UK, Ireland / "If it's not Polish, it's shite" - What is great about Polish Beer in UK? [78]

Well, considering anyone who is actually attempting to "rank" mass-market beers in terms of quality is already..well let's put it this way.. an f'ing idiot, I wouldnt worry about it. I'm sure those Mexican or Danish beers really stand out among the competition, of course as long as theyre on sale. Tyskie, Lech, Zywiec, it's all the owned by the same brewery, produced in the exact same way, and has the same shiiit piiiis mix of chemicals, ethanol and "beer flavor".

Seriously, go try some real beers or something.


****** beers.

News / The European Health Card. Why don't the Poles know about it? Free Medical care. [26]

Thanks Wroclaw, the lady at the NFZ window said it was valid for a maximum of 2 months, so she was wrong. Nonetheless, my card was validated only for the 15 days I was going to be abroad. Still a waste of time getting it. I had to go to the ZUS office 3 times, in the place were I had my zameldowanie. I, unlike others, value my time and it just wasnt worth it, considering the lack of full coverage.

No surprise that Lwowksakrakow is not responding.

News / The European Health Card. Why don't the Poles know about it? Free Medical care. [26]


Lwowskakrakow, you do not know what you are talking about. For the second time.

Anyway, the EHIC, as issued by Poland, is valid for a maximum of 2 MONTHS. Other countries issue the card for longer, but Poland for 2 months. Let me say that again, 2 MONTHS. And most of the time they'll only issue it to you for the length of your trip. And its only valid under certain conditions, ie, traveling for pleasure or when looking for work. The second you find a job or "reside permanently" in some place you lose it.

And with regards to the insurance I bought and which you know so much better than me, no, you are incorrect. My travel medical insurance is valid anywhere in the EU and covers the same thing the EHIC does, including skiing accidents, just far better. I have a hotline I call and they tell me what to do and where to go. Used it twice, no complaints. You are confusing it with standard private health insurance, which uh... costs a lot more than 200zl a year.

My advice is to NOT get the EHIC/EKUZ because its a waste of your time. But oh yea, being Polish means I love to stand in queues since I have plenty of time to waste, thats directly quoting you btw.

News / The European Health Card. Why don't the Poles know about it? Free Medical care. [26]

1. Only for emergency medical treatment or if you fall suddenly sick. You cant go to Germany to get that operation that you listed to have in 3 years through NFZ.

2. The card is valid for a maximum of two months or something, not a year, normally they give it to you for as long as you are travelling. Ever ytime you want to abroad you have to get a new one, and for someone who is self-employed its a PITA.

3. Nope, it's not for those living in another country. The second you find a job you have insure through that country's insurance system.

4. NFZ's own website says they recommend you buy private health insurance, since only the most basic costs, or sometimes only part of even NONE of costs are covered by the EHIC. Transport to Poland for example is not covered, and many countries hit you with 40 to 80 euro fees for visits.

5. Even better, in some countries you have to pay upfront and then get refunded by NFZ. Oh... that sure sounds painless.

So save yourself the hassle and just get private medical insurance, I just got covered for a year for 200zl through Hestia.

Work / The demand for English language learning in Poland is at an all time low [41]

I teach on the side and am turning down work all the time, I dont see any down turn in the TELF market at least here.

BTW, If there are any teachers who are looking for work in Wroclaw let me know.

Real Estate / Who designs houses in Poland? [66]


actually, if im not mixing up poznans stary browar and galeria malta, i know from a friend who designed it.. basically he was hired on as a consultant, the moment he finished the basic renderings he was fired, his plans stolen, and then modified. wait, i think im thinking about malta. that retarded 3rd floor where the food court and move theater is was not in the original plan, thats why it looks so ******.

wroclaw, the renoma was an example of modern architecture but taking into consideration what was old, and it was done very well as the investor knew what they wanted. i know the people who designed it. and even though solpol is 20 years old its still modern architecture. how it works for you though i have no idea, its a perfect example of an arhictect/investor who took NOTHING into consideration when designing it. let alone using quality materials. its still one of the worst designed buildings ive ever seen from a functional point of view, both sol pol I and sol pol II.

Real Estate / Who designs houses in Poland? [66]


of course its investors who design the buildings. of course architects plans are changed. even on site plans are changed. i know many architects, and the process always goes like this:

investor - we want it to look like this and with these fantastic ideas. our budget is $10
architect - ok, we made it look even better, with your fantastic ideas and some of ours
investor - omg we love it. how much?
architect - $12
investor - oh, then lets change this to save some more money.
architect - ok, we can do that, itll still look good. $9
investor - hmm our budget has changed, change this.
architect - thats not going to look good, but we'll try. $7
investor - nope, still too much. that cool stuff has got to go, too expensive, and we're going to use bare concrete for everything.

architect - ummm. but... ok. $6
investor - hey, it doesnt look like the fantastic rendering you first submitted! btw, budget cuts again, and this empty space over here, for a park? lets put some kiosks in there. oh, and......

and of course foster and his investors cared or sometimes didnt care about what they put where. i can give you many examples of where some architects/investors went out of there way to take into consideration what was around them, for example lodz's manufaktura or poznan's stary browar, wroclaw's renoma, or where other just went f'ing nuts, like the sol pol in wroclaw.

Real Estate / Who designs houses in Poland? [66]


you're quite wrong here, the decision on how a building ends up looking is entirely the investors, NOT the architects. and in instances where the project is aimed at adapting an old building into something new, well, poles do it quite well. i would say, however, that interior design is an entirely different matter and still needs a few years of work..

Work / I'M SO SURPRISED BY THIS SALARY FOR IBM in WROCLAW 3000 ZL gross [135]


Sorry delph, I misread you and thought we were talking about 1300zl net. I agree with you here wholeheartedly, 1500 on life life after bills and stuff gets tucked away is actually not that terrible :)

Work / I'M SO SURPRISED BY THIS SALARY FOR IBM in WROCLAW 3000 ZL gross [135]


Is this for ******* real? Are you serious? Nonsense? Delph I remember your posts from time to time and were normally spot on but what the hell is this ****?

You are right, there is something wrong with me about not wanting to live at poverty level. Of course I can live on that, but do I want to?

Because if I follow you correctly, you think a working professional who makes enough money to rent a... room.. and ride the tram... probably gets to eat meat once a week... is something fair?

1300 net
-650 room
-170 public transport (thats in wroclaw)
-60 mobile

that leave you 420zl a month. for food, clothing, and god forbid you get sick, like a private visit to the doctor and medicine. thats poverty my friend.

Work / Salary for an architect with 3years experience in warsaw [37]


Experience with what? As a low level drawer? Project manager? Single dwelling homes or high rises? Do you know anything about the building code/regulations in Poland? As an architect I would think thats the first thing you need to know before working in an another country.

Honestly, as I have many friends who are architects, you may have an incredibly difficult time finding work since you a) dont know polish b) are not an english native speaker c) are not well versed in local building design/construction/regulations d) do not have much experience

The reason being that most architectural offices can find a million university students who would work for free that have all the things you dont.

Work / I'M SO SURPRISED BY THIS SALARY FOR IBM in WROCLAW 3000 ZL gross [135]


Not tight, impossible. A studio goes goes for 800 up to 1500zl a month.

For people who 'get by' on 2000zl a month or whatever in Wroclaw/Krakow/Warsaw, theyre obviously taking the **** since they must have family or friends supporting them somehow, or seriously skimp on some other part of life, such as clothing, food, or entertainment.

If you are doing any programming work you should be making 4000 net easy. IBM and LG and 3M and all the other large corps who settled down here are the only ones still offering such dismal salaries, since they originally budgeted to be paying Poles peanuts for another decade. They seriously expected qualified IT workers and engineers to run them 500 dollars a month.

Work / Teaching English in Krakow -- how to find students? [52]


I dont disagree, one of my cardinal sins as a beginning teacher was overusing Polish to explain tasks, it taught my students it was acceptable to use Polish with me or revert to it the second they had problems saying something in english. I learned my lesson.

But having the ability to instantly translate not just words but idiomatic sentences? Get real, it helps your students tremendously. Its nice some of you speak Polish, but are you fluent in it? Take any word, like lets say a student wants to say that tomorrow theyre going 'na rehabilitacje staw skokowy'. What would you say? Uhhhh? I just had a student ask me that an hour ago. And quite honestly you MUST have the polish definitions for specific vocab words. 'Cod' is just the tip of the iceberg here.

Btw, do any natives teach lower levels??? Like an A1 level?

Real Estate / Just by gauging the interest in this forum says all about property in PL [36]

Oh wait I heard of that, but those arent mortgages mortgages in the same way as in Poland, the US, the UK etc, those are those inheritance deals or those infinite mortgages the Swiss have.

Work / Teaching English in Krakow -- how to find students? [52]


Youre not even 20? Then quite honestly you will have serious problems finding work, sorry.


Then in that case no. You will have to look around for a decent gig but I doubt youll have a problem.

Work / Teaching English in Krakow -- how to find students? [52]


Does it make a difference? I would say it does if you really are bilingual. How common is it? Very rare. Im one of them, born and bred American but speak fluent Polish since my parents were Poles. A decent wage? Well if thats all you can offer than maybe. If you have a uni degree, some TEFL certification, have a knack for teaching, are amiable and generally fun to be around with, and can put together a decent lesson, youre golden.

Real Estate / Just by gauging the interest in this forum says all about property in PL [36]


How is that even possible when an average home costs about 1000e/m2, attainable for lots of Germans. I think you read that wrong, they probably change mortgage lenders 3 times or more seeking better rates.

Real Estate / Just by gauging the interest in this forum says all about property in PL [36]


I know its bleak, but for me those are serious fundamental issues that require long term planning and a tremendous amount of time and money to correct. I dont think a single person in Poland seriously considered what life will look like in 10 years in this country. Of course I wish it was otherwise. And anyway, so what, most people in 10-20 years will want to dump their old commie apartment for something new, then who will buy the old apartments that are falling apart? Theyll have no value, and look at how many could come onto the market.

Most of the communist buildings were built with an life span of 30-40 years, most build in the 70s. Some are already approaching 50. The problem is, how do you destroy a bloc owned by 100 people and then build a new one? And I doubt those who took on 30/40 year mortgages to buy a flat in one of those buildings are considering leaving any time soon.

edit:
I know about the quality issues on new projects, my cousins 5 year old flat has severe structural and plumbing issues, which make you wonder how long they will actually last. Which goes right back to the question, whos going to buy this crap in 10-30 years? Sure some of the communist blocs were built rock solid, using quality bricks and concrete and overengineered. But not all.

USA, Canada / Dual citizenship - US doesn't care if you don't give up Polish passport [103]


Yes, they are. I have dual citizenship/passports and am working on a third.

USA, Canada / Finding a job without work permission in the US [32]

In todays economy you dont have a chance. Most manual jobs are taken up by South Americans and every other service related job is in the hands of college grads that cant find work or others who are underemployed.

Of course there are regions and certain professions in the US that are unaffected, parts of the Midwest come to mind and for example skilled jobs like nursing/biomed/computer networks/scientists, but untrained/black market jobs, no chance.

Real Estate / Just by gauging the interest in this forum says all about property in PL [36]

Not just price wise, as in totally flat for years and years, but that there will be a huge surplus of apartments on the market, the only active buyers/renters will be dominated by those in their 20s/30s and therefore will largely be a renters market.

Look, the older generation is dying in droves, few Poles can make it past 75, almost all live in communist blocs or spacious prewar apartments by themselves, one of the benefits of communist 'housing for all'. Most will be inherited and, boom, a substantial part of the population will have their housing taken care of. Why drown in a sea of loans when your grandparents left your family 2 apartments to choose from?

I guess it also goes without saying that most parents that had or will have children at most 2 children, but the single child is predominant. So when those grandparents die and their parents in 20 years, that single child will have anywhere from 3-4 pieces of real estate in their name Not bad.

But thats not even that important, the problem in Poland is that the population peaked in 1995 and has been dropping since, the birth rate is now at a 1:1 ratio with the death rate, but that the birth rate in Poland is dropping like a rock. In 10 years all studies point to the 1:2 ratio at the minimum.

So whats that mean? In 10-15 years, when those who went crazy are only halfway through paying their mortgages at 10k zl/m2, there will be very little demand on property ownership.

I have no idea how this could shape up, but you can see its not looking good. Coupled with the fact that there are very few migrants coming into Poland which did in fact save a few Western european countries, that a lot of Poles want to leave Poland, and that Polish society, culture, and language isnt exactly 'open' and easily accessible, and that government policies on economic growth/poverty reduction/improving quality of life are at best a joke, well...

edit:


No, like I said I dont have any real interest in or connections with real estate, no mortgage, just an inherited house.

Real Estate / Just by gauging the interest in this forum says all about property in PL [36]

Its nowhere close to rosey, its a downright toilet, and this concept of real estate 'investment' is going to take a lot of Poles to the poor house.


With hopes at still selling their flat at a profit? I have no agenda in this, Im not involved in the real estate market that much, but god damn most property was and still is severely overvalued. What I would be even more alarming are the serious demographic changes that are so obvious in Poland. In 10-15 all of Poland will be one giant Berlin.

Life / Polish "Mall Girl" Culture? [125]


You really think thats what Im trying to say??? Of course not. Im not talking about the 80s generation, but the 50/60s. Almost 1/4 to 1/3 of girls Ive met born after the 1980s had no fathers, or who were present but shouldnt have been (alcoholics etc), for a 'traditional Catholic' family mindset that must be quite a blow to children.


Sure its not defacto prostitution, in a way it actually seems like a good deal, she gets what she wants, he gets what he wants, there is some relationship involved, neat and simple. Just that these are 16 year old girls who are still incredibly insecure and immature, go ask them how a baby is made, I doubt 1/2 would be able to answer the question. I doubt any of them are self aware enough to understand what theyre doing and how badly theyre damaging their self esteem.

Btw, why did the girls call their sponsers 'frajer' then? Sure they chose, but not somebody they actually would want to be with. If these girls will ever be able to enter into a normal relationship is another thing, Im guessing no.

Life / Polish "Mall Girl" Culture? [125]


I know what you mean, but I think there are. Just the differences in upbringing are astoundingly different. The missing father just didnt exist in communist times, nowadays its all I hear, and the gap between what you really had (money, possessions, friends, relationships) and what you wanted to have grew by 100000x, many people have expectations that go above and beyond what I would say are grounded or even normal. Im getting sick of 20 something year olds complaing they cant afford an apartment a new car and vacations in the Caribbean... no 23 year old without rich parents could afford that.

Kind of off topic, I think the best generation of Polish women quite frankly is in their 30s right now and a surprising amount are single, quite different from the 'must have boyfriend every waking moment of life' thing most Polish girls and woman have.


Also dont know what you mean, like its any different in Lithuania or the Ukraine? And if it is then wait another two years or so. The growing pains of very poor country trying to be rich.

Love / They seem nice, but could Polish girls be "gold diggers"? [196]

A thread on polish woman's kompleksy would work far better than this one

Life / Polish "Mall Girl" Culture? [125]

I think this goes far far deeper than a simple moniker of 'prostitution', but more in the way relationships and sex is so strictly structured in Poland, how the entire dating scene works, on the difficulty in meeting partners, and on the materialistic wants of the yonger generation obviously not being met by their own salaries or of their parents.

Its a disappointment though that articles like these rarely take into account the other side, ie, all these 21st century woes, those poor girls, capitalism/materialism, lets find fault in the parents, etc etc, but nothing is mentioned on the guys who bang these girls?

I think any foreigner who has dated Poles in Poland was maybe a few times taken aback at certain behavior, those infamous polskie kompleksy, and its a shame that the newer generation evidently is being raised to be something far worse than the older communist generation IMHO.

Work / Teaching English in Krakow -- how to find students? [52]

If its just for 2 months its makes no sense to get any teaching credentials, as a CELTA course itself takes a solid month to do.

The problem is that Krakow is filled with so called 'English teachers', most of which have fallen into disrepute and have depressed wages across the board. If you feel you have a knack for teaching, understand how an English lesson should look like, and have a good personality/sense of humor etc, then teaching lessons regularly should be easy. If youre some kind of troll, well...

A few places to advertise are gumtree.pl, gratka.pl, ang.pl etc etc

Law / To know about the Jatux company in Poland? [33]

Wow its this easy to scam people???

Life / COMBATING "POLACK" JOKES [460]

Mexican jokes? Russian jokes? Irish jokes? All of them make fun of a nationality for being dump, alcoholics, poor etc etc. Why are Poles any special? Oh yea, the infamous Polish complex.

I was driving in my car with another Polish guy talking about this very thing. He said a lot of the same things mentioned here but I had to cut him off because I had a feeling my turn signals werent working since a few people honked when I changed lanes.

I stopped the car and asked him to get out and let me know if they were working, 'no spoks bez problemu', he gets out, I turn them on and ask "so are they working?"

He says, 'Yes theyre working, wait wait, no theyre not working, now theyre working, now theyre not working.