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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

Off-Topic / Happy Birthday, Rich! [71]

Wszystkiego najlepszego z okazji Twoich urodzin, Panie Rysku!
Zycze Ci dlugich szczesliwych lat.
Na przyjazn (choc nie sie porozumieja) :-)

Life / Why do so many Polish strive to be accepted by the West? [78]

Multiculturalism indeed has her limits, and that's just a plain fact(-oid)!
However, any society can only benefit, in limited supply of course, from a good old-fashioned "beef injection", so to speak, from neighboring cultures. This if for no other reason merely to show in this case Poland, how fortunate she is.

We all strive for acceptance and we all need one another.
One can though only imagine how staid, boring, and monotonous for instance the US would be, if she were populated solely by Anglo-Saxon colonists, bereft of what certain foreign civilizations might bring to bear on American life:-)

I realize too that Poland is in essence an extremely homogeneous ethnic unit, in her core Catholic, conservative, and preservationist.
Yet throughout the entire animal kingdom, even game preserves have only enriched their livestock through the introduction of outside fauna in an attempt to procreate a new, healthier species.

Perhaps someone here more conversant with Dr. Goodall could enlighten us on this matter.

Life / Why do so many Polish strive to be accepted by the West? [78]

Irreversibly ill?? Suffering then from what, pray? Humanity, perhaps?

Life / Why do so many Polish strive to be accepted by the West? [78]

It's the everlasting lure of cheap labor, Rich! If you can pay two cents on the dollar rather than full price, you'd be a príze chump not to take advantage of it-:)

Life / Why do so many Polish strive to be accepted by the West? [78]

Back to the original thread topic, fact is Poland IS part of the West! Russia's the East.
Poland adopted Christianity and the Latin alphabet whereas Russia retained her Cyrillic script and deviated from mainstream Christianity, Poland embraced both the Papacy and Enlightenment philosophy.

@Cojestdocholery, I reiterate that cheap labor on the part of Capitalist business is what attracts foreigners to any richer nation.

Life / Why do so many Polish strive to be accepted by the West? [78]

Cheap labor most certainly does exist, Rich! Doesn't take a Harvard MBA to figure that one out.
Poles were for a time the cheap labor in NYC as housekeepers, low-level secretaries etc. merely a significant cut above, Chinese, Haitians, and Hindus for various positions which once were occupied by native English speaking Americans.

Every time you or I applied for a job, e.g. office manager, teacher etc. and someone with a noticeable accent from any country other than Northern Europe or the UK either occupied such a post or interviewed us for such a post, buddy boy, that's cheap labor in action.

Life / Why do so many Polish strive to be accepted by the West? [78]

"Garbage English" has become the new lingua franca of the planet, Archer, so don't let's single out Eastern Europe, please!

Life / Why do so many Polish strive to be accepted by the West? [78]

If you mean academic as opposed to survival English, survival as what? Poland needs to catch up to UK standard, and quick.

Life / Why do so many Polish strive to be accepted by the West? [78]

Getting rather far afield here, aren't we!

Life / Why do so many Polish strive to be accepted by the West? [78]

One can tell:-)

Life / Is it normal for men to abandon their children in Poland? [26]

In a great deal of Europe during the period following the Black Death, it was not uncommon for certain families with step children especially, to abandon them in the woods, presuming they would die of thirst and starvation!

While it sounds unspeakably cruel, ghastly, indeed inhuman, poor farm families often had difficulty feeding their own, not to mention surplus children.

The latter was the basis for Haensel & Gretel along with numerous other such fairy tales.

Life / Stereotypes about Polish people being stupid? [281]

True, Alien!
Have heard great stuff about Polish produce, particularly apples:-)
Back to the threat topic, Poles were and are scarcely the only ones in Europe with an often unfounded reputation for being "backward".
During much of the 19th century, the Swedes of all people, were deemed semi-literates in the United States, who sounded like clodhoppers when they spoke English.

And the Frisians remain the butt of all jokes in Germany.

Today, as with the Poles, the Swedes more than caught up to the rest of the West, and like Poland, Sweden is as much at the top of her game as any other country I can think of.

Life / Stereotypes about Polish people being stupid? [281]

Indeed that's already been covered here at some length.

Life / Stereotypes about Polish people being stupid? [281]

I beg to differ! Poland has been the "Miracle on the Vistula" for a while now and has had a prominent IT industry since at least the early 2000's.

Surely, Poland still has a way to go, yet all things considered, she's doing far better than once expected.

Life / Stereotypes about Polish people being stupid? [281]

Ha-ha, Rich!
Poland has advanced considerably since '68 and you know it:-)

Life / Stereotypes about Polish people being stupid? [281]

Sounds alot like Russia right around perestroika and glasnost.

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

Hi,
Just sent you a private PF (Polish Forum) message.
I can be reached at tarsape@gmail.com

Study / Various education and school issues in Poland. Opinions, stories, controversies. [849]

When writing, we usually tend to think about what we're saying before committing finger to keypad. While there's always GoogleTranslate to fall back on, when we speak, typically we have to react spontaneously to the interlocutor, something made all the harder through native language interference. Most of us revert to our mother tongue when either stressed or eager to express ourselves as we would in our first language!

Genealogy / Did Polish last names derive from city / village names? [9]

Many Polish-born Jews and/or Jews of Polish shtetl origins typically in the US have city-derived names, e.g. Warsaw, Berliner etc.
As Jews moved from place to place, most adapted the name of the city or town in which they were currently residing.

Po polsku / Staram się polepszać się po polsku :) [85]

Wesolego Alleluja.....zapozniony!

Po polsku / Staram się polepszać się po polsku :) [85]

Tak wierza Chrzesjany:-)

Life / The Pole, as an example of a perfect Russophobe, in a spherical vacuum [42]

Semyon Petliura lived around the era of Count Vyacheslav von Plehve and was responsible for numerous pogroms, I believe.
Lithuania was much better in the pogrom department, was it.

History / What do Poles owe to Hungarians? [231]

Orban and Fidesz will gradually be the death of European democracy, along of course with Mme. Le Pen!
Now the Hungarian gov't. is being faced with a choice; support Putin or Ukraine.

Life / The Pole, as an example of a perfect Russophobe, in a spherical vacuum [42]

A most informative post, jon.
Many thanks,

History / What do Poles owe to Hungarians? [231]

You conveniently ignore the Le Pen factor...as Macron's quietly angsting far from public view.
I have an American view of Europe much as you seem to have a British (notice I never said "European" in deference to a post-BREXIT UK) view of the States.

What's the difference other than you wishing to feel schoolmasterly and superior?
:-)