Life / Brazilian moving to Gdansk and need some help with finding a flat to rent and also a good school for daughters [33]

It depends on your priorities. 1500-2000 will get you an average type of flat. It may not be in the best neighbourhood / street. You may have young people drinking in the estate at night being noisy. With a 9K pln net salary - you could easily afford a high end flat for a bit more 2000- 3000pln all bills inc (even heating) 45-50m2 and still have enough to spend on going out, holidays etc. It could be a flat with high ceilings in a period property renovated to a high standard in the centre or a modern flat in an exclusive 'osiedle' (estate) or even a sea view. If you want to avoid paying 1/2 a month's rent as commission to an agent and also avoid your landlord paying the same and perhaps using this to negotiate a bit more from them, in the search criteria put 'bez posrednikow' or look on gumtree.pl or dom.trojmiasto.pl/

Poles value stuff like windows which get good sunlight i.e. not on the ground floor. So identical apartments may be priced differently for this reason and no-one's trying to rip you off.

example -
gumtree.pl/cp-mieszkania-i-domy-do-wynajecia/gdansk/bardzo-ladny-apartament-w-nadmorskim-dworze-609099772

Love / Recommendations for live wedding bands in different cities in Poland. [36]

I agree weddings are expensive. If you're having 100 people or so, they need to be entertained by professional musicians into the early hours. If it's just one day 4000 seems high however for a big 2 dayer than for me it's a normal price. However the price of a band could vary enormously based on their reputation and skills level. The best Polish weddings I've been to have been that way because of the band. They need to be good musicians but also able to be good presenters for the many games and activities that happen on the dance floor.

Here are some people discussing band prices in Poland 3 years' ago and 3000 for a day and 4500 for 2 seems normal.

f.kafeteria.pl/temat/zespol-na-wesele-ile-placicie-p_4907724

They also have to know that exact right moment when to chip in 'teraz idziemy na jednego'. :-)

Love / Recommendations for live wedding bands in different cities in Poland. [36]

RE: price. 4000 pln doesn't seem a lot when you factor in that 4-5 skilled musicians need to do a 12 hour set the first day and then another set the next day. So they may be taking 800pln for 2 days' work on a weekend and at unsociable hours. They can really make a Polish wedding great so get the best you can.

zespoly-weselne.pl/Rzeszow
netwedding.eu/zespoly-katalog.htm

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]


Yes even when I deal with advanced level English speakers their spelling is quite bad - sometimes they choose completely different words from the spellcheck. Even I can't say my spelling is great, sometimes I write words as they sound automatically when I'm typing fast and then need to go back to check.

Anyway going back to the topic. This youtube was interesting on Poles' common mistakes in their language:



Some mistakes I've noticed in speech - poszłem, umię. Also, I can hear Poles self-correct their use of cases especially then they're using relative pronouns which of course define the phrase following it. I've heard six year olds make mistakes with declining the numbers when an English six year old can spend time learning new words instead of 17 ways to decline two. But on the whole I'd say the complexity of Polish makes Poles work hard on it and in general they're probably more correct in speaking their own language when compared to the English even though the language is much easier to pick up.

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]

Polish is classed as a medium difficult language, same as Thai, Finnish, requiring 1,100 class hours to learn double that of learning Spanish, French..
voxy.com/blog/index.php/2011/03/hardest-languages-infographic

Language / Extremely Hard - Polish the hardest language to learn [226]

Polish is classed as a medium difficult language, same as Thai, Finnish, requiring 1,100 class hours to learn double that of Spanish, French..

Language / Polish slang phrases - most popular. [606]

Does anyone know some good phrases for stupid car drivers you can say - along the lines of debił, palant, matołek, kretyn, bałwan, baran....? Not too strong though.....

Travel / Where do Polish people fly to for beach vacations in the winter? [34]


I don't know many barmen in any country in Europe high or low wage who could afford to live in a flat on their own, they usually share. So if they're doing this I understand they can't afford to go on holiday. But to clarify anyone earning the average wage in Poland which is around the 4000pln gross mark could save enough for a winter holiday and I know plenty who do. I understand not everyone reaches this but a large number do after a few years in the job market and a decent education. In Warsaw there are plenty of skilled tradespeople getting this salary and more - plumbers, electricians etc. Some of them are now earning similar to what they'd get in other European countries taking into account lower cost of living here. Unskilled warehouse and low wage hospitality workers probably can't afford to do much if their parents don't pay. They may go for majowka to Croatia as others suggest for 750pln for a week - travel and hotel.

Travel / Where do Polish people fly to for beach vacations in the winter? [34]

Some areas on the Tunisian coast are like little Poland. There are a lot of Polish dominated hotels and they are popular in the winter months with temperatures similar to summer on the Baltic. Any working Pole could afford to go there.

Life / What is the cost of living per month for a single expat in Warsaw? [19]

Hi
Try gumtree to look for houseshares or there are also some Warsaw groups on facebook where people advertise rooms. The money's OK for basic living and going out if you're sharing. You may find someone with a spare room in the centre. You may not have a lot of choice for such a short period so just focus on anywhere a few kms around the centre.

English will be the best. With your fluent Russian, you should pick up some decent Polish quickly if you have around 10 hours of lessons. The grammar's very similar and many base verbs.