What Jobs are there in Poland for an Englishman besides teaching english?

quote of the year

Yes I know ;-))))

Oh no, who would have thought it.

When I worked in Warsaw, grant it some years ago now, I worked for one of the Big 5. Anybody with good accountancy qualifications can get work at one of the Big accountancy firms. They are always advertising. Mind you, you have to be good.

However, if the qualification that the original poster has, is the fact that as an Englishman, he can speak English - I'm afraid it will just not be enough to land a good job (other than teaching)

July wrote:


Why?

I simply don't see how knowing Polish is all that lucrative as a foreigner. if you're here as a foreigner working for a company, you're probably already hooked up with salary, company car, hotel/apt., etc. Sure, learning the language is great, makes life easier, but it's generally not gonna put more money in your pocket. You're getting paid the salary you are because you are NOT Polish. Also, most of these people have contracts of 3 years max, and then they go back to their country and speak their native language again.

If I was from a non-English speaking country and I got transferred out here for a 1-3 year contract, I'd take English lessons over Polish lessons, and that is exactly what all the foreigners in Poland do when they aren't native English speakers. I know, because I teach them, and their reason for doing it is always the same.

Regarding expats, eliminate the English teachers and corporate transplants, and you're left with a negligent amount of people.

Your statement doesn't make sense.

Hi anyone know of any companies in Krakow that require an englishman with fibre optic and cat 5 qualifications?

Hello,

Can you give me the contact details for these english publishers ???.

I am Irish, from the south of Ireland, have a BSc Food Science and an MSc Culinary Innovation & Food Product Development...I am good at writing...

Appreciate your assistance.

John


CAn you give me names and contact details, please !!.

John

Yes:) there is always pan handling,driving illegal cabs as per another thread here and lately I saw a brit picking used can/bottles for recycling in Poland...all these are supported by Poles and green enviorenment:)))

Provide a link to this thread, Mooli?

What is the cheapest way to get from Modlin airport to Warsaw?

Get friends and family to give you a lift...

Why don't you do a job that you can do by email/phone/occasional meetings in the UK/USA/wherever?

Hi johndev, send me a pm I know someone I can introduce you to - depending on your experience.

You are planning to go to Krakow or Warsaw?

What a revelation your response was. Poles ****** off at English people taking their jobs?? Now they know what English people feel like.

Help me find a job prosze, I speak English only

Unlike throughout much of Europe, such as Germany, France, Spain, even Italy, "prosze" alone will scarcely get you much in Poland, other than a polite smile at your efforts! Best to enroll in a serious crash course BEFORE going over so that you're prepared, rather than frustrated upon arrival:-)

Powodzenia,

pracuj.pl/praca/english;kw

@m jay
It all depends on your qualifications.
Try contacting companies like Capgemini.
Proszę is just fine.

"Prosze" is certainly a start, but I feel that the best (perhaps not the only) way to win the confidence of Polish ESLers is to address them in their beautiful native tongue.

Heaven knows, they've been so maligned lately, they do need a pick-me-up.

What better way then than a simple, sincere "Dzien dobry a witam! Mam __________na imie i zycze Wam........". The pupils probably are somewhat jaded already and expect an English teacher to know and speak only English. What a pleasant surpise when they discover that their teacher has taken the time to learn their language!!

Look at the title of the thread. It's not about teaching esl. The guy was looking for a job. Your post was irrelevant.
Knowing some basic Polish words on his way to work will help. But he'll use English in his job.
Btw, teaching is not about showing off how much you know but about improving your learners' skills.
Especially if you keep making mistakes.

The endless discussion.....

In my 2 years of working in Poland, speaking Polish has literally been useful for me 0 times.
Sure, ONLY speaking English is somewhat of a handicap on the jobmarket because many Polish people do too, but speaking any other European language besides English and Polish is way more lucrative than many university degree in Poland.

Mind you, i can imagine if you want to work as an English teacher for Polish people, speaking their language might make it easier to explain things. But seeing as this is a topic about NOT being a teacher, speaking Polish is in the professional area very useless in my opinion. In your private life, sure, it might be helpful. But its not like you're not gonna be able to get around without it.

Yes, bottom tier jobs have no use for Polish, it's true. Someone employed in some SSC for the fact that they speak a foreign language won't need Polish, but if you actually want to be something more than a rat, you need to know Polish. It's certainly not enough to rely on English, not least because the Polish public administration doesn't use it.

And so do middle tier, and upper tier jobs in international corporations that are simply here for the low wages, but dont actually do anything in Polish. But if you've never been there, its probably hard to understand.

If you werent such a bigot i'd invite you over for a company visit some day so you could see for yourself, unfortunately you are and i no longer work in Poland

If you don't live in Poland anymore that should be 'was useful'...

Living and working are 2 different things. I'm still in the Polish office about once a month.

Alex,

A colleague of mine went to Amsterdam to teach English at any one of their small to middle-sized language centers and introduced himself in Dutch which he thought to learn for his sojourn in the Netherlands! He'd hoped it might somehow break the ice.

As one might expect, contrary to Poland, he was greeted with howls of laughter from his charges (college age some of them) and his valiant attempts to communicate in their mother tongue were belittled no end:-)

Being a retiring sort of chap, he was cowed into submission and from then on, taught the course and was resigned to speaking nothing but English, so help him HeinekenLOL

Moral of the story, I guess, is that since English has become so "internationally" recognized as stop-gap lingo numero uno on this planet, most Europeans couldn't really seem to care less how good one's target language skills are, so long as everybody can communicate, so to speak, in English.

Not saying this is good, because I'm not sure it 'tis, I'm only relating my experience and that of my felllow academics abroad.

Asia, might be another story.

This is a sort of illusion. English only floats on the surface of a native language of the country. Of course, it is useful as many locals can communicate in it, so you don't have to learn the local language(s) in order to be understood. Byt once you can comprehend and/or utter some words or phrases in the local language, you quickly discover a very different reality under the thin layer of English imposed on the very thick layer of the local culture and the local language. And this is also true of such countries as the Netherlands, for example.

Yes, it really does make a difference.

There are plenty of jobs now where people don't need Polish, however it would be hard to get on in those jobs, and it would severely restrict someone's social life. It would just be scraping at the veneer rather than understanding the society you're in and would effectively condemn people as permanent outsiders.

I can't help thinking of two people I know in Poland. One guy is British with all four grandparents from Poland. He doesn't speak the language and spends his time with other expats and Poles who want to speak English. Another guy is black from the Caribbean. He speaks Polish very well and is accepted as an insider.

If you dont learn polish you won't be able to communicate with 3/4s of poles. It is mainly youth and people who worked and lived abroad and corporate types that speak English. Nonetheless, the majority of poles dont speak English.

@Ziemowit,

The kicker is though that most Dutch, even "bilingual" Poles I've encountered, don't see it that way on the whole; many feel their English is already good enough, especially for bare minimum practical contact purposes with foreigners, themselves not necessarily native Anglophones:-)

It's just plain ignorance not to learn, and he's obviously one of those "I'm so great because I got a job for 3000zł a month in a corporation because I couldn't get a job back home" types.

Amen, delph!