jun 2010
Threads: Total: 5 / In This Archive: 4
Posts: Total: 94 / In This Archive: 51
From: Poznan, Poland
Speaks Polish?: Tak
Interests: Culture, music

Displayed posts: 55 / page 1 of 2
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Rogalski   
12 Oct 2013
Law / Changing contract without consultation? Advice on EU/Polish employment law needed. [5]

A friend of mine from France applied for a job here in Poland and when told she had the job, moved to Poland to take it up, only to find that her contract was for a lower grade job than the one advertised and accepted. She is currently refusing to sign the contract until it is corrected.

Has the employer (a university) broken Polish and EU law by unilaterally changing the contract without consultation and without agreement?
Rogalski   
11 Jan 2011
UK, Ireland / What's the rule on 'the UK' but just 'GB'? [60]

I always wondered why we in England called our country Great britain...?

It's to distinguish it from 'Lesser Britain' or in other words, Brittany.
Rogalski   
12 Dec 2010
Work / If you were to compere Polish Unis and Unis/Colleges in your country... [75]

Speaking from the inside, Polish universities are left far too much to their own devices. Individual teachers can just about put what they like in their courses without any reference to a central syllabus. This does allow good lecturers to produce high quality courses but it also means that less good teachers can get away with mediocre teaching, as students will conform to whatever the teacher teaches, in order to pass the course. The Polish students I teach are highly motivated and diligent in the main. It's a shame that the system lets them down sometimes!
Rogalski   
4 Dec 2010
Life / Foreigners commenting on Poland - a minefield? [30]

Interesting replies, which help to iron out the misunderstanding which occurred. Not sure if SeanBM just skim read my question or whether he is being deliberately provocative but to the rest of you, thanks for some frank answers.
Rogalski   
2 Dec 2010
Life / Foreigners commenting on Poland - a minefield? [30]

I'd be interested to get people's opinions about a recent situation that has occurred and has left me wondering about the etiquette about foreigners expressing views about changes that have occurred in Poland over the past twenty years.

A taxi driver, while driving me to the train station, expressed the view yesterday that "Poles need to start thinking for themselves", meaning (I think) that for a long time, because of the Communist regime (and historically, because of the Catholic Church) people were not encouraged to be independent thinkers and the tendency was to wait until you were told what to do by an authority figure (of course, with notable exceptions). He didn't know I was foreign until I spoke for a length of time, when he spotted my accent. I said I agreed with him.

I relayed this conversation to a Polish friend, who said it sounded as if I were stereotyping Poles and she became quite angry. I'd like opinions, especially from Poles, as to whether the statement "Poles need to start thinking for themselves" does actually ring true for them or not and/or whether it does sound stereotypical. And remember, I was only agreeing with it - a Pole said it first! :-)
Rogalski   
24 Jul 2010
Work / Negotiating a decent contract. Setting boundaries with employers in Poland [7]

I've been in Poland for a year and now have experience of working for three different employers. Next year, I take up a very good job in a nearby town but am anxious to avoid some of the pitfalls encountered with employers over the past year. I found the main sticking point to be that contracts simply do not reflect the workload and expectations of the employer sometimes.

So I wondering if anyone has experience of negotiating a decent contract with an employer ... I am due to sign my new one in a month or so (the employment having already been approved by the rector of the university) and am wondering just how much it would be seen as 'bad form' (or a 'pushy foreigner') to insist on a realistic job description? Up till now, if seems as if these things are kept deliberately vague in order to ask more and more of you ...
Rogalski   
22 Jul 2010
Life / What would YOU do to make life in poland better?? [72]

Cut down on bureaucracy. At the moment, you can get away with ignoring the more unreasonable rules because administrators seem to ignore them too, but it does little to engender faith in the system :-)
Rogalski   
20 Jun 2010
Life / Small change in shops in Poland!? [95]

NEVER use Inter Reigo services, unless absolutely no other choice (like we had today)

Try "osobowy" for that extra touch of comfort :-)
Rogalski   
19 Jun 2010
Life / Small change in shops in Poland!? [95]

POLENGGGs: "You should understand, people over 25 years of age, were brought up using only NOTES , and this 1,2 5 groszy is ridicicoulous...... should be 10, 20, 50, 1,2 , notes; 5,10,20,50".

There were ridiculous amounts of coinage during Communist times too but POLENGGGs' point is valid. Am currently in Romania where the leu is roughly equivalent to the złoty and there are NONE of those fiddly coins and prices roughly the same in Poland AND are in whole figures. A can of Coke = 3 lei. Bought one yesterday with a 100 lei note and not a murmur from the cashier as she counted out my 93 lei change, in notes.
Rogalski   
18 Jun 2010
Life / Small change in shops in Poland!? [95]

"How interesting, but what am I supposed to do, I don't have change!"

Tell her to round it down to the nearest złoty. It's her problem, not yours.
Rogalski   
18 Jun 2010
History / "Poland's Concentration Camp" ?? [570]

Calling them Polish concentration camps leaves a little room for misinterpretation (linguistically),

I would agree with Jola on this one and would support having not only the accurate but also the politically correct label of "Nazi death camps in Poland."
Rogalski   
12 Jun 2010
History / The Pogrom on Jews at Eishyshok (Ejszyszki) in Poland [68]

Ironside
They are however academics who are better placed than you are to decide on the validity of Chodakowski's methodology. Just because you don't agree with their conclusions doesn't make them wrong.

And since you are such an academic sleuth, I suggest you compile the list of his critics yourself - and then go ahead and discredit them. Save me the bother.
Rogalski   
11 Jun 2010
History / The Pogrom on Jews at Eishyshok (Ejszyszki) in Poland [68]

discredited by whom?

By other Poles, such as Pankowski (human rights activist), historians Andrzej Rzeplinski and Andrzej Jbikowski; by other non-Polish historians such as Polonsky and Michlic; by Michael Berenbaum, former director of research at the USHMM, etc. Tell me if you want the full list.
Rogalski   
11 Jun 2010
History / The Pogrom on Jews at Eishyshok (Ejszyszki) in Poland [68]

1jola nice one. Let them cook bit longer. And thank you for for showing PF Jews with issue they are like luk from WP. Problem is, MG can edit some of his unquoted posts.

Can we have this in coherent English?

I hope Rogalski bought the book and will read it

I'm waiting for your summary with bated breath - no point wasting money on a discredited historian. Sorry if I spoiled the surprise and outed you before you were ready.
Rogalski   
11 Jun 2010
History / The Pogrom on Jews at Eishyshok (Ejszyszki) in Poland [68]

OK mystery solved.

Jolanda has apparently got hold of a copy of Ejszyszki Pogrom którego nie było by Marek Chodakiewicz. That s/he needs time to get "access" to his/her "notes" probably refers to translating the most damning sections of the book into intelligible English.

What Jolanda fails to point out, however, is Chodakiewicz is largely discredited by his Polish colleagues:

"Chodakiewicz's motivations seem less sanguine, and the fact that his wild assertions have received official endorsement is most disturbing. This is especially so because his book (even before it was translated) was trashed by many of his colleagues in Poland, including highly regarded authorities in the field. Those scholars severely chastised the unprofessional way in which Chodakiewicz used sources."

See haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/whoever-controls-the-past -1.246397 for further details.

(Even though the report is balanced, it will be discredited as "Zionist" or even "Jewish" and dismissed by the intellectually dishonest).

However, it's important that the full background of this particular post, instead of engaging in Jolanda's game of half-truths, hence why I am posting this information here.

I wish to acknowlege the assistance of Empik in stocking the book on their shelves and for allowing me to put two and two together and work out Jola's little game ... :-) S/he really will do anything to push forward his/her "right" to be blazenly anti-semitic and racist, won't s/he?
Rogalski   
10 Jun 2010
History / The Pogrom on Jews at Eishyshok (Ejszyszki) in Poland [68]

U.S. News & World Report, a major US publication, calling Polish organizations 'Polish-American fringe organizations' is suspect in itself, but not surprising.

I think calling the extreme elements in a wide spectrum of organisations the 'fringe' is perfectly acceptable. They are not describing ALL US Polish organisations by this label.
Rogalski   
9 Jun 2010
History / Why are Jews pestering Poland for "proper" WW2 monetary restitution/reparations? [750]

There are Jewish organizations that are seeking reparations from Poland for property lost during and after the war. When starting a thread, you should site a source of your information, not just posting any random thought that pops into your mind.

What Jola said.

As there are German organisations seeking reparations for property lost in Poland after the war too.

Getting money gives them 'natches'.

Personally I'd use the money to get nachos ... covered in cheese.
Rogalski   
10 May 2010
History / Anita J. Prazmowska's "The Polish Century" [24]

On some of her family bolting from Poland in the 60s along with other jewish communists when Poles booted the Jews serving communism in an "anti-semitic" uprising against jewish opression?

You make it sound as if it wasn't the Polish Communist Party who expelled Polish citizens from the Socialist Republic. And if the expelled members who happened to be of Jewish origin were 'serving communism', who were the other CP members serving, if the not the Party, by performing such expulsions? Oh yes, of course, they were serving themselves ...