Our guest today is Ukrainian youtuber and film critic, Alina Nikulina. We talk about how the life of Ukrainians changed last year, but also about how it influenced Polish-Ukrainian relations. Of course, we could not omit the topic of Russia, its past and future, and how it influenced the history of our countries – but […]
Podcast
You are not so great, Britain. Chapter 10: So long, and thanks for the fish (and chips)
It’s time to bring the project to a close. In this chapter, we touch on some subjects we haven’t covered and check if Elisa’s British boyfriend still wants to talk to us. Thank you for being with us through those 10 episodes, and let’s hope we’ll meet one day in our new podcast entitled “You’re […]
Leftist Drivel on Scots and Haggis (Guest: MizLiot)
This is an English version of our polish-language podcast. Burns night is coming. On that day Scottish people sit to the table to enjoy their national cuisine. The most important moment of the evening is cutting the haggis and loud reading of the one of the most famous Scottish poems by their national bard Robert […]
You are not so great, Britain. Chapter 9: Hey ho, hey ho, it’s off to work we go.
People from all over the EU until recently were coming to the UK in their thousands to look for work. People from other parts of the world still find Britain an attractive destination. But is the British work market a good place to be an employee? Was it ever? Are salaries really good and workers’ […]
You are not so great, Britain. Chapter 8: Trains, buses and everything.
One of Elisa’s English language students said that “Britain is the country where everything is organized and buses are always on time”. Oh, how wrong she was. With the bus and rail strikers, the government accuses trade union leaders for “making the public transport unreliable”. But perhaps they should go on strike, because it can […]
You are not so great Britain. Chapter 7: British Universities. Are they really so good?
We invited professor Jan Čulík, lecturer in Czech from the school of modern languages and cultures at Glasgow University today. We decided to ask him if the British universities, so famous around the world for their teaching quality, are really as good as their places in the rankings show. Turns out, not everything is […]
You are not so great, Britain. Chapter 6: Trucking hell!
Our guest today is Mat Ireland, driver, podcaster, and writer. We discuss the topic of the infrastructure for truckers in Britain. You can find Mat: – on youtube – on Facebook – the Truck and Driver podcast is here and you can find his book here Related posts: You are not so great Britain. Chapter […]
You are not so great Britain. Chapter 5: British bureaocracy.
This week Elisa and Tomasz discuss why British bureaucracy is so dysfunctional and what can be done to improve users’ experience in contact with the government, banks, and other institutions. To illustrate problems when talking to automatic voice recognition systems, we used a fragment of a clip from a TV show Burnistoun: https://youtu.be/HbDnxzrbxn4 Related posts: […]
You are not so great Britain. Chapter 4: Home, sweet home. Tiny, mouldy home.
Britons are pround of being one of the richest economy. But are standards of living really that great? We lived in a few countries between us, and we can’t remember topics like “mould”, “leaving rooms unheated to save money”, “single glazing windows” and “struggling to fit double bed into the bedroom” to be topics of […]
You are not so great, Britain. Chapter 3: Britain is a world-leading democracy. Or is it?
Britain is very proud of its democracy. You can often hear soundbites like “world-leading”, “well-established” or “historic”. Sure, Magna Carta and other things were good – for their time. But it’s the XXI century. Is Britain’s democracy suitable for the times we live in? Can it be even considered a modern democracy at all? Related […]