Language / American pancakes are not Poland's naleśniki! [45]


No idea, as we also use the word crumpet for the more traditional English crumpet, so be aware if you pop round to a Scotsman's house for tea and crumpets, you may end up with crumpets or thin pancakes.

Although off topic, tea cakes in England are a baked good (kind of like a flat roll) with fruit in them, in Scotland, ask for a teacake and you will get a biscuit, topped with mallow, covered in chocolate.

This thread makes me hungry!

Language / American pancakes are not Poland's naleśniki! [45]

I saw them in Kuchnia Swiata in KRK once and once only. I would have thought when I sold them out in about 30 seconds that they would have got more, but never to be seen again. Might have more luck in the Warsaw stores, the KRK one is pretty small.

Btw, look out for this:

Language / American pancakes are not Poland's naleśniki! [45]


Ah but that's moving to placki ziemniaczane which are different again to nalesniki. Which brings us delightfully full circle, we started with american pancakes being translated as nalesniki, now we have placki translated to English as pancakes :)

Work / Popular pay days in Poland [7]

I am pretty sure the labour law says that a months wages must be paid before the 17th of the next month. From experience, when working for a small company, I was paid on the 16th or 17th, but when I worked in a corporation it normally came through around the end of the month. That being said, in the corporation it was flexible, sometimes sooner, sometimes later, and it was all kept super hush hush and you never knew you were getting paid until you got your payslip at which point money was in your account 3 hours later. I wasn't a fan of that approach as it makes organising and budgeting quite difficult.

Polonia / Who still speaks pidigin Polish after many years in the country? [59]

Apart from the pettiness between certain members, this has turned out to be quite a good thread for those of us with a basic Polish knowledge. Good pronunciation tips all over the shop. That being said, can you ever expect someone who learned the language as a foreigner to be 100% fluent with perfect pronunciation? It's a bit snobby to sit there and say that expats can't tell the difference between "ci" and "cz". There is a difference, I can hear it (and I'm not even trying to claim fluency or even good Polish), but using it day to day, it's not a natural way to speak.

A good point was made with Polish people speaking English and certain things are mispronounced regularly, no matter how much you study or immerse yourself, there will be a natural way to pronounce things and that will prevent consistency. It's not something to be mocked, I think it's charming and it gives people a bit more character.

Food / What's your favourite tea that's sold in Poland? And what tea do you like but can't find here? [3]

I found in Poland, the tea seems to be mainly based on a Darjeeling blend which is a much lighter and more delicate tea than the Assam that most UK teas are based on (talking big brands). This works better for the Polish want to drink tea with a little syrup and lemon. It's not ideal for a builders brew though. While in Poland I got Yorkshire Tea from Allegro (nothing against Poland, I ordered it online when I was in the country in Scotland and the local shop didn't stock it, and carry it to work in a wee Tupperware box even now).

I think what Poland do really well is the selection of herbal teas and fruit infusions. Most supermarkets here have huge selections of black tea, but others are minimal so I often go to the Polish shop for my mint and orange which is lovely.

Food / Poles prefer pizza & kebab? [64]


Just out of curiosity on this I popped on Just Eat for my area (close to a large city centre in the UK). While there are 11 fish & chip shops, there are 28 Chinese restaurants and 55 Indian. For the sake of staying on topic, there are also 12 Kebab shops. While there is no doubt there will be some crossover (some Indian places will sell kebabs, some kebab shops will sell fish & chips) the numbers themselves tell the story that the humble chippy isn't as popular in the UK as it once was.

In saying that, last time I was in Kraków I noticed that a lot of kebab shops had changed to "noodle and rice bars" and it seemed every new fast food place to open was a gourmet burger joint...so maybe the popularity of kebab shops is waning too. That is just from the one most recent trip, and I don't have numbers to back it up, but I would be interested to see if the numbers of kebab places are falling.

Food / Papa John's Pizza coming to Poland [28]


Completely agree, I ordered once and it was terrible, tried again tempted in with special offers, still just as bad. Same really with Da Grasso, Dominos, and the other big chains. Often they are more expensive and not as good as local pizza shops, but they survive because of brand recognition. In Krakow I always used a local one which is closed now for a Friday take away (great thin dough and fresh toppings), then would also use Football Pizzeria for late night deliveries (they are open all night), and then New York Pizza Dept for hungover Sundays (their dough was a bit thicker, good for soaking up the residual alcohol!

Work / PAT testing electrical equipment in Poland [51]


Don't know why, but this made me properly laugh out loud. Just picturing the sales pitch, "And of course we have these decorative sockets, perfect for when you want to plug something in but not use it".

Work / Diary of a Teacher in Poland [181]


Maybe as I don't have kids yet I am being naive, but surely there is more to your kids going to school than what grades they get. Do you ever get parents asking questions along the lines of: "Is my child enjoying the classwork?" "Do you feel they are coping with the workload?" and so on? I loved school and, from the sounds of your diary it sounds like the parents aren't really caring about the "life lessons" part of the school but just what grade they are getting, or am I misreading?

I do understand that higher education look at grades and that standardised exams are unlikely to go away anytime soon, but there is so much more to school than exams!

Work / Diary of a Teacher in Poland [181]


Ditto this! I was in a middling French class at school where we went through textbooks and grammar tables while the teacher tried to explain the grammar rules in English. Really didn't sink in, I got bored, and to this day my French is limited to telling people I have a brother and I play football. The uppermost class had a teacher who was French and didn't speak English in class, all of them went on to pass highers and some went to University to study language. Not saying I would have done better in French if the teacher only spoke French, however when I have been put in situations in other languages where I have no English "Safety Net" I have picked things up really quite quickly.

Life / Boring Life after work in Poland (Bydgoszcz) [29]

It's a tough question no matter where you are and hard to answer without knowing anything about you. What did you do in your home country after work, that's probably the best place to start, I know it seems simplistic, but there could be an opportunity to do something similar that you haven't come by that someone on here knows about?