Law / Hiring a Polish Worker - Pros and Cons [107]

The world has suddenly become very small. Fifty years ago or so, hardly a few Poles were ever allowed to go abroad. The "iron curtain" remained perfectly closed and a couple of generations of Poles have never been able to set their foot outside the country.

The times have changed. A steady flow of Polish hopefuls on their way to the West are looking for a job and an income that is higher than what they are being offered in their homeland. Add to that that the unemployment in Poland is soaring and reaching now 20% of the population and you get a predictable equation. The Poles are going West.

But, and there is always a but. Although formally the borders are open, in reality all of the EU countries, except Great Britain, do no accept foreign work seekers. Many try the US, which is another viable option, but it is not easy. The land of the free does not want free immigration of labor. They have enough problems as Is with the illegal migrants coming to the US searching for gold.

But, for the sake of argument, let's assume that you are an employer, be it in the UK or the US. There is a knock on your door. A man comes in talking to you in broken English. He or she is looking for a job. He explains that he is Polish. You ponder: Hiring a Polish worker, hmmm? What are the pros and cons?

The Pros

Although the Poles speak a language that sounds strange and funny in the ears of the Westerner, they are real Europeans. Poland, being situated in the Eastern Europe, but next to Germany, is in fact the most westernized country in the East. The country has had a queen from Italy, a king from Sweden, and France, been under German and Austrian rule, and has been catholic for a thousand years. Latin and later French had been the languages of choice of the Polish nobles, and the most famous Polish composer, Chopin, was actually French. What it means is that if you talk to a Pole or socialize with one you should not have a difficulty to understand their way of thinking. Basically the Poles adhere to the same basic values that are understood and respected in the West. Come on time to work, respect the boss, do what you are told - within a reason. Do a good job, try do climb the ladder.

Hey, Poles are not much different than the rest of us. Add to that, most Poles have a pretty good basic education and are willing to adjust to the life in the West and you'll get a hard to beat combination. True, they are not world champions when it comes to mastering English, but they are willing, and that counts.

After a while, you will have an employee, who not only has adjusted well, but who will be able, on most occasions, to understand what you are driving at. Add a few months and he will talk (and swear) like a native.

The Cons

The Poles have been too long under the rules of the Soviet Union and the working morale might need some improvement. The Poles are also very observant and inventive, thus, you need to have some control over what is going on. Given an opportunity, your new driver might take his whole family on a weekend trip in your limousine.

But these are just minor things and, as a boss, it is your duty to supervise your men, Poles or not. Remember, the Pole will do the job. The Poles know how to work hard and I have always been surprised that their hard work, taking into account the situation of the average Pole, does not pay better off.

In addition, I think Polish people prefer to have a foreign boss; it seems they respect him/her more than they would respect their "Polish boss".

And remember in these uncertain times you know where you have the Poles. A Pole you can rely on, after all we are on the same side.

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Contributed by Ted

Language / Polish Swear Words [1242]

Ah, swear words, what an underestimated subject. Considered rude, but, really, a true necessity of life. Don't leave your home without them.

When it comes to Polish translation, in certain contexts, the swear words (curse words) have their both prominent and well-deserved role to play. True, English is not completely toothless in this respect, but still there is no comparison. The Poles lead by far.

Sex related swear words are most useful and, thus, most common. Let's see, the so called four letter word, or to be explicit, "fuck" - no need to be prudish here - after all it is a linguistic exercise we are involved in corresponds rather well to its Polish counterpart, although, already from the beginning Polish has an advantage here - with a whole eight letter-word. There are certain similarities regarding the use of the word in both languages, a few examples:

To fuck - pierdolić

To fuck off - odpierdolić (się)

To fuck up - spierdolić

The Polish word, however, is much more flexible than its English counterpart and has many more uses, which can make it a bit hard to translate. There are so many verbs can be replaced by the "p"-word!

To beat up - napierdolić

To break - rozpierdolić

To run - spierdolić

To steal - podpierdolić

To throw away - wypierdolić

and so on...

The flexibility of the "p"-word makes me often wonder why they do not start teaching Polish starting with it. I promise you, it will take you far in some places. (I call the "p"-word a crutch word, since it is used to replace other words and, thus, belongs, in the first place, in an uneducated man's limited vocabulary).

The translation of the speech of a street lout could look something like that (the Polish version is left out, in order as not to hurt the sensitive readers' feelings (if they happen to read this):

"I fucked up. It was a fucking day. I had a fucking drink and then I was fucked. And then this fuck comes up"

- You get the drift.

Another "nice" Polish swear-word is "kurwa" literally a "whore", although in some contexts translated as a "bitch", or even as "shit", a very useful word indeed. As a matter of fact the above translation from Polish could use a few "kurwas" in the proper place to further strengthen the argument. Please, note that although the "k"-word is also a crutch word, it is often used instead of a "comma" in the speech, thus giving the speaker a chance to recover, before continuing the argument. Thus, the above utterance, to sound more like a Polish slang, should be liberally sprinkled with several "kurwa's in the right places. Here is a possible translation the way it could be spoken between the "real" Poles (a joke). In this context, though, I would not use the literal translation, since this would not convey its true meaning and beauty.

In this context I'd rather go for "shit" which in English can play similar role as a "comma" to the "k"-word.

"Shit, I fucked up. It was a fucking day. I had a fucking drink and then, shit, I was fucked. And then, shit, this fuck comes up"

And so on...

Of course, the "kurwa" words still can be used as a regular swear word describing the quality of the person in question. "Ty kurwo," meaning literally "you whore", works well, but I'd rather translated it as "you bitch", unless it has to do with the profession of the person concerned. It should be also taken into account that, as I understand, the use of 'whore' has been lately discontinued and replaced but a more respectable "sex-worker". Although, the new form is usable under respectable circumstances, I can't envision how you can swear at someone by calling them "sex-worker". Back to the drawing board.

A nice variation on the "k"-word is a "genealogical"-swearword: "skurwysyn", i.e. in the literal translation "the son of a whore", although translated frequently as "the son of a bitch", which comes close. It is yet another widely used Polish expletive that is a must in anyone's Polish vocabulary. Although, it does not have a direct correspondence in Queen's English, the American "mother-fucker" comes close and could be used in some contexts to translate it. But the Polish "s" word is much more flexible than that; it can denote someone we dislike, someone that played a nasty trick on us, even a person we admire - all depending on the context and the way to pronounce it (which is hard to convey in translation.) Please note that the incest word that is used to translate the Polish "skurwysyn" is more or less a taboo in Polish. Funnily enough the Russians, with their ubiquitous expression "job Tvoju mat", do not have anything against expletives involving incestual sexual relations, which only shows that, after all, the Poles and Russians do not have all that much in common (at least in this respect)".

The subject of swearwords is huge and thus a suitable subject for a number of doctoral dissertations, at least. I haven't even touched the surface: what about calling someone świnia - a "pig", which can mean many different things, besides denoting the proper animal, "diabeł" the devil (go to the devil, that translates as "go to Hell" is a frequently used swearword), cholera the name of the disease, i.e kolera, yet another crutch word, but also a way to abuse a person as well (similar in the function to the English "bastard") and many, many more. In this context let us not forget about the sexual organs that are frequently used in Polish and less frequently in English (I told you that the Poles are in the lead) to abuse the members of respective sex.

I won't go on here, since as an introduction to the intricacies of the Polish swear words, the above should give you a good idea about the subject. Time to run... (Please see the proper Polish translation for this expression above).

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Contributed by: Steven B, Australia 2005