A Brit moving to Warsaw with his Polish wife

Hi there
I have been a guest on this site for some weeks now but registered this morning. I am a Brit living in the Channel Islands (my wife is Polish) who is uprooting young family to Warsaw. I have been there many times and enjoyed it, the real test will be living there. I have much to do in terms of getting up to the right level language wise. Will be staying with her family for the first few weeks(months!) to see how it all goes. I am especially pleased that my 2 year old daughter will be able to have a proper relationship with her grandparents. Been in the legal profession for 15 years but not esp bothered about staying in it.

Anyway would be delighted to hear others experiences from people who have done the same, I dont get there until June btw.

all the best
Jon

What are you planning on doing here work-wise?

Im at a stage in my life where i want to spend time with my daughter, the debate was whether to retunr to mainland UK from Channel Islands or to Poland and to me family wise it was a simple decision

I will work but im not in a huge hurry to, maybe teach english at some point, Im not chasing the yankee dollar or the struggling sterling tbh

Maybe you should learn the language with your kids..osmosis...

I certainly intend to, life will be pretty difficult if i dont

I think once you have A Polish woman its hard to keep them away from the homeland for too long..Family is king over there. I dont live in Poland but i Have a Homesick Polish girlfriend so i may have to jump into the dark someday soon..

contrary to you guys,i have a polish wife that wants nothing to do with the almighty homeland so i guess,home is where you make it. Good luck with your move and please watch the weight. Is hard to say no to polish dziadek or babcia when is comes to offering you food,so work on the appetite as well;)

I think being a woman with a wife might have something to do with that. There are many great things about living in Poland but the treatment of same sex relationships is definitely not one of them (except for closet cases since most Poles have no gaydar whatsoever).

I'm sure that Poland will catch up eventually but at present the level of pubic debate on the issue is stupefyingly awful.

@jon18343,

It might help to have a word or three with the wife ahead of time and remind her that even though you've been here before, you still have a lot to learn and she needs to let you know when you're going off course (in a non-hostile way). A code word might help that she could use to let you know to stop whatever it is you're doing and just sit there until she can explain what's happening.

Staying with the family is a mixed bag. You'll learn lots of practical Polish and having relatives stay for months on end is no big deal here but you might find yourself missing some privacy. If you don't have safe places to go in Warsaw to be by yourself you'll want to find some right away. It's liable to become an issue for you and one your wife is liable to not understand.

thats very useful advice thank you, im sure the privacy thing will kick in quite soon

I'm not an expert on family, but I would say it might be easier on you both if you live with your wife's family for a set amount of time, like 1-2 months, and agree right off the bat that you will rent a place for yourselves that is close to your wife's family, that way you and your children will be close to family but you won't be in the same space (I'm guessing smaller space than you are used to) for months.

like you my wife wants to return home and im irish and have been in poland plenty of times and found it a good place like you im learning polish

a tefl course under your belt will go a long way there is loads of work in warsaw

warsaw not my favourite spot not in bad way but is busy 24 hrs a day but the old town beautiful place

i wish you luck with the move

+1 on avoid living with the in laws for too long.
I am still living with family after 4 years and it has driven us mad!
Turning food down is a nightmare, especially as my in laws are constantly eating. In the end I had to be a little rude for them to get the point.