History / Question about interwar Poland [13]


Yes, two thirds of the population lived on the land and farms were often too small to support their owners.

Life / Where do the wealthy class live in Warsaw? [32]


But there are a lot of 'new rich' and a certain vulgarity that you won't see in Podkowa Leśna. Konstancin-Jeziorna is not historically a single unit with a history; it's a mish-mash of bits combined into a 'new town' whereas Podkowa Leśna was designed as a garden city, like Hamsptead Garden Suburb in London (where I lived for a time) which predates it by about twenty years and was also a kind of social experiment. Like HGS, the original design of PL was for all gardens to be open and free from fencing or walls, which many of the residents still prefer.

Life / Where do the wealthy class live in Warsaw? [32]

There isn't really a 'wealthy' district in Warsaw. There is a social mix in virtually every part of the city. Most of the more affluent people live on the west side of the river but the Saska Kępa district on the east bank has a few embassies and some lovely pre-war villas. It used to be an artist's colony before the war. Picasso visited there during his brief trip to Poland. On the west bank the 'best' districts are Żoliborz (Kaczynski lives there), Mokotów and maybe Ochota - but even these are very much a mixed bag with big swathes of social housing, horrendous noisy traffic etc.

On the outskirts of Warsaw, Podkowa Leśna (not part of Warsaw) is officially a 'rich' neighbourhood with not one tower block but has its hidden poor living in old crumbling villas taken over by the state during communist times.

History / Question about interwar Poland [13]

That would depend on what region of Poland they were living in, whether they lived in a town/city or the countryside and what social class they belonged to. It's a good question and a very interesting subject for a dissertation. I don't know of many books on the subject. I think you'd have to read quite a lot of different material from different sources and draw a few conclusions from them. This is a good site with different articles about all things Polish. You have to search for inter-war stuff though:

culture.pl/en/article/the-hussies-gentlemen-of-interwar-poland

culture.pl/en/article/polish-tangos-the-unique-interwar-soundtrack-to-polands-independence

culture.pl/en/article/the-rise-and-fall-of-polish-song

culture.pl/en/article/polish-cinema-interwar-period-film

If you know Polish and you can get hold of any old magazines it would be useful. Articles and ads can give you an insight into life at the time for the middle classes.

A book I've read is 'Polska Przedwojenna, Pre-war Poland' published by Bosz. I got it in a museum but you can buy it online. It has the Polish text on one side of the page and the English translation on the other. It's really more of a photographic record but there is quite a bit of information there and it does tackle 'ordinary' things like shopping, sports, leisure time etc.

gandalf.com.pl/b/polska-przedwojenna-pre-war-poland/

One thing I can tell you is that the largest single retail space in Poland in those years was the Hala Mirowska, an indoor/outdoor market in Warsaw which is still in business today. If you visited it and saw how small it is I think you'd be surprised.

Study / Can Szkoły policealne certificate be a substitute for B1 language certificate [10]


Yes.

migrant.poznan.uw.gov.pl/en/slownik-pojec/confirmation-knowledge-polish-language

Btw 'diplomat' is an English word and it's a person, not a thing :) A diplomat works for the government in foreign affairs/international relations. The employees of an embassy or consulate work in the diplomatic service.

The Polish word is 'dyplom' meaning diploma.

Study / Can Szkoły policealne certificate be a substitute for B1 language certificate [10]


Yes that's often the case with private colleges in Poland. All they care about is the fees and the standards are woeful. In the szkoły policealne the tutition is free so there isn't any incentive to fill the classes up with foreigners.


Yes they do :) and the standards are pretty high.


When the 'Leaving Certificate' exams are marked the candidates are only identified by a number. The person marking the exam doesn't know the nationality of the student.

To pass the traditional/regular Leaving Cert, the minimum requirement is to pass six subjects at Ordinary Level (for the less academic) or Higher Level (more demanding standards). You need higher level subjects to go to university. But there are two other versions of the Leaving for those who are non-academic, the Applied Leaving Cert and the Vocational Leaving Cert. Therefore when a student from Ireland tells you they have the Leaving Cert, they might have a very basic pass at the lowest academic level or they could have grade A in ten subjects at the highest level. The student who can hardly write in English may have done one of the less academic options and barely scraped a pass in that. Did they actually do the Leaving at all?


That's a really good resource especially as you can use the sub-titles function. I find it helpful to be able to read what the person is saying at the same time as hearing it. And of course if you're a complete beginner you can even slow down the speed a bit to hear the pronunciation more clearly.

Study / Can Szkoły policealne certificate be a substitute for B1 language certificate [10]


You mean to train in a profession through the Polish language? That would require a good standard of Polish language skills. You would need to speak, read and write Polish reasonably well before starting your studies.


Yes they do offer such courses. Why don't you look at their website? But studying a course such as makeup artist would definitely not be easier than doing your B1 certificate. There is simply no 'easy' way to learn Polish. But doing some kind of 'casual' evening class that doesn't require the pressure of exams or obtaining qualifications is a good idea for practising your Polish.

Travel / Krakow Christmas market 2021 [2]

This is the organizer's website. No updates about whether it's going ahead. Probably a bit too soon to say.

kiermasze.com.pl/o-firmie

Food / Best Polish vegetarian food and other general queries [21]


That's true, I should have mentioned that. I suppose it depends on how strictly vegetarian one is. If you're vegan it would be a complete 'no, no' of course. It's possible to make those soups using a vegetable stock and nowadays Polish recipes usually give that option but the restaurant probably just uses whatever is cheapest or what they have to hand on any given day.


Oh God, yes! That's true too. But if you order vegetarian pierogi, they sometimes serve the bacon bits and onion on a side plate.


There are quite a few vegetarian restaurants in Warsaw and of course there's always things like Chinese or Indian which will have more vegetarian dishes.

Food / Best Polish vegetarian food and other general queries [21]


Vegetables are very much a side dish in Polish cuisine but as a main course you could have pierogi stuffed with mushrooms and cabbage. There are a few different kinds of dumpling that don't contain meat but the range of fillings is pretty limited. There are also some soups like barszcz czerwony, a beetroot soup and mushroom soup. Then are a few potato dishes like krokiety (potato croquettes basically) but once again, the filling in them tends to consist of cabbage and mushroom.


Just ask for the food 'bez mięsa' - that's pronounced 'bez mee-eng-sa'.


If there is I've never noticed it :)

Real Estate / Buying property in Poland [41]

When you decide to buy a property in Poland, you pay a deposit and you agree the amount of that deposit with the owner. It can be as little as ten percent, which is actually quite usual. Fifty per cent is a bit much and I certainly wouldn't pay that much myself. The reason some sellers want a big deposit is because they are worried you might pull out of the sale and they think that if you agree a large deposit, you are more likely to complete the sale. It's quite normal for the deposit to be paid directly to the owner but you can ask to have the deposit held in an escrow account through a lawyer or notary. The important thing is that the terms on which you pay the money and anything else you agree is clearly stated in the preliminary contract and that the contract is drawn up by a notary or solicitor.

There are two types of deposit contract, 'zaliczka' and 'zadatek'.

With zaliczka, either of you can pull out of the sale at any time before completion and you'll get your deposit back. With zadatek, if you pull out you lose your deposit and if the seller pulls out, he will have to compensate you with double your original deposit.

As for six months to complete sale, about two to three months is more usual and I would want to know the reason for such a long delay.

To sum up, there's nothing illegal in what the seller is requesting but it's far from ideal. I would say that you should consult a Polish lawyer as you seem a bit unsure of what you're doing and it's a lot of money to risk.

Finally, if you're not Polish, you need to have a 'sworn translator ' to look over all documents and be present at any legal transactions. Even if you speak Polish, if you're not actually Polish, you must have this.

News / The ruling party in Poland tries to take American owned TV news station off the air [528]


Yep - i've noticted how much my shopping bill has gone up. It's astonishing. I noticed it first within a few weeks of the pandemic starting. Some items have increased 25% including fresh local produce.

Real Estate / Buying property in Poland [41]

Depends on where in Poland you want to buy and how many square metres you want, house or flat/apartment, town, city or rural. Just like anywhere else in Europe, it varies. Warsaw is the most expensive city, then Gdansk, Krakow, Wrocław. Poland is divided into several regions and each has its own charms and socio-economic profile. If you don't need or want a city property then you can get good value for money in a house in the Dolnośląskie (Lower Silesia) region or east Poland in the Ukrainian or Belarussian border areas.

Average asking prices in Warsaw for an apartment are 10,000zl per square metre (that's about 2,500 dollars) and the other big cities/centres of employment are similar these days. There are some ridiculously expensive developments in Warsaw with prices up to 30,000 per square metre but ignore those. Mr Average Local pays between 8 and 10,000 per square metre.

If you want a house anywhere in Poland that's modern and habitable, then you can get something for 300,000 zl but that would be in the countryside or a small town and it wouldn't be very big, about 100 square metres.

The above is just a rough guide.

Here is a link to a property website so you can get an idea of prices:

morizon.pl/

If you don't mowi po polsku :) use Google Chrome for your browser and you can translate the site into English or you can just cut and paste into Google Translate. Mieszkanie is apartment/flat and Dom is house. You want the 'sprzedaż' category, for sale.

Law / Car Insurance in Poland for only 2-3 months [4]

@ Scallywag, I assume somebody is letting you use their Polish reg car while you're in Poland? In Poland, it's the car that's insured, not the driver so anyone can drive a car that is insured and your age doesn't matter. .

To be honest if you're only 18 and recently passed your test you are literally risking your life if you drive on Polish roads. Ireland has the safest roads in the EU after the UK, Poland the most dangerous. People drive like lunatics here, they drive at excessive speed, they drive drunk ...... and they drive on the other side of the road compared to Ireland which an inexperienced driver would struggle with.

You have to realise that what we'd classify as joyriding in Ireland, by a bunch of skangers who've nicked a car, is pretty normal driving in Poland. It's better than it was ten or twenty years ago but it's still madness compared to Ireland.

@Roibeard, how are you finding driving in Poland compared to the UK? Hope things are going well for you btw :)

News / The ruling party in Poland tries to take American owned TV news station off the air [528]


How right you are.


And yet .................in a statement on Thursday, Discovery said it had notified the Polish government of its intent to take legal action under the 1994 USA/Poland bilateral investment treaty.

Po polsku / Targowisko - Bazar - Handel [36]

To warto spróbować przez rok lub dwa, ale jest mądry mieć plan, cele finansowe i 'plan b', jeśli nie powiedzie się.

News / The ruling party in Poland tries to take American owned TV news station off the air [528]


Not according to your own statement in post number 229. If PO wanted to abolish this, that and the other and PIS wants to abolish this, that and the other, then they're all nut jobs and Poland is far from being a healthy democracy. Seriously though, Poland is only a fledgling democracy, not a firmly established one. That's why it's a bit of a mess. Coming from a country that is a true democracy, I was astonished when I first came to Poland back in 2006 at the puerile level of political debate and the ignorance and apathy of the electorate. It has improved a bit but it has a long, long way to go.

Po polsku / Targowisko - Bazar - Handel [36]

Po pierwsze, przepraszam za mój polski - jeszcze nie umiem mówić poprawnie!


Tak, to jest najważniejsze. Znajduje się wiele dawnych sklepów na Wiatraczna - a nawet dla nich, często to dużo pracy za bardzo małe pieniądze.


Ale on musi zapłacić zus, prawda? Dla pierwsze dwa lata jest specjalna niższa stawka dla nowych firm, ale na końcu on musi zapłacić pełną stawkę, około 2500 zł za miesiąc :(

News / Polish universities for Polish students (only?) [47]


Define a deserving Polish student .......... the entry requirements for undergraduate degrees in Poland are not very high. The Matura exam isn't especially demanding and the course content of a lot of degrees is fairly shallow. Cheating is still rife and a blind eye is turned to it by the authorities. Many Polish students are part time and the universities are not bothered about their academic standards, only about the fees they pay.

UK, Ireland / Polish drink-driving murderer sentenced to 5.5 years in prison [99]

He should be charged with manslaughter. It should really be murder because when you drive at that speed there is a pre-meditated and deliberate disregard for human life, but it might be hard to get a conviction, so if I were the public prosecutor I would go for the manslaughter charge. I see he's pleading not guilty to the two minor charges he's facing. What a disgusting, dishonourable coward.

Polonia / Which country is better SPAIN or POLAND [113]



The Scotland/England relationship is complex. Despite being separate and distinct countries, there is a connection to England going back centuries due to the intermarriage of the Stuart and Tudor royal houses. The Stuart line were monarchs not only of Scotland but of England too for over a hundred years and spent quite a long time after that trying to retrieve the English throne.

Please keep to the topic, two pages of off topic have already been cleared from this thread

UK, Ireland / Polish drink-driving murderer sentenced to 5.5 years in prison [99]


I don't think many ordinary people would have the slightest idea how to stop the bleeding from a severed leg. Some kind of tourniquet I suppose but Cargo said the poor guy's intestines were out of his body. I think most people simply would simply be too horrified to do anything much - except for those people who were taking pics of course who are beyond disgusting.


No, but you know what I mean. We were taught by the nuns that in the event of a person being near death and no priest available, you could say the Act of Contrition on their behalf. Of course the poor man will go to Heaven anyway but it's the gesture, you know, especially as he was probably a Catholic, this being a Catholic country.

UK, Ireland / Polish drink-driving murderer sentenced to 5.5 years in prison [99]


I just read it. It really just about sums up Poland for me, an utterly useless government obsessing about reparations from Germany while the country goes to rack and ruin. Don't want pregnant women to abort because they value life so highly but when it comes to protecting those already born from being mown down in the street, not so interested in that, are they. Of course, it's the fault of successive governments. PO have to take their share of the blame for not cracking down on this when they had a chance. Seventeen years in the EU and this is the standard of driving, policing and justice - disgraceful.

UK, Ireland / Polish drink-driving murderer sentenced to 5.5 years in prison [99]


In a company where my husband worked in Warsaw, there was one guy who regularly went 'road racing' at night in the city streets with his friends. They would go out at two or three in the morning and race each other - un-effing-believable. That's their hobby, grown men in their thirties with higher education and professions. It's a major social issue that needs to be addressed.

UK, Ireland / Polish drink-driving murderer sentenced to 5.5 years in prison [99]


I know, it's terrible. As a Catholic, I would wish to go to him and take his hand in his final moments but I don't think I'd have the courage. It's almost my duty to say a prayer over a dying person but with that kind of horrendous injury, I don't think I could do it. I hope I'm never put to that test. If it's any comfort Cargo, he would probably not have been aware of what had happened to him - poor man, Jesus. I don't know how those ambulance/emergency services people can deal with the terrible things they see.

UK, Ireland / Polish drink-driving murderer sentenced to 5.5 years in prison [99]


That's the crux of the issue. People are run over on pedestrian crossings in Poland all the time. It's outrageous. Poland has a disproportionately high number of fatal accidents involving pedestrians. You're not even safe on the pavement because drivers drive at such high speeds that they frequently lose control of vehicles and mount the footpath. I've seen it myself in central Warsaw, more than once over the years. It's simply shocking.

Traffic in the city centre or in any built up area should be driving at a safe speed that allows them time to stop. I know the accident occurred at night but it was a well-lit city street. I bet you'll find that if the Porsche had been doing 30 or 40km per hour and the driver was watching the road ahead, he would probably have had ample time to see someone crossing in the distance and slowed down to avoid him - and if he had hit him, he certainly wouldn't have killed him.

In Poland there doesn't seem to be any understanding of how to actually DRIVE a car - it seems to be a case of just getting into the vehicle, switch on the ignition and GO at the maximum speed without stopping till you reach your destination and that's it. No driving skills at all.

History / Life in communist Poland - personal relations [413]


No, some of them were quite small. More like the one below. Pawian is right, that's Jelcz.

• 
  xjelcz043ogorek_a.jpg
  

History / Life in communist Poland - personal relations [413]


I actually love it! It has a lot of character. I miss the old trams. I'm glad that when I first came to Poland I was just in time to see the last of a lot of things that had been part of everyday life under the old regime. It's great to see the prosperity and improvements now but whenever we gain something, we lose something too. Who remembers the old buses? The design looked as if it dated from the 1950s, possibly earlier. By the 2000s they were rusting badly, leaking, if you sat near the window on a rainy day you got rained on even when the window was closed! Huge pools of water everywhere, absolutely freezing in winter.

News / The ruling party in Poland tries to take American owned TV news station off the air [528]


Television ought not to be a state sponsored institution though. The nature of journalism is that it's supposed to be independent.

Study / Poland-Germany university transfer? [16]


Yes. If you complete a Bachelors anywhere in the world, you can apply to do a Masters in any EU country. As an overseas student and not an EU citizen it's simply a question of satisfying the immigration/visa requirements. Academically, there is no barrier.