Polish from Russian

Hello, thanks for reading my thread.
I want to learn Polish from Russian, is it easy or hard or impossible? I know a native Polish speaker who is tutor who I can study with. How much per day should beginner practise? Will speaking Russian help? I also speak Ukrainian, French, English, German and Spanish. Is 16 to old to learn Polish?

Thank you for your precious time and answer if you do.

It's not hard if your first language is Russian and Ukrainian would only make it easier.

Some years ago I knew a Russian who arrived in Poland without a word of Polish (had been told it wouldn't be necessary which he quickly realized was wrong) by the third day he had a textbook and within a month was functional for everyday things and within three or so months was pretty fluent.

Outside of Poland it will take longer, of course, but you should be able to read native materials within 6 months or so (if not sooner).

Understanding the language will take longer of coure, though still very doable, especially with internet resources...

@mafketis Thank you 😊.

As someone who once attempted same, only in reverse namely Russian from Polish, learning one Slavic language from another, at least for me as a native bilingual German speaker, was tough owing to a preponderance of numerous "false friends"!

While Russian grammar is rather similar to Polish, they are NOT identical in any way, shape or form. This is only from the morphological end. Both the lexical and semic differences are legion.

What's more, Polish is a pronoun-drop language, Russian isn't.

Pronunciation issues are also significant, being that Polish is way easier to pronounce, in my opinion anyway! Russian palatalscan take a long time to get right, plus the "soft" vs. "hard" l-sound can seem impossible to recognize until ultra reinforced by a patient Russian native speaking teacher:-)

If you wish to exchange experiences in depth on this topic, contact me off line, if you wish, at tarsape@gmail.com My name is Mark.

Well I take it the OP's a Russian native speaker so it won't be hard, but yeah taking a second slavic language on as a foreign language is tough as they mix and interfere with each other in ways that Romance or Germanic languages don't....

Right on, maf.

Thank you to all who have responded. I didn't expect it. And thank you for not killing me for being Russian.

I have experience with false friends from learning English when knowing German, and, I have to say, I don't like them, but I can get through them.

I do think it's a little uncomfortable to learn other Slavic language, but Ukrainian wasn't hard for me. Polish gentleman I know said that Ukrainian is somewhat between.

I think I will learn it. Whatever hardness there is, I am very interested in Polish and Poland and Polish culture, and really want to speak it.

Thank you for your offer of email conversations, Mr. Mark. I would really LOVE to, but I am very busy and sadly don't have time. But really thank you.

Do you know roughly how long it will take to become fluent?

If you're anti-Putin that's enough for me :) And if you're interested in Poland and Polish culture then it's even better :))) I've come across some Russians who are wonderful people :)


No, definitely not. I started learning English seriously only at highschool, when I was 15/16 years old. And it looks like you have a knack for learning languages :)


I don't know, it depends how much time and effort you'll invest in learning. My guess is that, considering that you know Ukrainian already, if you study on regular basis then you should have some fairly decent grasp of the language after a year maybe? But once you have some Polish language basics from a language course I think that to become fluent it's important to immerse yourself in the language somehow - by watching Polish films, TV series, reading stuff in Polish and you could try to interact with Polish people on the internet, for example.

There are YouTube videos where people teach Polish, if not in Russian, then in Ukrainian. Ukrainians living in Poland also have YouTube channels in which they talk about studying Polish language, reality, culture, etc.

Here are some Polish basics lessons on YouTube in Russian:

youtu.be/vuHBND0dqVM

youtu.be/VybjxBd_d3Q

I found a video of that guy from the first link giving advice on how to learn Polish fast (at first he talks a bit in Polish, but the rest of the video is in Russian):

youtu.be/MCM7b9aiQRI

Btw, I thought that this guy is Polish :O But he's from Belarus :O Wow, his Polish is perfect :O And he has no accent!

Btw, I forgot to add that if you're anti-Putin then you have nothing to worry about as far as Polish people in general are concerned. They will love you :))) Unless you're some kind of Stalin-loving communist, of course ;P

Once you can understand fairly well this is a great channel:

youtube.com/channel/UCv2weqWCHMTnOlt-Q8f-PDw

Her diction is crystal clear and judging from the comments many/most of her students are Russian speakers and a lot of her lessons are about that (indirectly at least).

Sounds about right. Given that our young friend already has six languages under his belt - six months!

Orcs are very smart creatures.

Thank you, @Paulina. You're very kind 😊.
Thanks for the link, @mafketis.
Six months sounds very quick, @Bobko. 'Her', by the way. 'Friend' is a lovely word, I wasn't expecting such niceness from Poles. Not because Poles aren't nice people, just Poland and Russia aren't exactly friendly (understatement of the year).

You're welcome!
Btw, you are a ballet student? I like ballet! 🤗


Bobko is a Russian living in New York, as far as I understand. There aren't that many Poles on this forum, I'm afraid...


True, but it doesn't mean that ordinary Russians and Poles can't be friends :)

@Paulina I am! Very serious vocational ballet student at Vaganova Academy! How did you know? Did I put that in my information on my profile?

New York sounds very interesting, good for him/her.
You're definitely right. I honestly don't understand why a lot of Russians hate Poles, call them crooks, "insult" them by calling them Jews (I think there used to or is a lot of dislike towards Jews in Poland, which is saddening but ironic on the "insult" matter) . Obviously I understand the general dislike of Russians in Poland, with the invasion and practically terrorizing them for centuries, although ordinary Russians really have nothing to do with that.

Please stick to the topic of this thread

Cool! :) Congrats! 👏


Yes, this info is on your forum profile :):

https://polishforums.com/index.php?action=userinfo&user=60641


I've read one theory concerning this, but I'm afraid we'll have to continue this in the thread to which off topic posts are moved - I answered it in that thread (Random Chat Poland):

polishforums.com/off-topic/poland-random-chat-74400/72/#msg1850652