Language / WHY THE HELL CANT I LEARN POLISH?? [64]

I've been learning for over a year, and I move to Poland next month. I can say short sentences, but I can understand much more than I can say. I recently got a tutor who will only speak to me in Polish (Trust me this helps), she says that I've spent too much time just concentrating on grammar and not enough just speaking and listening. I've picked up lots of phrases and short sentences just listening to my girlfriend speaking to her friends.

It will happen, just lots and lots of practice and being forced to speak Polish. I know that once I've moved to Poland, I will have no choice but to speak ;-).

Language / I need some encouragement from Polish language speakers! [30]

I started out by just reading grammar books and trying to learn lists of rules and vocabulary. I can say that I regretted it after moving to Poland because although I could read some stuff, I was completely lost when I had to speak, and understanding people speaking was only slightly better. When I tried to speak, I found myself looking up tables in my head and often getting it wrong because I felt pressured.

Now, I'm concentrating completely on speaking and listening. I have a tutor and I am working through the Hurra Po Polsku books, which still covers grammar but covers it in a context which helps you remember it. You learn phrases and situations in which specific grammar is used.

As an example, I consider the locative case the most difficult to get to grasps with, but if you learn phrases that use the locative case you start to get a feel for what should happen, and most of the time you can start forming your own sentences and just know what feels right, e.g. Once you know how a few of the words decline, you can guess how new ones will by the endings. It really does work, and you start to get used it. Also, don't be discouraged, I found that even when I make grammatical (Some serious) errors, I'm still understood and people are happy to correct me.

Work / Advice on Polish courses in Krakow [8]

I'd recommend these guys: prolog.edu.pl

I have used their course materials and they come highly recommended

Life / Picking up BBC television in Poland [41]

I pay £9 a month for a server in London which I can use to get BBC iPlayer. Works a treat :-).

Life / Picking up BBC television in Poland [41]


I have a shared server with rapidswitch. It's a Linux box with root access. I've setup an SSH tunnel and it works nearly as quick as being in the UK :-)

You get 200GB of bandwidth a month for the basic price.

Language / Problems remembering Polish vocabulary [20]

I use a flashcard system:

After each lesson, I put all the new words into a lesson, and go through this. It helps you learn the words really quickly, but getting them to stick is another story.

I found simply the best way (for me!!) to make words stick is to learn it with a phrase, e.g. If you wanted to remember kupić, you would learn: Chciałbym kupić książkę. I often combine a few words in a phrase, and this greatly helps me, as I associate a word with a situation.

Language / Does anyone know where I can learn Polish for free? [35]

Get yourself a Polish partner, you can get it for free then ;-))

Language / Polish Language test using the European Language Frameworks [9]

Thanks for the links everyone.

I realised doing some of the tests that I have a long way to go :(

Language / Polish Short Stories \\ Polish Language Exam (writing-reading-listening) [4]

Gah bloody Rapidshare is doing its best to make me pay to download. Anyone have any idea how I can actually download these files, it keeps claiming there are no slots and some other rubbish.

Life / What can citizens do to make Poland a better place to live? [125]

One thing I really miss about England is that people actually smile. How hard would it be when you are at a checkout in a supermarket for the person to smile and say "Dzień Dobry". When I ask for something in a shop I feel like I'm imposing on the person and they want to punch me. You have a job because we are shopping there, learn to appreciate that fact!!

Some other minor things:

- I hate being refused service in a shop because I don't have the correct change. Or being snarled at because I hand the cashier a 50zl note.

- If I let you in front of me at the checkout or I hold the door open for you, just say "Dziękuję".

Language / Dzięki temu...... ? [8]

It means "Thanks to that......", like you are thanking something for something

Like thanks to that, I can now buy a house.

Dzięki temu,

Life / Any Polish channels with closed captioning? Reality TV shows? [7]

Yeah there are, just not for every program. I've used them a few times

Language / średniozaawansowany prodręcznik do nauki polskiego [8]

The hurra po polsku books are great if you have a tutor, or are learning in a class, but I wouldn't recommend using them on your own. The books are completely in Polish, and without a tutor, they won't explain to you clearly why things are. They are perfect to go through as additional practice though, once you have learnt the material elsewhere. If on the other hand you have someone who can go through the book with you, then I highly recommend them.

However, for working on your own I would recommend, "cześć jak się masz II". This is at level A2 in Polish and it is a very good course book. There are dialogs, good explanations, and lots of chances to practice. There is even an assessment test at the end of the book. Also, unlike some other Polish books, I found this one pleasant to look at, and nicely illustrated. The book flows on nicely from the previous level A1 book, and there are also additional more advanced books that follow for level B1, B2, etc..

Language / Any sites with podcasts in Polish? [17]

Thank you. I used to listen to the bloggy Polish blog, but they haven't updated it in a long time.

UK, Ireland / Poles living in the UK returning home or not? [63]

At least most Polish people are willing to work in the UK and work hard, most scum/chavs don't want to work, they just bash out a couple of kids by the age of 18 and drain the benefits system. Let more Polish in, and throw the chavs out.

Law / Advantages of getting Polish citizenship [24]

There are a few advantages that I can see, but nothing major especially if you already have EU citizenship. I got my Polish citizenship a few months after arriving here and it enabled me to register permanently, easily open a bank account and also travel around most of Europe using just my ID card (Nothing major as I already have an EU passport).

If I didn't get citizenship, then they still would of let me register for longer than 3 months and open a bank account, but I would imagine it would be a more involved process. To me there are three advantages:

1) As someone has already said, it's a good feeling when you finally get it.
2) You get treated less like a foreigner when you want to, e.g. Buy a car, land, open a bank account, get a mobile phone contract. All these are possible already if you have EU citizenship, but I'd imagine they are a little easier if you have Polish citizenship.

3) Who knows what will happen in the future, maybe having a Polish passport will let you travel into certain areas easier, e.g. Without visa restrictions.

Study / Want to do a PL course in Krakow this month. Where recommended? [5]

Have you tried just having private lessons, you can do this fairly cheaply if you look around. I did my lessons over Skype, and I would argue it beats the hell out of doing it in a class. The teacher will suit the lessons just for you, you aren't slowed down, and you always get the chance to speak and not wait for others to catch up. Plus being in a class with other English speakers beats the point unless you all force yourselves to speak Polish (Which is difficult).

That being said, the only thing missing is the social aspect of it.

Genealogy / Half-Polish. How to obtain a dual nationality quickly? [15]

I'd say there isn't much of a chance, it took me around 3 months before I got the confirmation of citizenship, and that was whilst I was in Poland ringing up and pestering them every week.

Language / Problems remembering Polish vocabulary [20]

Not quite a frequency list, but this PDF has a list of the most common words: polish.slavic.pitt.edu/other/minimum.pdf

Language / So why did you give up learning Polish? [105]

Of course the language's usefulness is relative to the person learning it. To me, it's very useful because I live here, my girlfriend is Polish, and lots of people I know here only speak Polish. I also obtained Polish citizenship because my granddad was Polish.

What keeps pushing me to continue learning is the embarassing moments when somebody tries to talk to you and you can't answer like you want (English simply doesn't cut it either). The feeling of achievement and reward when you can make yourself understood and understand people is second to none. I've been learning passively for over 2 years, and although I can now understood most of the things people say and on TV, I still have a long way to go. I often think about quitting as it's really hard, but the simple need to communicate always brings me back. I started learning Polish before moving to Poland (and not knowing I would ever live in Poland), and I found that useful because there were lots of Polish people were I lived.

I have also started learning Spanish, and after learning Polish, Spanish seems like a walk in the park. I admit that if I had instead learnt Spanish, I'd probably be fluent by now, but Spanish simply isn't that useful for me, and I'm not looking for points on my CV.

The language might not be useful on my CV, but it's useful for communicating with people, who otherwise I wouldn't be able to talk to. It's a great stepping-stone for other slavic-languages, and even helpful for learning an easier language (Strange grammar will no longer shock you, :P)

Language / Super fast Polish language learning strategies from internet polyglots [29]

This discussion is making its way around all the forums I've been to today.

@slick578

I've followed along with these sites for a while now, and to be honest, I don't think it's possible to learn any language if you lack the motivation. No Internet guru is going to make you feel any different. Learning a language involves a lot of hard work, and discipline. People are always trying to look for simple and quick solutions and shortcuts. If you lack motivation, you need to find out why and resolve this issue first.


Irish Polyglot never claimed to have passed the C2 exam, if fact he openly admitted to failing it. It says so on his page. He also admits his Czech mission was a failure, and he didn't achieve fluency. People continually quote him out of context. I don't agree with the name of his site, but the advice he gives is generally good. What's important is the fact that he does speak several languages, and I'm pretty sure he can hold a decent conversation in German.


I think you underestimate how difficult Polish is for English speakers, it's going to take more than 3 months to become fluent. Maybe after 3 months of total immersion you could hold simple conversations. I'm happy to be proved wrong however. I salute anyone who has managed to achieve this.

However, I DO believe that an English speaker could get to a near fluent level in say Spanish within a 3 month total immersion (Studying 12 hours a day, etc.), but Polish, no way. I've been here nearly two years, and I'm only just starting to feel comfortable with the language, I have some way to go before I will consider myself as fluent

Language / Super fast Polish language learning strategies from internet polyglots [29]

An important point here is, could you actually talk about the stuff in your own language as well. I could talk about weather, movies, some subjects in science for example, but if someone starts talking to me about politics, mythology or biochemistry I'd be lost in my own language, never mind in Polish :D

Language / Super fast Polish language learning strategies from internet polyglots [29]


Off-topic, but funnily enough, science terms aren't that much of a problem, indeed many terms are easy to deduce because they look like the Latin/Greek equivalent, depending upon how advanced the dicussion goes. I often buy "Focus" and "21 Wiek" in Poland, and normally I can understand them. I can also, for example, talk about astronomy (I subject which I like), because constellations (If you use the Latin scientific names) and "most" stars have the same name.