As you may already know, I’ve had a lot of red tape to get through in my life in Poland. From residence cards, to getting married, to buying a house, it’s been tough but worth it. Now I’m caught up in a new bureaucratic nightmare, which started just days before the birth of my second child – this time with ZUS. Here we go again.
I know there are some taboo topics in Poland like sex (actually true), supposedly money (but everyone talks about it all the time), and health – the topic of today’s post. I’ve had so many situations recently where someone has kept what seems like perfectly normal information about their medical health from me, and it drives me absolutely mad! Please don’t tell me you’re going to the hospital but not why. Please don’t tell me your kid is near death by not why. Please don’t tell me you got a biopsy but not of what. PLEASE. I can’t stand it anymore!
Polish guys are a lot of things. They love football (the European kind), they’re not players, they’re serious meat-eaters, they’re down-to-earth, they can hold their liquor, they aren’t afraid of commitment, and they aren’t particularly open about their feelings. The list goes on. Sound like a bunch of generalizations? Perhaps so, but I think they apply in this case.
There are plenty of taboo topics in Poland that you should probably avoid in casual conversation, but you don’t bring those topics up on a daily basis. This is one thing you might not even think about. It’s something you probably do without thinking. For sure you think it’s polite and even necessary. Read on to find out what it is you’re doing that makes Poles cringe.
For those of you who don’t know, I’m a Floridian. In other words, I suck at winter. And every year I struggle to get through it. And every year when I’m on the other side – in Spring – I think “how the eff did I survive that?!” I’m continually collecting new ideas for how to overcome it. However, my dream is just to spend the winter in Florida. Oh, how lovely that would be. For now, I’m here in Poland… indefinitely. Here’s what winter in Poland means to me.
So you’re thinking about lessons with a native, eh? You’re wondering if it’s worth the money and whether they’re better equipped to prepare you to use English in real life than a non-native English teacher. Well there are a few issues to consider and I’ll outline them here. Read on to find out when and why you should learn English with a native speaker.
There’s a real difference in the way Americans and Poles show their feelings. Americans love talking, so they’re very specific about theirs – so much so it’s sometimes cringy-worthy. Poles are sometimes so non-descript about their romantic feelings that you’d think they were cold. But it’s not like that. There are two huge differences in our modes of expressions – Americans say and Poles show.
As an English teacher and person who lives with a Pole, I spend a lot of time speaking English with non-natives but also speaking Polish, so I know how these common Polish phrases/words should be used! There are a lot of common errors, but these are a few you might not have heard in your typical English course. For those of you who’d like to quickly improve your everyday English skills, check out these 7 Polish phrases to start translating correctly:
Polish pronunciation is famously challenging for people from abroad. Not many are able to master even the simplest words, much less tongue twisters or ridiculous names. If one more person says Grzegorz Brzęczyszczykiewicz to me, I’ll scream. Ever met someone with that name? No. I know it’s hard to say and hilarious to hear foreigners try to say it, but I’m talking about it words which we actually USE. Read on to find out which Polish words I use frequently that I’ve found the hardest to master.
Maternity leave in Poland is a beautiful thing that they do very well and America is really lacking. I had a baby last year, so I enjoyed the one year of receiving maternity benefits (mine just ended… *tear*). It’s a beautiful thing for women to have the comfort of staying home with their babies to care for and nurture them for the first 6 months – 1 year of life, especially if they’re breastfeeding. I can’t tell you how fortunate I felt to spend 4 months at home with my son and then return to work part-time as the maternity leave pay gave me the freedom to do so. I know that living in the States, it would have been more of a struggle and I’d have had to return to work earlier. Having a baby in Poland? Read on to find out what Poland has to offer your in your first year of maternity.