Underground library in Warsaw metro invites commuters to trade scrolling for stories
In Warsaw’s Targówek district, a metro ride has become more than a daily routine. Now it offers a chance to escape into a story. Thanks to Metroteka, a newly opened subterranean library inside the Kondratowicza M2 metro station, commuters can now trade mindless scrolling for meaningful reading.
The 150-square-meter space is stocked with more than 16,000 books, all available through a fast self-checkout system. Visitors can also borrow laptops, sip complimentary coffee, and unwind in a cozy communal area, all while waiting for their train.
“Our dream is for Metroteka to become an educational and cultural center, and not just a place where you can borrow your books from,” says Grażyna StrzelczakBatkowska, deputy director of the Targówek library.
A modern space that breathes life into books
Metroteka’s design is as inviting as its mission. A lush hydroponic garden wall filled with herbs and flowers gives the underground space a breath of fresh air, literally. Basil, oregano, and other plants grow without soil or sunlight, infusing the library with an unexpected sense of vitality. The bookshelves, shaped like soft, undulating waves, add to the organic feel.
“I always joke that books are not made of glass,” Strzelczak-Batkowska says. “You can just pop in, grab a few, throw them on a self-checkout machine, and that’s it—you’re out on a new adventure.”
Aiming to reverse a national trend
Poland’s reading habits have been in steady decline for years. A 2024 survey by the National Library of Poland found that only 41 percent of respondents had read at least one book in the past year. According to Tomasz Makowski, director of the National Library, the legacy of war has shaped these numbers. During World War II, Poland lost 70 percent of its libraries.
“We had several generations that did not see their parents or grandparents in front of a wall of books,” Makowski says. “Reading is [also] not something associated with adulthood, but with schools, teachers, librarians, and usually mothers reading to children.
By placing literature in the path of everyday commuters, Metroteka hopes to shift that cultural perception.
An open invitation to all
For Makowski, the location is just as important as the books. “Opening a library in a metro station is like a dream for us,” he says. “Libraries should be beautiful and open; inviting, not intimidating. It’s not a shrine, but a place where you can spend time freely, take part in discussions, public consultations, or meet people.”
In the coming months, Metroteka plans to host author readings, workshops, and classes to further engage the community. Books can be returned either directly to the library or via parcel lockers outside the station, available around the clock.
As commuters pass through Kondratowicza station with coffee in hand and a novel tucked under one arm, Metroteka quietly transforms daily routines into cultural moments. By meeting people where they are, literally underground, the library isn’t just promoting reading. It’s redefining what public space can offer.
Source: https://www.optimistdaily.com/2025/09/underground-library-in-warsaw-metro-invites-commuters-to-trade-scrolling-for-stories/. Access on May 4th 2026.
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Texto associado
Underground library in Warsaw metro invites commuters to trade scrolling for stories
In Warsaw’s Targówek district, a metro ride has become more than a daily routine. Now it offers a chance to escape into a story. Thanks to Metroteka, a newly opened subterranean library inside the Kondratowicza M2 metro station, commuters can now trade mindless scrolling for meaningful reading.
The 150-square-meter space is stocked with more than 16,000 books, all available through a fast self-checkout system. Visitors can also borrow laptops, sip complimentary coffee, and unwind in a cozy communal area, all while waiting for their train.
“Our dream is for Metroteka to become an educational and cultural center, and not just a place where you can borrow your books from,” says Grażyna StrzelczakBatkowska, deputy director of the Targówek library.
A modern space that breathes life into books
Metroteka’s design is as inviting as its mission. A lush hydroponic garden wall filled with herbs and flowers gives the underground space a breath of fresh air, literally. Basil, oregano, and other plants grow without soil or sunlight, infusing the library with an unexpected sense of vitality. The bookshelves, shaped like soft, undulating waves, add to the organic feel.
“I always joke that books are not made of glass,” Strzelczak-Batkowska says. “You can just pop in, grab a few, throw them on a self-checkout machine, and that’s it—you’re out on a new adventure.”
Aiming to reverse a national trend
Poland’s reading habits have been in steady decline for years. A 2024 survey by the National Library of Poland found that only 41 percent of respondents had read at least one book in the past year. According to Tomasz Makowski, director of the National Library, the legacy of war has shaped these numbers. During World War II, Poland lost 70 percent of its libraries.
“We had several generations that did not see their parents or grandparents in front of a wall of books,” Makowski says. “Reading is [also] not something associated with adulthood, but with schools, teachers, librarians, and usually mothers reading to children.
By placing literature in the path of everyday commuters, Metroteka hopes to shift that cultural perception.
An open invitation to all
For Makowski, the location is just as important as the books. “Opening a library in a metro station is like a dream for us,” he says. “Libraries should be beautiful and open; inviting, not intimidating. It’s not a shrine, but a place where you can spend time freely, take part in discussions, public consultations, or meet people.”
In the coming months, Metroteka plans to host author readings, workshops, and classes to further engage the community. Books can be returned either directly to the library or via parcel lockers outside the station, available around the clock.
As commuters pass through Kondratowicza station with coffee in hand and a novel tucked under one arm, Metroteka quietly transforms daily routines into cultural moments. By meeting people where they are, literally underground, the library isn’t just promoting reading. It’s redefining what public space can offer.
Source: https://www.optimistdaily.com/2025/09/underground-library-in-warsaw-metro-invites-commuters-to-trade-scrolling-for-stories/. Access on May 4th 2026.
In Warsaw’s Targówek district, a metro ride has become more than a daily routine. Now it offers a chance to escape into a story. Thanks to Metroteka, a newly opened subterranean library inside the Kondratowicza M2 metro station, commuters can now trade mindless scrolling for meaningful reading.
The 150-square-meter space is stocked with more than 16,000 books, all available through a fast self-checkout system. Visitors can also borrow laptops, sip complimentary coffee, and unwind in a cozy communal area, all while waiting for their train.
“Our dream is for Metroteka to become an educational and cultural center, and not just a place where you can borrow your books from,” says Grażyna StrzelczakBatkowska, deputy director of the Targówek library.
A modern space that breathes life into books
Metroteka’s design is as inviting as its mission. A lush hydroponic garden wall filled with herbs and flowers gives the underground space a breath of fresh air, literally. Basil, oregano, and other plants grow without soil or sunlight, infusing the library with an unexpected sense of vitality. The bookshelves, shaped like soft, undulating waves, add to the organic feel.
“I always joke that books are not made of glass,” Strzelczak-Batkowska says. “You can just pop in, grab a few, throw them on a self-checkout machine, and that’s it—you’re out on a new adventure.”
Aiming to reverse a national trend
Poland’s reading habits have been in steady decline for years. A 2024 survey by the National Library of Poland found that only 41 percent of respondents had read at least one book in the past year. According to Tomasz Makowski, director of the National Library, the legacy of war has shaped these numbers. During World War II, Poland lost 70 percent of its libraries.
“We had several generations that did not see their parents or grandparents in front of a wall of books,” Makowski says. “Reading is [also] not something associated with adulthood, but with schools, teachers, librarians, and usually mothers reading to children.
By placing literature in the path of everyday commuters, Metroteka hopes to shift that cultural perception.
An open invitation to all
For Makowski, the location is just as important as the books. “Opening a library in a metro station is like a dream for us,” he says. “Libraries should be beautiful and open; inviting, not intimidating. It’s not a shrine, but a place where you can spend time freely, take part in discussions, public consultations, or meet people.”
In the coming months, Metroteka plans to host author readings, workshops, and classes to further engage the community. Books can be returned either directly to the library or via parcel lockers outside the station, available around the clock.
As commuters pass through Kondratowicza station with coffee in hand and a novel tucked under one arm, Metroteka quietly transforms daily routines into cultural moments. By meeting people where they are, literally underground, the library isn’t just promoting reading. It’s redefining what public space can offer.
Source: https://www.optimistdaily.com/2025/09/underground-library-in-warsaw-metro-invites-commuters-to-trade-scrolling-for-stories/. Access on May 4th 2026.
You, an English teacher, decided to use the article “Underground library in Warsaw metro invites commuters to trade scrolling for stories” in the classroom with your students. While you are studying the text with them, reading, asking questions and doing some exercises, you are also evaluating them. You ask yourself, about each student, the following questions:
- Is the student paying attention to the class?
- Is the student joining the discussions we are doing during the class?
- Is the student doing the exercises, written or spoken?
- Is the student reading the text aloud, in silence during the class or as homework, depending on what was asked?
The questions help you evaluate the students, considering their participation during the classes and not only the grades they get on the tests. You could say that you are performing what kind of assessment?
In relation to the teaching of language skills, according to contemporary communicative approaches to language teaching it is correct to say that
Considering the integrated teaching of the four language skills – reading, listening, writing, and speaking – in communicative approaches to English language teaching, select the correct alternative.
Consider the following situation: you are discussing the topic ‘Work’ with your English language students and now you are going to read a magazine article about a type of job interview called ‘extreme interviews’. The heading of the article is: Extreme interviews: what kind of dinosaur are you? If you answered Tyrannosaurus rex , then the bad news is that you probably won’t get the job you’re applying for.
The tasks below are adapted versions of the activities, from the textbook, to work with the text. Match Tasks 1 – 6 with their main aim A – I. There are three extra aims which you do not need to use.
Tasks
Task 1
Discuss the questions in small groups.
1 Have you ever been to a job interview? How was the experience? What kind of questions did they ask you? Did you get the job?
2 What kind of questions do you expect to have in a job interview?
3 How can people get better prepared for a job interview?
Task 2
Look at the photo with the article. What do you think is happening? Do you think the question is one that someone might really ask in this situation? Why (not)?
Task 3
Read the article once and find out. How would you answer the question?
Task 4
Look at the highlighted words and phrases in the text. With a partner, try to figure out what they might mean and how you think they are pronounced.
Task 5
Read the article again. Using your own words, answer the questions.
1 What are extreme interviews?
2 What kind of companies first started using them?
3 Why do some people think that they are better than normal interviews?
Task 6
Do you think extreme interviews are a good way of choosing candidates? Which of the questions below (used in real interviews) do you think would work well? Why?
Adapted from: Face2Face Intermediate. Cris Redston and Gillie Cunningham. Cambridge University Press.
Main Aim
A. Integrating skills and personalizing the topic.
B. Analyzing text organization.
C. Inferring meaning of lexis from context.
D. Predicting.
E. Teaching grammar inductively using the text.
F. Skimming.
G. Activating schemata.
H. Reading for details.
I. Scanning.
Texto associado
Note: throughout the test, you are going to read an online article entitled Bing A.I. and the Dawn of the Post-Search Internet (written by Kyle Chayka), adapted from https://www.newyorker.com and accessed on 11 June 2023. The article is about Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) and it discusses ChatGPT.
All the questions of your test will refer to different parts and aspects of the article.
All the questions of your test will refer to different parts and aspects of the article.
When discussing the typical sequence of an English language lesson, Scrivener (2011), proposes the following diagram:
Source: Scrivener (2011, p. 159).
You, as an English language teacher, establishes that your group’s following communicative objective is to make predictions about the future. In order to achieve that, you decide to work with the article Bing A.I. and the Dawn of the Post-Search Internet to develop reading skills and also to work with the structure Future Simple with Will to make future predictions. Considering this classroom situation and Scrivener’s diagram, analyze the following statements.
I. The article functions as input material, once students are exposed to the target language, in this case, will for future predictions.
II. The teacher draws students’ attention to part of the text and asks students to find one prediction the author is making about the future. Students identify it. This step of the lesson is what Scrivener calls self-directed clarification in his diagram, once students work completely autonomously, without the teacher’s intervention.
III. The teacher draws students’ attention to other two model sentences of future prediction from the text. Then, the teacher asks questions such as Are we talking about a present, past or future situation?; How do you know it’s future?; So when we want to make a prediction about the future, what do we use?. This is what Scrivener calls, in his diagram, guided-discovery clarification and the questions used by the teacher are called concept-checking questions.
IV. The teacher carries out some drilling exercises to systematize the target language. Then, the teacher asks students to produce an infographic making predictions for the future. The first practice, the drilling exercises, is what Scrivener calls in his diagram authentic output, or freer practice, while the infographic is what he calls restricted output, or controlled practice.
It is completely accurate what is stated in
An English language professor is working with the genre “scientific article”. They have asked students to read a number of articles and identify the different parts that are usually part of the genre. The professor is
You are teaching your learners at IFMA how to write a research project. You asked students to write the introduction of the research project. Learners handed in the written assignment, and now you are writing comments for their feedback. In this context, analyze the statements below, with your comment and the area being focused on:
I. Comment: the introduction should briefly describe the theme of your research, its aims and explain the importance of your research.
Area: communicative aim of the genre.
II. Comment: I can understand your point here, but connect the sentences in this paragraph using linkers. Also, avoid repetition of words by using pronouns and synonyms.
Area: organization and coherence.
III. Comment: avoid talking to your reader, that is not typical of introduction in research projects.
Area: language accuracy.
IV. Comment: your target reader is the professor and/or another researcher, so use formal language, avoiding contractions and colloquial expressions.
Area: appropriate register of the genre.
V. Comment: use present perfect here, since there is no time reference for the action and this can happen again.
Area: appropriate tone of the genre.
VI. Comment: you discuss a number of different points in a single block. Divide it into different paragraphs.
Area: layout and organization.
The statements in which the feedback comment is completely in line with the area are
Texto associado
Note: throughout the test, you are going to read an online article entitled Bing A.I. and the Dawn of the Post-Search Internet (written by Kyle Chayka), adapted from https://www.newyorker.com and accessed on 11 June 2023. The article is about Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) and it discusses ChatGPT.
All the questions of your test will refer to different parts and aspects of the article.
All the questions of your test will refer to different parts and aspects of the article.
