Real Estate / Apartments too expensive for Poles living in Poland [54]


Germany has quite a low percentage of home ownership I believe, as renting is far more common there. The French also rent, but if I remeber rightly, there's some sort of social housing scam that's universally accepted there.

Scandinavia is an odd example - unlike Brits, living in a flat there is normal and accepted practice for families. The success of commie block building there is one reason that I think property prices are quite low - as well as having far more land than they know what to do with.


The Keyworker scheme seems to work allright in the UK too. But don't get me started on the scam that is shared ownership...


Actually - I would rather put my money into some communist flats than into newbuilds. The building quality of anything post-1990 is absolutely shocking - dnz on here can tell you a rather wonderful story about the crack in his old flat, and how his new place is almost brand new and is falling to bits already.

UK, Ireland / Warning to British people visiting Poland!! Don't get drunk and smash the place up! [447]


Gotta love the excuse... "I was drugged".

Suuuure you were.

(having said this, there was that dodgy case in Warsaw a few years back....)

Real Estate / Apartments too expensive for Poles living in Poland [54]


Unfortunately, it's accepted fact for most Europeans that housing is expensive.

UK, Ireland / Warning to British people visiting Poland!! Don't get drunk and smash the place up! [447]


Pickled liver : 10zl?

UK, Ireland / Warning to British people visiting Poland!! Don't get drunk and smash the place up! [447]


In other words, he got ********, decided to do something typical British like running round naked or harrassing local girls, got nicked and taken to the drying out clinic and is blaming being drugged instead? Pretty poor excuse, if you ask me. Typical though - Brits are usually ashamed of what they've done and blame someone else rather than admitting responsibility.

Is it so hard to understand that if you act like a drunken twat in Poland, you're going to be punished?


Like in the UK, where the police shoot you dead on tube trains even though you're innocent? Or what about the way that the police will happily beat you at demonstrations? And let's not forget that the UK is far, far worse than Poland when it comes to people being drugged in clubs.


Not wanted there either - I saw an interview with someone in their council who was saying that they would rather do without the money from Brits!

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

Shame you didn't learn the English language while you were at it.

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


Who was advising you in regards to the work permit? Two months wait for a work permit is unacceptable - and the employer should be ashamed of themselves for leaving it so long.


Not neccessarily so - they can ban you at the exit check just as well. It depends very much on the mood of the officer on the day and whether he/she can be bothered to scrutinse your passport carefully.

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


Something I don't understand - they are obliged to respond to a work permit application within a short period of time - I think it's two weeks? For this reason, you should've been well within the 45 days. Of course - another option would have been to leave Schengen on day 43/44 and wait for the permit to come through - you could then easily come back and apply while still within the 45 days.

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


If a work permit has been applied for before 45 days are up, then it should be relatively straightforward to obtain a temporary residence paper from the Foreigners Office to allow you to stay until the decision has been given.


I think because you went over 90 days without permission, you're illegal. But I'm hearing mumurings that they can (but this doesn't mean they will) legalise an illegal stay if there's exceptional circumstances - I know Germany has been doing this, but there's no guarantee that Poland will do the same thing.

Incidentally, it's a year's ban from Schengen, with formal notice to quit Schengen if you're caught. Some people are banned for longer, but where it's a clear cut case of overstay by a tourist, it's the standard punishment.

Life / Bilingual kids in Polish schools [30]

The exception being high school, solely if the child wishes to torture the teacher ;)

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.