News / Poland's Future in the EU under PIS [51]

Well it's better than getting money from American simpletons to buy guns :))

News / Poland's Future in the EU under PIS [51]

Northern Ireland gets special funding from the EU under something called the Peace Programme.

europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/en/sheet/102/northern-ireland-peace-programme

It really has done a lot to improve community relations within NI and to improve cross-border relations. The EU has pledged to continue this funding post-Brexit.

UK, Ireland / Why are Polish people, especially women, so disrespectful toward the English? [442]

Now join me in the chorus:

The sea, oh the sea
'Is gradh geal mo chroidhe'
Long may it roll between England and me
It's a sure guarantee that somehow we'll be free
Thank God we're surrounded by water!

We used to sing it on the bus on school trips - with the full approval of 'the nuns'. They loved the old rebel songs :))

UK, Ireland / Why are Polish people, especially women, so disrespectful toward the English? [442]

"The Scot have their whiskey
The Welsh have their speech
Their poets are paid about ten pence a week
Provided no hard words of England they speak
Oh Lord, what a price for devotion!"

(from The Sea Around Us, by Dominic Behan, brother of Brendan)

UK, Ireland / Commuting from Kraków to London? [9]


The Mods have linked your question to an old thread from 2015 but since then educational reforms have taken place which would have a direct impact on your child if you move to Poland. Basically the present government PIS undid a number of educational reforms that had been put in place after the end of Communism and have returned the system to the old form which existed under Communism. Here's a couple of articles that will get you up to speed:

ft.com/content/d2927cfe-e222-11e6-8405-9e5580d6e5fb

visegradrevue.eu/the-reform-of-polands-education-system-if-it-aint-broke-dont-fix-it/

Consider very carefully what you're doing in making a decsision, as an Englishman,to raise your family in Poland. Inform yourself about what's going on in Poland regarding politics because you'd be coming to a country that is not a long established democracy and there is no guarantee that they will even remain in the EU. They've had nothing but conflict with Brussels in the last three years.

Also consider that your wife may initially agree to live in Kraków but will probably ultimately want to move close to her family and your son's grandparents. You may well end up seeing your kid once a month because it's simply not practical to go backwards and forwards every weekend. Even if you can do the weekly commute, it'll be exhausting for you and you won't be a part of your child's life on a daily basis.

Work / Living in Poland with income from the US. [44]


That's because in the country where you lived they're for the elite, not for the average person.

You might be interested in seeing how much you would need to spend in Poland if you wanted to buy a new laptop for example:

mediamarkt.pl/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw-o_bBRCOARIsAM5NbIM3A-EooUzFIJvW6Im7MS8L9-k8aLdlYAXYZ0tpSNvSawSa0JB-_d4aAi-0EALw_wcB

Mediamarkt is a big outlet with your average, bog standard electrical goods so it's a good example of a place where Mr and Ms Average do their shopping.

Work / Living in Poland with income from the US. [44]

Hey there Buckeye. Here are some more listings for you:

gumtree.pl/s-mieszkania-i-domy-do-wynajecia/poznan/v1c9008l3200366p1

Bascially if you just google 'nieruchomosci' you'll get plenty of sites to explore.

Also if you take a look at the website 'numbeo' it's pretty accurate in terms of living costs. To sum it up, yes the two of you could live for 4,000zl a month. That would cover your rent, bills, public transport and food. But you want to get some enjoyment from life so allow yourself another 1,000 if you have it to spare so that you don't have to watch every penny all the time. That gets very depressing. Factor in extra for clothes, shoes, dental and medical expenses which are also necessities though obviously not monthly. Then budget for the occasional unexpected expense. For example your computer graphics card fails, or your speakers blow and need to be replaced. Add the odd treat on to that and total it all up divided by the 12 months of the year and you're looking at nearer to 6,000 per month.

You do need to understand though that Poland is in Europe, not South America and prices frequently reflect that. Many things cost as much as they do elsewhere in Europe and sometimes are even more expensive.

Work / Living in Poland with income from the US. [44]


Don't worry about small places, no problem there. Polish apartments are tiny compared to what you're used to in America. If you want to rent cheaply you'll be looking at a one room apartment of very modest proportions, under 300sq feet. Rents are comparatively high in Polish cities relative to salary. Take a look at what's on offer in Poznań:

domiporta.pl/mieszkanie/wynajme/wielkopolskie/poznan?PricePerMeter.To=1000

As you can see it's going to cost you minimum of around1,000zl per month for a small one room place and on top of that there will be a service charge, usually of 400-500 which covers cold water and rubbish, sometimes hot water and central heating are included, but not always. Sometimes the ads give the amount of the 'czynsz' and sometimes not but budget for 400-500 in addition to the stated rent. If you want to live in something where you can swing a cat (around 400-500 sq feet) you'll need to budget for up to 2,000 per month including czynsz. Then you have internet,electricity, possibly gas and possibly hot water and central heating so that will be another 300 or thereabouts.

Grocery shopping depends of course on what you like to eat but budget for at least 1200 a month for two adults and remember to factor in personal care products, cleaning products etc.

So that's around 3-4,000 for your basics.


Only if you like heavily polluted air in winter. Poland has 33 out of the 50 most polluted cities in Europe and sometimes smog levels in the towns you mention are on a par with Bejing. Warsaw is not nice. It's sprawling, traffic ridden and pretty ugly. The Stare Miasto is charming and parts of the city centre and a few nearby areas such as Mokotów have their appeal but it's not an attractive city by an means. However it definitely has plenty going on in arts, culture, sports, whatever you're in to.

Just come to Poland with realistic expectations and you'll be fine. It's not a Paradise by any means and there's an evergrowing number of 'hipsters' and upwardly mobile types who are a bit cringeworthy :)) Together with that you get the 'bumpkin' factor and there's still a lot of downright rudeness. But there are nice people too and lots of natural beauty to explore (when they're not busy polluting it and chopping down the ancient forests, do you know about Białowieża?).

I'm curious. You say your wife is an EU citizen. Does she not want to live in her own country?? Would it not make sense to settle there if you don't like America?

Life / Getting pretty tired of the postal service here in Poland [58]

Yup. There's still an awful lot of thieving in Poczta Polska. Basically unless you send things registered at either end it's a lottery and post to Ireland from Poland is not exactly cheap either if you want to send a parcel.

Work / Living in Poland with income from the US. [44]


The UK is still open to me even after Brexit because of the Common Travel Area between Britain and Ireland. We have a reciprocal aggreement where Irish (as in Republic of Ireland) and British citizens have the same rights in each other's countries including the right to permanent residence and voting in each other's elections etc. It's basically all the rights of citizenship without the passport. And our spouses have those rights too so if Mr Atch and I wanted to move to the UK after Brexit, there's no problem.


One big difference in everyday life between there and Poland is the language. English is an official language of Guyana with paperwork, official things etc all in English and that's not the case in Poland and although far more people speak a bit of English than ten years ago, they are by no means fluent. You will both need to learn some Polish.

Work / Living in Poland with income from the US. [44]


They haven't actually moved here yet. Yer man is just letting off steam, probably won't come to anything.

I never said the people are xenophobic either, where did you get from? Why do I live here? Well kochany mąż jest Polakiem as you know, and he wanted to give it a go here again so here we be! However I don't know if we'll stay here. We may well move back to Ireland at some point. There are things he loves about Poland and things he detests. Probably most people have a bit of a love/hate relationship with their homelands.

Work / Living in Poland with income from the US. [44]

It's not Poles but PIS who wants to leave the EU. I never said that FDI was collapsing. However investments currently being made in Poland have been in the pipeline for years. New ones may be jeopardized by the political direction Poland is taking. I also know that my złoty buys me fewer euros than it did and the subject of the falling złoty and it's decline against the dollar was the subject of an article in the FT recently. Look at the way the pound fell back in 2016 and sterling is a far stronger currency than the złoty - it hasn't recovered yet. Anybody with an ounce of common sense would realize that if Poland left the EU a period of instability would follow.

Work / Living in Poland with income from the US. [44]


Ale tak,na pewno mówię i bardzo ładnie so people tell me :)) but my grammar really is atrocious, nearly as bad as yours.


Well I'm always asked 'jak długo Pani tu mieszka'. It means to reside and is the usual usage, whereas żyć is more to do with 'living' in the sense of being alive or one's way of life, that kind of thing.


But you don't. And you said 'Nie mam czas.' with a full stop at the end. Wrong and that's that.

Work / Living in Poland with income from the US. [44]


I do actually speak Polish, at least I know it's mieszkam w Polsce a nie żyję w Polsce and 'nie mam czasu' not 'nie mam czas' - just to reference a couple of your little past errors :))

And everything you wrote can easily be argued with. Anyway, you don't live in Poland Adrian and that's a fact.

Work / Living in Poland with income from the US. [44]

Well Dirk, I speak as a European from Western Europe and I live in Poland. Your views are those of a Polish-American who doesn't live in Poland so we see things differently.

Work / Living in Poland with income from the US. [44]


Just remember that 'Europe' is made up of many different countries with distinct cultures and identities. The two countries you've shortlisted, Poland and Bulgaria are known as accession states which means that they've only recently joined the EU and become 'European' in the political sense of the word. They are new democracies and the vestiges of the old Soviet system still permeate much of the culture and mindset. Add to that, the fact that neither nation was very developed before the second world war and you will find that it's a very different experience to living in the USA and not always in a positive sense. As far as lower cost of living goes, you will pay western European prices for imported goods and things like computers, televisions etc.

The other thing to note is that under the present government, the chances of Poland leaving the EU are looming ever larger. If that happens the value of the złoty will tumble. It's already peforming less well against the dollar and euro and investors are beginning to get a bit nervous so be wary of acquiring too many assets in Poland. Come to Poland for two years (a year is not long enough), rent and see what you think of living there but don't make a permanent move.

Life / What's the immigration status in Poland? [12]


Well then do something constructive about it instead of whingeing about it on a Polish forum.

Work / New Job at Warsaw International School as an English teacher - Advice? What should I expect? [26]


Totally agree. You should always be as honest and straightforward with children as possible. The teacher doesn't need to tell the children that he/she speaks Polish unless they ask directly. In that case you just say 'Yes I do, but we have a rule here in the school that we only speak English' - simple as that. It actually improves your relationship with the children because they realize that you also have had to struggle with learning to communicate in an unfamiliar language. Empathy goes a lot further than lies :))

Work / New Job at Warsaw International School as an English teacher - Advice? What should I expect? [26]

Forgot to mention that another major difference in teaching children as opposed to adults in a business setting, is dealing with parents. Parents who are paying for a private education for their children generally have high expectations. If the child is bright the parents will expect them to be making visible progress and if they're less able, the parents may not want to accept that and may prefer to blame the teacher :) Even the nicest and most reasonable parents can get very anxious about their childrens' progress and need reassurance.

Parents can also approach you with complaints in the nature of 'little Timmy says he's bored' or 'little Timmy says he can't concentrate because little Jimmy is distracting him' and sometimes parents will bypass you completely and go straight to the school principal. Don't want to sound like a misery guts but just marking your card about some things you may not have thought of.

Also, if it's an international school your students won't all be Polish, remember that. You'll have a mix of cultures and nationalities to deal with.

Work / New Job at Warsaw International School as an English teacher - Advice? What should I expect? [26]

Hi Pernumba.

Teaching children (you don't say how old they are which makes a difference) is a different thing entirely. How old are the children and what training do you have in teaching that age group? Although it's great if they 'love' you, the most important thing is that they respect you. It's quite possible to have a happy and relaxed class where children learn and have fun at the same time but it's quite a skill to achieve that and takes time. The most important thing is not to try being their friend but to set firm boundaries from day one whilst at the same time being pleasant.

You should familarize yourself with whatever school policies there are regarding behaviour etc and they'll also discuss the learning goals with you. The difference between a school and a corporation is that these are children and their learning objectives will be very specific and part of the overall school curriculum and there will be a lot of pressure on you to ensure that they're met. Be sure that you do a proper teaching plan for the whole school year. Examine the curriculum, ascertain the learning goals for each area and then do your year plan, term plan for each term and each week or two weeks you do a weekly/fortnightly plan. It's good to do it in a sort of chart form so that you can tick things as you go to ensure you're meeting your goals. You'll also need your individual lesson plans of course.

I presume you'll only be teaching English and not responsible for other subjects??

Work / 18000 zloty (before tax) salary enough to save to live normal life in Krakow with wife and a 1.5 yr old kid? [5]

Hi DS. There are loads of threads about the cost of living but to answer your query quickly, yes that's plenty of money to live on.

How much can you save is really 'how long is a piece of string?' :)) Depends on how thrifty you are but you should be able to manage to save four thousand a month or so without difficulty.

Knowledge of basic Polish makes life a lot easier. Not everybody will speak English by any means and I would suggest that you invest some money in enrolling your wife in a basic Polish course to make things like shopping and simple everyday interactions a bit easier and less stressful for her. Also she will be more independent of you and not need your help with things like going to the post office to send a parcel.

I'm not sure about your wife's right to work. If she's coming as your dependent,I don't think she has an automatic entitlement but you would need to check that with the authorities. Other posters here would know more than I do about that.

Best of luck :))

Life / Understanding Poland's Birthday Tradition [66]


"Ale Marysia, mówiłem, pięć kilo w każdym sklepie!" - I LOVE that film :))


But not always. Alternatywy 4 wasn't aired when it was made because it didn't pass the censors and when they finally showed it, there were cuts and deleted scenes which were only restored to it years later.

USA, Canada / Would a Polish woman marry to get into the USA? [41]


A childish and disappointing response. Not a properly expressed argument, yet more unhinged nonsense about Muslims. It's a waste of time trying to have a normal conversation with you. I won't be bothering again. Enjoy your monologues.

USA, Canada / Would a Polish woman marry to get into the USA? [41]


Where did you get the figure of 1,000? It was 3,000. It was a proper study commissioned by the London Science Museum and carried out by a reputable agency. A sample of 3,000 people would be considered adequate in research terms. As for overall society, culturally the UK and other English speaking countries have many cultural similarities. I think one big that in the British Isles we're less blunt than many other European countries and are more likely to lie in order not to upset somebody, hurt their feelings or to protect them from something unpleasant. Not sure about the USA, what do you think?

Real Estate / Renting in Poland - tenants' rights? [51]

He means residency in Poland I imagine, but it doesn't matter. Even if she has your passport number (if you used your passport as ID and she wrote down the number) there is no way that you will have your passport flagged for breaking a tenancy a month early and leaving your deposit as rent.

Real Estate / Renting in Poland - tenants' rights? [51]

She's talking rubbish. There is no such thing as an EU record of people who've been involved in civil disputes such as landlord/tenant disputes and no, you won't be arrested. In theory, you do owe her the last month's rent as usually you're not allowed to use your deposit for that but you haven't committed any crime and the police won't come after you.

Genealogy / What does my Polish name mean? [402]


Exactly. The name must have a meaning especially as 'owicz' is a suffix, added to a root word, so that is the meaning of the root. The root of the name doesn't appear to be Polish. I just did a bit of quick googling and came across a Polish mathematician, Alfred Tarski (1902-1983) born Tajtelbaum.

Life / Paintings of artists from Poland? [192]

There's a big trend in Poland for copies of her paintings, not prints, but artists actually painting copies. You sometimes see them for sale at concession stands in shopping centres and they're also sold online:

galeriaperspektywa.pl/kobieta-w-zieleni-tamara-lempicka-p-53.html

Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]


I'm not sure I understand your point.In discussing the present day, one can't simply discount 1,500 years or so of European history (and that's recent history for Europe). I swear to God I'm not being funny here, but is it the American education system that produces such a simplistic approach to subjects or is it just you? History has always been about expanding your territory,empire building and money. That's what the last two World Wars were about. But to go back to empire building. It basically involves not only acquiring territory but spreading your culture all over the world and doing your utmost to assimilate the indigenous population. The Soviet Union was about empire building, just as much as Imperial Russia had been. That's what Hitler was doing too. The major wars of nineteenth century were the Napoleonic ones (and the Seven Years War before it). They involved every major power in Europe and were actually known at that time as the Great War, that term being used a century later to describe the First World War.

I also don't understand the reason for the saying socialism doesn't work, if you want to eat garbage etc. Do you mean that you think the EU has socialist policies? To some extent it certainly does, in as much the premise is that countries should give to the common pot according to their means and take according to their needs. It's that precise policy which has been so beneficial to Poland's development.