пропозиції роботи
konto usunięte
konto usunięte
Temat: from West to East
A quite profoundly uninteresting question.
konto usunięte
Temat: from West to East
warren whitmore:
A quite profoundly uninteresting question.
as usually, a charmer!
konto usunięte
Temat: from West to East
Sylwia Kowalska:
warren whitmore:
A quite profoundly uninteresting question.
as usually, a charmer!
'Westerners' in Poland tend to be asked this question, on average, twelve times a day.
After having spent several years in Poland, the question has lost something of its novelty and charm.
konto usunięte
Temat: from West to East
warren whitmore:
'Westerners' in Poland tend to be asked this question, on average, twelve times a day.
After having spent several years in Poland, the question haslost something of its novelty and charm.
Well Warren, luckily you are free to reply or navigate back. Or you may choose to point out some valuable source of information if it’s such a common subject. I will feel privileged if you share some of your wisdom with me.
Bernd
Schreckenberg
I am an experienced
teacher, with a
diverse background,
h...
Temat: from West to East
I have to side with Warren. I usually tend to answer: "Wow, I've never been asked that. Let's see..." :PIt's funny to see how surprised people in Poland can react
a) when they learn that you freely decided to come to their country
b) that you stayed and don't plan to go back any time soon
c) that you actually can speak their language without breaking your tongue
During such a talk their eyes widen and widen and with total amazement they utter quite often something like: "But wouldn't be living in Germany so much better?"
Ignorance is bliss, isn't it? ;)
But to answer your question: I came here out of curiosity (and personal reasons).
Starting out as Erasmus-student, becoming a professional teacher for German, working right now on becoming a professional teacher for English too. Polish, French, Spanish and Japanese will be next, though not necessarily in that order :)
konto usunięte
Temat: from West to East
Bernd Schreckenberg:
During such a talk their eyes widen and widen and with total amazement they utter quite often something like: "But wouldn'be living in Germany so much better?"
well, I wouldn't go that far... maybe if I had a mind of an accountant. I don't feel inferior because the coutry I was born in was destroyed by neighbouring countries a few times and had to lift itself up from if far too many times.
I came here out of curiosity (an personal reasons).
curiosity of what?
Starting out as Erasmus-student, becoming a professional teacher
for German, (...)
I wasn't asking about what you do (I gather most foreigners work as teachers anyway) but what was your inner motivation.
konto usunięte
Temat: from West to East
Most 'Westerners' in Poland spend their time in front of their computer monitors not daring to venture outside for fear of being asked the dreaded question for the 12,447th time:"Why did you come to Poland?"
With a friend, we competed to make up progressively more absurd answers to this most irritating of questions.
The best answer seemed to be because we were wanted by the police back home for vile and disgusting crimes.
Bernd
Schreckenberg
I am an experienced
teacher, with a
diverse background,
h...
Temat: from West to East
Sylwia Kowalska:
Bernd Schreckenberg:
During such a talk their eyes widen and widen and with total amazement they utter quite often something like: "But wouldn'be living in Germany so much better?"
well, I wouldn't go that far... maybe if I had a mind of an accountant. I don't feel inferior because the coutry I was born in was destroyed by neighbouring countries a few times and had to lift itself up from if far too many times.
I came here out of curiosity (an personal reasons).
curiosity of what?
How long it will take Poland to become orderly?
;P
PS: I often tend to call myself a 'work-refugee'.
konto usunięte
Temat: from West to East
And I thought it was Bernd who liked being victimized...
Steve
Jones
Business English
Trainer, Translator,
Proofreader
Temat: from West to East
I'm thoroughly sick of the question too.I sometimes claim that I came to Poland to fulfill a childhood dream: to pickle
cabbages. Now I work in the import export of kiszona kapusta
Bernd
Schreckenberg
I am an experienced
teacher, with a
diverse background,
h...
Temat: from West to East
Tatiana S.:
And I thought it was Bernd who liked being victimized...
Hehe, yeah, I could say my ex-gf abducted me and sold me to a slave trader and since then I try to work off the dues ;P
konto usunięte
Temat: from West to East
My answer may have seemed aggressive.However, I believe it may be useful for others to realise the effect this question has.
Not only the question, but the manner in which it is usually asked. Something like: "Why did you choose to leave a paradise where the streets are paved with gold?" or "Why did you choose to amputate your own leg?"warren whitmore edytował(a) ten post dnia 23.01.10 o godzinie 10:53
Steve
Jones
Business English
Trainer, Translator,
Proofreader
Temat: from West to East
I really do wish Poles would get it out of their heads that Poland is a bizarre place to live.Lots of people live here. Many of them do ok even.
What's strange about it?
I wonder if Poles in the UK get bombarded with the question: why did you move to the UK?
A more likely question might be: why did you move to (for example) Widnes (a total shithole)?
If I lived in Radom, I might forgive someone for asking me: what made you decide to live in Radom?
But I live in Sopot, for heaven's sake!! Is it really so strange?Steve Jones edytował(a) ten post dnia 23.01.10 o godzinie 10:32
konto usunięte
Temat: from West to East
I'd say generally life for most people is easier in the U.K..Particularly child benefits and social insurance.
And you earn a helluva lot more.
I came out of misplaced curiosity, and discovered I could easily make a living here.
And now I have business, property and family here, so it's pretty difficult to leave.
Why do people with high educational qualifications leave Poland to work in some dead-end job in London, when in all probability they will never earn enough to buy their own property?warren whitmore edytował(a) ten post dnia 25.01.10 o godzinie 15:20
konto usunięte
Temat: from West to East
warren whitmore:An interesting question. Beside the obvious "it's easier to more money fast abroad than in Poland" in many cases the answer is that they don't have (or do not believe to have) enough entrepreneurial skills to start own businesses here (PL) or do not want to go through hell of Polish bureaucracy and complex law and rules. These things run smoother in the old capitalist countries. Poland will get there. Eventually.
Why do people with high educational qualifications leave Poland to work in some dead-end job in London, when in all probability they will never earn enough to buy their own property?
konto usunięte
Temat: from West to East
Jarek A.:
warren whitmore:An interesting question. Beside the obvious "it's easier to more money fast abroad than in Poland" in many cases the answer is that they don't have (or do not believe to have) enough entrepreneurial skills to start own businesses here (PL) or do not want to go through hell of Polish bureaucracy and complex law and rules. These things run smoother in the old capitalist countries. Poland will get there. Eventually.
Why do people with high educational qualifications leave Poland to work in some dead-end job in London, when in all probability they will never earn enough to buy their own property?
Very true.
For things to get better in Poland:
(a) ZUS needs to be abolished/reformed.
(b) Politics needs to change so that politicians and bureaucrats work for the public rather than for themselves.
I guess things aren't so different in Italy.
Basically, in Poland the authorities make running a legal business as difficult as possible. I don't really know why. Fairly obviously, the less they interfere, regulate and uneccessarily annoy those who create wealth, the greater the economy will grow, the greater the tax revenue they will receive, and the fewer the talented people who will choose to emigrate.
However, the powers that be appear too thick and corrupt to see things in such a way, and the general public too apathetic to force them to act in their interests through the ballot box.warren whitmore edytował(a) ten post dnia 23.01.10 o godzinie 16:05
Lidia K. +
Temat: from West to East
This question may be very annoying but it's very authentic, too.And you cannot educate the entire Polish society so they stop asking you this question. :-)
Bernd
Schreckenberg
I am an experienced
teacher, with a
diverse background,
h...
Temat: from West to East
warren whitmore:
For things to get better in Poland:
(a) ZUS needs to be abolished/reformed.
(b) Politics needs to change so that politicians and bureaucrats work for the public rather than for themselves.
Which is why many people might think: "I'm going abroad, they don't deserve me here. Me and my entrepreneurial skills, my knowledge, my fantasy, my skills."
Which puts them in nice company of generations of Poles which possibly thought the same...
;)
konto usunięte
Temat: from West to East
It’s interesting, you all from the start assumed that, in my view, you all came from some paradise lost and we poor Poles just can’t get our head around the fact that you chose to come here to enlighten us, barbarian Easterners, out of your own will. Did it ever occur to you that there might be a different interpretation of this question?To your surprise, I was simply wondering how someone from a Western chemosphere copes in a post communist country and its heritage. Obviously, it’s not something I would need to ask anyone coming from the East. Maybe I should make myself clear from the start but it came out to be a very interesting sociological experiment. Who was first, a chicken or an egg? A Westerner who thinks highly of himself or an Easterner with an inferiority complex?
To answer your questions Warren, not all well educated people from Poland end up in a dead end job. I know some that hate their jobs and I know others who love their jobs. And having a property is not an aim to everyone (how shocking!).
Personally, I think you’re an arrogant asshole but I also think you’re an intelligent guy but you missed it here totally. One doesn’t have to migrate from Poland to the West to boast how better educated she/he is. Among my friends it was a norm and it never occured to me, or my friends, to think this makes me a better person or gives me a reason to feel superior. Funny enough, my ex found out that I’ve got an MA after we knew each other for 3 years. You’d be surprised but my experience in the UK indicates, even though I am better educated than, not only a working class Brits, I have to try twice harder to be treated equally with my fellow English colleagues. Why? People like to give labels, look after the stereotypes in their heads. Do I blame them? No, although I don’t like it and don’t accept it.
One doesn’t have to be a racist and be in need of having someone to look down on. One doesn’t have to think she/he is better than those living in the country because of the experience of working abroad. Although I do think being there changed me. It made me stronger, more assertive, open, and aware of who I am and what I want.
Some, like me do it to fulfil their adolescent dream, out of love for the language (trivial? maybe and you know what? I don’t care, it’s my passion.), out of curiosity of something unknown and exciting.
Bernd, I wouldn't generalise. A close friend of mine set up her own business here and she never thought of taking this idea anywhere.
Steve, yes, it may came as a surprise but 'even' Polish people are asked a similar question in the UK. Wherever we are, some of us are curious of the other.
Podobne tematy
-
Anglosphere » The Guardian's new columnist from Poland: -
-
Anglosphere » Removing pictures from profiles... -
-
Anglosphere » I will meet English speaker from Warsaw... -
-
Anglosphere » new website, feedback from the community wanted -
-
Anglosphere » Headlines from the future -
-
Anglosphere » British parents remove children from gay history lesson: -
-
Anglosphere » English Descends from Its Pedestal -
-
Anglosphere » Words connected with British hisory and christianity... -
-
Anglosphere » seconds from disaster.. -
-
Anglosphere » Learning from Mistakes -
Następna dyskusja:
