Work / American High School Teacher looking to teach English in Poland [27]

Quite right!
Throughout much of Western Europe as well, English has even become compulsory at internal meetings too, not only when foreign visitors are present:-)
At Siemens for instance, a German colleague reminded me a few months ago that as of now, ALL office memoranda must be in both languages, English and German or they will be deleted automatically and the employee will be possibly censured.

The exception though is if janbe can somehow secure private or ideally consulary work, teaching English to Polish diplomats and their children. That pays handsomely,

I can tell you that. One can earn all told nearly as much as a corporate salary, I've heard, if the work is steady enough of course.

Work / American High School Teacher looking to teach English in Poland [27]

Church connections override religious convictions, particularly where high school is concerned. I speak here from experience:-)

Work / American High School Teacher looking to teach English in Poland [27]

Exceptions abound. Furthermore, being Irish and likely a Catholic, this fellow might well have had some church clout and picked on you for an unjustified complaint.

Work / American High School Teacher looking to teach English in Poland [27]

Granted. However, those whom I know here in the States who taught secondary school in Rzeszów, among other medium to larger Polísh cities, never actually endured rejection of the teacher's own prepared syllabus deemed "incorrect" if only allegedly because it doesn't conform to a dogmatic, pre-conceived notion of how English should either be taught or spoken! According to my colleagues, Poles aren't as didactícally hidebound as slightly older German pupils. Any simílar reactions?

Work / American High School Teacher looking to teach English in Poland [27]

@Maf & Jon,
As I've already expatiated at some length on PF,the problem with English in Europe nowadays is that everybody and their grandmother claims "native fluency" and will often become incensed at the drop of a hat once this faulty, indeed inaccurate, image is challenged, even if slightly!

No, I've never taught in Poland, but once again, in Germany, I was challenged at nearly every bend and turn in the more advanced classes, whereby the merest of polite corrective recasts of my students' compositions were met with resistance. Although I explained that I was a native American-English speaker with German as bilingual mother tongue, many of my charges flat out refused to accept criticism. After nearly twenty minutes of wrangling, sometimes I'd finally win them over.

Work / American High School Teacher looking to teach English in Poland [27]

Correct! After the first several terms of high school French, our teacher switched during my intermediate year to French only, no English in class.

Work / American High School Teacher looking to teach English in Poland [27]

Interesting. To each his own I guess.

Work / American High School Teacher looking to teach English in Poland [27]

I agree, jon. As usual, I didn't express myself clearly. The point was that if janbe intends to teach presumably monolinguals learning English in their country, it only makes sense to acquire the source language of the learners, right? When I was learning French in high school, our first-year instructress was a native Picard who nonetheless knew relatively fluent Englísh in order to effectively explain French structures to us Anglophones! I'd imagine the same standards apply to teaching high school English in Poland. I can only say that had I known no German when teaching in Germany, I would've been sunk.

Work / American High School Teacher looking to teach English in Poland [27]

Best of luck, janbe!

I've already shared my experiences teaching English in Europe, although never in Poland.

Even if many schools, especially reputable language schools, insist on the instructor not necessarily knowing the target language, take it from me, that it's ALWAYS many times better to know at least the conversational basics of the local lingo.

That's my opinion.

Genealogy / Typical Polish Eye Color [77]

Many Poles also have brown, actually dark brown, eyes this is true.
A majority though do have light eyes.

Once asked a Swede, another time, a Norwegian similarly, whether most of their countrymen had blond hair and blue eyes and they answered that those with darker eyes or complexions tended to be of Lapp or Saami origin:-)

Language / Polish flashcards? [2]

Actually, I once used such a sort of home-made flash card set made up by my Polish teacher.
Thing is, they were all in Polish, not with the English name on the back of the flash card!
Such I found immensely helpful as a beginner.

Language / Whats the difference between naprawdę?, doprawdy?, and ach tak? [2]

Yes there is, LovelyRandal!
Precisely what that difference is in native speaker context, you'd certainly be much better advised to consult any number of educated native Polish speakers here.

All I might contribute to answering your query is that "naprawde" relates to authenticating the veracity of a given statement, "doprawdy" similarly, whereas "Ach, tak!" is more of "Ah, yes I see!", in that the speaker concedes to the statement by the interlocutor:-)

Hope this helps a little.

Life / Thank You from the U.S. for being so kind to refugees. [14]

Without some of those values of humanity you sneer at, might as well trade in our homes for a cage in the local zoo!
What then are humans even worth without humanity to accompany it?

If you have a disagreement, even physical altercation with someone, if when the person leaves, they suddenly scream they're going into cardiac arrest, would you put mutual feelings of enmity aside and render at least bare minimum aid, or would you instead give in to your basest instincts and let the person die?!

Life / Thank You from the U.S. for being so kind to refugees. [14]

High time indeed for the US to continue performing her humanitarian duty and quite pawning off responsibility to the already strapped EU!!
Surely Germany and Poland cannot realistically be expected to bear the brunt all by themselves.
Biden realizes that Ukraine is now on his agenda, as much as the US-economy or even Covid.

News / How does Poland feel about influx of US troops? [60]

So true, Rich, so true!
Now Poland has her tsuris, with Putin's "non-invasion" of Ukraine:-)

News / How does Poland feel about influx of US troops? [60]

Germany has just severed ties with Russia on account of the Nordstream gas supply lines!
I think Scholz cares quite much what Putin's next move will be.
Sanctions can indeed go a long way. Wanna hurt 'em? Hit 'em where it really hurts!
Hit 'em, smack in the ol' wallet LOL

News / How does Poland feel about influx of US troops? [60]

Scholz might disagree

News / How does Poland feel about influx of US troops? [60]

Poland continues to be seen by many in the West as the eternal "buffer zone" between Russia and Germany, both former enemies, current (on again, off again) allies.

UK, Ireland / Language students in Reading, UK, any groups/classes I can join? Set a group up? [8]

Indeed there are, BuckeyeInPoland, indeed there are!
Reading knowledge of any language is to my mind the third phase in the traditional four-skill process: listening, speaking, READING, and writing:-)

As I suggested to the person who originated the current thread, joining a beginner's book club, either virtual or face-to-face, can also be a valuable tool in acquiring reading knowledge in the target language.

UK, Ireland / Language students in Reading, UK, any groups/classes I can join? Set a group up? [8]

Actually, a friend of ours who plans on visiting Warsaw
over the next several months or so, swears by Duo lingua!

Language / About usage of the special Polish letters: ą ć ę ł ń ó ś ż ź [28]

Excellent observation.

Language / About usage of the special Polish letters: ą ć ę ł ń ó ś ż ź [28]

@gumishu, however much earlier Polish did, right?

Language / About usage of the special Polish letters: ą ć ę ł ń ó ś ż ź [28]

Yet as I seem to recall, Modern Polish has no long or closed vowels compared with Hungarian.

Language / About usage of the special Polish letters: ą ć ę ł ń ó ś ż ź [28]

undefinedto throw in the towel = to give up on a futile pursuit Oh, don't tell me. Ya knew that one too LOL Bottom line here is that maybe (mis-)speaking English with locals was no prob for you, but just maybe it was for the locals, although they didn't care to admit it. Others might indeed have been greatful for the practice. Lord knows they sure need it, admit it or not:-)

polishforums.com/img/p.gif

Language / About usage of the special Polish letters: ą ć ę ł ń ó ś ż ź [28]

Anyone can now google a word/phrase, but that is scarcely "knowing" another language, not even close. Brain cloning or the like is waaayy, way far into the future and so keep dreamin'. Furthermore, it's never enough merely to know a language through study, but to know it well to perfectly by dint of monastic focus combined with raw talent.Otherwise, plain forget about it and throw in the towel!

Language / About usage of the special Polish letters: ą ć ę ł ń ó ś ż ź [28]

@Rich,
English will obviously NEVER "replace" the mother tongue of any EU nation, at least in private discourse, any more than Spanish could ever hope to replace English here in the US! International conferences will continue to use interpreters, as well they should, both for clarity's sake, not to mention sheer aesthetics.

The very notion is as idiotic as it is impractical:-)

History / Kielce Pogrom - new findings by IPN [42]

Remarks taken out of context...as usual-:)

History / Kielce Pogrom - new findings by IPN [42]

I never once misrepresented myself, either to you or anyone else on PF.
Who's the toll now?!

I merely stated that Kielce was an ghastly example of post-War antisemitism, perhaps the most egregious until the advent of Ceaucescu.

History / Kielce Pogrom - new findings by IPN [42]

Kindly re-read my previous post, turn on your brain and turn off your motor index finger LOL