Tips for learning Polish

Hey everyone! So it happens to be the last week of my project, and some time ago I made a bet with my roommate that if I would not publish any blogs until the end of my stay, I would have to cook for her for a full week. And since my cooking skills are questionable, here you go with a chunk of all the blogposts I started but did not finish during my project, starting with Tips for learning Polish :).

  1. In the beginning, I wrote every word which I encountered and did not know down, and later translated them. It helped me to understand my surroundings (simple things like what the sign in the metro meant or what a shop is selling) and built a base of actually useful vocabulary. It takes some effort but is not an endless task as you will soon recognize words that you already know and realize that you actually understand things on your own – the best feeling ever.
  2. Ask questions: Ask whenever you don’t understand something, or want to know the meaning of a word, just ask!
  3. In the beginning I bought myself a Polish book in a secondhand shop and started reading it with google translate (writing the translations for every word next to the text), which helped for my vocabulary, but I soon lost the patience. If you are really motivated though that might be an idea for you.
  4. Watch shows in your language with Polish subtitles – there are not that many polish shows on Netflix and even less that correspond with my taste, so I found that while listening to Polish original shows is obviously the best, turning Polish subtitles on for my favorite English shows also did the job.
  5. Duolingo does actually help if you want to expand your vocabulary, although it is not good for Grammar.
  6. Don’t expect too much – for people that never spoke or learned a Slavic language it is super hard, and you should not get worked up about not making as much progress as you think you would. You will very likely not speak Polish fluently at the end of the year, but maybe you will get to a point where you understand basic conversations.
  7. Don’t make the same mistake as I did and be too avaricious to spend ten euros on a language book, it’s not that much money and definitely helpful.
  8. Don’t worry too much about grammar: Most people I met were considerate enough to fill in my declination gaps and they still understood me, so if you have no clue how to manage any of the mess that polish grammar is, this is not a big disaster.
  9. Have your fun with the language – My favorite word in Polish is kombinować, because of its distinct Slavic cultural meaning that cannot be translated into English, shortly followed by masakra, and I even taught my family these words and use them in German too. Whether it’s speaking Polenglish with the other Volunteers or creating little fun sentences based on the words that you know („nie chcę isć do lidla”), everything helps (and it makes the whole thing more enjoyable).
  10. Do your work: There is no shortcut for learning Polish, and I discovered that when I did not do Polish actively for a while, my level did not improve, although I still heard it in the kindergarten.

And last but not least: It’s worth it, even though you might not think so. Slavic languages are pretty similar and knowing one well can be your entry ticket to the other ones. Even I with my A2 level of Polish recognize words in Russian, Ukrainian or Czech.

I hoped that I could help you and that some of you will be motivated to learn this beautiful mess that is Polish!