Opinions about Polish immigrants

Laslo

SimpleSam06 wrote: »

Nonsense.

Well the economy certainly wouldn't have been sustainable without imported labour, no?

teetotaller

Forky wrote: »

Any who i've worked with have been hard workers.
I will always say hi to any I see on a regular basis or live near but most don't respond. Don't know what thats about. Its known as ignorance in Ireland though.
But some do, which is nice.

Forky - it is becouse of fact, that in Poland we use official language. Most of people don't say "u" to person that is not known to us. Mr, Mrs, Sir etc are used on a regular basis. We don't say hello, hi how are u to people we don't know and meet on the street.
We usualy don't say hello to neighbours from our street we don't know.

It is different here in Ireland and I like it, but it must take some time before polish and other people will start to be more friendly to other unkown...


So u can't take personally that somebody doesn't say hello to u as this one of differences between our cultures.

But when u start talking, or ask for help, or give some help etc etc any polish neightbour will start to say hello to u as first one.

SimpleSam06

Laslo wrote: »

Well the economy certainly wouldn't have been sustainable without imported labour, no?

The economy boomed, as many have, mostly because of cheap credit which became available through historically low interest rates back in 2001. This flooded the country with cheap money, and led directly to the housing boom, and record tax takes by the government, which was squandered on enriching and enlarging the public sector. It also led to higher inflation, which is why everything is more expensive, and inflation is running ahead of pay rises, public or private sector.

In short, most of our economic boom was us buying and selling houses to each other. The majority of migrants, anecdotal evidence notwithstanding, have ended up in service sectors, not construction.

t-ha

Laslo wrote: »

God, what a retarded thread. Look, some Polish people are sound and some are arseholes. Just like some Irish people are sound and some are arseholes. Anyone who tries to generalise on a topic like this is demonstrating a considerable lack of intelligence.

+1

Meet a fair few threw gyms and MMA gyms & they're just like anyone else. Cultural differences aside, people are pretty much the same the world over as far as I can see.

teetotaller

watna wrote: »

I worked with a Polish girl who I was very good friends with. She's gone back to Poland now but we keep in touch. She's coming back o visit soon.

Our room mate is Polish and is just weird. She doesn't seem to know how run a house i.e the little daily things you do at home. She puts the heating on and leaves it on all night when she is in bed. When we said it to her she didn't seem to know how a heating system worked at all. Another example is that the lightbulb went in the main bathroom. We have an en suite so I only use the main bathroom if I'm taking a bath so we presumed the room mate would change the lightbulb. 4 days later I went to have a bath and realised the lightbulb was still gone. We have no windows in the bathroom so she had been showering and doing other things in the dark for four days!

I'm taking from these two examples that you can't tar all Poles with the same brush and like us, there are some that are sound and some that are wierd!

I'm wondering why u wrote so many words to describe one stupid girl ? stupid people are everywhere - some of them are english, some polish, some irish some nigerian etc. everyone knows few stories about how stupid human can be.

Not longer than 3 days ago I saw L driver on Blanchardstown M50 roundabout trying to get onto roundabout turning right !!!!! about 10 cars started to use horns, and stupid girl turned around ............ I could imagine what nationality she is but it is easier to say that she is a human being. and humans make mistakes.

Kintarō Hattori

SimpleSam06 wrote: »

Nonsense.

So your saying that we couldn't have been as prosperous as we are without migrants? Nonsense Sam, nonsense.

SimpleSam06

eo980 wrote: »

So your saying that we couldn't have been as prosperous as we are without migrants?

Our economy wouldn't have taken off in the way it did had it not been for folks such as the Polish = Nonsense.

If you read my reply above, it fairly clearly outlines why our economy is nor founded on or dependent upon migrants, with the possible exception of the health service, which is borked anyway.

WooPeeA

Moonbaby wrote:

Queue jumping... do you not know it is impolite? It is only two minutes and one day someone will beat you for shoving that granny aside with the trolley. Honestly.

It's true. I hate queue jumping. I had no idea that Polish are doing so. :eek:

Moonbaby wrote:

Why do your rowdy young males chop wood when drunk/high? Is this a traditonal sport?

Because they're dumb. Hope one day the tree will kick them back!

btw. I think Poland has no national sport.. They're using soccer, basketball, swiming, valleyball etc. Polish traditional sport? I'm Polish and I'v never heard of that!!

SimpleSam06 wrote:

Introducing the much poorer population of a country with 60 million inhabitants to a fairly well off country of four million inhabitants is a recipe for disaster.

Remember that not every Polish immigrant is coming to Ireland. Immigration is Polish tradition, because of the war or communism. There are about 6 milion Polish people in the States, hundreds of thousand in the UK and in the other countries. There are about 2-3 million immigrants in the other European Union countries so don't worry, that 60 million people will not come soon to Ireland. Polish immigrants in Ireland is just a little part of whole immigration of that country.

Forky wrote:

Any who i've worked with have been hard workers.
I will always say hi to any I see on a regular basis or live near but most don't respond. Don't know what thats about. Its known as ignorance in Ireland though.
But some do, which is nice.

I can tell you why. When you see somebody you say "Hi" "hello" or "how are you". Polish people are not saying that because there's no "how are you" in Polish language. I mean there are those words but they are not talking to strangers. So when Polish hear "how are you" from the person he never met before it seems very strange for him.

When you say "Hi, how you dong" and think "what a pretty lady",
Polish lady is not saying anything but she thinks "geeee.. who's that guy? hope he doesn't want to rob me!"

That's one of the cultural differences between Poland and Ireland.

SimpleSam06

WooPeeA wrote: »

Remember that not every Polish immigrant is coming to Ireland. Immigration is Polish tradition, because of the war or communism. There are about 6 milion Polish people in the States, hundreds of thousand in the UK and in the other countries. There are about 2-3 million immigrants in the other European Union countries so don't worry, that 60 million people will not come soon to Ireland. Polish immigrants in Ireland is just a little part of whole immigration of that country.

Well its a pretty large part of the migration into this country.

"Within the accession group in 2006, 67 percent were Polish, 12 percent Lithuanian, eight percent Slovakian, six percent Latvian, with the remaining seven percent coming from the other six states."

Not to mention the large group which has accumulated over the last five years relative to the small population of Ireland (and this is a key point)...

By some reckonings, Ireland now plays host to 200,000 Polish ex-pats—equivalent to 5 percent of the population—while Britain accommodates at least 700,000. By contrast, Spain (population: 40 million), another leading magnet for Poles, has pulled in a mere 150,000. France has been issuing barely 10,000 work permits to Polish citizens. While the mass influx of Eastern Europeans has stirred controversy across Western Europe, it is largely a move of Poles to the British Isles

Laslo

SimpleSam06 wrote: »

In short, most of our economic boom was us buying and selling houses to each other.

The economic boom was driven in no small part by the property market, that's for certain. However, to say that immigration wasn't also a driver in sustaining economic growth is a serious oversight. Unemployment in Ireland over the last 10 years has been at lower levels than any other EU country (bar maybe Luxembourg) even with massive immigration from all over Europe and beyond. Are you trying to say that the economy could have been sustainable without this imported labour, relying solely on indigenous Irish people? Now that would be nonsense.

SimpleSam06

Laslo wrote: »

The economic boom was driven in no small part by the property market, that's for certain. However, to say that immigration wasn't also a driver in sustaining economic growth is a serious oversight. Unemployment in Ireland over the last 10 years has been at lower levels than any other EU country (bar maybe Luxembourg) even with massive immigration from all over Europe and beyond. Are you trying to say that the economy could have been sustainable without this imported labour, relying solely on indigenous Irish people? Now that would be nonsense.

No, it wouldn't. You need to look at the types of jobs in question. Many shops, restaurants, hotels and so on are overhiring, taking on many more staff than they need, and giving each individual much fewer hours.

One example I can cite is one of the "poundworld" shops in Galway, probably 80 square meters of shop there, with six to eight staff on at any given time (and two tills to man). They have a pool of almost two dozen people to call on for work, however. This means that they can keep them on part time, as well as having redundancy in place if anyone calls in sick or leaves.

Jackus

It starts to be off topic

Laslo

SimpleSam06 wrote: »

No, it wouldn't. You need to look at the types of jobs in question. Many shops, restaurants, hotels and so on are overhiring, taking on many more staff than they need, and giving each individual much fewer hours.

One example I can cite is one of the "poundworld" shops in Galway, probably 80 square meters of shop there, with six to eight staff on at any given time (and two tills to man). They have a pool of almost two dozen people to call on for work, however. This means that they can keep them on part time, as well as having redundancy in place if anyone calls in sick or leaves.

You're clutching at straws now with that assertion.

Anyway, back on topic...

Neamhshuntasach

i don't know any polish people personally and i don't want to generalize them. but from my experience i find a lot of them ignorant. actually i should say eastern european rather than polish because i can't distinguish them from each other without asking them. i deal with a lot of foreign nationals in my line of work and then i do be around a lot of them when in the gym 4-5 nights a week. it's simple little things such as not holding a door and nearly letting it slam in your face, never saying thanks or even smiling to let you know they are grateful of your help if they don't speal english, walking onto a machine in the gym when its clear you are still using it, or he notices you are trying to get to your locker and continues to take up about 5 spaces without letting you get in. there's a few other traits that wreck my head at times. but not enough for me to say all of them are like that. but from my experience it has been most of the ones i've bumped in to. maybe its a difference in culture. but i've gone to college in san diego for 4 years and have been around mexicans, salvadorans, hondurans, africans, europeans, etc and regardless of what else they were they always displayed basic manners.

dsmythy

eo980 wrote: »

Our economy wouldn't have taken off in the way it did had it not been for folks such as the Polish.

The economy has been kicking since the mid 90's. The Poles came in 2004 onwards. Indeed before there was any net immigration the economy was flying. We are now having a slowdown but that's not the point. The Poles alone can't be praised with helping anything although they don't hurt the economy either so i've no problem with some coming over to work.

The rest of what you said in that post i agreed with.

The Poles are normal people and although in the last couple of years i think there was too many we all know that the levels will plummet as jobs become less plentiful.

dsmythy

Neamhshuntasach wrote: »

i don't know any polish people personally and i don't want to generalize them. but from my experience i find a lot of them ignorant. actually i should say eastern european rather than polish because i can't distinguish them from each other without asking them. i deal with a lot of foreign nationals in my line of work and then i do be around a lot of them when in the gym 4-5 nights a week. it's simple little things such as not holding a door and nearly letting it slam in your face, never saying thanks or even smiling to let you know they are grateful of your help if they don't speal english, walking onto a machine in the gym when its clear you are still using it, or he notices you are trying to get to your locker and continues to take up about 5 spaces without letting you get in. there's a few other traits that wreck my head at times. but not enough for me to say all of them are like that. but from my experience it has been most of the ones i've bumped in to. maybe its a difference in culture. but i've gone to college in san diego for 4 years and have been around mexicans, salvadorans, hondurans, africans, europeans, etc and regardless of what else they were they always displayed basic manners.

You still can't recognise a Pole from other eastern Europeans? I think i've got a ear for their accents now to distinguish.

Jackus

Neamhshuntasach: Oh yeah, there is many of them. We, other Poles have a nickname for this type of personality: burak (pronounce: boorack) which means beetroot
It is all about miseducation from school and family home.

Neamhshuntasach

dsmythy wrote: »

You still can't recognise a Pole from other eastern Europeans? I think i've got a ear for their accents now to distinguish.

I'm only back in Ireland around 14 months now. i went traveling for almost 2 years after college. i was too focused on learning spanish and being around latinos that i've gone tonedeff towards other accents.

Jackus

Neamhshuntasach wrote: »

I'm only back in Ireland around 14 months now. i went traveling for almost 2 years after college. i was too focused on learning spanish and being around latinos that i've gone tonedeff towards other accents.

Here You are, good example of ponglish (mixed polish and english) with very polish accent. Enjoy!
http://pl.youtube.com/watch?v=RYLLo4k0ISE
The guy is typpical burak (beetroot) :mad:
BTW kurwa (coorva) is a really bad word, even worse that f**k

dsmythy

Jackus wrote: »

Here You are, good example of ponglish (mixed polish and english) with very polish accent. Enjoy!
http://pl.youtube.com/watch?v=RYLLo4k0ISE
The guy is typpical burak (beetroot) :mad:
BTW kurwa (coorva) is a really bad word, even worse that f**k

Learned that from a girl in work. Some of you guys say it a lot! Sort of like some Irish having fcuk in every sentence.

cedco1

Any poles I've met are a bit like the Irish, frendly.
I new a Polish guy here before they could come here on mass and he could'nt get over how few of us there are in this country and how small our towns are.
It's the amount of them in the country that would concern me.

There's an old saying, " too much of anything is bad for you"

Jackus

dsmythy wrote: »

Learned that from a girl in work. Some of you guys say it a lot! Sort of like some Irish having fcuk in every sentence.

In Poland, anybody can be prosecuted for public using of that word. Many people reckon that people using word "kurwa" are bad educated, worse category people, which is true in most cases.
Going back to topic, many poles think "We are the best" and "Poland is the most beautiful country in the world". In most cases they have never been in other country before, or if they go abroad, they stickk with polish community only and having a fun of comments about others

SimpleSam06

Laslo wrote: »

You're clutching at straws now with that assertion.

Most if not all of the economic boom has been based around the construction industry, which came in turn from lower interest rates. Migrant involvement in construction is a good deal less than you might think:

The typical Irish response to talk of construction collapse, or even 'correction', is to say: "Sure, most of them are Polish and they'll all go back home or move on to wherever the building is going on."

However, this is not borne out by the facts. The significance of non-Irish workers construction is massively overstated. A recent report by the Allied Irish Banks, 'Here to Stay', noted that: "The construction sector in no way stands out in terms of the number of non-national workers."

Employment in the construction sector in Ireland accounts for a total of 252,100 jobs- this from a total of 1,929,800 employed persons in Ireland. AIB's report, meanwhile, indicates that only 22,600 non-nationals are employed in construction. Conversely, 27,800 non-nationals are employed in manufacturing, 23,100 in the hospitality industry and 21,500 in financial and business services. Not only is the construction sector not 'flooded' with immigrants, it's not even particularly representative of what non-Irish nationals are employed to do.

So tell me again how migrants are central to the economy, or that it all would collapse if they hit the road... Citing unemployment figures as proof of economic dependance on migrants isn't something that follows; correlation does not mean causation.

As for being off topic, any discussion of peoples' opinions of the Polish should include the reasons they are here, and how long they mean to stay.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Neamhshuntasach wrote: »

i don't know any polish people personally and i don't want to generalize them. but from my experience i find a lot of them ignorant. actually i should say eastern european rather than polish because i can't distinguish them from each other without asking them. i deal with a lot of foreign nationals in my line of work and then i do be around a lot of them when in the gym 4-5 nights a week.

My decyphering machine isn't working today, can someone translate?.

arybvtcw0eolkf

SimpleSam06 wrote: »

As for being off topic, any discussion of peoples' opinions of the Polish should include the reasons they are here, and how long they mean to stay.

Give it the fvck over. Its a good thread and your spoiling it.

We've beaten this economic bullsh*t thing to death now and I've actually learned a thing or two in this thread.

Let it go on in the light it started and we'll learn more.

Jackus

SimpleSam06 wrote: »

..opinions of the Polish should include the reasons they are here, and how long they mean to stay.

WHY? So, I'm here not only because of money. I have benn in Ireland since 2,5 yrs and I saved less than 2000 euro. I spent it for food, clothes, electronic equipment in dublin. rest i spent travelling around Balkan Pennisula (Croatia and Bosnia).
Many of us will go back to Poland soon, maybe in one year. The price of polish currency is getting higher, euro is getting lower in Poland. Unemploymend is very low in Poland now. Many people in Poland have almost the same salary as in Ireland. Food, drink, accomodation is much more cheaper.
it seems like Ireland will say good bye to polish community and will be forced to deal with Romanians Bulgarians and others. I hope You like them.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Jackus wrote: »

it seems like Ireland will say good bye to polish community and will be forced to deal with Romanians Bulgarians and others. I hope You like them.

Well I for one will be sorry to see the Polish leave.

Indeed I've seen a small but significant decline in them over the last year already.

SimpleSam06

Mairt wrote: »

Give it the fvck over. Its a good thread and your spoiling it.

Whenever you're done backseat moderating, there's an entire internet out there waiting for your valuable contributions, maybe even a place where everyone has the same opinion as you.

I doubt it though.

arybvtcw0eolkf

SimpleSam06 wrote: »

Whenever you're done backseat moderating, there's an entire internet out there waiting for your valuable contributions, maybe even a place where everyone has the same opinion as you.

I doubt it though.

Oh stop being a cry baby.

I'm not a Moderator but I can't put you on ignore.

Your on ignore

arybvtcw0eolkf

Jackus a question.

What is the general opinon of the Irish in the Polish community?.

And apart from economic reason's what else did you expect you'd find in Ireland?.

We've a reputation for being friendly people, did you find that.

We've also a reputation for having a beautiful countryside, whats your opinion on it?.

williambonney

Polish people are fine and very welcome; I do hope lots of them put down roots here. But I feel a good amount of them will move back to Poland as the economy improves. I know a few Estonian girls working here, they are absolutely gorgeous, and we could do with a few thousand more of them. They would do wonders for our gene pool.

SimpleSam06

Mairt wrote: »

Oh stop being a cry baby.

I'm not a Moderator but I can't put you on ignore.

Your on ignore

Well its an alternative to coming up with an intelligent response, I guess.

Laslo

SimpleSam06 wrote: »

Most if not all of the economic boom has been based around the construction industry

IB's report, meanwhile, indicates that only 22,600 non-nationals are employed in construction.

SimpleSam06 wrote: »

So tell me again how migrants are central to the economy

I don't need to. You're arguing with yourself.

SimpleSam06

Laslo wrote: »

I don't need to. You're arguing with yourself.

Jedi you will not be, until sense you make.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Laslo wrote: »

I don't need to. You're arguing with yourself.

OWNED

Kintarō Hattori

Mairt wrote: »

OWNED

Heh Heh Heh...

Jackus

Mairt wrote: »

Jackus a question.

What is the general opinon of the Irish in the Polish community?.

And apart from economic reason's what else did you expect you'd find in Ireland?.

We've a reputation for being friendly people, did you find that.

We've also a reputation for having a beautiful countryside, whats your opinion on it?.

The thing I hate to say but i have to.
Bad things:
Many (remember: not all!) Polish reckon that Irish are bad educated, lazy, bad outfit, food they eat is crap etc. Sorry for that
Good things:
Very very very friendly, funny (in good meaning), like to spend a good time, enjoying life.
Many of us never be treaten as good as in Ireland even in Poland - so this is the answer on Your question about reason why I like to live in Eire. Other reasons: I feel valued, more freedom, less complains about bad life conditions around, pubs and Guinness of course , multicultural, very tolerant country.
Many many reasons...
Countryside in Ireland? If I found a job somewere in countryside i will move there straightaway. I lived in small town (almost village in Poland).
The only thing i miss is big forest...

CantGetNoSleep

Polish girls are hot, although aside from at work I have never talked to a Polski. I'd find them hard to approach in a nightclub etc, although two of my friends have been with the most unbelieveable Polish girls before

In my experience, they are decent people, a lot harder working than us in general, although like everone you get your pr*cks / lazy people etc. Where I work there os only ever one or two of them and around twenty Irish so they always make an effort to talk to us

The one thing that does p*ss me off is when you are in a deli etc and there are a few of them serving you, they chat in Polish and it always gives me the impression that they are talking about you. I know they are probably just having conversation but there is something about it that annoys me

SimpleSam06

Mairt wrote: »

OWNED

eo980 wrote: »

Heh Heh Heh...

Yup, and theres that sting behind my left eye that indicates, yes, I just got stupider by reading that. Laslo your comment made no sense to me, would you care to explain it?

jamaica

watna wrote: »

I worked with a Polish girl who I was very good friends with. She's gone back to Poland now but we keep in touch. She's coming back o visit soon.

Our room mate is Polish and is just weird. She doesn't seem to know how run a house i.e the little daily things you do at home. She puts the heating on and leaves it on all night when she is in bed. When we said it to her she didn't seem to know how a heating system worked at all.

The reason for that might be the fact that in many Polish houses/flats the heating is on constantly, whether you're asleep or not. From October to April. You can only turn it up or down but that's about it.

Other than the above, your room mate might just be a pure dodo. Happens all the time.

From Drakart's blog.

Laslo
Jan 6th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
The reason Irish women don’t like Polish men is because they’re snobs and they see Polish guys as being of a ‘lower class’. If it’s any consolation, Irish men like Polish women not just because they’re attractive but also because they’re not as arrogant, aggressive and bigoted as Irish women. They’re not so much hard work basically. Despite some ‘mental closure’ as you put it, they’re warmer and less bad natured, greedy and selfishly desperate.
Irish women (and many men too admittedly) have a great deal to learn about life and decency.

Is that you Laslo?

Sonnenblumen

There are plenty of poorly educated Polish people in Poland, and plenty of Crime+ poverty traps also.

We can argue on food, housing, politics etc etc, but on average I would expect that most Polish people are friendly and are well received here. However there are bad apples here and in Poland.

There are a few distinguishing feature between Poles and Irish is that in Ireland we do not as yet have any neo-Nazi groups, and certainly nothing of the soccer hooligans to be found in Poland. In a strange way it's disturbing to see poorly educated, unemployed Poles apeing Deutsche Nazis.

Also Irish Police ie Garda are much more professional and do not suffer any of the corruption (political/financial) to be found in Poland.

Finally, I think the Polish people here in Ireland/abroad are higher than average examples of their counterparts 'trapped' in Poland.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Jackus wrote: »

The thing I hate to say but i have to.
Bad things:
Many (remember: not all!) Polish reckon that Irish are bad educated, lazy, bad outfit, food they eat is crap etc. Sorry for that
Good things:
Very very very friendly, funny (in good meaning), like to spend a good time, enjoying life.
Many of us never be treaten as good as in Ireland even in Poland - so this is the answer on Your question about reason why I like to live in Eire. Other reasons: I feel valued, more freedom, less complains about bad life conditions around, pubs and Guinness of course , multicultural, very tolerant country.
Many many reasons...
Countryside in Ireland? If I found a job somewere in countryside i will move there straightaway. I lived in small town (almost village in Poland).
The only thing i miss is big forest...

No need to apologise. Never apologise for honest opinion.

As regards the education, to an extent I agree with you. BUt I feel that the fault of government/education policy but in the last ten year's thats been changing alot, and for the better.

I'm 41. When I was a teenager the only people who went on to college and got a degree with the upper-middle classes because they had the money for it.

I grew up in a very working class neighbourhood in Dublin (I'm from Ballymun) and to be honest with you my family needed me to leave school early and go to work.

I left school and went to work in a slaughter house at 15yrs old and have worked very hard since.

This generation is completely different. Its accepted now that my children will go onto college and get their degree's, no question about it.

So athough a generation is poorly educated in comparison to Polish people it doesn't mean we're less intelligent.

I think (not taking anything away from the contribution made to Ireland by Poles etc) but I think my generation have had to work extremly hard to get where we are now.

I don't think I got my success off the back of someone else's contributions. Although I do have property which I rent out . But I worked hard to get these too.

Laslo

SimpleSam06 wrote: »

Laslo your comment made no sense to me, would you care to explain it?

Not really.

Jackus

CantGetNoSleep wrote: »

The one thing that does p*ss me off is when you are in a deli etc and there are a few of them serving you, they chat in Polish and it always gives me the impression that they are talking about you. I know they are probably just having conversation but there is something about it that annoys me

Yeah, it's rude and very hard to explain them. My girlfriend is worse in english than me, but she clearly understand and she keep tryin to conversate in english only, but if You are surrounded by Polish homies only, is very hard to stop using polish language. What I do then, I try to don't be so loud like others and minimize amount of conversations

Dudess

Mairt wrote: »

No need to apologise.

As regards the education, to an extent I agree with you. BUt I feel that the fault of government/education policy but in the last ten year's thats been changing alot, and for the better.

I'm 41. When I was a teenager the only people who went on to college and got a degree with the upper-middle classes because they had the money for it.

I grew up in a very working class neighbourhood in Dublin (I'm from Ballymun) and to be honest with you my family needed me to leave school early and go to work.

I left school and went to work in a slaughter house at 15yrs old and have worked very hard since.

This generation is completely different. Its accepted now that my children will go onto college and get their degree's, no question about it.

So athough a generation is poorly educated in comparison to Polish people it doesn't mean we're less intelligent.

I think (not taking anything away from the contribution made to Ireland by Poles etc) but I think my generation have had to work extremly hard to get where we are now.

I don't think I got my success off the back of someone else's contributions. Although I do have property which I rent out . But I worked hard to get these too.

Mairt, your standard of writing is a lot better than plenty of people with university degrees. I used to type essays for people in college and some of the utter sh*t I was given had me dumbfounded - this was by people who were getting 1sts in English exams and assignments.

So Jackus,

How do Polish people typical iniate romantic encounters?

Do you ever get the feeling that Irish people look through you, or avoid eye contact?

**** but Mairt looks amazing for 41.

SimpleSam06

Laslo wrote: »

Not really.

I didn't think so. It would be a bit difficult, in fairness. As they say around here, when mairt is cheering you on, its time to hang up the internet.

jdivision

SimpleSam06 wrote: »

The economy boomed, as many have, mostly because of cheap credit which became available through historically low interest rates back in 2001. This flooded the country with cheap money, and led directly to the housing boom, and record tax takes by the government, which was squandered on enriching and enlarging the public sector. It also led to higher inflation, which is why everything is more expensive, and inflation is running ahead of pay rises, public or private sector.

In short, most of our economic boom was us buying and selling houses to each other. The majority of migrants, anecdotal evidence notwithstanding, have ended up in service sectors, not construction.

And what about the boom before that? And now who would do those jobs if immigrants weren't doing them? how would the wages have increased (we effectively have full employment)? What would inflation be like then?

Jackus

Moonbaby wrote: »

So Jackus,

How do Polish people typical iniate romantic encounters?

Do you ever get the feeling that Irish people look through you, or avoid eye contact?

I think there is no big difference between You and us.
But, yeah, Irish are more outgoing than Polish i think