Job Discussion Forums

Steve Smith · Joined: 06 Jul 2004 Posts: 26

I'm interested to know if anyone stationed in Poland over the last couple of years has noticed any significant increase / decrease in the demand for English tuition? It could go 2 ways; clearly if hundreds of thousands of Poles are planning to come over to the UK to work, they may decide they need to improve their English first; alternatively, it's clear that a large number of Poles who have made it over here have little or no English, and little or no interest in ever learning the language, because the type of work they aspire to over here requires scant knowledge of English.

Kymro · Joined: 19 Oct 2003 Posts: 244

The fact that two million young educated Poles have left the country, (the target group for language schools), has probably slightly decreased the numbers of those wanting English tuition.

chromium · Joined: 06 Jun 2007 Posts: 69 Location: Dalian, China

I can't fully agree. I met my girlfriend, a doctor thinking about going the UK) by a referral because she wanted to improve her English before interviews, etc. Also, most of my students are learning English because they know they'll need it for higher paying jobs in Poland and some lesser jobs in the UK or elsewhere. So, I think as many people are learning English now, because it's more important for them than it used to be and because some companies require a certain proficiency in English to work there.

But, I have no statistics whatsoever to base this on, just my experience from being here.

zippy2k · Joined: 07 Sep 2005 Posts: 42 Location: Riyadh

I neither have any statistics to back up what I'm about to say (finding such on Polish immigration is notoriously hard I think) but have been working here since Sept '04 and over those three years haven't noticed a significant drop in demand...

Certainly if you go to somewhere like Warsaw or a very rural area you will still find demand for native speakers. What chromium is saying about learning English to get a better job in Poland/(even keep the one they have) rings true. With 15bn dollars of FDI last year, mostly I think British/American firms(again sorry I have no figures but feel that's pretty accurate) I think the people "left" still value having good English and the standard of English teaching in state schools doesnt appear to be rising at any great rate, hence I get lots of offers to teach kids supplementary lessons...

Even if 2 million left Poland at EU accession, that represents at most around 20% of the workforce. The 80% left have greater need (real or perceived) now for English than at EU accession...

TeflTom · Joined: 04 Sep 2007 Posts: 3

Just from personal experience of my students and other schools in the area I would say there has been a noticeable drop in numbers.
A large proportion of my last year's students were leaving the country, most of them for good. My general impression over the last few years is of rats abandonning the ship. Or as a Polish friend of mine said (I don't know why - maybe it's a translated idiom!): soon there will be left only the old ladies and their fish.

zippy2k · Joined: 07 Sep 2005 Posts: 42 Location: Riyadh

Well, Tom, there is certainly an element of "rats leaving a sinking ship" however it all depends on your perception of if indeed and how badly if it is the case, Poland is "sinking".Recent announcements such as the hosting of UEFA in 2012 have made people more willing to stay I think or at least come back after only a few months, but again of course I'm generalising. I have no stats to back up what I'm saying.

I'm not however generalising when I say reports from my Polish colleagues who teach here in Warsaw (and been here longer than me) are that the demand has definitely not dropped. The effect you describe may be due to a number of factors, not least the explosion in provision of schools and newspapers giving away English learning software etc. However I think there is a solid core demand here and its not just old ladies and their fish!

My own experience is that schools are particularly lacking native speakers and I have to turn away private students approaching me here. You cannot ignore $15 billion of foreign direct investment last year - even if not by British or American firms, the lingua franca of business in most of these firms if they have any international dimension is English. My personal experience is also that that is directly affecting people in needing English at work, in fact I am benefitting now from teaching managers at the British Supermarket Tescos where 3 years ago there was no Tescos only Polish owned ventures...