Really?
Yes, you need to read your stats again:
Public holidays (days): 11 Ranking by public holidays: 8
Public holidays (days): 9 Ranking by public holidays: 10
Ireland has 2 more...it looks weird I know, but unlike in Poland, if a 'bank holiday' falls on a weekend day, we get the following Monday off' In Poland, you're given an extra days holiday in your vacation allowance, in Ireland we'd rather have the long weekend :P
Statutory minimum holidays: 26 Ranking by statutory minimum: 2
you only reach that amount of holidays in employment after 2 years of full-time work in Poland.
As a teacher, the OP will not be given any paid holidays whatsoever, because he will more than likely have to sign some draconian contract that's commonly given to ESL teachers here.
would you know is there anything bar teaching that could be a viable option for a lowly English speaker? I am actually relieved that Poland is on a Nepotism buzz as well, my GF has contacts in Warsaw that could POSSIBLY sort me out; we just didn't know the situation with teaching.
I dunno man. Personally I worked my ass off at teaching for 2 and 1/2 years before I built up contacts and went after a proper gig. It was a hard slog but I got there in the end.
The only other thing would be call centre work, but it's soul-destroying...however, working at teaching and learning the lingo on the side and after a couple of years you'll be able to get your foot in far easier.
Re: private lesson, yea you can pick a few up by posting ads on gumtree and a few other sites, but 2 things here: Serious students will know very quickly if you're really qualified or not and secondly, because there are so many natives in bigger cities, the money tends to be lower. In smaller cities you can get anything from 60-90zl per hour and more if have a few students in a 'class' style lesson. One thing on your side is your experience in business, priate students and classes cream themselves for 'business english' and pay good money for classes....the hours are crap though, you'd have classes in businesses usually from 7am-8.30, or 8-9.30, Poles start work a lot earlier than what we're used to at home.
But your chances of getting a full-time post at one place are very very limited.
Harry's on the money here, in your first year or so, you'll probably be working for a multitude of different schools, For example a Monday/Wednesday in one place, Tuesday/Thursday somewhere else and a diff place on a Friday. School hours are usually from 16.00-20.30, so you have the earlier part of the day to fill up with privates.
It's certainly doable, I've done it and so have many others on this forum and many of my mates living here still do it, but I really recommend getting the CELTA done........I think FAS used to help people, but since you're employed you might have to pay for it privately.