Law / My partner is Polish lives in UK more than 10 years [17]


Probably not. He is a fugitive from the law at the moment.


Yes. This will be taken as a sign of good faith and the authorities will be all to happy to help him get things sorted out very quickly. If they arrest him first, things will only be harder for him, so he should go back to Poland immediately and turn himself in before they find and extradite him.

Law / My partner is Polish lives in UK more than 10 years [17]


He should report immediately in person to the police station in Poland and turn himself in. Until then, he is a fugitive from the law, and he can't get it sorted out until he turns himself in. After he does that, his attorney can help him get things sorted out. But it was stupid of him to not pay through the CSA, It will be more difficult for him to prove that he made direct payments. It could take some time.


He should report immediately in person to the police station in Poland and turn himself in. Until then, he is a fugitive from the law, and he can't get it sorted out until he turns himself in. After he does that, his attorney can help him get things sorted out. But it was stupid of him to not pay through the CSA, It will be more difficult for him to prove that he made direct payments. It could take some time.

Life / Political correctness in Poland [210]


Take Economics 101 at your local community college, and you'll find out. Or just read any introductory economics textbook. I'm not here to spoonfeed your lazy commie a$$.

Life / Political correctness in Poland [210]


You are aware that the economic system based on your statement happens to be called Marxism? At least you would, had you bothered to take Economics 101. The theory of how wealth is created in a capitalistic system is entirely different. So, as a good American, I have to ask:

Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist Party?

Life / Political correctness in Poland [210]


And Christians are the lowest earning religious group. Unitarians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and non-believers and Mormons outperform Christians, and among Christians, the groups that perform best are the progressive groups, with conservative groups lagging far behind.

Christians have lost their mojo. Big time. They're basically circling the bowl.

Life / Need Help on knowing the Work Culture, About People in Poland, Cost of Living in Gdynia [6]


This number is totally irrelevant to you as a foreigner. Even as a frugal single male, your cost of living will be considerably higher than that of a single male Pole. The ratio gets worse once you add a wife to the equation, and skyrockets for every school-age child.

These jobs make sense mainly for single males with modest needs and expectations and no bad habits. If that describes you, go for it. I would forget about it if you have school age children. It would be A LOT cheaper to keep the wife and kids at home in India and come on your own, and a lot more comfortable for everyone.

Life / Need Help on knowing the Work Culture, About People in Poland, Cost of Living in Gdynia [6]


15000 gross is 10000 net, which will be more than enough to comfortably support a young, single male will modest expectations and no bad habits (alcohol, tobacco, drugs and girls), without trips back to India or Western Europe, and allow for modest savings, which can approach 5000 PLN a month if he is frugal, careful and prudent.

For a couple, it is enough, but the savings will be considerably less.

For a couple with children, it will be a challenge, if at all possible.

Lot's of information about the other things you want to know on this forum. Use the search function.

Classifieds / Someone help me with the Polish visa appointment! [203]

No. No one can help you, and anyone who says they can is a scammer.

Work / Poland - Corporation in corpo, what to do if you work for 4 languages and you are not paid for? [7]

This isn't rocket surgery. What you do is negotiate for a higher wage, justified on your additional skills.

If they do not provide you with a wage that you are satisfied with, you look for a job with an employer who is willing to compensate you to your satisfaction. Since this is the most likely scenario, it would be best to get out there and look for a new job toute suite.

Language / I am looking for help to identify a song track which I believe is Polish. [25]

Apparently, the song has never been performed anywhere else than in this ad, so there is nothing for Shazam to identify.

Language / I am looking for help to identify a song track which I believe is Polish. [25]

Definitely not Polish. The commercial was filmed in a Warsaw subway station, God knows why, but the song is not in Polish.

USA, Canada / POLISH FOOD PURVEYORS IN THE USA (links) [3]


There are several different types of products that go under that name, and they can be unflavored, sweet or savory. You would have to know the brand you want. The Polish supermarkets in Chicago or New York should have some brands. There are similar products available in the US. Cream cheese is one possibility. American cheese is another. They are both types of "serek homogenizowany".

Classifieds / Looking for a business partner in POLAND ..... [42]

I get the feeling that the Ukrainians outnumber them now, even in the IT sector, or at least they will displace them in the very near future. New hires of Indians seem to have gone done considerably. Since very few of these Indians plan to stay more than two years, their share of the workforce will also quickly decline.

News / Three Poles beaten in front of family. The supects are American soldiers [36]


Super Express is a bottom-feeding tabloid that just makes random $hit up. It's worthless as a news source. But you know that.

Classifieds / Looking for a business partner in POLAND ..... [42]


Judging from the volume and content of posts to this forum and other forums over the past few years, it seems that job opportunities for people from India and other developing countries has just about dried up. Those jobs are now going to Ukrainians.


Ditto interest in studying in Poland among people from developing countries. There was a time when this forum received posts by genuine students asking relevant questions, but it has been a while since I have seen a post by someone who is genuinely interested in pursuing meaningful studies. Practically all of the perspective "students" who post nowadays are obviously looking for a backdoor into the EU, and intend to abscond for greener pastures in the West once they land in Poland. The serious students seem to have caught on that a degree from an English-language program in Poland is not worth much on the job market.

These English-language programs were designed to bring in cash with no strings attached and little expected in the way of quality from the rather undiscriminating target market. If anything, they damaged the reputation of Polish universities in that it made them appear they were little more than "visa schools". They seem to have peaked a few years ago.

I expect the number of Indians and people from developing countries to stagnate or drop as it becomes harder to exploit Poland as a back door to the richer countries of the EU, especially the UK. Poland seems to be clamping down on this by making rather hard to get a slot for a visa interview at their consulates. Most of the posts we get from people from developing countries these day are for help in getting a slot.

Law / I forgot to renew my Poland's temporary residence permit, what should I do? [9]


If you want qualified thoughts, you go to the Wydział do spraw cudzoziemców and get them straight from the horse's mouth, not to some anonymous internet forum populated by random unqualified individuals. If it turns out there are complications, you then consult with a competent and experienced immigration attorney.

Polonia / Procedure for obtaining a student visa at the Polish embassy in New Delhi? [26]

You just have to keep trying on your own. There are no other ways. Anyone who offers you any "help" in getting an appointment is a scam artist who just wants to steal your money. No one can help you. Your the only one who can get an appointment for yourself.

Food / Have Polish Women been Poisoned Yet to Hate Men. [60]

If you want to cry in your beer over your political worries, a good person to spend time with is Brett Kavanaugh. He LOVES beer.

But there's nothing manly in crying in your beer, is there?

Law / Karta Stałego Pobytu - Polish heritage and permanent resident permit in Poland [7]


That is not going to happen. Your Polish heritage is irrelevant in obtaining a residence permit.

Permanent residence is granted only after five years of temporary residence, for which you will need a real job with a real contract with an employer that is willing to go through the hassle of getting a work permit for you. And you have to get that job before you come to Poland. You are not allowed to look for work on a tourist visa.

I am assuming you are not from the EU or one of the former Soviet Republics. When asking questions like this, it helps if you state where you are from. It makes a huge difference.

Work / What are some good tips that you have that would boost my chance of getting a job in Poland after graduation? [5]

Possible? Yes, but then winning the lottery is also possible.

Probable? Not likely. Why would anyone bother hiring you when there are plenty of Ukrainians around to take any job that opens up.

If you are from outside the EU (except Ukraine), extremely unlikely. Make your plans on the very safe assumption that you will never be able to earn a single penny during your stay in Poland.

Forget about teaching English or giving English lessons. The competition is fierce, and it's very difficult for a newbie to enter the market unless they are willing to work for poverty wages under lousy conditions. If you are not a native speaker, you have zero chance. Indians do not count as native speakers.

Study / Coming to study at UITM Rzeszow, Poland [10]


It's not a real university, and is not allowed to call itself a university in the Polish language.


No. It is essentially worthless, both inside Poland and any other country.


With very few exceptions, English language programs in Poland are of low quality and reputation.


Students who can't get into real universities, and foreigners from third world countries that are not actually interested in studying, but in sneaking into the EU.

Language / "Taka prawda" - What does this Polish phrase mean? [19]

It's not Polish, but Old Church Slavonic. Hospodin pomiluj means "Lord, have mercy", and is sung many times during an Orthodox or Greek Catholic church service. Many, many, many times.

Work / Polish Canadian ESL job/student advice [78]


I highly doubt it. If you had, you would have a much more realistic conception of the field. My guess is that you dabbled in it, and never translated anything that need to be published.

I have translated about 1000 scientific and medical articles and twelve specialist books from German and Polish, and started translating and editing in 1983.

As far as academic translating goes, that is where the money is at. Outside of the upper reaches of the STEM. medical, financial and legal fields, translating rarely pays well, and work is hard to come by. It ain't easy making a living at it if you don't have high-level knowledge of a STEM or high finance or law, or if you don't have ABUNDANT experience in writing publish-ready copy for journalistic outlets on a short deadline.

Yes, that is a small part of the translating work that's out there, but it happens to be the only work that pays decent money. Most of the other "general" work is done by dabblers such as yourself, for a fraction of the pay. Few "general" translators make a living of it. By far most do it as a sideline, or for beer money.

I have translated about 1000 scientific and medical articles and twelve specialist books from German and Polish, and started translating and editing in 1983.

Genealogy / What does my Polish name mean? [400]

There are about 900 people with that surname in Poland, predominantly in Wielkopolska and Upper Silesia.

My first impression was that this is a Polonified German surname, and this was confirmed by Stankiewicz, who traces it back to the old German personal name "Kalc", which means "chalk" or "limestone". This is further confirmed by the geographical distribution. Both Wielkopolska and Upper Silesia had the highest rates of German settlement in Poland.

moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/kalka.html
stankiewicze.com/index.php?kat=44&sub=541

Work / Polish Canadian ESL job/student advice [78]


No they don't. There is no way around it. That is absurd. They can't "manage the situation" without intimate knowledge of the subject area, and in highly specialized fields, that takes years of study.

A good translator knows their limits, and steers clear of anything beyond their pay grade. And if they do want to translate beyond their pay grade, they seriously study for it.

Don't pontificate on a field that you know jack $hit about. Your conceptions of what translation involves are ridiculous. It is much harder than you seem to imagine, especially if you want to make a living at it.

Work / Polish Canadian ESL job/student advice [78]

It's the same for all specialized fields. The people who have the academic background necessary to translate are generally not interested in translating because they can make much better money working in their fields. And those who don't have the academic background aren't able to translate material at this level because they don't have a clue what they are translating, and never will unless they study it.

Translating is a easy field to get into, but a very difficult field to make decent money in unless you have some serious specialty. Anybody can be a translator; no formal qualifications, degrees or certificates are necessary beyond good writing skills in your own native language and good reading skills in the source language. Understanding the language is the easy part. Understanding the material that you are translating is another matter entirely.

All in all, if the OP aspires to be a translator, the worst approach is to get a masters in English. She should study a technical field to the point where she can easily understand technical literature in that field. But by then she would figure out that she can earn a better living actually working in the field herself. Compounding the error of choosing an unsaleable undergraduate major by piling on top of it an even more unsaleable graduate degree is a recipe for disaster.

And she should go where the money is. There is little money to be made in humanistic fields like art history. People working in fields like that don't have the money to pay a good translator. Those working in STEM fields and high finance, on the other hand, can afford to pay.

Work / Polish Canadian ESL job/student advice [78]


If you are not a natural at real-world networking, then translating is not an option for you. If you are not totally comfortable knocking on doors, forget about it. Practically all of the good work is advertised solely by word of mouth, person-to-person, face-to-face. Without an extensive real-world network, you are doomed. You might get a project now and then, but you'll never earn enough to butter your bread. Forget about the internet as a tool for finding jobs. You'll starve to death. Internet free-lancing pays peanuts.


No. It's something you have to have even before you consider translating, or that you seriously study. People do not "pick up" highly specialized subject matter. They study it for years, and have plenty of experience in writing about it. They know the formats and standards for publication in their field inside out.

If you don't understand science and scientific writing very, very well, then you are not going to be able to translate a scientific paper, no matter how much ad hoc "research" you do. Same with finance or economics. I wouldn't know how to translate a financial or economics paper, and no amount of "picking up" is going to change that. I would have to sit down and seriously study finance or economics for quite some time before I could make an attempt. And then I would have to learn the publishing formats and standards, which are completely different from those in science and medicine.

Genealogy / What does my Polish name mean? [400]

It's the name of a Catholic saint that is popularly venerated all over the world, including in Poland.

Work / Polish Canadian ESL job/student advice [78]


Indeed. If your goal is to make a career in translating, you don't need a degree in English, or any other language. You just need to know both languages very well, and, more importantly, be rather well versed in the subject matter to be translated.

The best paying jobs go to experienced native-English speakers who have a background in a specialty field like science, medicine, law, finance or technology, or have tons of experience in writing for the marketing and advertising industries. In any case, you need to be experienced in writing publish-ready copy for academic journals and grant proposals. Other types of translating do not pay well at all.

I'm a pathologist and clinical research scientist, with a background in industrial and environmental biology. During my time in Poland, I translated over 500 scientific articles and 10 scientific books from Polish to English, mostly in agriculture, botany and medicine. I had practically no competition. If you don't have a specialty field, then the best jobs are beyond your reach.

I often advise engineers that, if they want to make decent money and have a fun and exciting career, they should go where R&D dollars flow in wide rivers. The same with translating. Become proficient in the language of the well-heeled sectors of the economy. Making money is a lot easier where there is money to be made.

If you want to improve your Polish, then read your butt off. During my first three years in Poland, I spent forty or fifty hours a week reading Polish like it was going out of style. It was my default state. Plenty of books that you can download for free from the internet.

As for studying in Poland, you are going to get a lot more out of it if you study in Polish. Courses taught in English are nowhere near as good. Get your Polish up to snuff by reading like a maniac first, and then revisit the studying-in-Poland idea in a couple of years. Put aside a nest egg so that you can study and live without working. There's no hurry,

Genealogy / What does my Polish name mean? [400]

First of all, the proper Polish spelling would be Nepomucen.

It's from the name of a Czech saint, John Nepomucene in English. The name comes from the name of a Czech village called Nepomuk. See:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepomuk