Life / Bilingual kids in Polish schools [30]


"play dates" are the worst thing to come from America!

Ugh, I wish we spoke a seperate language sometimes :(

History / The restoration of Polish cities from WW2 destruction [123]


Not true, there's plenty of examples of sympathetic restoration by communists throughout Eastern Europe.

Work / An Australian girl living in Poland: Residence permit, please help! [44]


Basically, yes. The punishment is pretty standard - you'll have a week to leave Schengen with a ban of a year, plus a fine.

Law / Contracts for IT staff in Poland [12]

But be aware that these contracts shouldn't be used if the work is permanent - it's a minefield, and not a good idea to blindly issue such contracts if you aren't fully aware of the consequences.


You won't employ many people on this basis - unless there's something in it for you. Full time staff are very unlikely to be swayed, unless the 800zl+ cost of social insurance is cheaper than paying it through a permanent contract. It's also got a very bad reputation in Poland - educated, decent staff are unlikely to agree. You should also be very aware that the tax office does have the power to declare this sort of agreement as invalid - and the fines usually amount 100% of unpaid (in their eyes) social insurance contributions, plus of course the contributions must be repaid too.

My recommendation is to compare the costs of hiring people in Ireland vs Poland on normal work contracts. If it works for you, then you can investigate ways of saving money - but don't assume that you can get away with hiring people on contracts of dubious legality.

Travel / How do I go by ferry from south of England to Gdynia? [15]


Not a sausage, there may be freight ferries (though a quick search says no) - but the nearest thing to a UK-Scandinavia service these days is Harwich-Esbjerg. You'd then have to drive across Denmark and Sweden and then ferry from there to Poland.

There's an interesting alternative in Rostock-Gdynia, but it hardly seems worth it.


No point, he's in Portsmouth. There's also the Harwich-Hoek van Holland service which might make sense - Portsmouth to Harwich is a straight run, instead of crawling across the south coast.

Life / Orphanages in Poland [82]


Or indeed most (nearly all?) teachers in the private sector. Heck, I've been teaching kids without any background check whatsoever!

Study / "MAGISTER" OR "MASTERS DEGREE" - ARE THEY THE SAME? [75]


Half them to get the ECTS points - 15 CAT points are 7.5 ECTS points.

In theory, they're transferable. In reality? Not really. 7.5ECTS points from 4th year uni in Scotland will be worth something and can be measured in difficulty, but 7.5ECTS points from a Polish uni might be from an absolute doddle of a subject. In fact, it seems quite common for lecturers to give harder work in the 1st year than in the final year!

Study / "MAGISTER" OR "MASTERS DEGREE" - ARE THEY THE SAME? [75]


You need to bear in mind that the Inzynier title is used for people apart from what we would consider engineers - which complicates things even further. I dare say the real engineering degrees are practical - but it's not so certain when it comes to other subjects.

The system really is a mess here - why the 3/2 system wasn't introduced in one go is entirely beyond me.

Study / "MAGISTER" OR "MASTERS DEGREE" - ARE THEY THE SAME? [75]


I would, transcripts are far more interesting than the certificate itself. Even among subjects like biology - what's actually studied is far more important than what the title is.


Matura is accepted widely, there's no difference there - it's treated exactly the same as A-Levels and the like.


It depends very much on the university - Scottish ones are moving towards a unified system of 3 years plus 1 year of work experience (or 4 years theory), but the English model is still very much based upon 3 years with an optional year of work experience (that counts for nothing).

Masters are usually a calendar year, but there's plenty of 30 week Masters courses out there.

Study / "MAGISTER" OR "MASTERS DEGREE" - ARE THEY THE SAME? [75]


Harry, you might know this...do Polish degree certificates differentiate between full time and extramural studies? Apparently they do, but I'm not certain on this.

If so, there's a very good reason to not consider extramural studies as being worth anything unless it was backed up with relevant work experience during the studies.

Study / "MAGISTER" OR "MASTERS DEGREE" - ARE THEY THE SAME? [75]


It depends. There's no straightforward answer - but the following is true today.

- Any degree gained as a 4/5 year Magister that wasn't split into Bachleors and Masters segments isn't comparable to a UK Masters for a multitude of reasons and should be seen as something between a Bachleor's degree with honours and a Masters. However, be careful, because many degrees were academically rigorous and could be easily as difficult as a UK Masters degree - but officially, they're not comparable.

- A magister obtained as a seperate qualification (only offered by some universities) as part of the Bologna Process may be comparable. It's difficult to say, you need to look at the individual transcript and work out if they really did do 4/5 years of study at progressively difficult levels. Some universities and departments are all but ignoring the 3/2 split and only paying lip service to it, others are treating it as serious.

It's really hard to say - it depends what she did, where she did it and how she did. The Polish system is fatally flawed in that it allows medicore students to study to Masters level and to obtain one - someone who only obtained a 3 overall in their Magister is unlikely to be on the same level as a UK Masters student.

News / A Świnoujście girl wins the I love Europe competition [17]

Funny, because Poznan has claimed her too ;)

Travel / How do I go by ferry from south of England to Gdynia? [15]


You're not going to do anything close to that route.

Best bet would be Dover-Dunkerque by ferry, then it's almost a straight drive to Berlin. From Berlin, there's motorway to Szczecin and then a tediously long drag to Gdansk from there.

If money is no object, then you could do Harwich-Esbjerg on the ferry, drive across Denmark and Sweden to Karlskrona, from where you can reach Gdynia.

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]

Would anyone believe that this is the work of someone in his 40's, who has a wife and a small child?

Give it up Mark Biernat, you really are becoming a dreadful bore.

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]


Really?

You might want to explain why you're selling language flashcards, then, Mark Biernat.

News / Green electricity in Poland [41]


Or simply, they don't trust the Polish. I wouldn't put it past the Polish to start acting like the Ukranians - would anyone really trust an important pipeline in the hands of PiS for instance?


Don't get me started on the mining industry in Poland.

Law / Contracts for IT staff in Poland [12]


I don't think you do. For a start, you don't seem to know much about Polish social taxation and you seem to think that Poland is a great place to start a business.

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]


Not entirely true - quite a significant amount of them speak German fluently and not English. I know several Sales Managers/directors who have excellent German but are terrible in English, just because German was much more widely understood than English in this part of the world. There's also much more dominance from German-speaking companies than English-speaking companies in Poland.

Let's also not forget that the second language of Poland is German.


I've had a personal run-in with someone who is exactly as you describe. He's written a language textbook for a chain of schools, and the textbook is quite frankly garbage - as witnesed by his proud boast that "I've never lived in an English speaking country and I'm self taught" - unsurprisingly, his accent is hilariously fake and his knowledge and understanding of English nuances is nil. Yet he thinks himself to be proficient in English and boasts about his ability to write a textbook - for some reason, he didn't take it too kindly when difficult questions were asked about the content ;)

Life / Poczta Polska Is Killing ME! Transit time. [28]


They're a nightmare because of old people using them for a social life and allegro traders posting endless pieces. That's not Poczta Polska's fault.


How many USPS workers speak Polish?

Real Estate / Where to look on the internet for Poland Real Estate [112]

Mark, please be careful. Sworn translators cannot dictate price - they have to charge a set price mandated by law for a sworn translation and cannot vary from this. Really, for the expatriate needing a sworn translation, one sworn translator is the same as all the rest.

Language / twoj wasz [12]

That's actually Scottish English, and used widely by people of all educational ability. It may actually have came from there.

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]


Funny, 40 million plus people don't seem to have any problem with it... if even the lowlife kurwa boys can manage, it can't be that difficult ;)

History / Yalta Conference and Poland [78]

Ah, it's always fun to ask them what they expected Churchill and Britain to actually do.

Truman, for some bizzare reason, doesn't get mentioned at all - and Roosevelt is excused on grounds of being sick. Yet if anyone could "save" Poland at the time - it would've been America!

Life / Having a baby in Poland as a US citizen [9]


Not Poland, but google the Chen case for more. In a nutshell, it was known for mothers to travel to Northern Ireland to give birth - as the child then had automatic Irish citizenship (due to the then-in force jus soli law regardless of the legal status of the parent(s)). It was then ruled that the parents had the right to stay in the EU to look after the child, which was an Irish and by extension EU citizen.

But yes, it's also not unheard of for Americans to think that their child being born abroad means that it's automatically a citizen of the country in which the birth took place.

Life / Exam for Drivers License in Poland; English? [99]

Any city should have the theory test available in English. The major cities will also have courses - Warsaw, Wroclaw and Poznan do for certain.

The driving test itself, you'll need a sworn translator.

News / Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport to close in September [27]


Could very well be the reason. I've had a quick look on Google and it suggests that there are quite a few problems associated with concrete laying in cold weather - problems that might not be a big deal in your new driveway, but you don't want to have *any* problems with runways. There's also the point that if they had a repeat of the A2 saga with the runways, people would absolutely slaughter them - so it makes sense to get the job done in the proper conditions rather than trying to do it in the cold. It may also be that doing the job in the cold would mean having to close the airport for longer.

Aviation safety regulators are paranoid and over sensitive about everything - they have to be, and it wouldn't surprise me if they were told that could only lay concrete in the summer months. Most ordinary people don't understand how detailed and proscribed aviation actually is.

Love / I love my Polish girl! Wanted to share my story. [55]


But compared to the UK, Germany is very easy going these days - much less paranoia about health and safety, and much more "use your brain, idiot" type attitude. Sure, they might need rules to function, but that's what makes Germany so funny!


Germans aren't really a welcoming, friendly race. But neither are the English and especially not the Welsh!


The UK is dreadfully unstable these days - look at the abuse of terrorism laws in relation to photographers as an example. Then let's look at the 'postcode lottery' for health care - the UK really isn't stable as a country anymore.

Life / Poczta Polska Is Killing ME! Transit time. [28]


Compare and contrast to DHL, who called me at 7am this morning about the delivery of a printer worth 1650zl, so a fairly hefty piece of equipment. Fine and well - but they want to either deliver at 10am or not at all today. It's absolutely useless for me - it means someone has to be here when both of us have business meetings today, so I've had to push back a meeting simply to sign for the parcel!

Real Estate / Can foreigners buy land, house, or apartment in Poland? [60]


Not in the first instance - I can do many of the 'first step' things for a lot cheaper than a specialised English speaking property lawyer will charge. For instance - I called quite a few up, asking how much they would charge to do a straightforward search of the property records in the cartographic offices, the Starostwo and the property courts. Many of them were quoting hideous amounts - 500zl upwards was normal. I'm convinced that it was at least partly due to the persona on the phone - dumb American calling about some property that his grandmother left in "ye olde countree" - but still, it gives an idea that they can and will charge a ridiculous amount for something relatively trivial.

Obviously, making a claim on a property needs a specialised lawyer - but for routine things such as applying for searches of databases, it's nothing that the ordinary man in the street can't do.

(as an aside, one lawyer wanted 50zl to post the documents received from the offices!)

Life / Poczta Polska Is Killing ME! Transit time. [28]


I'm the exact opposite - never had a problem, even with deliveries that have the customs declaration clearly printed on it with the value/etc. They're not the quickest in the world, but that can be forgiven.

In fact, the only bad thing about them is the way they don't accept cards in the post office - but it's a small price to pay. Look at the integration between the post office and the delivery side of things - compared to the Royal Mail, it's an absolute dream.

Other people's mileage may vary - it's probably no surprise that the service in Poznan is efficient and....Germanic.