Work / Are there any jobs for Americans in Poland? [46]


First of all, finding work is going to be difficult because you are not an EU citizen. Your employer will have to apply for work permission for you, which is a costly hassle for them. IF you had real solid qualifications in something that is really in demand, they might be inclined to go though the process. But face it, you really have nothing to offer that is not already in abundant supply on the Polish job market.

As for outsourcing or call center work, the only thing you have to offer is your English, and that is not worth very much anymore UNLESS you also have expertise in some IT field. Without that, you're probably going to get stuck doing cold-call sales or first-contact bill collecting, both lousy jobs that pay peanuts. Probably too little to be worth your while.

As for other jobs, without Polish you are severely crippled. There was a time when you could make a go of it as an English teacher, but those days are gone. Not very many schools would be willing to go through the hassle of applying for work permission for a non-EU citizen anymore unless they were something real special.

Frankly, I don't see your options expanding much once you get married. At least in Poland. It would be A LOT easier for both of you to make a go of it in the States than in Poland. Financially, a move to Poland would be very hard to justify. If you're serious about getting married and all, have him explore opportunities in the States rather than exploring opportunities for yourself in Poland. If you're not serious about marriage and all, then cut him loose so that you both can find more realistic partners.

Work / What are the chances of getting a part-time job for an Egyptian who's coming to study and live in Poland? [37]


Pretty much zero. If you are planning to finance your studies in Poland by working, forget about it. Make your plans on the very safe assumption that you won't be able to earn a single penny in Poland.


Not very good. Why would you want to work in Poland, anyway. Unemployment is high, wages are low, and quality of life is poor.


Poland is nothing at all like the UK and the US. Poland is poorer, like Egypt. You should have done your research before signing up for the MBA program. If this is the type of question you are asking, think again before coming to Poland and do your research. Otherwise, you will be in for a nasty surprise.

Work / What is a good monthly salary for an English teacher in Poland? [124]


Agree with Jon. Financially, it would hardly be worth moving to Poland for less than 4000 PLN a month net, guaranteed, 12 months a year. And to get that, you'd have to be pretty darn special. Not too many newbies are guaranteed that much.

Frankly, unless you have a real specialty and some serious experience, teaching English doesn't pay much in Poland these days. It's fine if you do it as an extended vacation with a view to learning more about the country and it's people, but it's a poor long-term career choice and not much of a career enhancer on your CV. If you're after real money or real relevant experience that you can sell to future employers, there are much better options. Teaching English in Poland would be putting your life, and your career, on hold for a year or two.


The time would be better spent getting a more salable degree and/or real solid salable vocational qualifications. Try engineering, especially petroleum, geological or biomedical engineering, or advanced applied mathematics related to business/finance/economics.

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

"A few skills in different trades" doesn't sound like anything you would be able to sell on the Polish job market, especially without a command of the local language. That basically leaves one option: call centers. For non-specialists, call-center work is not pleasant or well paid. You will most likely do cold-call sales or low-level debt collection, lousy jobs that pay peanuts. Chances are you would make to little to survive on at any level of comfort.

Other options are not as promising. There is an off chance that you might find a language school that needs a Portuguese teacher (forget about English- you're not a native speaker). You also might find a well-off Portuguese businessman who needs someone to watch his kids.

Basically, there is little point for someone like you to look for work in a tight job market like Poland. Your time would be better spent looking for better paying jobs elsewhere. Not much point either in staying in Poland if you are not going to be able to find a job that pays the bills and allows you to save up. I wouldn't settle in, and start looking for greener pastures.

Genealogy / Polish Romani (gypsy) surnames [64]


About 50 people of that name in Poland, highly concentrated in Pabianice, not far from £ask. Pabianice does indeed have a significant gypsy community. So it's possible.

Genealogy / Was my moms family (Kowalsky) Russian or Polish? [35]

And what is that supposed to do? Certainly not distinguish between Polish and Russian. Perhaps confirm Jewish ancestry. And what difference would that make either way?

Genealogy / Was my moms family (Kowalsky) Russian or Polish? [35]


"Ethnicity" is totally irrelevant in his case. His ties to any ethnic group have been irrevocably severed, as I said, and ethnicity requires continuity. He has no "ethnicity". He will never be "Polish" or "Russian" in any sense of the word. He's an American, and that's it. Like many, many other Americans. Actually, I'd be willing to bet that his ancestors were Jewish, rather than Polish or Russian or anything else. Riga and Minsk?

Genealogy / Was my moms family (Kowalsky) Russian or Polish? [35]



Spot on. If you have to ask, that means that any possible cultural ties that once existed have been irrevocably severed, and the question is totally irrelevant. What difference could it possibly make anyway?

Study / Private Universities vs Public Universities in Poland [31]

If you want to study in English, go to an English speaking country. Within a year, your Polish will be good enough to study in Polish in Warsaw, which is what I suggest you do if you decide to study in Poland. Otherwise, apply to schools like LSE, Imperial College, UCL or any of the better schools in London.I have a student that I mentored who is studying financial mathematics at LSE, and he LOVES it. Another student of mine will be starting applied mathematics with international relations and global politics at Birkbeck this fall.

As for Bochum, it is a pretty good university, though it has slipped somewhat in the rankings over the past couple of years. It's about the same level as the better Polish universities. Bochum is, delicately speaking, not a beautiful city, and the university was specially built to be ugly as all hell. I was there 30 years ago, and have to say that it was jaw-droppingly ugly. Downright atrocious. It's very huge, very gray, very cold and ugly beyond what words can express. Granted, things may have changed since then, but judging from comments on the web, not by much:

"Stay away from Bochum. It's one of the ugliest universities on the planet. Appropriately, it also has a remarkable suicide rate among its students."

"BOCHUM IST NUR HALB SO GROSS WIE DER ZENTRALFRIEDHOF VON CHICAGO, DAFUER ABER DOPPELT SO TOT!" (Bochum is only half the size of the Central Cemetery in Chicago, but it's twice as dead)

'Bochum has a reputation of being Germany's ugliest and most unpopular
university. unless you like concrete."

"I studied in Bochum and I don't really recommend the RUB.
First of all there's not much of a student life in the city itself though it certainly got a fair amount of pubs. A lot of students do not live in Bochum but go there by car or train so campus life is rather low.

Second, as far as I know the lessons and lectures are poorly arranged, seemingly it got quite chaotic since I left (which was in 2005).
And during my time it's been famed as Germany's ugliest university".

Econometrics would be a great major, though I don't know about the reputation of their English language program. In any case, I would expect better partnership with the banking and finance industries in Germany than in Poland, and better opportunities for finding work after graduation.

Whatever you do, make sure you take the full advanced math sequence: calculus (single and multivarible), linear algebra, differential equations, formal logic, probability and statistics, game theory, chaos theory and as many advanced applied courses as you can get, with plenty of modeling and programming. Develop your math as much as you possibly can now, while you are still young, because it will soon get a lot harder. You can learn economics easily at 35, or even 50, but your ability to learn math will start to fall sharply by the time you are 30. So make hay while the sun shines, and good luck!

Study / Private Universities vs Public Universities in Poland [31]

I would say the quantitative finance option is the better choice, although both programs are very good, as are both schools. Generally, the more math, the better.

As for reading, can't help you with Kindle, but you can download a lot of Polish science fiction and fantasy in both pdf and audiobook format from chomikuj.pl, torrentz.com and emule, and I'm sure there are even more up to date sources. Chomikuj.pl especially is a resource you should be familiar with. It has become the universal university library in Poland, and you'll be able to get all of your textbooks there, and a lot more, for a very small nominal fee. I'm not a Kindle user, so I don't know whether they have Kindle files. pdf's of everything under the sun, yes.

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



Another possibility is Ksiądz, which means "priest".

Study / Private Universities vs Public Universities in Poland [31]


Finance alone is probably not going to be useful unless you study at one of the top three universities in Poland: SGH, Warsaw and Kraków. Financial engineering, financial math, actuarial math and econometrics will open more doors, though, in Poland and elsewhere.

Other majors to consider are engineering, especially petroleum, geological and biomedical engineering. SGH in Kraków is an outstanding engineering school for the first two. The politechniki in Warsaw, Kraków, Gliwice and Katowice are very good, too. Coupled with your undergraduate degree in Finance, a good engineering degree can open a lot of doors.

Beware of programs taught in English; they are generally inferior to those taught in Polish. It may well be worth taking a year off to brush up on your math, and intensively learn Polish by reading and looking up all the words you don't know in the dictionary. If you read 350 pages of contemporary fiction a week for a year, as a Ukrainian, you should be near native competency, at least as far as reading is concerned.

Science fiction and fantasy are the best thing to read because of the extensive vocabulary you will meet. Specialist, technical and academic literature use a very small vocabulary and limited grammatical range, as does journalism.

While Polish literature is not particularly interesting as a whole, Polish science fiction and fantasy are rather good indeed. Besides classics like Stanisław Lem, there are a whole host of very interesting science fiction and fantasy writers, including Andrzej Sapkowski, Andrzej Pilipiuk, Andrzej Ziemiański, Jakub Ćwiek, Jacek Dukaj, Marcin Wolski, Jarosław Grzędowicz, Eugeniusz Dębski, Marek S. Huberath, £ukasz Orbitowski, Maja Lidia Kossakowska and many others. Basically, anything by any of the authors on the following list is worth reading:

pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagroda_im._Janusza_A._Zajdla

A year taken off for very intensive reading and math will help enormously in your studies in Poland, and will probably pay off in the end.

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

It would be "Trudniak", and comes from the word "trudny", which means "difficult", from "trud", which means "difficulty, hardship or problem". So a person who either is beset by difficulties or is difficult to get along with. What your cousin told you was nonsense.

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

It's derived from a place name, either Kołaczkowo or Kołaczków. There are three places named Kołaczkowo in Poland, and two named Kołaczków, so which one is the origin of your name will require some research. The best bet is this one: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ko%C5%82aczkowo,_Gniezno_County

As for the place name, it derives from kołacz, a type of cake, which in turn derives from koło, which means wheel or circle. The cake was originally round in shape, hence the name.

Life / Pączki Day--do Dunkin Donuts or Krispy Kreme count? [39]


Lent was the time to repent for your sins and do penance, and to mortify yourself (make yourself "dead" to the world) by sacrificing the things you like and exposing yourself to things you don't like. Self-flagellation and kneeling in the snow in front of the church or in an open grave for days on end were not uncommon practices. Mirrors were considered a sign of vanity and pride, which are two of the seven deadly sins, as well as a "graven image" of sorts. Like I said, even statues, pictures and crosses in church were covered up or removed.

They were commemorating Jesus's forty-day-long fast in the desert.

Life / Pączki Day--do Dunkin Donuts or Krispy Kreme count? [39]


That's only currently. In times past, Catholics were forbidden to eat meat, foul, fat, eggs and dairy products, not only for Lent, but for advent as well. At one time, it was forbidden to eat anything at all between sunrise and sunset (like the Moslem Rammadan fast). The doughnuts/pancakes are about using up all the fat and eggs before the fast, Easter eggs and ham are about being allowed to eat them for the first time in seven weeks, and the St. Martin's day Goose was the last time you could eat meat before Christmas day. Plus no singing, dancing, entertainment of any sort, colorful clothes, musical instruments and just about any kind of fun was allowed during this period, which is why carnevals like Mardis Gras, and in Poznań, St. Martin's Day, were such big deals. Even statues, pictures and mirrors had to be put away or covered with dark cloth, even at home. Bells could not be rung. In church, a wooden clapper was used instead of communion bells during Lent.

Overtime, the rules got laxer and laxer.

Life / Pączki Day--do Dunkin Donuts or Krispy Kreme count? [39]


No, it's not. It is the Thursday before Ash Wednesday, and can fall in January, February or March, depending on the date of Easter.

Genealogy / Displaced Persons Camp / Work camp and concentration camp difference [86]

It's Dybków, in Sieniawa township, in southeastern Poland near the Ukrainian border. Wikipedia has an article about it, which is amazing as the population is only 37.

Law / Move to Poland with Misdemeanors? [10]


Almost certainly not the best option available to you. The job market is fiercely competitive, and wages are depressingly low. The only way this would work out is if you would get a job with a Western company in your own country and then get transferred to Poland at Western wages, and that's an option only for project or regional managers, higher level administrators, and highly qualified and experienced specialists and consultants.

Otherwise, you are eventually going to become frustrated with the low wages, job insecurity, poor lifetime earning prospects, poor prospects for advancement, inability to obtain further education, inability to save up and, not least, social isolation. If anyone, including your wife, is trying to paint a rosy picture for job prospects for foreigners in Poland, be assured that is very far from rosy, especially for people at the start of their career, like you. There's a good reason why so many young Poles are leaving the country to work abroad.

Sorry, but moving to Poland almost always making a big financial sacrifice. You might say that you are up to it, but after a year or two living in the country and experiencing the frustration day in and day out, you'll eventually burn out and get out. The "foreign-boy-moves-to-Poland-to-be-with-his-wife/girlfriend" story rarely has a happy ending. In the end, it all comes down to dollars and cents. And in the end, the only dollars and cents that count are the ones that you and your wife can put away in your savings account at the end of the month.

Food / The great British baked bean in Poland [26]

It's not an essential ingredient in "Pork-n-Beans", either, despite the name. There are also vegetarian versions in the States, too, and most Americans would refer to these as "Pork-n-Beans", too, even though they don't contain any pork at all. When sold in the States, the can usually contains a measly five-gram piece of hideous pork fat, whereas in the UK, it does not. Otherwise, they are identical.

Food / The great British baked bean in Poland [26]

British English "baked beans" = American English "Pork-n-beans". Yes, that's right. These guys are nostalgic for fricking measly Pork-n-beans from the can, not anything resembling Boston baked beans or any of the homemade American versions with tomatoes or barbecue sauce, or the Mexican version. Kind of odd, because they got it from America in the first place (it was sent over to serve as wartime rations for British soldiers and civilians). The Heinz they are talking about is, of course, the same company from Pittsburgh that produces ketchup.

But then, Filipinos consider Spam a delicacy, for the same reason. I think Hormel sells more Spam in the Philippines than in the US, just like Heinz sells more "baked beans" in the UK than in the US.

For our Brit friends, Pork-n-beans (and Spam) are considered poverty food in the States, and bring back unpleasant memories of the Great Depression, or of a deprived childhood in some God-awful white trash trailer park next to a NASCAR track somewhere down there in the Bible Belt. Not too many people feel nostalgic about them.

Our versions of baked beans, on the other hand, are generally homemade and much better than the canned version, and are considered an art form, particularly in the Northeastern and Southwestern parts of the county. Even in the Mid West and South, you'll be hard pressed to find a barbecue or church dinner to which someone doesn't bring homemade baked beans. People do get the warm fuzzies over these versions.

I've been living in Poland for twelve years now, and Mexican baked beans are a regular part of my diet. I make a huge pot almost every week. (Reminds me of my grad student days in San Diego). I make a pot of Boston baked beans about once a year, because molasses is a bear to find in this country. That's the version I grew up with.

Law / Laws on walking a dog in Polska [67]


Couldn't agree more. Your responsibility as a dog owner is to make absolutely sure it doesn't go anywhere near anyone else unless they specifically invite you to. Regardless of what you may think, a four-month-old lab puppy can inflict a lot of damage on a human, and even kill. Furthermore, it can inflict a lot of damage on the wildlife of the woodlands you selfishly chose to use as your dog's toilet and playground. The forester not only has a right, but a duty to exterminate the animal to protect the park.

EVERY civilized country has a leash law, including Poland. Unless your dog is on your own securely fenced-in property, your dog must be on a leash by law, and it is certainly not ever allowed to run free except in specially designated dog parks, which are few and far between in Poland.

An irresponsible and selfish jerk such as yourself has no business owning a dog. You invaded that woman's privacy. She has the right to use the park as intended without having to worry about being attacked by a dog or stepping in the dog $hit which, without a doubt, a selfish jerk like you doesn't bother to pick up.

You are 100% clearly in the wrong.

Life / Do Poles have a problem understanding American English? [76]


By "cleaness", I think Goku means articulation. American English is more articulated and makes far less use of liason than British English. That makes it easier to distinguish separate words and individual sounds. British English also uses more vowel sounds that do not occur in Polish, and which Polish ears are unable to distinguish. American English also uses a lot more open vowels, which are relatively easier for Poles to distinguish as there are no fully closed vowels in Polish.

For example, the words "cot" and "caught", when pronounced in British English, contain closed vowels that are not at all similar to any vowel sound in Polish, and Poles have a hard time hearing these vowels correctly, never mind pronouncing them correctly. When pronounced by most Americans, both words are practically the same as the Polish word "kat". It also helps that most Americans pronounce the "r" sound. For example, it would be difficult for a Pole to correctly tell if they heard "cart", "court", "cot" or "caught". They all blend into a big mess of unfamiliar and indistinguishable vowel sounds.

Yet another problem is that very few British people speak RP, the "official" version supposedly taught in Polish schools. Non-RP British accents can differ more from RP than American English does. I use to have a Geordie boss who had a language school in Poland, and the students often had a hard time getting used to his accent. Also had a colleague from Hull who even I had trouble following. It was difficult to map his vowels against my American ones.

Put it this way: if you try to write American English using Polish letters, you will have a lot fewer blanks and make much more accurate identifications than if you try to write British English.

Caveat: By American English I mean the standard Inland North accent known also as General American, and by British English I mean RP.

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

I'm an American who moved to Poland and worked several years as an English teacher to establish residency.

First of all, I came here twelve years ago, when the job market for American teachers was a lot more friendly than it is now. Since then, Poland has joined the European Union, which has made it a lot easier for British and Irish teachers to find jobs, but has made it more difficult for Americans to do so. Also, the economic crisis has greatly reduced overall spending on English lessons, so that students are harder to find now and wages are generally depressed. The flood of job seekers from the UK and Ireland also intensifies competition and drives down wages, particularly in popular destinations like Kraków, Wrocław and Warsaw.

The wages you can expect to earn as an English teacher in a school are not all that attractive, and even less so considering that you will be paid for only eight months of work, and receive nothing for the Christmas, winter, and summer vacation periods. You can expect to make about 24,000 PLN over the course of the year, which is about $8,000 US, $10,000 at the most. You are going to be slumming it, by US standards, even if you are very frugal and have no bad habits. Figuring in the cost of airfare and the fees for the residency permit, the best you can expect is to break even living a very frugal lifestyle.

To get a residence permit, you will need to land a REAL work contract (umowa o pracy). "Garbage" contracts will be of no use (umowa o dzieło and umowa zlecenia). There is no great incentive for an American coming to Poland to establish their own company unless they are born businessmen with long-term goals and plenty of savings to hold them over for at least five years or so.

Your law degree might help in landing a job, and might translate into a modest increase in wages, but don't count on it. The places where it is most likely to help is in Kraków, Wrocław and Warsaw, where the high cost of living would eat up whatever extra money you make. Actually, the law degree is likely to help only if you have long-term plans of settling in Poland and becoming a legal translator.

If any opportunities still exist for Americans to make a go of it at teaching, they exist outside of the popular destinations (Kraków, Wrocław, Warsaw, Poznań and Gdańsk/Gdynia/Sopot). Best try your luck in the less popular cities like £ódź, Katowice and environs, Rzeszów, Lublin and Białystok, or in smaller cities like Kielce or Augustów. There are a lot fewer English native speakers in places like these, and often schools are begging for teachers there. Whether those schools are willing to go through the incredible hassle and expense of hiring a non-EU teacher depends on their lack of success in finding an EU teacher.

Sorry, but there is little if any financial incentive for a US citizen to seek work as a teacher in Poland. The most you'll get out of it is a year of adventure and experience. At the wages your making, the adventure will be limited, and the experience you gain will probably be of little value in your future career.

All in all, you could spend the year far more productively in the States, either working or studying and building up your qualifications and experience. Coming to Poland would me putting your life on hold for a year just for a "fun" extended vacation. If that's what your after, give it a try. If your after earnings and future career development, forget about it. You could learn Polish just as well in Chicago.

Life / Could i find people in Poland by their phone number or address? [25]

It's a mobile phone. Send him an SMS. There's no way to find out the name of the owner of a mobile phone number in Poland.

Language / Diminutive name of Medard? [6]


Medzio. When she was addressing him, she used the vocative form "Medziu", which sounds like meh-jew in English.

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

Numerous possibilities. An abbreviation of a name based on kosa (scythe), koza (goat), kosz (basket), or on the name Kosmos (Cosmos, from Greek for "beauty"), or of a toponym like Kossowski, based on a place name like Kossów or Kossowa (several instances of both in Poland). Or it might well be derived from a German name. Lots of Polish names are.

Sorry, got the spelling of the name wrong: it's Kosma in Polish, Cosmas in English. It's a Saint's name.

Food / Polish Christmas Eve Dinner recipes [84]

That's a German custom for St. Martin's Day (Nov. 11), and it's not practiced widely in Poland except in and near Poznań. In Germany, the custom has now spread or been transferred to Christmas Day, as well. MAYBE some Polish families eat goose on Christmas day, but it is not by any means a widespread tradition, at least nowadays. Poles are not big goose eaters, by and large, and the overwhelming bulk of geese raised in Poland end up on the German market (87% in 2010), with the overwhelming bulk of the rest ending up in other western countries like Holland, Belgium, Denmark and the UK. The livers end up in France.

Travel / Poznan - the best time to visit? [6]

If Poznań is anything like Wrocław, there are precious few students in the city in July, August and September, as they all return to their hometowns. And in June, they're busy studying for exams. So the best time to come is late May or early June.

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


To about the same degree as Polish does to Japanese. They're not at all related.