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

From what I have experienced there are no problems with multiple languages, but there isn't a 'quick fix' either. It seems that children from multi-language households tend to learn to speak later but when they do it is in all the 'home' languages - I have a friend who is Polish and her husband is Spanish - They speak Spanish at home between them. Mom only talked Polish to the kids from birth and dad only Spanish. Now they are 6 & 4 and it doesn't matter what language the parent uses, they will always answer mom in Polish and dad in Spanish LOL.

I have other friends who are American, but mom is Spanish and dad is German - Mom spoke equal Spanish and English to the kids and dad spoke German and English to the kids from birth (they would say something thing in their native language and then repeat it in english when talking to them) and now at the age of 9 and 7 both children study equally in all three languages - They are a little bit behind their peers, but from what I understand, apparently this is quite common when they can do it in so many languages (more than 2), and their parents have been told that this is nothing to be concerned about.

I also have a friend from England who was told by a professional to only speak one language to their child until he was 3, then introduce the second one. They chose to only use English until he was 3, and then they moved to Poland and have been trying to introduce Polish to him for the last 18 months. He has been very slow to pick it up, even with going for a few hours a day a Polish school. He seems to be resisting using it.

In our household we only speak English, but both of our kids have been going all day to a Polish school since they were 3. It took about 2 years for each of them to become fluent in Polish (spending about 50% of their day immersed in Polish), but they can only converse/understand things that they come accross at school. I think it would be much more beneficial if we could talk Polish to our kids in our day to day lives to give them a wider scope of the language, but unfortunately our kids know more Polish than we do.

USA, Canada / Polish or American Education? [180]

This is something we re-evaluate every year... I am British (used to their ed system), and my husband is American and that is where our 'base' is. We have talked extensively with friends who are/have educated kids in foreign countries. We have decided that we probably (depending on my husbands contract options) will keep our kids in the Polish school until they are about 11, but probably no later. Our kids are at a private Polish school and everyone loves it. We do appreciate that they are at a private school here in Poland (which we pay for) and we would never be able to afford a private school in USA. They seem to be getting as good education at the younger levels here in Poland as they would back in America, but with additional benefits. They are at a preschool which is attached to a primary school and the preschool is run as a school with lessons and interaction with with primary school teachers for subjects tailored to their age. My oldest son in class zero this year, not only studied subjects, but they also included cooking once a week, and sewing lessons. The school only have real plates (not plastic or paper), glasses, knives and forks for the kids starting from the age of three (and for special occasions they put lit candles on the tables), they are taught manners, cleaning up and thanking the kitchen staff for their meal. They even brush their teeth after every meal. We are fortunate in that the staff that run the school are 'modern' in their thinking and encourage the kids to 'think outside the box', not just memorize a bunch of facts. From the age of three the school take the kids on a bus to swimming lessons etc., and about once every 6 weeks they have a school field trip tailored to their current theme. My oldest has been at the preschool for 4 years, and has not visited the same place twice yet. The last trips before the end of school this year, they took the 3y, 4y, 5y & 6year old classes to a park (about an hour away) where they played, studied plants etc. and then they got to cook kielbasa over an open fire (arranged by the park), and my 6 year old got to go on a 2 mile bike ride through the forest to the lake and then they went swimming. These are well supervised by the school and no parents are required to go (although they are welcome, and I do go sometimes work permitting).

These are all things that they would be missing out on if we were back in America. In America my youngest would be at a daycare with just supervised play all day (he would have 2 hours of preschool 'lessons' from Sept at the daycare and 3 hours of part time kindergarten the following school year). The school system is very good where our house is in America (although due to lack of funds they don't start full time until 1st grade), but because of the whole 'liability' and 'sueing' issues they would not be doing any of this extra stuff 'just in case something happens'. They are also cutting back more and more every year on sports etc., due to lack of funds. We have an American homeschool program we are suposed to be doing with the kids every night, but most nights we don't. Now and then we will pull it out and 'test' the kids and they are keeping right up with our local American school system education wise, and when we visit back to the States our kids are pretty much ahead of their cousins who are unfortunte to not be in such good school systems in America.

Here is the 'but' for us. Our kids being American/British could go easily anywhere to study or work later in life, and unfortunately to give them the biggest choice of options we feel that it would make it easier for them to be studying in English from about 11/12 on, once all the science and technical work starts. This are just our personal thoughts at the moment and maybe we will change our minds when the kids approach this age.

Real Estate / Tips for Renting in Poznań? [8]

On the Apt front - No idea, leave that to the others on here :-) - I have many friends living within walking distance of Stary Browar but I think they are on the higher end pricewise as their companies are paying for them (then again not sure what you would class as walking distance..).

Bank Account
We did have some issues with setting up a bank account with Citibank when we got here 4 years ago, but we had to use them due to a contract with husbands company, I hear others are better, and I think it is better generally now.. But we found the monthly fees on the polish account and with the cost of wiring the money every month, we it was easier to just use our American account and pull cash out from the ATM and charge the rest on our American credit cards and then pay them online monthly.. We have an American credit card that only charges 1% foreign transaction fee, and I hear that Deutsche Bank have free ATM withdrawals with Bank of America (although I can not confirm this..) - We pay all our bills here in Poland at the post office (for a very very small fee), as to expense them we need a receipt and the company will not accept the bank statement as proof of payment so cannot do it online.

Drivers License
Even if you are not planning on bringing over/buying a car, make sure you get your International Drivers Permit just incase you want to rent a vehicle for a few days etc. When we first came we were informed by the lawyers that you can drive on your American license for 1 year, but this technically resets everytime you leave the country so we didn't need to convert to the polish one (as we have to go back to USA for 4 weeks a year due to my husbands contract) - From what I understand there have been some issues with this with this, so I believe they have chaned their policy to now be that you can drive on your American one as long as you have a current International Drivers Permit (although my friend who has lived here for 10 years and still drives on her American license was told that she really needed to convert it when she was stopped the other day as 10 years is a bit long LOL) - The only valid International Drivers Permits are the ones you can get from AAA in the USA, and are only good for 1 year, but you can renew it by mail when it comes due.

Electrical Equip...
If you are planning on bringing anything electrical with you (that is only 110v), buy your transformer in the States and bring with you (much cheaper than here). Most PC's and cameras etc., are multi voltage, so you will just need plug adapters for them which you can get here inexpensively. Most people I know who rent apts, rent fully furnished and so request TV's, DVD players etc. to be included.. Remember American DVD's will not play here, unless you can find a multi-region DVD player, so wouldn't bother bringing them if you are not here for long. Most DVD's here are in 'original language' so no problem watching the ones you can buy here.

As far as washing machines, etc., everyone I know has requested the landlords put these in if not included (including dishwashers if there is not one) - Because there is quite a rental market right now, we have found most landlords will put in anything that you ask for in the way of 'built in' appliances to get the rental contract - we bought our microwave, but our friends asked their landlord and he got one for them..

Phone
We set up a Vonage account before we left America - We love it, runs over the internet, but just hooks into our regular phone, so you don't have to be sitting at the computer, and it just rings like a regular phone (and we kept our old number - Handy for the grandparents to remember) - think we pay around $40.00 a month and for that we get unlimited calls to the US and England (the two places that we call) - It may be different now, but we had to set it up in America before we left as they would only mail the equipment to an American address.

Most American cell phones do not work here (you will need a tri-band), and to be honest, the pay-as-you-go ones here are very cheap with no contracts etc., most people I know have these.

If I think of anything else I will post..

Study / French or English or Polish schools in Poznan (for age 9 and 11) [34]

OK - regarding Homeschooling.. This is what we were informed by the company lawyers when we came here, (but it may have changed now..) - As we are not here as Permanent Residents, all we have to do is provide evidence that our kids are in an education program if we are asked to prove it (which in 4 years we have been here we have not been asked, nor have I come accross any other international that has been asked for proof, but that may just be that we have been lucky) - You will need to register in a homeschool program from your 'home country' - From what I hear England is not easy to do this (requires close monitoring by the British Ed Board), America is very easy!! Other countries I don't know. We came here from America (even though I am British) and before we came I verified with the local school ed board where our house is in America, what homeschool program they recommend and would recognise so that when we moved back the kids will be able to just 'slot' back into with no issues.

There are a lot of 'clubs' here to enroll your children in for other things, soccer, tennis, gymnastics, swimming all of which I have known English speaking kids going to for competition level with English speaking coaches here in Poznan (plus there are many other activities).

We ended up deciding to enroll our kids into the polish private school as we knew we were going to be here for a few years and wanted them to be able to 'play' with other kids in the playgrounds etc., and also I didn't think I could provide all the school activities and education trips not speaking Polish myself that they would get from school.

Classifieds / Any (semi)-regular Expat meetings in Poznań? [8]

There are are also an International Mens Club (monthly) and International Womans Club (weekly) meetings in Poznan too, but I think they will be on the summer break during that time. I can tell you of some restaurants/cafes which expats 'hang out' in for people to talk to though..

Study / French or English or Polish schools in Poznan (for age 9 and 11) [34]

Matthew,
Did you find a solution to this? We have lived in Poznan for 4 years now and love it. Schooling for international kids is a bit of a problem. I know of people with their children at the International School of Poznan and the Poznan British International School, and it seems that parents either love them or hate them, and they are pricey especially when you add on all the 'extras'. I would call and talk extensively with them about their programs. There is also a Christian based school here, which is taught in Polish but does have international children in it, and has a program to help integrate them, but I am not sure to what age this school goes up to. We were lucky in that our oldest was only 3 when we arrived. Our two children go to a private Polish school and have assimilated well into it and they seem to have a good program. Their school starts at age 3 and goes through to Class VI (which I believe at the moment is age 12 at the begining of the school year). Every class (including the 3 year olds) have 1 hour of English a day and they have a 'Native' speaker come in once a week to interact with the kids, so the school did not have a probem with our kids starting and not knowing any Polish, as they could converse with them in basic English. The private Polish school is cheaper than the international ones and they run from 7:30 to 5pm everyday. The lessons finish around 2 or 3pm every day so you may find that the school can arrange some one on one Polish practice for your kids in the afterschool program. I have a friend who brought her 7 or 8 year old over here and she settled into a polish school OK.

Let me know if you have any further questions and I can ask around - I know of a few international 9 year old girls that live here (and I am sure they would be able to help find some older one too) to introduce your girls to when they first get here for some English speaking friends.

Caroline