Post: #1

A little background story.

I first went to Poland for a couple of months in 2013, but sadly barely bothered to learn the language, because I was living with international flatmates and in Warsaw, I didn't really need to learn the language to survive.

Fast forward 2.5 years later, I returned to Poland this time for 4 months. Staying in Wroclaw. For the second part of my stay, I actively started learning Polish.

It's been close to 8 months that I've left Poland, but I've continued learning Polish non-stop since. I think I am at a point that I need an alternative idea of how I could improve more, without being physically in Poland.

Here are the resources I've used so far:

- Pimselur Polish Level 1 (Lessons 1-30)
http://www.pimsleur.com/learn-polish/pim...1442322707



- DuoLingo Polish
I completed the course, and still do it daily when a subject needs reinforcements



-NKO Flash Cards (Very good and underrated app)
Using "Polish Word Power", I've entered 1,000 Polish words into my database on NKO. The system is "spaced repetition" that helps you master the vocabulary over time. It uses basic flash card functions, in addition to other games to learn new vocabulary that you , yourself, enter. So nothing pre-designed, and you can categorize the words in different decks, usually no more than 14 words per deck. I'm not finished all 1,000 words yet, but it should be done in a few weeks.

- Polish in 4 Weeks Book
I bought the book in my last month in Poland and finished the first 4-5 lessons. However, I stopped and decided to start the book all over again, once I am done with 1,000 vocabularies....so I can specifically focus on grammar as this book mostly does. It has a nice engaging story that makes it very fun !



**I am exposed to Polish language in real life pretty much daily thanks to quite a few Polish coworkers and the girl I'm seeing here**

I've noticed that my writing and reading of Polish is significantly better than my speaking and listening. I can understand and respond if the other person speaks very slowly, however it's not how it works in the real world. Next step is to understand spoken Polish and respond accordingly (At a fast speed) easier, and I'm curious if any one has any advise how I can go to get there.

I need to consume more Polish media. I know for Russian language, StarMedia puts out great entertaining movies on YouTube, does anyone have suggestions about Polish TV Shows/Movies available with subtitles (either PL or ENG subtitles).

Any other apps/books that would be helpful would be appreciated to.

Let's have this thread to discuss the Polish language as a whole.

Post: #2

nice sheet.

how long did it take you to learn 1000 words and do these other things mentioned in your post?

how much time per day do you devote to this?

what industry are you in that you have Polish coworkers?

you can check out the Kosziuko Foundation here in the U.S. which sponsors Polish cultural events and might have resources that would interest you.

Post: #3

(02-17-2017 12:42 PM)Hypno Wrote:  nice sheet.

how long did it take you to learn 1000 words and do these other things mentioned in your post?

how much time per day do you devote to this?

what industry are you in that you have Polish coworkers?

you can check out the Kosziuko Foundation here in the U.S. which sponsors Polish cultural events and might have resources that would interest you.

The words have taken me about 6 months. For the first 2 months I was using Anki, before discovering NKO (which makes organization and reviewing a lot more fun and easier), so I started using NKO from beginning of September. My pace has been slow, because I've been doing the same for Russian in parallel, however I am significantly better in memorizing Polish words than Russian ones. (The opposite when it comes to grammar).

I work in the tourism industry mostly focused on Europe, some great Polish co-workers (all Trump fans ) , and devote 1 to 1:30 hours a day to the language, Mostly early morning and late at night.

I'll check the foundation out. cheers for that !

Post: #4

Im probably similar in level to you since we started both around the same time. If you have completed the duolinguo course and actively practice the content you might as well start reading actual books (easy ones) and watching films strictly in polish, netflix has dub overs in polish for a pretty large selection of movies, just open the audio/subtitles settings when you open any given episode.

Like you, my biggest issue is recognition where when people speak to me, for the life of me I can't understand wtf they are saying, because most of the way I've learnt is via reading and duolinguo. In a real conversation it might take me 10-30 seconds just to recognize AND remember a word and put into context of their spoken sentence, and that is even with them speaking slowly, therefore actual conversation is almost impossible beyond the basics.

The Polish verb system has got to be the most dumbest language mechanic on earth, I blame most of my Polish issues on their verb system, I like how someone above asked how long it took you to learn 1000 words, I am pretty sure ONE verb has about 100 variations if you include past/present/future/conditional of both the imperfective and perfective variations of it. Also any given noun has around 10 declination's and any given adjective can have up to 25 variations. 1000 words is unfortunately not even basic polish.

So yeah, look forward to any other learning material others might have

Post: #5

This is very useful! I've been using Duolingo, Pimsleur, and Memrise.
Also, practicing with language partners online has been helpful.
I've met up with a few of them in person as well when I visited Poland

I'll check out the other sources you mentioned.
Great post!

Post: #6

I found the series Ranczo quite amusing to practice Polish.It also gives a perspective on the life in the Polish countryside.

Post: #7

Check out this guy's channel:





The guy is from London and speaks great Polish (solid C1 level at least). Most of his videos are in Polish, and he talks very clearly and not too fast.

(02-17-2017 01:53 PM)NewMeta Wrote:  The Polish verb system has got to be the most dumbest language mechanic on earth, I blame most of my Polish issues on their verb system, I like how someone above asked how long it took you to learn 1000 words, I am pretty sure ONE verb has about 100 variations if you include past/present/future/conditional of both the imperfective and perfective variations of it. Also any given noun has around 10 declination's and any given adjective can have up to 25 variations. 1000 words is unfortunately not even basic polish.

The verb system in slavic languages is actually the "easy" part, if you consider that there's a lot more tenses in romance languages for example, but yeah the whole grammar is a bitch to learn.

One of the tough things about Polish when compared to Russian for example, is that there's more pronouns and that formal speech is more complex (by formal, I mean the way you would politely talk to a stranger or an older person). In russian you just use the вы form of a verb, whereas in polish you have "pan" (male), "pani" (female) "panowie" (male plural), "panie" (female plural) and "panstwo" (plural, mixed group of men and women). In addition, there's a lot of verbs that take the genitive for no apparent reason (where you would expect the accusative) and there's a lot of verbs where depending on what preposition you use (and each preposition must be followed by a particular case) it completely changes it's meaning. Also, russian has a lot more borrowed words from english or french, whereas the vocab in polish tends to be more slavic.

Post: #8

New resource: BABBEL



Heard about it via a friend. Here are some interesting things about Babbel

- It's a lot slowed paced than DuoLingo, with grammar lessons accommodated at the end of each lesson (that would take 5 minutes to finish). Explains the pronunciation tricks very well, and there is a dialogue where you have to fill in at the end of each lesson.

- You have pronunciation tasks at the start of every lesson.

- Stores vocabulary as week based on category, and you can skip steps if you are already familiar and go to harder lessons.

- Price is $19.99 for 3 months (at least the package I picked, because I figured I can finish the full course in that period)

** IMO, this is especially good, if you're completely new to the language. If I could go back in time , as I was learning from scratch, I'd have Babbel as part of my schedule.

I started using it about 10 days ago from the very first lesson. Despite knowing all the basics and it being easy, I stick picked up some interesting words, phrases, and grammar tricks that I didn't know before, so even those "basic" lessons have been useful.

Starting lesson 10 today, looking forward to it as it gets harder and harder. (There are close to 100 lessons in the course). I aim to have it finished in 3 months, so I won't have to renew the subscription.

Post: #9

If anyone has specific questions about Polish, send me a PM, I am here to help.

Post: #10

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpl8Tex...QFQ/videos

This Patrick Ney guy indeed speaks a great amount of Polish, no doubt about that. for an Englishman, it is amazing but he still mumbles a lot. You can still feel the English twine and the Poles speak clearer than that.

When learning a language use the locals, not foreigners who learnt it. Listen to podcasts, radio shows. Soak your brain. But most of all, speak. With real, native people. Your tongue needs the muscle memory.

Post: #11

(03-11-2017 09:19 PM)JBPoqueliche Wrote:  When learning a language use the locals, not foreigners who learnt it. Listen to podcasts, radio shows. Soak your brain. But most of all, speak. With real, native people. Your tongue needs the muscle memory.

So you could learn Polish just by hanging around with Poles? That might work for someone who's talented with language learning and whose native language background is closely related. Or once you're already at (upper) intermediate level. Or if all your goals are very low (Me Tarzan, You Jane).

For the rest of humanity, some explicit instruction is helpful. And the foreigners who have learned the language the hard way are usually the best resources to help you get there. Native speakers, unless they're trained/experienced language teachers, don't have a clue about what learning their language from scratch is like.

Post: #12

My Polish gets rusty AF unless I hang around Polish people. Being immersed is really the most effective way to learn, not only because of hearing it spoken like it's supposed to be spoken but also because of the situational cues.

You need to constantly speak it because of your tongue's muscle memory.

Once you get your tongue around it and take care of basics, the next hardest is absorbing the vocabulary and this only comes with time and exposure to a wide range of people (podcasts and films are most useful at this point).

Post: #13

(03-19-2017 12:43 AM)JackinMelbourne Wrote:  My Polish gets rusty AF unless I hang around Polish people.

Again with the textspeak, Jack. AF = As Fuck. Forum rule #2: /thread-13005.html

Post: #14

(03-11-2017 09:19 PM)JBPoqueliche Wrote:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpl8Tex...QFQ/videos

This Patrick Ney guy indeed speaks a great amount of Polish, no doubt about that. for an Englishman, it is amazing but he still mumbles a lot. You can still feel the English twine and the Poles speak clearer than that.

When learning a language use the locals, not foreigners who learnt it. Listen to podcasts, radio shows. Soak your brain. But most of all, speak. With real, native people. Your tongue needs the muscle memory.

I shared that video specifically because he explains some tips that can get other foreigners to learn Polish. I don't think he mumbles a lot, to me it just seems like he someitmes mimics what a lot of natives do when they're not sure how to express something "no, tak... właśnie..." that sort of thing. He does mention listening to podcasts and so on. Personally, I do recommend checking out videos from non-natives because they usually pick up the most commonly used phrases and expressions in the target language. Also, because their vocab is not as wide, there's usually more repetition and it's easier to remember a lot of key phrases. The bulk of the study when focusing on listening and comprehension should still be with native speakers though.