Friday, 6 December 2013

Limpeh is on holiday for the next 5 days

OK people, I'm going to be on holidays for the next 5 days in Poland - so if I don't approve your comments promptly, please don't panic. Kindly bear with me, I will have wifi where I am staying in Warsaw but I will be out sightseeing and having fun, rather than staying in and surfing the net. I'm not taking my laptop with me, so I won't be blogging in Poland but definitely will have plenty of photos, videos and stories to share when I get back. I now have to finish packing and try to get some sleep before going to the airport in the morning.
I have just checked the weather forecast for Warsaw - it is going to be -2 and snowing! How wonderful! I can't wait! My British friends think that I am mad to go to Warsaw when it is snowing heavily and I told them, listen I am from Singapore, I've had more than enough hot weather in the first 21 years of my life. I could gladly go without summer for the rest of my life. Bring on the snow!

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4 comments:

  1. Unknown11 December 2013 at 10:16

    RIOT in singapore.......fyi

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    1. Limpeh Foreign Talent11 December 2013 at 11:02

      Don't worry, I did keep up with the news via social media even whilst I was in Poland. I have only just gotten back late last night and am busy playing catch up with work now.

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  2. Jon5 June 2014 at 22:20

    Hi Limpeh,

    This is pretty random, but I have some questions for you and hopefully I can get some advice.

    I'm a computer science (video games) stuent based in the US. As I was starting to look for jobs currently (I'm graduating in December 2014), I didn't want to just to limit myself only to the US. As I was researching the potential studios that I could work in, I realized that one of the studios that I like very much is based in Poland, Warsaw. (And that's how I thought of you, because I remembered you mentioning Poland and Warsaw several times in your posts)

    I believe I'm a suitable fit for the job, except for one criteria: Fluent in Polish. (Again, a second reason I thought of you since you've learnt so many languages)

    My plan is that I will try to apply for the job. However, here are my questions. I haven't started on my research yet, because I literally only started looking at the careers page of this game studio less than an hour ago.
    1. How hard is Polish as a language? (I've only attempted to learnt one additional language - Japanese, and it is of minimum fluency) Its not that I don't want to put hard work in learning a new language, its just that I also need to spend time improving myself as a programmer before now and finding employment.
    2. What is the visa application process like for Poland/EU in general? In the US, I have 1 year of OPT to look for a job, after which I have a H1B1 visa option as a Singaporean. Are companies even willing to hire internationals?
    3. My impressions is that you've always first learnt the language before working in a country. (your knowledge of a language gives you that opportunity), but you probably have experience of know of what is the transition is like going into a unfamiliar country with a new language to learn? US is culturally different from Singapore, but we have the advantage of having learnt the language, all we need to do is to watch our THs and British lingo.

    Thank you so much!

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    1. Limpeh Foreign Talent5 June 2014 at 23:36

      Hi Jon.

      Thanks for your comment. Let me see if I can help you.

      1. Polish is not easy to learn - it is a Slavic language. For English speakers, we usually find Latin languages (Spanish, French, Italian) or Germanic languages (German, Dutch, Swedish) - Slavic languages like Russian, Czech and Polish are harder but not impossible. What is the difference?

      The difference is the amount of time you require to become fluent. So an English speaker would require 1200 to 1500 hours to become fluent in a language like French or Spanish, maybe 1800 to 2000 to become fluent in German or Dutch and closer to 3000 to become fluent in Russian or Polish. But hey, you would need closer to 5000 to become fluent in Arabic or Japanese. So it is not easy, but not the most difficult.

      2. I don't think Poland is that worried about foreigners coming to work there because the flow tends to go the other way! Polish people are leaving Poland to go work in richer countries like Germany, America, the UK etc and anyone going to Poland faces a big language barrier but since I hold an EU passport, I've never really considered that question I'm afraid. I do know that rules vary from country to country - for example, Spain is especially liberal, but nobody wants to go there now given the mess the Spanish economy is in.

      3. Sure I went to Turkey to work there having a very minimal grasp of Turkish and I learnt a lot whilst working there - I was in a very mixed language environment. Like there was this sound engineer who spoke no English but he worked in Italy so spoke some Italian and my colleagues and I had to default to a mish-mash of Italian and Turkish to communicate with him. Then there was this older guy who spoke no English but spoke German for some reason, so again a mish-mash of German and Turkish. I have forgotten most of my Turkish since returning to the UK, but yeah you can only learn so much before going to the country and the best way to learn is by being there and being through in the deep end of the pool.

      Let me know if you have any other questions :)

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