I am currently 75% through an on line TEFL course & moving to Krakow

nice idea but again a fair bit of money involved id say,transportation costs be it freight or whatever, import taxes, if it were brittish or irish food products there would be the worry of not selling and ending up with spent product = losses

i remember when i lived in amsterdam there was a shop that sold such products and it didnt last too long even though there was a massive irish/english community .......good idea though

Yeah you are right there are start up costs and whenever you open a business you have to expect that there can be some losses at the start. I have my own business here in Poznan and I started with hardly any money so I know it is possible. If you want to have a chat about stuff you can pm me your number or skype username and I would happy to go through some ideas with you.

In regards to the whole teaching thing it is a declining market and in somewhere like Krakow it is also a saturated market. Also if you want to try and get into it I would say emailing a school is a waste of time you will struggle to get any reply yet alone a positive one you really need to be here on the ground getting in these peoples faces. Do you have money to tide you over for six or so months while you are here looking for work? No one here has mentioned that there are a couple of irish owned pubs here one is called the Irish mbassy and they serve food, you mentioned you were a chef so maybe thats worth a shot?

Well the teaching thing is something i wanted to do as opposed to an only choice when moving to poland, as a chef you are a constant teacher its not all burgers and peeling carrots,so many people pass through kitchens guidance and direction is a must for senior staff, also i consider myself to have a helpful nature and it is probably a job i could get a good sense of self satisfaction from.I plan on sending out CV's to schools and language centre's within the next few weeks and will do the rounds in August, I have enough money to tide me over for a bit but obviously i would prefer to be working.

As for the irish bars they have always been in the back of my mind but as i said i would love to give the teaching a go regardless of the wage.

I would appreciate a chat and a bit of advice from you and will pm my skype to you, but it will have to be at a later date as the laptop im using at the moment has a faulty mic.

Thanks.

No probs, I know that one of the Irish bars had a foreign chef at some stage so maybe you might have some luck.

I wasn't trying to be really negative about the teaching thing I just know it's hard nowadays, if you are coming in August you are coming at a good time because alot of schools will still be recruiting then for the coming term. The sooner you can get here and start walking into these schools the better, the Poles are not good at responding to emails and also everyone is very easy to forget via email!

I sell some English products and if we have a chat providing you don't turn out to be some sort of idiot! I would be happy to send you some stock on a sale or return basis and if you are inventive enough you wouldn't even need to rent a premises to sell these products

I am also looking into the idea of teaching english in Krakow and, having stumbled across this thread, I am interested to know whether you were able to find work, and whether you have any advice to share with me.

Thank You.

Liam