Life / Why are Poles always so miserable? Why do they never smile? [512]


And that's the problem. Poles never smile. They are sooo formal. I smile a lot. I'm smiling now. I smile when I'm eating soup and I'm usually grinning like a wanking Chinaman in a lesson.

Go on - I defy you to put an avatar picture up with a smile on it.

Life / Why are Poles always so miserable? Why do they never smile? [512]


Dude, don't take this the wrong way, but are you high?

Life / Why are Poles always so miserable? Why do they never smile? [512]


Heh!
I'm going to hit the hay. Got to get up early to make some kids happy about 0800. Not to mention my soup's waiting in the bedroom and I don't want it to get cold. Nighty night

Life / Do you think that Polish people are rude? [951]


You could have a point there. Certainly in some big cities like Lodz the majority of the resident urban Poles are only a generation or so away from the village and their rural origins. It might simply be that they are not used to living in such close contact with so many other people. Manners are said to be a social lubricant (like KY jelly I guess) and it's no accident that countries which became urbanised quite early have some of the best reputations for 'manners' (holding doors open, not pushing onto the bus, not spitting in the street, not sitting on their balconies with a beer and only wearing their underpants and a baseball cap etc.)

Life / Why are Poles always so miserable? Why do they never smile? [512]

Yes it is in't it? And you probably don't appreciate it on half as many levels as I do. heh heh heh!

Life / Do you think that Polish people are rude? [951]


Are these countries, Zed? Go read the post again.

Life / Do you think that Polish people are rude? [951]


Yes z, highly urbanised countries like Italy, Greece and the Middle Eastern ones are renowned, correctly or not, for having good manners. Did the 9 mins it took you to respond include the time spent moving your finger across the screen as you re read that post or was it figuring how to use the keyboard?

Please take your time to think - I don't want to pressure you!

Life / Do you think that Polish people are rude? [951]


You'd be surprised. They look like the guy from Beavis and Butthead - the one who sits at the back of the fat woman's caravan smoking a cigarette

UK, Ireland / English teenager refused service at Polish shop [87]


Wait until you have to go to a town hall or other civic office and ask them do to something for you. Oh, you just wait.

Study / American Muslim girl thinking to go to Medical school in Poland... [87]


What did you do?

Study / American Muslim girl thinking to go to Medical school in Poland... [87]


Shame. The problem is these little idiots always do this kind of thing when they know they can get away with it. A female colleague got her crotch grabbed by some Polish while she was walking past the school we were working. Of course the pervert ran off as soon as he could.

.. and you can whistle if you think you'll get any help from passers by...

Language / "Poles" or "Polish people" - which is better to use? [200]


Mongolia - Mongoloid
Lesbos - Lesbian
Crete - Cretin ?

Study / American Muslim girl thinking to go to Medical school in Poland... [87]


Not really. A number of Americans study at Lodz medical school. I guess it's cheaper than the states.

History / Poles in the Napoleonic era [224]


What was bad about Napoleon anyway? If he had unified Europe, there wouldn't have been any world wars

Study / American Muslim girl thinking to go to Medical school in Poland... [87]


Be prepared for a lot of staring and giggling from people in the street. They do it to everyone though because most of them have lived a very limited life. Violent / aggressive incidents are very rare or unheard of but you might well get unfriendly behaviour in offices from time to time. Then again, that's the same for everyone...

Study / American Muslim girl thinking to go to Medical school in Poland... [87]


Congratulations! Keep in touch - it's good to know a doctor or two.

Food / What's your favorite Polish beer? [870]


Maybe so - a lot of the Polish breweries have been taken over by the big multinationals and they look to cut costs. It might even be that their own beers are just pumped out in Poland but under a Polish brand - Zywiec is basically Heineken these days...

History / Why will Poland always be the puppet of America? [159]


I find that hard to believe, as anyone who can appreciate a gang of clowns throwing pies at each other can appreciate Polish politics

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

What does 'jeden pies' mean?

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


A - "Hej, Magda!"
B - "Marta!"
A - "Jeden pies..."


Sounds about right...

Work / I'm interested in teaching in Poland and I need some help. [33]


This is the kind of guy you're competing with to get a place in a language school. Don't worry you'll be ok.

There's a big list of contact details for private schools here: ang.pl/szkoly_jezykowe.php

Otherwise, sticking to the bigger chains will usually guarantee more professionalism. Bell and IH always pay on time and they at least make an attempt at teacher training and care.

Study / Is Poland a good place to study for Black Africans? [90]


True, but to be fair Poles will stare at anyone they think is the slightest bit different to themselves - nationality, social class, other side of town, richer etc...

Work / I'm interested in teaching in Poland and I need some help. [33]


It sounds like PASE has changed a lot from when they did the inspection on my old school - it was joked that all that was required was to take the inspectors out for a meal and give them a nice hotel room. They missed the lack of work visas, the poorly coordinated programmes of study and the irregularities with teachers' contracts.


So true


Thanks! Help yourself to a coffee it's over there by the station

Work / International House - Kracow school - any chances of being offered a job there [59]


It'll give you a lot of tricks to help you through your first few weeks in your first job but it won't really help you deal with the management or the biz in general. Remember that teachers are the ******* of education - everyone beats on them: management, students and even other teachers.

Still Krakow is a beautiful city and a perfect place to study for a month or so. Things might have changed over th last few years but the staff used to be some of the best I've met. Worth considering if you've set your heart on a CELTA.


You had a dishwasher? And a washing machine?

Work / International House - Kracow school - any chances of being offered a job there [59]


It's a sad fact that the English teaching market in Poland is driven by price not quality. School owners want bright and bouncy 21 year olds straight off a degree, ideally with a CELTA, who are going to entertain the customers and not have an opinion on teaching. They'll complain that 'natives are unreliable' when these 21 year olds stay in the pub till 2 in the morning on a weekday but it's a fair trade at the end of the day because they won't start demanding better standards like a more experienced teacher would (eg Being paid. On time. As agreed)


Very tempting. Do that for two years and save up - you could move back to Poland and take the next 5 years off....


Who was teaching you? Magda and Basia?

UK, Ireland / Brits to protest against foreigners in the workforce, including Poles. [289]


Thanks for taking the time to write, whatnext. Sorry to hear about your situation and I hope it improves soon - these things go in cycles after all and things can only get better as the song goes. Many folks in your position would be beating on the Poles by this stage (metaphorically) and it's good to see you have a view of the bigger picture.

The way I see it, it's an issue for the factory owners and other big fishes in the UK; They want migrant labour because it's cheap and disposable, two trends that have been running hot since herr (frau?) Thatcher's term back in the 80s. This screws the British worker, screws the Polish worker (working at minimum wage for 3 years in a factory in Walsall when you have a degree?) and ultimately screws the rest of the local community.


I totally agree. I would add legislation to force employers to offer the same conditions to Brits and foreign labour (if it could be done) but the government will never agree to this when there's so much cheap fresh foreign blood to be poured into the machine. The only way is to wait it out to when Poland's economy starts attracting the workers back, and it will soon - not everyone wants to work abroad.

Best of luck to you and your husband

Work / Is it normal for companies/schools in Poland to be rude? [116]


As Pantsless says, not worth spending time on. I can inderstand what you've written here from the context and remember that many natives also say fink fought and free.

The big problem with schools in my opinion is the huge burdern they carry from the public sector - the chaos, the apathy and the lack of concrete results.


Spot on. This should be part of a CELTA course, but then again anyone not in denial learns it in their first year. Is this also typical of the rest of Poland?

Work / Do Polish employers regularly fire pregnant workers? [4]

Thanks but my wife has friends who were fired soon after taking maternity leave. She also used to work in an HR department where the management team would pressure her into doing the same.

It sounds like the usual thing - you shouldn't get fired but everyone ignores the regulations...

Work / Polish qualifications, what are they worth ? [137]


Might be changing now thanks to the Bologna system...