Moving to Poland, Ireland, Belgium or Finland?

I like Polish culture, watched Reksio the dog cartoons as a kid, loved the Nysa vans etc. I've always loved how Polish language sounds. I find Polish cities to be green and lovely in general, especially compared to the almost vegetation-free streets of Prague. I've looked for a job there, however, it seems the salaries are very low. Also the UK, Ireland and Germany are full of Polish expats living there (so many Polkas on Tinder in those places! :P). My thinking is if locals run away abroad, then the job situation is not so great, right?

As for Finland, I like Finnish and Baltic cultures but of course Finland has the best salaries there. However, I'm not that in love with it as with Poland.

Same for Ireland, I like Ireland basically because it's the closest thing in Europe to the USA (the Irish are said to be much friendlier than the British). However, Irish cities look a bit gray unlike, say, the lovely Lublin. Another option is Belgium but not sure about the security there. I like how coastal Belgium (De Panne) looks like.

Or work for a few years in Western Europe and buy a property in Poland? But with a Business degree I'm not sure what jobs I could find in Poland.

In what way? Do you mean because they speak English?


There are only two Irish cities, Dublin and Cork. The rest are really just towns, even Galway. The coastline is beautiful but grey skies, rain and high winds are there year round. Of course there's a bit of sunshine and the temperatures are moderate, never very hot, never very cold but there's no escaping the fact that the weather is depressing.

^Irish people are more welcoming than Brits. Also, Cork for example looks similar to San Francisco in a way.

The money is not great and this is precisely why Poles are choosing to work abroad. You are not going to get rich if you plan to settle in Poland, and if you don't speak Polish you are not likely to be earning much at all unless you have a skill which is in demand and work for an International company for example.

Have you actually spent any length of time in Poland? Holidays are one thing, living there on a day to day basis is quite another.

That's a bit of a myth really. Irish people are more superficially friendly in that they're very relaxed and will chat easily with strangers but it's hard to get beyond the casual acquaintance stage with the Irish.


You mean it looks physically like San Francisco?? Don't see the similarity myself. It's a good place to be if you're very into cultural things like ballet, opera, art, music but the city itself is not the friendliest place. Cork people are considered quite 'clannish'.

It's quite hard to find a job in Ireland outside of Dublin. If you work in Galway or Cork and lose your job, it can be a struggle to find another. Also the cost of living, particularly rent is very high and outside Dublin public transport is almost non-existent.

Now having said all that, there are plenty of people who move to Ireland and are very happy there, but whatever country you're considering you really need to do your research first.

You mention Prague - if you're Czech, you might find it easiest to adapt to Poland and it's not too far from home. You could give it a try for a year or so.

I've never been to Ireland, although I've met scores of Irish (NOT "Irish-Americans"!!) over the years here in the US, from grade school on down through college, and I must agree with the superficial friendly part completely.

Often, I would mistake an affable "hello" for an invitation to chat some, and was frequently puzzled by the look of consternation, quizzically raised eyebrow of slight annoyance, and rushed discomfort on the face my interlocutor!

In this respect, the Germans for instance, couldn't be more different. Little to any idle patter, but once engaged, they tend to hold forth with no holds barred on exactly what's on their mind. The Irish by contrast come across often as more "quick-tempered" or mercurial, less steadily focused on the topic at hand than the Germans, who

more usually than not (especially at meetings) can go into excruciating depth and detaile where for the rest of us merely a one or two-word answer would suffice nicely.

:-)

Apologize if my observations seem like stereotyping.

I see the similarities between The Irish and The Poles again.....

For example.

I really don't think we're quick tempered. We're much more placid than Poles, definitely. But less steadily focused, yes. Meetings in Ireland are full of inconsequential chit-chat and it takes ages to get to the point. The Irish have a very indirect communication style and although we understand what's going on, foreigners may not! We read between the lines a lot, so we know what when Michael says 'yes, that's a possibility, we could look into that' he actually means 'no way are we going to do that' :))

I read a very interesting memoir once of a diplomat and he was talking about the first encounters between the Irish and the East German authorities back in the 1970s. The Germans were completely bewildered as you can imagine. The very first meeting they had, they were taken to somebody's house and into the kitchen and given tea and scones :D On another occasion, in the first meeting between the Germans and Irish delegates, there was a traffic jam and the Germans arrived about half an hour late at the President's official residence, in a lather of anxiety about this terrible faux pas. When they got there, ready with their profuse apologies, they were left waiting for about 20 minutes (in a comfy sitting room of course) and then an official came in, and greeted them with "Hello, how are you? You're very punctual"!

atrocious racial stereotyping..

Agreed, the French are the least welcoming in Europe.

Atch,

Compared with the Poles I've encountered you're surely right on about that, agreed! Enjoyed the Irish-German anecdote, especially because it's true:-)

I don't think there's any nationality capable of talking at such length as the Irish without really saying anything of consequence. It used to drive Mr Atch nuts when I'd start with a long-winded preamble, on something as basic as what we should have for dinner, skirting around the topic, making qualifying statements eg

Mr Atch: What shall we have for dinner?
Mrs Atch: Well I suppose it depends really.
Mr Atch: Depends on what?
Mrs Atch: Well it's hard to decide two hours in advance what you might like to eat that far ahead.
Mr Atch: We must decide on something if we need to cook it.
Mrs Atch: Well that depends. Now if we have pasta, that'll be quicker than spuds..........I'm not sure that we should have meat. We're eating a bit too much red meat. It's very bad for the colon you know and I don't really want to go to the supermarket and the meat in the Targowsiko is not the best. Do you know the other day I was there and I saw............blah, blah, blah.

whereas a 100% Polish couple would say:
What shall we have for dinner?
What about beet soup, spuds and kotlety with some red cabbage?
Lovely!

And I watched Krecik [Krtek] cartoons as a kid so we're even :-P

Two years ago I've visited Moravia on my way to Venice. I made a detour from highway and found myself driving through some small villages with houses covered in green and nice gardens in front of them. It looked similar to Lesser Poland region.

According to the Irish-German anecdote, Balkan people are more similar to the Irish, despite being physically closer to Germans.