Work / Proofreading - What is the going rate in Warsaw? [40]


That would be pretty hard to sustain with more complex material that requires a lot of analytical thought. I've done it, but not day after day. The most I made a month was 12000 PLN net, and usually about half that on translating. But then, I only had myself to support and had other sources of income.

Work / Proofreading - What is the going rate in Warsaw? [40]


That only works if the work is of uniform or predictable difficulty. When the level of difficulty varies widely, it's best to go by hours.

For example, a grant proposal is going to take A LOT more time to translate per page than, say, an press release. On top of that, it's going to go through multiple revisions.

Work / Proofreading - What is the going rate in Warsaw? [40]


No. That is why translation is needed. It takes a lot more than "proofreading" to make an amateurish "translation" by a non-native speaker readable. It usually turns out as pure Polish, just with English words, and often the wrong words, instead. Stylistically, it's usually downright ghastly. A complete rewrite is needed, which often involves translating it back into Polish, and then into proper English. I often can't make heads or tails of it, especially when they use Google Translate.


Perhaps for "business" English, but if you want a competent legal, medical or scientific translation, 90 PLN per hour is a deal. As far as I know, I was the only native speaker in all of Poland that translated scientific and medical articles for publication from Polish to English. If you can't understand the science, there's no way that you could translate at this level.

Work / Proofreading - What is the going rate in Warsaw? [40]

Same price, 90 PLN per hour for businesses, 70 PLN for universities. I strongly discourage proofreading, as the original is rarely in a condition where simple proofreading will help, rather than extensive rewriting. Frankly, translating is a lot easier, and usually cheaper, as well.

Don't forget that the translating I do is for serious international scientific and medical publications and requires specialist knowledge that very few native speakers that can translate from Polish possess.

Life / Funeral Traditions in Poland [68]

A tasteful sympathy card with a heartfelt personal message would be appropriate. Especially if you have met the deceased and can include a pleasant memory.

Real Estate / Interested in moving our farm to Poland [7]


You are going to find that the deck is strongly stacked against small farmers in Poland. The main thrust of agricultural policy in Poland is to drastically reduce the number of small farms and production of raw staples to meet EU goals. You will also have to deal with mountains of red tape, regulations and production quotas, both from the Polish government and from the EU. If you decide to produce high-value products for sale in one of the wealthier EU countries, which is almost certainly what you would have to do, the recipient country will be another source of red tape and regulation.

If you have inherited land already, you might be better off renting the land out or planting it with trees and collecting money from the government for doing so.

The EU is pretty harshly trying to reduce overproduction and inefficient small operations.

Importing livestock from the EU from the US is going to be a costly nightmare that you certainly don't want to deal with.

Also, neither you nor your husband have anything to offer that would be especially attractive or well paid on the highly competitive Polish job market. University jobs pay peanuts, and the best your husband could do is teach English or work in a call center, again for peanuts. Getting any sort of work at all is going to be difficult if you do not have Polish or other EU citizenship.

Sorry, but I cannot think of a single reason to abandon a successful small farm in the States to try to establish one in a hostile environment like Poland, or anywhere else in the EU, for that matter.

I also can't think of a good reason to buy a vacation house in Poland. It would almost certainly be cheaper and easier to rent.

If you are still determined to try this, you will need a) ABUNDANT capital to start the farm and support yourselves for the many years before you turn your first penny in profit on the very safe assumption that neither you nor your husband will be able to earn a substantial amount of money in Poland; b) a very good, knowledgeable and experienced agricultural consultant who can help you come up with a viable plan; and c) thorough knowledge of Polish and EU agricultural regulations.

Possibilities may exist in niche markets for products like medicinal herbs, organic fruits and vegetables, or high value products like artisan cheese, all for export to the richer EU countries, especially Germany. You would have to do abundant market research and networking to lay the groundwork, with a start date of at least three years from now.

Travel / Is it safe to ride motorcycles in Poland? Traffic laws. [12]

It is specifically forbidden in Poland. "Jazda po linii jest zabroniona: PoRD, art. 16, ust. 4".

When riding a motorcycle in Poland, you are required to behave and maneuver as if your motorcycle takes up the same space as a full size automobile.

Life / What is the percentage of dog owners in Poland who clean after their dogs? [7]

In Wrocław, dogs are not allowed into the best park, Park Staromiejski. Nor are alcoholics. Wish it were like that in all parks.

Love / Surplus of single women in Poland? [25]


Actually, another complicating factor is that women are generally pickier about mates than men are. They desire mates with high social standing and earnings capacity.

This is a big problem in Poland, where the males leaving the country are often the best and the brightest (so-called "brain drain"). The remaining males are less desirable to the remaining females, who, although they want to get marries, are not eager to marry the remaining males. They might be willing to compromise somewhat, but not many ambitious, educated females want to marry unambitious, uneducated farmhands, to put it in extreme terms.

In the end, there still is a major surplus of marriageable females to males in the country as a whole, smaller in rural areas, and quite large in urban areas.

Love / Surplus of single women in Poland? [25]


No, it doesn't, because of the net loss of marriageable males from Poland as a whole. The ratios of marriageable females to males in rural areas are about equal, whereas in urban areas, marriageable females greatly outnumber marriageable males.

In other words, women from rural areas migrate preferentially to larger cities inside Poland. Men from rural areas migrate to other countries, so there is an overall deficit of marriageable males in Poland overall.

Also, even if there were a surplus of males in rural areas and of females in urban areas, they would not "cancel out", as the extra males and extra females are not in the same place. They would only "cancel out" if marriageable males migrated to the cities or if marriageable females migrated to the countryside.

A last factor is that the proportion of females who feel the need to get married is higher than the proportion of males. Marriage is simply more popular among females than among males. So even if the ratio of females and males of marriageable age were 1:1, there would still be a surplus of women wanting to get married and not being able to find a willing partner.

Love / Surplus of single women in Poland? [25]


That is true, for to reasons:

Internal migration: people migrate from poorer rural areas, especially in eastern Poland, to the richer cities in search of work. Among these internal migrants, women of marriageable age are over-represented, giving rise to a large surplus of marriageable women in the larger, richer cities. The surplus is quite large.

External migration: people migrate from poorer Poland to richer countries, especially of Western Europe, in search of work. Among these migrants, men of marriageable age are over-represented, resulting in a corresponding deficit of men of marriageable age in Poland as a whole.

A good source is Current Demographical Issues in the Eastern Poland Macroregion
by Dorota Celińska-Janowicz et al.

https://books.google.com/books?id=2NRMfCfQwcgC&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21&dq=marriageable+females+in+Poland+number&source=bl&ots=22L_cI-_yj&sig=oZlVMYIlIKYWlG5y-viOjhnohNA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=r-LXVOLRD7O0sASv4IGQCA&ved=0CE8Q6AEwCDgK#v=onepage&q=marriageable%20f emales%20in%20Poland%20number&f=false

Life / Moving from India to Wroclaw [53]


Your prices are about right. With one kid that has to go to private school, it would be best to earn at least 9000 AFTER TAXES AND INSURANCE in Wrocław. Otherwise, it's not worth putting your family through the inconvenience.

Family trips to Western Europe are pretty much out unless you are making a lot more than that. With a wife and kid in tow, you cannot slum it like a single man.

Have you considered leaving your wife and kid behind in India? That might be the wisest move, financially and psychologically.

Work / Proofreading - What is the going rate in Warsaw? [40]


70 zl per hour for universities, 90 for businesses. I never charged per page, as difficulty varies enormously. Actually, I turned down proofreading jobs because clients would think that that would be cheaper than having me translate from the Polish original. So after a short while, I insisted on doing only my own translations, and referring "korekty" elsewhere, because corrections and proofreading often took more time than translation from scratch, for the simple reason that I could understand what the paper was about rather than having to guess from a poor translation by a non-native speaker.

Work / How much is the average living cost in Poland for foreign student? [46]


Pretty frugal for five weeks as a foreign tourist. That's only sixty PLN a day. As long as you budget modestly and are content with modest sightseeing and entertainment options, that will get you through five weeks, especially if you mean that you will be getting two meals a day where you are staying without having to pay extra. For orientation's sake, a modest full dinner with soft drink in a modest restaurant will set you back about 20 or 30 PLN. A sandwich or kebab with soft drink about half that. A beer costs between six and ten PLN in a modest bar.

Work / How much is the average living cost in Poland for foreign student? [46]

I mean that you provided zero useful information about yourself, your plans, your expectations and your budget, so no one here could even start to give you a useful answer, just like you could not even start to give a useful answer to the question I posed, for the same reason.

Work / How much is the average living cost in Poland for foreign student? [46]

How many apples can fit in a bag?

Genealogy / How Daniel surname is common in Poland? Could it have had its origins in the 17/18th c. Scottish immigration? [9]


Not at all rare. There are about 4200 people with that name, scattered all over Poland:

moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/daniel.html

I doubt that the surname is restricted to a single genealogical line. You would have to have solid documentation of whether YOUR PARTICULAR line had its origins in the Scottish immigration in the 1600-1700's. The name itself is not to useful here. You need actual genealogical records for each generation back until that time.

Life / What should parents and schools in Poland do to discipline flippant children? [16]

The thought police deleted this on the other thread, so I'll add it back here, where it belongs:

Things took a serious turn for the worse when they outlawed corporal punishment in school. Back in the day, kids behaved because they knew that if they didn't, they could expect a sound thrashing in the principal's office, and another one from Dad when they got home. Discipline was enforced so that proper education could proceed unhindered. There were, and still are, children who cannot learn how to behave without the use of physical discipline.

Nowadays, do-gooder "children's rights" organizations go ape$hit if a teacher even looks at a pupil the wrong way, and any physical contact is prosecuted as "assault".

The four best teachers in human history are Pain, Shame, Fear and Guilt. Unfortunately, they have been banned from our schools, which is why we are losing our place in the sun to the Chinese, where teachers can punish unruly children properly.

Knowledge enters a kids brain through various channels. For some kids, it's the eyes. For others, the ears. But there will always be a good percentage of children for whom it is the bottom. Let teachers use all the tools at their disposal, so Western civilization can regain its greatness.

Work / Possibility of jobs in Warsaw - how much pay per hour? [12]


A lot of people live on a lot less, and would envy anyone who was lucky enough to get a full-time job at minimum wage.

Work / Can I find a job in Poland that requires speaking in English? [82]


Agree with Harry. Chances of you finding ANY job in Poland are zero. No one is going to go through the hassle of getting a work permit to hire you. Forget about it.

Go back to school and get a degree in engineering or other field that requires lots of advanced applied mathematics.

Study / Easy to find a part time job in Poznan? - applying for the University of Poznan of Economics [30]


Basically, no. There is little or no chance that any employer will go through the trouble of getting a work permit to hire you. If you need a job to fund your studies, don't come to Poland. You can make your plans on the very safe assumption that you will never be able to earn a penny in Poland during your studies.

Life / Move to Poland or UK? (Advice needed) [51]


A couple of problems here. The call center job will pay at most 400 Euro a month, 500 if you are exceeding lucky. Without specialist knowledge of IT, it will almost certainly involve cold-call sales or low level collections, neither of which will enable you to bring in a significant amount of money on commission.

That will enable you to live like a monk at best. Forget about savings. And, as Monitor pointed out, there is little in the way of job security.


Next, learning Polish to the point that you would be able to operate on the Polish job market will take you several years. Probably closer to five or six if you are working full time in a call center.


Yep, that's right. Even after learning Polish and work in a call center for 5 or 6 years, you will end up with little salable skills or experience that you can sell on the Polish job market. There are many people with higher degrees stocking shelves at Tesco in Poland, and even working lousy jobs in call centers.


Yes, you really screwed up, but fortunately you can still repair the damage and eventually gain the qualifications to pursue a decent career path.


It's going to be A LOT easier for you to repair the damage in Sweden than in Poland. I would strongly advise you not to come to Poland without a university degree that means something on the Polish job market (and business administration is not very useful at all).

Also, if you don't want to pursue the college route, you could back and get an education in a trade like electrician, plumber or mechanic. Not very useful on the Polish job market, but can enable you to make a rather good living if you are willing to work on offshore oil rigs in Norway or Sweden. Talk to a career counselor.

Sorry, but I find your plan of moving to Poland in the near future unrealistic and unworkable. Even under the best of circumstances, you will miss out on the chance of pursuing a decent-paying career, and you will end up just as old if you spend the next six or seven years in Sweden, but without a degree, trade or anything worth much on any job market anywhere, Poland, Sweden or elsewhere.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]


Missed a letter. It would be Krzywieńkie in Polish. For such a tiny village (500 people) it has quite a write up on the Ukrainian Wikipedia:

uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%B2%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%8C%D0%BA%D0%B5

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]


Basically, it means "the son of the little yellow guy". Not a common name. Probably everyone with that name is related to you one way or another. Most common around Sanok in southeastern Poland. See:

moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/%25C5%25BC%25C3%25B3%25C5%2582kiewicz.html

May have originated slightly to the east in what is now the Ukraine. Perhaps connected with the place called Żółkiew in Polish, now Zhovkva in Ukrainian, about 60 miles east of Sanok. See:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhovkva

But that is far from certain.

Work / Is it going to be hard for me to find a part time Job in Warsaw? [25]


If you're not a native speaker of English, then no, it would be a complete waste. There are plenty enough non-native English teachers in Poland that there would be no need to hire any from outside of the EU.


Outside of IT, precious little that does not require serious high-level qualifications and abundant experience. In short, after reading your posts, I see nothing you can offer either now or in the next few years that would be in demand on the Polish job market. Your time would be better spent exploring opportunities elsewhere, because Poland is not the place for you.

Life / My experience in Poland 15 years ago as an American trying to live and work there. [167]


That means you don't or won't have too much to offer that is particularly attractive on the Polish job market. You will have great difficulty finding any job that pays anything decent. The undergraduate degree is not much in demand, and neither is the MBA without solid long-term proven experience, and you are far from that stage. At best, you might get hired as a management trainee that will bring in $12,000 gross a year or so, $15,000 at the very most. It would be hardly worth your while to accept such a position at this stage in your career.


If you are a Polish citizen, that helps a lot, but will not likely bring in much in terms of additional income, even with the languages. Maybe a extra 1000 PLN a month in the best of circumstances.


Talk to your uncle, this is really your only option of finding decent work in Poland.


Doesn't help much, anyway. You're far to green to qualify for a transfer unless there is a desperate need for a Polish speaker inside Poland. Not very likely. Transfers are usually granted to employees with high-level management or administrative experience, or highly qualified technical specialists.


Yes, wages in Poland are low, and teaching is not a viable option for you as you would be unlikely to break even the first year without abundant help from your family in Poland.


First part, good. Second part, fuggedabowdit. You will struggle to live a spartan existence.


Dream on. You would be lucky to make a quarter of that, and even with the somewhat lower cost of living, it still won't be very satisfying. As a management trainee, you would be lucky to make half that even in the States. Basically, you're only one step or two above the office pencil sharpener.


Did it for twelve years myself, but I was extremely highly qualified and experienced and I did it as semi-retirement.


Huge cut, by a factor of ten. I didn't go to Poland with the intention or need of earning good money, though.


Directly from the employer.


Forget about it. You are far too low on the totem pole to qualify.

Sorry, but Poland is definitely not the place to further your career. Even any experience you gain there at your level is unlikely to enhance your CV much. Furthermore, you have no useful qualifications or experience and you have unrealistic expectations that lie too far away from reality to make you a promising candidate for the expat life.

My advice would be to work in the States or elsewhere in the West. The job market is much more open to inexperienced recent grads, the wages are much higher, unemployment is lower, opportunities for advancement are more abundant, and lifetime earnings and savings potential are much, much higher.

Study / Study nursing in Poland, move to Uk? [13]


My advice would be to get your certification as a nurse anesthetist . Your income would be more than double, even triple, that of a generalist nurse. Unfortunately, the only real shortage of foreign generalist nurses is in elder care, which is generally poorly paid and emotionally draining. Also, you would be competing with hordes of poorly trained nurses from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh who drive down wages for generalist nurses.

My advice would also be to get your education in Canada or the States. It may actually turn out to be cheaper than getting it in Poland, where there are no scholarships or loans available, practically no chance of finding part-time work to fund your studies, and internships are almost always unpaid or extremely low paid. Also, practical courses in Poland are nowhere near the quality you will find in Canada or the States. This will greatly affect the rate at which you will advance in your career. Your degree will probably be better received in the UK than one from Poland.

If you do do general nursing, spend a couple of extra years getting a masters in health care administration and management, as well as a year of training in cardiac or urgent care. That will significant increase your starting salary, and open up doors to advancement that are tightly shut to generalist nurses.

Sorry to break the bad news, but generalist nursing is a lousy career choice, financially and emotionally. The interesting and rewarding nursing jobs with abundant opportunities for advancement require specialization, and, nowadays, at least a masters.

Another thing: don't get a generalist nursing degree on the assumption that you will work a couple of years and then go back to school for a specialty. It usually doesn't work out. Go for the gold from the beginning, and you will greatly increase your lifetime earnings and savings potential. Short-term pain means long-term gain.

Explore inexpensive nursing programs in Canada and the States. Also explore scholarships. Talk to qualified nursing career advisors at several schools. Like I said, it may well turn out that studying in the US or Canada works out to be cheaper than studying in Poland.

Best of luck!

Work / Part time work / Web Developer job in Poland [7]


Chances are very remote that anyone is going to go through the hassle and expense of applying for a work permit for a short-term or part time temporary PHP developer. Even full time permanent, you would have little chance of finding work in Poland unless you are extraordinarily qualified and experienced. There is no demand for PHP developers in Poland that local supply cannot fulfill.

Work / Teaching English in Poland? I am American and I have the CELTA certification. [42]


At 19, this kid still has the choice between a highly paid, highly respected and highly rewarding STEM career, or endless years of flipping burgers or serving lattes for barely enough to afford to live in his folks' basement or garage.

As for a gap year, go for it: but use it to brush up on your math, physics, chemistry and biology. Don't fritter it away.

Work / Teaching English in Poland? I am American and I have the CELTA certification. [42]


Your options are drastically reduced by your age and the fact that you don't have a degree, especially in Warsaw. At 19, you are still considered a child in Poland, and nobody is going to give you serious work that pays more than peanuts, if that.

Your best bet is to stay in the States, get a decent education in a math-heavy field like petroleum engineering or actuarial sciences, get a few years of good experience, and then you'll be able to go wherever you want and earn more than ten times what the best paid English teachers in Poland make. Don't be a fool. Stay in school (and do math, math and more math). Every minute of math you do now will save you heaps of misery and poverty down the road.