Check out Part Two of my doszły interview here. Enjoy!
Dlaczego zdecydowałaś się na pisanie bloga?
Why did you decide to write a blog?
My friend Ewa encouraged me. She became my friend here in Poland and later immigrated to the States. She was at the time a big fan of blogs in the US, especially fish out of water stories. Whenever I told her something that happened to me in Poland, she said that I should write a book, but knowing I might not have the time for that she suggested a blog. She sent me some links to her favorite blogs so I could see what a blog actually was. Then I wrote my first post. For a very long time, my blog was a conversation between myself and Ewa. And then suddenly there were other people reading it and commenting on it. And telling me I am funny or stupid, or I that made them laugh or made them cry. And they were not the people I expected to read it. I had thought that other foreigners in Poland would be my audience, but in fact it is mainly Polish people including a lot of Polish people who live or have lived abroad. That makes sense because I like to read Polish blogs na emigracje. I was so disappointed when some of my favorite bloggers moved back to Poland and stopped blogging!
These days I have noticed (based on messages and comments) in my readership an uptick of non-Polish people who are considering moving to Poland for various reasons and are looking for information or advice. There are a lot of Americans, but I don’t know if that’s because I am American or just because of the large number of people with Polish heritage in the US. Generally, the advice I give is the same every time. If you want to move to Poland, you need to legitimize your stay in order to receive temporary residence in the country. That’s honestly the most difficult part. There’s a very defined list of reasons for legitimizing your stay, and unfortunately “I am fed up with my home country” isn’t one of them. For the many people who say they want to move to a “simpler” country and leave divisive politics behind, I have to burst their bubble. This isn’t the place. But don’t get me wrong, I like where I live. I am not worried about getting shot (except accidentally by hunters perhaps when I am on my bike), I have the acceptance of society to not smile in public, and the bread…the bread is worth moving for.

Jacy są Polacy? Wymień pozytywy i wady.
What are Poles like? Give some pros and cons.
Polish people’s pros and cons? What a dangerous question to ask a foreigner. Well, I’d have to say, to be honest, that Polish people run the entire spectrum.
I am generalizing here, but Poles do have a tendency to go from zero to opierdol in 30 seconds flat which I must admit, is a habit that I’ve picked up and fight against. I need to learn to chill. I know that this observation is rich coming from me, an American, especially when Polish people’s national hobby is harmless grzybing (foraging for mushrooms) and ours is shooting people. Believe me, I’d rather take the opierdol than getting shot any day.
Polish people are friendly, despite the opierdol, especially if you try to speak Polish. Polish people are helpful, and they are hospitable. I know it’s a stereotype, but I’m sorry, it is true.
It’s neither a plus or a negative, but many people beat around the bush. I tend to get straight to the point, maybe too straight for some people. There is a tendency to avoid conflict, even things that I would not necessarily see as conflict. Different forms of ghosting, even at the highest levels of “professionals”, is not uncommon.
W Polsce pracujesz jako nauczyciel j. ang. jakie masz wrażenia na temat polskich uczniów i systemu edukacji (wiedząc, że masz dzieci w polskich szkołach).
In Poland, you work as an English teacher. What’s your impression of Polish students and the Polish education system (also considering you have children in school in Poland)?
I have worked as a teacher in public school in the US and in Poland and also at university in both. They do have something in common. In each case, I had no money 😉 and I wish that were a joke. In my opinion, my students in Poland are much more respectful than the students in America. But let’s face it, we had metal detectors at my school in the US. It’s a different world. We had a shooting too, but outside the school. Those metal detectors worked.
As a mother with kids in school, we have suffered the system a bit (online learning, reform of the reform, unfortunate incidents with religia teachers). My 4th grader had mathematic lectures, as a 9-year-old. She had math lectures, and then came home with one example of each concept to solve by herself, and then the teacher moved on to the next topic. The kids had no monitored practice during class. They had no access to their teacher when they didn’t understand something. This was very hard for us in the transition from 3rd to 4th grade. Viva the private tutoring system. It’s thriving here in Poland. I’m grateful for it though. As I am updating this post, I can tell you that this little 4th grader is off to university this year.
As a student in the US, I had plenty of teachers I didn’t like, but not once did I feel that I was treated unfairly or that my grade was not objective. I think Polish students cannot say the same thing, and it was the most often repeated comment by my Polish students when I taught in Polish high school and at university – You are so fair. It wasn’t always a compliment though.
Czym różnią się relacje między nauczycielem a uczniem w USA i w Polsce?
How do student/teacher relations differ between the US and Poland?
There is a huge distance between teachers and students in the USA.
I started to teach here straight after university graduation. Some of my high school students were only 2-3 years younger than me, and I could run into them in the pub. One boy from another high school invited me to his senior prom. Students wanted to visit me at home. They invited me home for dinner. Or their parents insisted they invite me. However, that had a lot to do with me being young and foreign. But now I just remembered some juicy gossip – our school’s principal (when he was a new teacher) hooked up with a student, got her pregnant, and then married her…and still worked at our school. Could you imagine such a thing in the USA?
More to come…
5 Comments
GUISBERT7914
January 2, 2021 at 6:17 pmThank you!!1
Chris
January 3, 2021 at 11:26 amYou are very welcome!
Anna
January 4, 2021 at 8:03 pmI have to practice to be prepared for opierdol a bit better. I’m just too old for this $#|7 to be yelled at.
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