SPECIAL REPORT: The Brits who left the UK for a life in Poland

Utterly crap article about Brits who moved to Poland

Dire, truly dire. Even by the standards of the Daily Fail.
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2043562/SPECIAL-REPORT-The-Brits-left-UK-life-Poland.html


You have to wonder if the 'journalist' has even been to Poland.

Sounds like an advert for Polish property.

Once youve read one article youve read them all, theyve been basically saying the same things for as long as ive been involved with Poland. Nothing new in that one at all.

I can agree with the sentiment of the article, but there are some brilliant phrases in there worthy of the Daily Fail's reputation:

"The Church is important, too, and that’s reflected in the low crime and general pleasantness of the place."

bwaaaaahahahahaha!

A very nice article :)

I hope to see more Brits and Scots moving into Poland.

Most of the people the 'journalist' spoke to have a vested interest in more Brits coming to Poland.

For sure.
This(article) also works as a 'hate article' encouraging and inflaming the mob that believe the Poles robbed their (jobs)money and now their economy is booming.

Typical of the scum that run this paper and read it.

DAhh yeah, lets get some down sides into that article, the realities of life in Poland... its so easy to manipulate the people.

What do members think about Prince Charles buying a palace in Poland.

He was talking about restoring something in Slask. Did anything ever come of it?

Aww, bless.

He'll learn. Eventually :D


Indeed.

They only think that because none of these guys know any Polish, so they can't listen to Radio Maryja :)

And they haven't been in the country for long enough to find out what "mohery" are, lol.


It gets better :)

It's so obvious that the "journalists" involved in this article have been reading PF, and the respondent above is clearly a PF member :)

You on the other hand obviously have no interest in other Brits coming to Poland because every one of them is a competition for you. The times when one could earn a lot with just English language knowledge are gone, there are many guys like you in Poland now, so here you are, bitter as hell, trying to discourage anyone from coming here in order to salvage whatever is left from your business.

Thanks for the good laugh! Sadly for you, the work which I do is still much in demand and the number of people with the correct skill set and experience is still far below the demand for us. That isn't changing any time soon.

And despite what the article says, I'm certainly seeing fewer Brits in Warsaw than ten years ago.

The Brits who left the UK for a life in Poland - and what are your experiences if a Briton?

I did a search in the archive and didn't find a thread on this although it must be somewhere.

dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2043562/SPECIAL-REPORT-The-Brits-left-UK-life-Poland.html


I dare say that some of the people mentioned in the article might know of this forum!
The article is from 2011, but I dare say there have been success and failure stories since. If anyone would like to post their success or otherwise story on this thread, please feel free. It would be good if you could say whereabouts you found success (or failure) in Poland.

My own take which is just my opinion and experience and should be construed as nothing more than that: very limited opportunities for work or even voluntary work, it's a place for marrieds and young families more than anything, it has complicated politics and loyalties stemming from a turbulent history, some Poles don't much like Brits or foreigners and don't care that they make it obvious, customer service in shops can be abrupt and poor generally, food is very limited if you're a veggie or not good at cooking or just don't have the time to cook, the roads and a quite a lot of drivers seem below average, the air is poorer than it should be in some cities, lots of things are surprisingly expensive considering Polish wages. But: it's a better place if you're under 30 and have at least one other language apart from English and maybe in addition to Polish plus a skill in demand such as some software and IT disciplines, are Catholic, enjoy the arts, relish the countryside and farming or agriculture, love skiing and are keen on cycling. It's probably at its vert best if you have a Polish partner or spouse to smooth your path and a good bit of money spare. Failing that, a decent company relocation package and some luck.

Happy holidays all and wishing you a good and prosperous 2014.

I see a mod found the original thread in about 2 seconds :oD


Certainly agree, very few Britons here in Wro unless visiting on the p**s.

Really? Could you elaborate on this?

Sometimes stating the obvious is necessary, some people would otherwise not twig.

No, it isn't.

It's a positive article about Poland.

If you can speak Polish even limited the Poles are great, if Poles can learn something form you or gain from you they will be queuing up the high street to be your friend/colleague.Don't forget many Poles have now visited the UK or Ireland and realise the Indigenous pops are just not that special.

Hey it is a honest qestion.

Oh I see, apologies to you. Well, Ironside, because people may say it's me and not my nationality, it's pointless to list my observations. I am however totally convinced that I experienced bad attitudes which were caused simply by my not being a Pole but being on Polish soil. And yeah I know Poles experience the same in other countries, but never from me so it's not payback or karma. Happy holidays and thanks for taking an interest in my post, have a very nice Xmas etc.

I disagree with you. If the person you are speaking to knows English at intermediate level or above they will prefer to speak English. If your accent is not perfect, then you may get ridiculed.

Why would I rely on Polish people speaking English to communicate, I live in Poland I must speak Polish. As for being ridiculed I will never speak Polish without an accent, the shock and suprise I see on locals faces when I speak Polish for the first time gives me the motivation to persevere.

For most practical purposes, you don't really have to. If people you speak to know English, they will generally try to speak to you in English once they realise you are foreign. That's my experience, anyway.

But why would you restrict yourself to your immediate circle. What happens if you are in a shop or a bank and no-one speaks English?

There are quite a lot of tourists and expats in Warszawa so not to be included in such juiced circles, you are forced to speak Polish ask Sobieski and Jon I am sure they will agree.

The post above and the one it's replying to are both right.

Some people in PL don't quite believe you speak Polish, and in any case their experience from learning English in classes in their own country is very differnt than yours picking it up while living somewhere - they tend to judge your skills by there own and assume less.

I had to have my windows repaired at Vision Express. For various reasons it took several visits and they kept on hauling a lady out of the back room to speak English to me - even though her English was far worse than my Polish. They were doing it with the very best intentions though. Remember also that some people have expended a lot of money, time and effort in learning English.


Expat sounds classier than immigrant, until you've spent an evening in an expat bar. Some people though (Poles in UK, Brits in PL, whatever) will never really assimilate and end up looking strangely out of place, usually reliant on their partner for everything. Others assimilate absolutely. Most are somewhere on the continuum between.

Indeed. There are people who react quite badly when you reply to them in Polish after they've spoken to you in Polish. For some reason I meet more of those people in the far south east of Poland.


Did you see this one?
theguardian.com/world/2007/dec/12/poland.helenpidd

It's equally bad and is discussed in this thread:
polishforums.com/polonia-uk-ireland-31/irish-times-irish-workers-warm-warsaw-48629/#msg1038290

It really does look like she got a cab from the plane to Bar Below, presumably a late plane since it looks like they were all half-cut by th etime she arrived and just wrote down what the worst gobshytes in the place (both you and I can certainly recognise some of them from the article) told her in their drunken fantasies.

And then a morning coffee the next day with a couple of real estate moguls who were last heard of not doing quite so well. I seem to remember something about them having a EUR 30 million property portfolio but one of them applying for work at 50zl an hour. Wasn't another of those people living in mate's front room for almost all the time he was in Poland?

45 zl per 45 minutes, actually.

;-)