[Teedub]

I'm leaving in a few weeks to go on a bit of a EE tour. I'm just wondering about the levels of English spoken by most people, specifically in Poland (Wroclaw, Krakow, maybe Warsaw...the main cities). I know younger people speak English but what about taxi drivers etc.

There's a really good boxing club in Wroclaw and I'm interested in checking it out, do you think anyone in a place like that would speak at least basic English?

I know a girl in Lithuania, so should be alright there but it would still be nice to know what the levels are like.

Started trying to learn basic Polish, I've never seen anything like it. It's disgustingly difficult! At least with Western European languages there's familiar bits...not the case with Slavic!

[Nom_De_Guerre]

everyone under 35 speaks english in poland. the cabbies might not, but it is not a big deal. you will probably go from the train station to rynek. negotiate the price beforehand. they'll understand numbers.

in the gym i went to in wroclaw, everyone spoke english. it was just a normal gym in a mall. i doubt that you will have problems.

also, i would skip warsaw. the girls are absolute bitches. it is like they are a different species. i loved wroclaw, and despite some hate from roosh, i also liked krakow a lot. but i only spent a weekend in krakow. check out the wroclaw thread, or pm me if you need some advice on wroclaw.

[Greek kamaki]

In Poznan,Wroclaw 70% of young girls speak English.In smaller cities the percentage is around 30%.
The MILFS mostly do not speak English however.

[samsamsam]

Teedub, leave some virgins for the rest of us, don't take them all

Have a good time.

[Sparks123]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/EF_Englis...ency_Index

This is useful for anyone interested in traveling. Estonia, Poland, Hungary and Slovenia are the highest ranking of the Central/Eastern European countries.

[TripleG]

(02-17-2014 05:37 PM)Nom_De_Guerre Wrote:  

everyone under 35 speaks english in poland. the cabbies might not, but it is not a big deal. you will probably go from the train station to rynek. negotiate the price beforehand. they'll understand numbers.

in the gym i went to in wroclaw, everyone spoke english. it was just a normal gym in a mall. i doubt that you will have problems.

also, i would skip warsaw. the girls are absolute bitches. it is like they are a different species. i loved wroclaw, and despite some hate from roosh, i also liked krakow a lot. but i only spent a weekend in krakow. check out the wroclaw thread, or pm me if you need some advice on wroclaw.

Nom, your statement made me laugh.


Did you go off the beaten path in Poland or just stay in the tourist area's in downtown Wroclaw & Krakow (most tourist city in PL)? While I can really only speak for one city, I can say with honesty that I toured Warsaw extensively and not everyone speaks English under 35. I would put the figure at around 60% max. Shoot, too many examples to mention. Multiple kiosk girls I approached at the train station did not speak passable English and I had to use my broken Polish. The drunk soccer fans I approached after Euro qualifier and tried to buy their Polish national team scarfs knew Russian better than English (they were in their 30s/40s).
Taxi drivers whom I used late at night outside clubs spoke piss poor English (but nothing that Google maps couldn't fix). Finally, my buddy picked up two chubby girls in their 20s at Club Mirage at Pałac Kultury and after buying them drinks, most of the conversation was done through one word answers and Google translate. Two girls (20s) who I got numbers from at Bar Charlotte (Warsaw) one had to act as a translator for the other. If a person did not go to University and stayed in a blue-collar industry working outside of downtown/tourist area's there's a very good chance they will not speak passable English or they might understand but will be rusty due to lack of practice after secondary school.

By the way, knowledge of English is much higher in Estonia (by Ethnic Estonians not the sizable Russian minority) than PL or LT.

[Courage Reborn]

Baltics are tops. Poland & Czech Republic notably lower, but not really an "issue". Ukraine is lower again by a fair amount. But still a must bang once you get your EE travel legs.

[Teedub]

Can you get by there though, in Wroclaw for example? Just with simple phrases and what not. I mean, I'm used to going to Germany where EVERYONE, bar recent immigrants from Turkey etc, speak near-fluent levels of English.

[evilhei]

In Estonia its definetaly no problem, specially among the age group 40 and below. There is also good boxing(muay thai) club here in Tallinn with sparring classes open for everybody on sundays. If you are interested give me a PM and ill give you details.

[aphelion]

'Nie znem polskiego' is something I say every single day ('I don't speak Polish'). It's rarely been anything more than a minor hassle. I try to conduct business in Polish and fall back on English when my limited Polish inevitably fails me, but even so, you can generally get by with a minimal amount of Polish and some pantomiming.

[aphelion]

And there are lots of familiar words in Polish - 'wodka', 'wino', 'komputer', 'telewizor', 'pizzy', 'papier', 'brokuly', 'salon' are ones that I can think of off the top of my head. Lots more words are vaguely similar and easy to remember - 'kurczak' is chicken, for instance, and 'butelka' is bottle.

In other words, you'll be fine. Just smile and be really nice, and you'll generally get what you need done even if it takes a bit of work. I agree that the syntax and grammar rules are insane, but that's Poland for you.

[Teedub]

(02-18-2014 08:08 AM)evilhei Wrote:  

In Estonia its definetaly no problem, specially among the age group 40 and below. There is also good boxing(muay thai) club here in Tallinn with sparring classes open for everybody on sundays. If you are interested give me a PM and ill give you details.

Afraid I don't do muay thai, just western boxing. However, send me a link and I'll have a look.

Chances are I've already seen it as I researched boxing clubs in Wroclaw, Vilnius and Tallinn.

[Teedub]

Thanks aphelion. It does appear that it will be more of a struggle than I had perhaps anticipated.

Especially among the working class people in the city. Makes it all the more exciting though I guess!

[BlondeChaser]

(02-17-2014 11:11 PM)TripleG Wrote:  

(02-17-2014 05:37 PM)Nom_De_Guerre Wrote:  

everyone under 35 speaks english in poland. the cabbies might not, but it is not a big deal. you will probably go from the train station to rynek. negotiate the price beforehand. they'll understand numbers.

in the gym i went to in wroclaw, everyone spoke english. it was just a normal gym in a mall. i doubt that you will have problems.

also, i would skip warsaw. the girls are absolute bitches. it is like they are a different species. i loved wroclaw, and despite some hate from roosh, i also liked krakow a lot. but i only spent a weekend in krakow. check out the wroclaw thread, or pm me if you need some advice on wroclaw.

Nom, your statement made me laugh.


Did you go off the beaten path in Poland or just stay in the tourist area's in downtown Wroclaw & Krakow (most tourist city in PL)? While I can really only speak for one city, I can say with honesty that I toured Warsaw extensively and not everyone speaks English under 35. I would put the figure at around 60% max. Shoot, too many examples to mention. Multiple kiosk girls I approached at the train station did not speak passable English and I had to use my broken Polish. The drunk soccer fans I approached after Euro qualifier and tried to buy their Polish national team scarfs knew Russian better than English (they were in their 30s/40s).
Taxi drivers whom I used late at night outside clubs spoke piss poor English (but nothing that Google maps couldn't fix). Finally, my buddy picked up two chubby girls in their 20s at Club Mirage at Pałac Kultury and after buying them drinks, most of the conversation was done through one word answers and Google translate. Two girls (20s) who I got numbers from at Bar Charlotte (Warsaw) one had to act as a translator for the other. If a person did not go to University and stayed in a blue-collar industry working outside of downtown/tourist area's there's a very good chance they will not speak passable English or they might understand but will be rusty due to lack of practice after secondary school.

By the way, knowledge of English is much higher in Estonia (by Ethnic Estonians not the sizable Russian minority) than PL or LT.

How was Warsaw compared to the other main big cities in Europe? Such a mixed bag of comments on the city. Probably planning on checking it out this summer for a month before the July vacation period.

I hate those fucking summer tourists via cheap flights, seems like Warsaw is spared of most of the riff raff that flows through Krakow.

[TripleG]

(02-18-2014 01:12 PM)BlondeChaser Wrote:  

(02-17-2014 11:11 PM)TripleG Wrote:  

(02-17-2014 05:37 PM)Nom_De_Guerre Wrote:  

everyone under 35 speaks english in poland. the cabbies might not, but it is not a big deal. you will probably go from the train station to rynek. negotiate the price beforehand. they'll understand numbers.

in the gym i went to in wroclaw, everyone spoke english. it was just a normal gym in a mall. i doubt that you will have problems.

also, i would skip warsaw. the girls are absolute bitches. it is like they are a different species. i loved wroclaw, and despite some hate from roosh, i also liked krakow a lot. but i only spent a weekend in krakow. check out the wroclaw thread, or pm me if you need some advice on wroclaw.

Nom, your statement made me laugh.


Did you go off the beaten path in Poland or just stay in the tourist area's in downtown Wroclaw & Krakow (most tourist city in PL)? While I can really only speak for one city, I can say with honesty that I toured Warsaw extensively and not everyone speaks English under 35. I would put the figure at around 60% max. Shoot, too many examples to mention. Multiple kiosk girls I approached at the train station did not speak passable English and I had to use my broken Polish. The drunk soccer fans I approached after Euro qualifier and tried to buy their Polish national team scarfs knew Russian better than English (they were in their 30s/40s).
Taxi drivers whom I used late at night outside clubs spoke piss poor English (but nothing that Google maps couldn't fix). Finally, my buddy picked up two chubby girls in their 20s at Club Mirage at Pałac Kultury and after buying them drinks, most of the conversation was done through one word answers and Google translate. Two girls (20s) who I got numbers from at Bar Charlotte (Warsaw) one had to act as a translator for the other. If a person did not go to University and stayed in a blue-collar industry working outside of downtown/tourist area's there's a very good chance they will not speak passable English or they might understand but will be rusty due to lack of practice after secondary school.

By the way, knowledge of English is much higher in Estonia (by Ethnic Estonians not the sizable Russian minority) than PL or LT.

How was Warsaw compared to the other main big cities in Europe? Such a mixed bag of comments on the city. Probably planning on checking it out this summer for a month before the July vacation period.

I hate those fucking summer tourists via cheap flights, seems like Warsaw is spared of most of the riff raff that flows through Krakow.

Warsaw is shit to be honest. It reminds me of some large US cities where everything is spread out, downtown is dead at night and you almost need a car to get around. Even the trolley system as good as it is doesn't take you to all the "cool area's". The metro is a joke, just couple main lines. Also, there is no central nightlife-club district and usually my buddy and I had to cab it late at night from one club to another. Even staying across the street from the palace of culture we found ourselves walking for many kilometers every night looking for good places until we would start freezing and then hail overpriced taxi cab's. While tourists are not a problem in Warsaw there is a reason behind that. Compared to other European capitals there really is not much to do there, city is not very walkable, and quality of women is just average. Old town is tiny though does have some nice parks and cool Restaurants. I do feel for the city as 85% of it was wiped away during WWII and it still feels like the city has not fully recovered with empty spaces around.
I would take Kiev, Riga or Vilnius anytime over Warsaw for gaming and sightseeing.

[Booyah]

(02-17-2014 11:11 PM)TripleG Wrote:  

(02-17-2014 05:37 PM)Nom_De_Guerre Wrote:  

everyone under 35 speaks english in poland. the cabbies might not, but it is not a big deal. you will probably go from the train station to rynek. negotiate the price beforehand. they'll understand numbers.

in the gym i went to in wroclaw, everyone spoke english. it was just a normal gym in a mall. i doubt that you will have problems.

also, i would skip warsaw. the girls are absolute bitches. it is like they are a different species. i loved wroclaw, and despite some hate from roosh, i also liked krakow a lot. but i only spent a weekend in krakow. check out the wroclaw thread, or pm me if you need some advice on wroclaw.

Nom, your statement made me laugh.


Did you go off the beaten path in Poland or just stay in the tourist area's in downtown Wroclaw & Krakow (most tourist city in PL)? While I can really only speak for one city, I can say with honesty that I toured Warsaw extensively and not everyone speaks English under 35. I would put the figure at around 60% max. Shoot, too many examples to mention. Multiple kiosk girls I approached at the train station did not speak passable English and I had to use my broken Polish. The drunk soccer fans I approached after Euro qualifier and tried to buy their Polish national team scarfs knew Russian better than English (they were in their 30s/40s).
Taxi drivers whom I used late at night outside clubs spoke piss poor English (but nothing that Google maps couldn't fix). Finally, my buddy picked up two chubby girls in their 20s at Club Mirage at Pałac Kultury and after buying them drinks, most of the conversation was done through one word answers and Google translate. Two girls (20s) who I got numbers from at Bar Charlotte (Warsaw) one had to act as a translator for the other. If a person did not go to University and stayed in a blue-collar industry working outside of downtown/tourist area's there's a very good chance they will not speak passable English or they might understand but will be rusty due to lack of practice after secondary school.

By the way, knowledge of English is much higher in Estonia (by Ethnic Estonians not the sizable Russian minority) than PL or LT.

I'd rather say you were unlucky, stories like that can described in every country. I would say that you can have a conversation with a higher percentage of youths, of course one of them are better, the other one worse but personally, never had a problem.

[Nom_De_Guerre]

(02-19-2014 05:03 PM)Booyah Wrote:  

(02-17-2014 11:11 PM)TripleG Wrote:  

(02-17-2014 05:37 PM)Nom_De_Guerre Wrote:  

everyone under 35 speaks english in poland. the cabbies might not, but it is not a big deal. you will probably go from the train station to rynek. negotiate the price beforehand. they'll understand numbers.

in the gym i went to in wroclaw, everyone spoke english. it was just a normal gym in a mall. i doubt that you will have problems.

also, i would skip warsaw. the girls are absolute bitches. it is like they are a different species. i loved wroclaw, and despite some hate from roosh, i also liked krakow a lot. but i only spent a weekend in krakow. check out the wroclaw thread, or pm me if you need some advice on wroclaw.

Nom, your statement made me laugh.


Did you go off the beaten path in Poland or just stay in the tourist area's in downtown Wroclaw & Krakow (most tourist city in PL)? While I can really only speak for one city, I can say with honesty that I toured Warsaw extensively and not everyone speaks English under 35. I would put the figure at around 60% max. Shoot, too many examples to mention. Multiple kiosk girls I approached at the train station did not speak passable English and I had to use my broken Polish. The drunk soccer fans I approached after Euro qualifier and tried to buy their Polish national team scarfs knew Russian better than English (they were in their 30s/40s).
Taxi drivers whom I used late at night outside clubs spoke piss poor English (but nothing that Google maps couldn't fix). Finally, my buddy picked up two chubby girls in their 20s at Club Mirage at Pałac Kultury and after buying them drinks, most of the conversation was done through one word answers and Google translate. Two girls (20s) who I got numbers from at Bar Charlotte (Warsaw) one had to act as a translator for the other. If a person did not go to University and stayed in a blue-collar industry working outside of downtown/tourist area's there's a very good chance they will not speak passable English or they might understand but will be rusty due to lack of practice after secondary school.

By the way, knowledge of English is much higher in Estonia (by Ethnic Estonians not the sizable Russian minority) than PL or LT.

I'd rather say you were unlucky, stories like that can described in every country. I would say that you can have a conversation with a higher percentage of youths, of course one of them are better, the other one worse but personally, never had a problem.

i spent two months in poland. i went to krakow, sopot, wroclaw, and warsaw. i spent most of my time in wroclaw. the vast majority of girls that i approached (i.e., aged 17-35) spoke passable english, meaning they understood me enough that i could hit on them. all the people in my gym spoke english. all the people in the restaurants i went to spoke english. the only people that didn't were in the grocery stores and the cabbies.

that's my experience. i can't speak to yours.

[Teedub]

Are the younger end girls open to approaches? Or are they glued to their iphones?

[Booyah]

Would say that 'hipsters' style isn't as much popular here as in other countries.