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Working in Poland without speaking Polish


alby 1 | -
27 Jul 2012 #1
Hello everybody!I'm a guy from Italy, i speak also French and English, but not Polish. I would like to know if it's possible to find a work in Poland even without speaking Polish.
phtoa 9 | 236
27 Jul 2012 #2
Its impossible, can't be done.
teflcat 5 | 1,029
27 Jul 2012 #3
I would like to know if it's possible to find a work in Poland even without speaking Polish.

If you can find an Italian company which needs your skills, why not? Otherwise, it might be difficult. Perhaps an international company which trades in the countries whose languages you speak. Good luck.

Its impossible, can't be done.

What an attitude!
InWroclaw 89 | 1,911
27 Jul 2012 #4
Well, it's certainly a challenge unless somebody has some specialist skill that is in demand. For a typical office job or working in a shop, of course Phtoa is completely correct, unless that office or shop is managed by a friend or relative who puts you to work in such a way where your inability to communicate is a non issue.
pip 10 | 1,658
27 Jul 2012 #5
of course it can be done- you just need to know how to look. I would suggest searching for Italian companies that have locations in Poland and apply from Italy with the hopes of moving to Poland.
papieza 5 | 25
27 Jul 2012 #6
Of course it can be done, (However you should make an effort to learn Polish) There are many people who would love to learn Italian from a native speaker. I came over in November without speaking Polish, registered on a website as a native speaker for conversational English and charge 50 zloty netto ph, I now earn 7500-8000 Zloty per month. I do 10 lessons on Mondays and Wednesdays, just that gives me 1000 Zloty per week. Poland is a great country and I've really enjoyed my time here, if I can continue to earn what I currently earn then I have no plans to go back to England.

If you don't have children to feed, I would encourage you to take the chance.
InWroclaw 89 | 1,911
27 Jul 2012 #7
Of course it can be done
...registered on a website as a native speaker

Sounds like BS to me. Which website? I have read of people who were unable to get work even asking just 30ph in Opole and Krakow.
teflcat 5 | 1,029
27 Jul 2012 #8
I do 10 lessons on Mondays and Wednesdays, just that gives me 1000 Zloty per week.

Do you have a registered company or are you evading tax?
papieza 5 | 25
27 Jul 2012 #9
Just because it sounds it to you doesn't make it untrue.

nativespeaker.com.pl

From this website alone I have had many, many contacts. However 90% of my clients are now from word of mouth. There is one street in Lesznowola where I literally teach the whole street, going from one door to the next. I know I have been extremely lucky, but it is all true.

However I do know that if wish not to believe then nothing I can say will change your mind and everything will be BS. Luckily what you believe doesn't effect my life, so it doesn't matter.
InWroclaw 89 | 1,911
27 Jul 2012 #10
Do you have a registered company or are you evading tax?

In another thread, that poster has trouble with spelling and thinks the plural of life is lifes. The poster thinks brought means bought. Need I go on? How would that level of knowledge achieve 8000zl per month as a teacher of English? Shirley shum mishtake. I smell BS.

Look:-

My questions are around. what is the most important thing I need to do, once I'm in Poland? with regards to registering with the local authorities ect. and is CELTA or TESOL essential to teach in Poland?

Moving to Poland - what is the most important thing I need to do, once I'm in Poland?
papieza 5 | 25
27 Jul 2012 #11
Ha, no I pay my taxes, Zus and have an accountant. If you want my Regon number you can have it. :)
InWroclaw 89 | 1,911
27 Jul 2012 #12
I know I have been extremely lucky, but it is all true.

You certainly have, matey.
papieza 5 | 25
27 Jul 2012 #13
InWroclaw

Again, Luckily what you believe doesn't effect my life, so it doesn't matter.
papieza 5 | 25
27 Jul 2012 #15
To be totally honest, you are right InWroclaw. I do have poor grammar, I do. However that's not what I'm teaching I'm only having conversational English with my clients. I don't teach Grammatical English, I don't teach in a school and I don't lie and pretend I know something I don't.
teflcat 5 | 1,029
27 Jul 2012 #16
I smell BS

Deja moo.
I suppose it could be true that this guy has 10 hours in one day. I do 5 x 60mins, at the end of which I can't see straight, and I'm a pretty tough old bird.

quote:I literally teach the whole street
You literally teach the whole street? Now that can't be true.
InWroclaw 89 | 1,911
27 Jul 2012 #17
Do you get customers from that website? I'd be interested in knowing if you do. It charges for premium etc. Looking at the listing for this area, nativespeaker.com.pl/native-speaker-poland?voidvod%5B%5D=405&langs%5B%5D=1&agaes%5B%5D=7&avail=All&invoice=All&weekend=All

several have not logged in there for 10 weeks or 40 weeks in one case. So many customers they don't need to login to renew their sub or use the site at all to change ads or prices or email addresses??! Or maybe it's that they have made a couple o'million and retired?! Wow, I've been wasting my time poring over the job ads paying 25zl an hour.

So I can just join that site and soon I'll be on 8000zl a month, able to move to a decent flat away from the noise and pollution, and can shop with my head held high, instead of having to buy the thumbs up basic brands at Auchan! Eureka! It really is as easy as that when you work smarter and not harder ;o)
teflcat 5 | 1,029
27 Jul 2012 #18
Do you get customers from that website?

No. Apart from the odd favour for friends and neighbours I can't be bothered with individual students. If you go to their place, you have to get there; if they come to you, you have to tidy up!

I have two steady jobs which put sausage on the table and beer in the fridge. I'm content.
phtoa 9 | 236
27 Jul 2012 #19
Its impossible, can't be done

I was being sarcastic...
Come on, so many people including myself works in Poland without speaking the language, so I thought dumb questions gets a dumb answer.
InWroclaw 89 | 1,911
27 Jul 2012 #20
Tell you what though, I'd certainly tidy up for even 4000zl a month working 2 days a week! Heck, I'd get a cleaner!

Are you able to reveal what you do, and whether it's self-employment or work for someone else that you personallly knew beforehand? How do the language barriers get overcome - workmates never tire of translating you to others or others to you, etc etc? No need to deal with Poles who only speak Polish? How does it actually happen? Every employment agent I spoke with said that 99% of work requires me to speak Polish and the 1% who said otherwise have failed to deliver even one interview. And that's in a big, bad city like Wroc.

Edited to add - if I had a specialism it would be different where there are firms needing such skills where English is the office language. There are also a few call centres needing English if you can stand that sort of thing but I don't like that sort of work and in any case they weren't offered to me.
Lyzko
27 Jul 2012 #21
You're from Italy, Alby. Correct? Well now, a Syrian, Chinese or Congolese comes to Italy to find work. They don't even have colonial Italian connections to the language, as say Ethiopea or Libya for example. What can they expect to get without a syllable of Italian? Cleaning toilets at slave wages, possibly, but not likely.

Same for Poland, Germany, Sweden anywhere. Best advice, hard as it is, is DON'T just rely on pidgin English or sign language in order to get by; take a bleedin' Polish class!
Johnnio
19 Jul 2013 #22
True...true...all true...I am in a similar position and find myself wondering if I will secure employment...I did have one job but just for a few months and it was in sales dealing with english speaking clients in other countries...
emzed - | 4
7 Aug 2013 #23
Hi
in IT field, there are a lot of jobs with no polish language requirement. I am one of those and also know few others, that do not speak polish.

Regards
InWroclaw 89 | 1,911
7 Aug 2013 #24
A very specialist area of IT? Because Poland has plenty of her own IT people.
Wlodzimierz 4 | 543
7 Aug 2013 #25
As usual, I must qualify my feelings about this thread. If I were working for an international concern in Poland, for example IBM etc.. and I were hired as a software engineer using strictly ENGLISH with other American, British, native speaking colleagues, I'd have zero qualms about using English and probably not bother to learn all but bare minimum Polish to get by.

Other than that, if working with Poles, Germans, French, Italians, Russians etc.., I'd suppose I'd be forced by sheer necessity to use English, fully aware of the myriad pitfalls which would await me were I not careful to "inspect" all communiques, both spoken as well as written, for the perennial boobytraps:-)
Malone
8 Aug 2013 #26
A very specialist area of IT? Because Poland has plenty of her own IT people.

In Krakow there are hundreds of foreign programmers with pretty good salaries.
Wlodzimierz 4 | 543
8 Aug 2013 #27
The international language has always been numerals anyhow, so, just think back to those math conferences during the Cold War when the East Germans had their top man in front of the blackboard, the Poles theirs, and the Czechs theirs etc, none of them speaking the other's languageLOL. First guy comes up and puts his formula on the chalk slate. The next infuriated but not able to speak in German if, say, he's French... responds by feverishly putting his counter formula on the same chalk slate, working up a royal sweat in the process etc... This goes on for several hours at least, until each one is so exhausted that they can't continue. No "language", e.g. English, Esperanto etc. needed, only straight, pure math!!!!

:-)
emzed - | 4
8 Aug 2013 #28
in any IT field there are jobs., yes there Malone

InWroclaw: A very specialist area of IT? Because Poland has plenty of her own IT people.

programmers, system engineers, various managers for various issues ,IT call centers are taking people with no English. yes, there are people with IT in Poland, but as in every country, only few have experience/quality and some of them dont even speak any foreign language. So it does not matter much, if you are good, you wil get work. if you are not good, you will have problems in every country, including your own.

on the other side, if you are not IT related, there are call centers. pay is shi11ty, but it is a start. they need also Italian language. I seen people there from African countries, south America..

So, if someone cannot find work, i wonder, what is their excuse. Just start applying to anything you can find.

edit:
oh look, from yesterday: No Polish needed, just motivation :)
DominicB - | 2,707
8 Aug 2013 #29
In Krakow there are hundreds of foreign programmers with pretty good salaries.

Those with "pretty good salaries" are either working for foreign forms at foreign rates, or are project managers or above. In either case, "pretty good salaries" demand solid qualifications and ample experience.
Monitor 14 | 1,818
8 Aug 2013 #30
Average programmer earn pretty good salaryas for Poland. Don't forget that when somebody says good salary in Poland it doesn't necessarily mean that it's even close to an average American salary on the same position.

A very specialist area of IT? Because Poland has plenty of her own IT people.

But there are no unemployed programmers.


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