Expats/Immigrants in Poland: Needy, Greedy or contributor. Which one are you?

Heat and light shouldn't be 30PLN in a new school. Showers? No need to use them. As for the janitor - they're normally there anyway for other things, and very often, they're often retired people working part time anyway - and so, cost very little. And also - this 100PLN is during school hours.

There's no way that it costs a school 100PLN an hour to actually rent a hall. And we don't mention how schools will rent entire classrooms at a very low price to 'friends'. Or in Poznan, how several school directors took kickbacks from a certain language school ;)

As for the school not being worried about poor kids - if they actually believed in education, they'd be hiring the place at cost price.

these are not charity shops in any sense of the word!

I try to earn as much as I can to give to my Polish wife and children. How does that sit with your 'classification'?

We all do that, unless you are firmly seated in " needy "


I am not here to judge.

yes cms but my point is that in western europe social democracies it is the goverment role to provide these sporting facilities to their citizens, and it is subsidised by the taxpayers. Because poland pretty much adobted a american free market model various goverment departments did not fufill that role, and no money was spent on sporting facilities. Schools have no ideological or community motivation to provide cheap facilities to the community. Hence the position we find ourselves in.

Which kinda goes against their whole raison d'etre, doesn't it?

The attitude by schools towards the community they are in is despicable in many cases - I could happily tell you a few stories about school directors receiving bribes to block initatives that would actually benefit communities rather than private language schools.

To be fair, the various Dom Kultury do a fantastic job in general - but schools should also be playing their part. Still, as long as school directors aren't professionally trained and promoted, there's no hope.

I even know one case in Poland where a fully qualified football coach offered free football classes to a school - only to be asked for 50PLN/hour. Insane - especially as the children would benefit from someone with specific (high) skills in that area.

this is total bs.

we're ALL in it for the money. unless you're independently wealthy, you do what you do because it's lucrative, or at least pays the bills.

the day you can't make good money anymore in Poland is the day you all leave. people follow work.

Not true. I gave up a stable 17-year job in Belgium to come to Poland because my wife simply refused to emigrate. Nothing to do with "needy". Would "love" do perhaps?

I am not interested in expat haunts here in Warsaw...A good way to do that is NOT to go to the places InYourPocket propagates :)

You're the one who wrote up some half assed classifcation for immigrants that places them outside society. We live and work here - we are society. There's no point us justfying whether we contribute or not.

Dude, work your issues out.

totally not true in my case, my wife doesn't want to leave her family and I'm just waiting until things get bad enough that she see's the opportunities for us simply aren't here.

Agreed. I live in Poland, the concept of 'expat' is foreign to me. Its my home.

I've not met (well, spoken to) any non-Poles since I moved here two years ago.

It has got nothing to with earning a living. I'll go where the money is or starve like everyone else.

foreigner4 wrote:


you're being forced here against your will, as is sobieski (wife wouldn't move) which is an exception to the rule. let's be logical here.

okay, let's start by deleting the language you've used on my behalf.
I want us to go home but she wants to be close to her family. I am waiting it out. If you choose to interpret that as being "forced" then I'm afraid we cannot continue the conversation.

Contributor when I came to Poland but these days far far less so, these days I'm pretty much none of those things.

The 'classfication' can be even simpler...

'Serious' guys learn Polish and work in their field

The rest make a collection of excuses and teach....


Surely you would report such occurrences to the anti-corruption authorities at the earliest opportunity??

That is if your stories are actually true....

Like they'll do a damn thing about it - school directors are politically appointed and thus protected from such things.

But if you want to find out more - I can give you the names of schools, and you can try and hire a room for English classes. When they refuse, you can go and examine just who is advertising in the schools...

And for those whose field is education?

There is always one.

There are people who have responded to this thread who are very much in society, they contribute, create jobs, pay taxes and work towards a more efficient Poland. You mentioned in post 36 " bring up your children in Poland " do you bring up your children to be child ambassador's of Poland?

God forbid that someone might have a vocation for something!

He might have a point when it comes to some of the jokers that post on here (Bradders for instance) - but there's quite a few serious people involved in education on here, too.

They should still learn Polish language before starting to teach.

Looking at who they invite to come to Poland, the Polish government clearly disagree with you.

Why please explain?

I was taught English by a Polish teacher ("anglistyka" graduate) in high school. I can't imagine being taught by somebody who can't understand and answer my questions in Polish. It takes years of study before a student can ask descriptive questions in English about some nuance and understand descriptive answer, so that there is no misunderstanding.

Lucky then that the students I came to teach had already had many years of studying English.

Students want to learn English in English. That's how I learned French. A good teacher knows how to explain it so students understand. You won't hear Polish in my classroom, except for an occasional word or two. Let's say we're talking about food. How would you describe cod? It's easier to have students look for it in a dictionary. Bingo. Instant understanding.

Quite. But as you well know few of the guys here left university with the faintest intention of teaching English.

Therein lies the point- plenty of guys on PF are kidding themselves along that they aren't needy- that they didn't come here for a girl and took any job going (nothing inherently wrong with that - definitions of romance are subjective) but can't read the front page of FAKT or phone up the local plumber to come and fix the toilet (surely the very definition of needy- unable to function without others)

scottie1113 wrote:


of course. not to mention, what do you do when your class consists of 2 poles, a japanese girl, a german girl, a korean guy and a French woman? how EVER would you teach all them without knowing ALL their languages? silly rabbit.

I left with the intention of becoming a school teacher of children - and here I am. The country was irrelevant (although ideally it wouldn't be in the UK, and it isn't).


I bought a flat in Polish, that'll do me in terms of language ability. Being able to deal with the Notariusz in Polish was by far the most difficult thing I've ever done in a foreign language. Thankfully, I can read the front page and arrange appointments - the only thing I have trouble with is that my writing is pretty rubbish, but I put that down to a lack of practice.

Very good point.

i was, at the very least, partially a contributor. 4 years paying into ZUS, never used a dime of it on myself.

The teachers at my schools as well as several other poles that I knew that would get bogus doctor notes or drag out their "illnesses" and stay out of work as long as possible because Poland's socialist system is willing to pay for it year after year.....yeah, certainly paid into that.

if i had a dime for every time i heard, "aahhhhh, pojde do lekarza i powiem mu ze mam goraczke, dostane kilka tygodni wolnych....."

serio sluchaj.....