Language / POLISH 18 - 30 years old know MUCH BETTER ENGLISH language than their own native language! [102]

Let's take this tiny English dialogue:

A: I like pizza
B: Me too

Now show me how many English native speakers aged 18-30 can spot and correct the grammar mistake.

The example is meaningless.

News / Only 1 in 3 firms in Poland pays income taxes [20]

If those companies had to find 32bn in taxes to pay, how many people would they fire as a result? And then how much would my taxes go up to cover their unemployment welfare?

Life / Video games centers and culture in Poland [22]

One of the biggest contemporary games was Wiedzmin ("The Witcher"), a fantasy hack-em-up based on the Polish novels of Andrzej Sapkowski, and released by the Polish studio CD Projekt RED, who are listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.

Travel / Castles and Palaces in Poland (with pictures) [155]

The girlfriend and I explored the ruins of Odrzykon as one of our first dates: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odrzykon

Very picturesque in the autumn mists...

Food / 'Wigilia', the traditional Christmas Eve supper in Poland [77]


Pretty much, yes. But don't worry, after all these years I think she's got all the English lessons she will ever need, so I'm sure I can expect her to dump me any time now.


I completely agree. It falls into the "utterly disgusting" category.

Life / What are the best cars to buy in Poland? [40]


"Hidden" issues. This is what my Polish-bought BMW looked like when I took of the front wing (fender):

Poland BMW Rust

Food / 'Wigilia', the traditional Christmas Eve supper in Poland [77]

No matter how I describe Wigilia to my Western friends, they all make a disgusted face and ask "how can anyone call that a celebration?"

The girlfriend has promised I can grab a burger before we go to her grandmother's this year, to compensate for the "meal".

And while I mean no malice to Poland or its cuisine, the traditional Wigilia dishes are at best bland, and at worst utterly revolting.

News / Repopulating Poland with Ukrainians? [67]


The British have been a minority in their own country since the Angles and Saxons came in during the 5th Century AD. Every country's history, especially in Europe, is made up of wave after wave of immigration, and Britain is the crux of that. Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Frisians, then Vikings, then Normans; all moving in and dominating the local BRITISH culture of Brythonic languages.

So if the invaders get invaded, what's the issue? It's just another phase in 1500 years of invasion, and it certainly hasn't done that little island any harm. Maybe the same will happen to Poland too.

UK, Ireland / English/British rudeness - what do Polish people think about it? [161]

This is simply a cultural clash. For example #1, why did you sit in the middle of a trio of seats? Were you trying to prevent anyone sitting around you? Did you want to take more room for yourself, your bag, your other possessions? Was it a case of being unaware of how busy the station was and how few seats there are, or were you deliberately trying to take more than your fair share? Were they rude for asking you to be more considerate?

It's just a way of looking at things. Babcias on buses and trams in Poland are shockers for sitting on the aisle seat of a pair, and refusing to move over or even turn to let someone else sit next to them. But on the other hand, many British women would be insulted (my step-mother was one of them) if a young man offered his seat to her. Are you calling me old? How dare you.

As humans, we all have the uncanny ability to p#ss each other off in a hundred different ways without realising it.

Life / The "I am never wrong" phenom - is it the Polish thing? [63]

The wurst kind...

Law / Opening a Polish Bank Account by a foreigner in Poland. Recommendations. [299]

Your question was "is it possible". I gave you a clear answer with reasons. Just because you don't like the answer doesn't make it spamming.

As for savings accounts and loans; not only are they completely different to current accounts, but you will find the application requirements even stricter.

But if you just want to play the PLN/EUR game then you may be able to sign up for Alior Sync. Although feel free to consider that information "spam".

Law / Opening a Polish Bank Account by a foreigner in Poland. Recommendations. [299]

Banks have no interest in your deposits; they want you to buy their products; take out loans, use their credit cards. A few thousand PLN deposited in a current account is of no value to a bank.

And if you don't have a Polish ID number or a registered Polish address, then you don't exist in Poland, and therefore can't use Polish banking products. It's that simple.

Law / Opening a Polish Bank Account by a foreigner in Poland. Recommendations. [299]

The answer is no.

Considering the scrutiny banks are under at the moment, why on earth would they open an account for a person with no valid ID number, no registered address, and not physically able to visit the office? Perhaps you'd like an account in the name of Casper F. Ghost?

UK, Ireland / Advantages of living in Poland as opposed to the UK. [126]


Until fairly recently (2008?) UK law allowed companies to use the 8 national holidays (Christmas, Easter etc) as part of the 20 days of annual leave that a company had to offer to full-time employees. That means you only have 12 days away from your job every year, which translates to a two-week mediterranean holiday getting drunk, plus one wedding and one funeral. Of course, better-paid jobs came with more holidays, but there isn't a culture of being lazy for the entire summer, like in Poland.

I don't think I've ever heard of a UK person taking a month of holiday, and being able to return to the same job afterwards.

Life / Polands new immigrants from the West. [36]

Life in Poland without speaking Polish is next to impossible. Unless immigrants from the PIGS countries have suddenly developed skills in Slavic, or Poles develop a desire to learn Mediterranean/Adriatic languages, then I don't think Poland is under any "threat".

It's hard enough to earn a living wage doing unskilled labour in Poland; it would be next to impossible to send any money home, which is what the majority of economic migrants do.

Life / What's wrong with Poland? I don't see anything. [121]

To bring this closer to the topic:

I had to drive to a client during morning rush hour last week in Warsaw. As soon as I joined the main road (Prymasa Tysiaclecia) I hit crawling traffic; I barely got out of first gear for three kilometres. This traffic was far worse than you get during the summer, so something unusual must have happened.

It was 25 minutes later when I got to the next road (Bitwy Warszawskie 1920) that I found the cause; a woman's car broken down in the middle of the street, orange lights flashing, forcing three lanes to squeeze into two. All that traffic because no-one wanted to stop and help her push her car to the parking spaces at the side of the road.

I stopped. I got out. She called me "prawdziwy English Dżentelmen" and said it was a shame the first person to stop and help was a foreigner.

Maybe this is just a syndrome of living in Warsaw and not a problem of Poland as a whole, but the fact that a woman can sit in a broken-down car in the middle of the road for half an hour, cars going past left and right with not a single person stopping to help, is something that needs to be dealt with.

Life / Are Polish roads really this bad? [237]

I drove from Warsaw to Suwalki and back this weekend. On the way there, leaving Warsaw was incredible; the north bypass (Trasa Torunska) was incredible considering it had been under construction for as long as I've live in Poland. And the other side of Marki, the road was equally good; two lanes of pristine asphalt.

And although there are bad spots in between, where the road narrows to a single lane each way, and in appalling condition (esp. around Lomza) you can at least see the new roads being constructed alongside or nearby the existing ones, so it will improve in the future.

The only bad point was the number of idiots leap-frogging the traffic. Six cars stuck behind a truck, the car at the front waiting for his turn to overtake the truck, and then some idiot in an Audi blasts past him, cutting him up, forcing him to slam on his brakes to avoid a collision. This happened repeatedly, and the offenders ALL had Warsaw number plates.

It's not the roads that need to improve, it's the w*nkers in company cars who think they can drive on village roads at speeds that aren't even allowed on the motorways. Until GDDKiA finds a solution to that, Polish drivers will continue killing eachother at a rate far above the European average.

History / Cult Poland PRL TV Ads and Cars [12]

The tunnels under the main railway stations in Warsaw (Dworzec Centralny, Zachodni and Wschodni) have benches and kiosks filled with old magazines, DVDs and sometimes these "collectables". When you arrive, take your time to explore underground.

The stations were cleaned up for the Euro so a lot of these little places were closed, but hopefully it will be back to normal trading now.

The only other place I can think of is a little "modelarstwo" shop in Hala Mirowska, which is on Al. Jana Pawla II.

I have on my desk a model of the Syrena Sport, which the publisher of magazine gave me personally :D

Travel / What can Poland do to attract more tourists? Llamas farm? [71]

Why would Poland WANT more tourists?

I like Mazury. I like the mountains. I like the wild, empty Bieszczady. I like cruising slowly along the ruined roads to stop for half an hour in a crumbling village where the waiter's teeth match the cobbles on the street outside.

I don't want this gorgeous, wild, natural place destroyed by Holiday Inns, Ryanair flights, boorish Western tourists saying "oh my GAWD that is like, oh my god, so so cute it's just simply so good to be here" while they sip coffee from another inevitable Starbucks.

It might bring money to otherwise poor areas, but increased tourism would devastate all the things I like about Poland. And considering all the negatives that makepolandgreat so correctly describes, it wouldn't leave many positive things behind.

UK, Ireland / Need some help to buy Polish cars(s) Zuk pickup &/or Nysa van [18]

Possibly the reason you are not being taken seriously is that no-one would seriously buy a Zuk or Nysa and expect to drive it straight to the UK. These are not solidly-built tanks, they are vehicles cobbled together from whatever FSO had left over from Warszawa production, and the vast majority of them have led hard-working unloved lives.

Zuks are not even considered cult classics over here; I haven't seen them show up at classic car events unless they are ex-Military or Fire models. The idea of a restored pick-up version is laughable. The only good thing is that they can be bought cheap (less than 1000GBP), but I would be extremely doubtful about them meeting VOSA standards regarding import and MOT.

You'll have more luck finding a clean Nysa, but you will have to pay the price for one: between 2-5k GBP. And I still wouldn't want to drive 1000miles back to the UK in it.

I'm happy to help you if needed, but I'd seriously suggest looking at renting a shipping container rather than driving one of these back.

Love / Do Polish people like Scottish people (friendship or relationship with a Scot)? [56]


No, every Scot bears a silent loathing hatred that goes back a thousand years. Even making eye contact with a Scot will be enough to instil a blind rage in him that will ignite a Celto-Slavic War that will ravage all of Europe, so deep is the dislike of Poles by the Scots.

UK, Ireland / There's not a lot wrong with Poles in the UK. There's just too many of them. [72]


who couldn't knock on his neighbours' door to introduce himself before cutting their TV cable


Such as cheating on two women at once and resorting to criminal damage? A fine example of British ways you're setting. Your parents would be proud.

Life / Jerzy Kosinski - Polish author and liar [127]

Are you referring to The Painted Bird? And are you suggesting that no Pole during the six years of the war committed a single crime; no robberies, rape or informing for personal gain?

I have no doubt that the novel as a story is a fiction, but don't be so naive as to think nothing similar occurred during that period.

Law / Registering Foreign Car In Poland [24]

I don't know much about Toyotas to be honest, but make sure any special edition you're looking for isn't specific-market-only. Lots of manufacturers do specials for one country only, so there may not have been a LHD "anniversary" edition.

Your best bet for a car is to sign up for the MR2 club in Poland and asking politely on their forum. I'm sure a few of the owners will speak English and will point you in the right direction; some might even offer advice on converting a RHD model if you've already found the one you want in the UK.

Law / Registering Foreign Car In Poland [24]

Not a huge number of MR2s around, because hairdressers don't earn that much money in Poland: allegro.pl/mr2-27887

News / Some say modern Poland is split into A and B; The "Old", and the "New". [14]

I was making a simple observation regarding the delicious irony of your statement. I'm sure you have your reasons; all migrants do.

But caring about your country and doing something to help it are wildly different things. At the age of 26, are you prepared to come "home" and help your homeland, or are you just going to be upset on the internet? Be assured that no-one cares more about Poland than the Poles whose feet are touching the soil of their country.

News / Some say modern Poland is split into A and B; The "Old", and the "New". [14]


Says the emigrant Pole...

For Jason (the OP), you've got A and B confused in the common nomenclature. B is supposed to be the traditional, religious country folk, and A are the westernised urban-dwelling 21st-century yuppies.

What I see in Warsaw is 2million commuting villagers coming to the city for some quick cash; to save for a flat, to meet a husband, to get the contract that will let them take paid maternity leave, so that they can go back to their village in a few years time, affluent and comfortable. They bring with them Matka's cooking and Babcia's religious conservativism, and it's only the ones who bought flats in the city who will raise more modern-thinking children. But that won't happen for another decade.

For now, Poland B is still in charge, but Poland A's voice is getting louder and louder.

News / Poland fines singer for bashing Bible [159]


Is calling someone homosexual insulting? If they're not, they're not, but I'd rather be accused of being gay than Catholic.

Law / Car registration in Poland (bought a car from Holland on a temporary license) [25]

Simple answer is no. You need a meldunek and a PESEL to register a car; this can be obtained with a passport, but must be updated every three months and needs the landlord's permission. If you are only renting the apartment for a month, no landlord will give you meldunek, and therefore you will not be able to register the car.

Also, without a PESEL you will be unable to get insurance, which is a legal requirement in Poland. The car must be insured constantly, whether it is being driven or not, so you cannot just insure it for the time you are in Poland.

Life / Diesel GTI not a good choice for Poland? [25]


Leave your handbrake on full over the weekend in February, and then see what happens when you try to take it off on Monday morning. It was standard practise not to use the handbrake in winter because of how quickly the shoes rust onto the brake disc/drum. These days however, it's just laziness, the same as people holding their brake pedal at traffic lights (cooking their brake pads and warping their discs at the same time.)