r/learnpolish

Hi everyone!

I'm writing a short story for people who are learning Polish at around the B1 level. My goal is to create stories that are easy to read but still interesting and engaging.

I would really appreciate your help.

Could you read the short fragment below and tell me:

• Was it easy or difficult to read?
• Were there any words or expressions you didn't know?
• Did you have to read any sentences more than once?
• Did the story keep your attention, or was it boring?
• Would you continue reading if this were the beginning of a book?

Please be honest. Even small comments are very helpful because they help me improve the text for Polish learners.

Thank you so much for your time!

"To był już czwarty raz w tym tygodniu. Stałam przy przejściu dla pieszych obok Ronda Daszyńskiego. W porze lunchu było tu pełno pracowników biur. Szli do drogich restauracji i kawiarni po drugiej stronie ulicy.

Musiałam tylko wybrać osoby, które bez problemu mogły zapłacić za taki obiad.

Po drugiej stronie ulicy czekało wiele osób. Zauważyłam kobietę w eleganckich szarych spodniach i czarnej bluzce. Miała płaskie czarne buty. Mocno ściskała torebkę. Co chwilę patrzyła na swój zegarek i światła naprzeciwko.

Takich kobiet było tutaj dużo. Wyglądały na zmęczone i cały czas się spieszyły, ale zawsze były dobrze ubrane.

Spojrzałam na inne osoby. Szukałam ludzi, którzy wyglądali na ważnych. Takie osoby często mają dużo pieniędzy. Kiedyś byli to głównie mężczyźni, ale dziś często są to także kobiety.

Tuż przed zmianą światła na zielone zobaczyłam wysoką kobietę. Rozmawiała przez telefon. Stała trochę z boku, z dala od tłumu. Wyglądała spokojnie i pewnie. Nie widziałam jej dobrze, ale postanowiłam zaryzykować.

Zapaliło się zielone światło i wszyscy ruszyli. Szłam w stronę kobiety. Przez chwilę straciłam ją z oczu. Ludzie mijali mnie szybko, a ja szłam powoli. Po chwili znowu ją zobaczyłam. Od razu wiedziałam, że dobrze wybrałam.

Kobieta w beżowych spodniach i marynarce nadal rozmawiała przez telefon. Miała buty na wysokim obcasie. Uśmiechała się i szła wolno. Nie spieszyła się jak inni. Nie musiała być nigdzie na czas. Na ramieniu wisiała brązowa torebka Chanel ze złotym łańcuchem. Miała kształt worka. Piękna. Elegancka. I otwarta.

To był odpowiedni moment.

Spuściłam wzrok. Udałam, że się potykam. Lewą rękę oparłam o jej ramię. Prawą szybko odpięłam jej zegarek. To trwało tylko sekundę. 

— Przepraszam — powiedziałam cicho i oparłam się o nią jeszcze mocniej.

Wsunęłam rękę do jej torebki. Dotknęłam perfum. Notesu. Butelki z wodą. Sekundę później portfel był już w moim rękawie.

— Naprawdę bardzo panią przepraszam — powiedziałam i szybko odeszłam.

Kobieta tylko machnęła ręką. Nie przerwała rozmowy przez telefon i poszła dalej.

Na chodniku dopasowałam tempo do innych. Nie oglądałam się za siebie."

I'm Italian, beginner, my gf she's Italian/Polish of second generation.

She's used to speak Polish only in her family so we are missing out a lot of slang.

In Italian we used this word "carino!" In the same way that a Japanese would say kawaii. It's something you can say for a puppy, but also for a man which is doing something nice in a gentle way.

Is there a way to say it in Polish?

Serwus, my name is Antek, I’m polish native and I can hang out with you online, help you with practice or finding resources, talk about culture or anything you want. I’m here to help!

Hi,
I’m in a long-distance relationship with my polish girlfriend, and I’m planning to move to Poland in about two years. My native language is Russian, and I speak English at a C1 level.

What would be the best way to learn Polish well enough to speak near-freely within two years? Just to be able to hold up a conversation with her family and friends and just for simple tasks.

One thing I should mention is that I’m studying to become a marine navigator, so every year I’ll spend time at sea, where I may have very limited Wi-Fi or none at all. Because of that, I’d really appreciate advice on offline learning methods, resources, routines, or apps that work well without internet.

Thanks.

Hi, my name is Agnes. I'm a native English and french speaker learning Polish.

My pronunciation is a disaster and Duolingo has taken me as far as it can.

I'm looking for a Polish speaker who wants to practice English or French in exchange, you pick. Have taught french when I was younger.

I'm genuinely serious about learning. Poland is on my horizon and I'd rather arrive speaking like a human than a phrasebook.

If you're patient with someone who will absolutely butcher your vowels for a while, let's talk :)

Cześć wszystkim,

I've been studying polish for five or so years, three of them living in Poland. I have a polish girlfriend, but we mostly speak english. My place of employment is also english only. Most people here speak good english so I'm only really studying for my own sake, because I love learning languages. I guess that's the best motivation anyway.

I've been studying on my own with a great deal of discipline, rarely missing a day without some kind of practice. I mostly read though - I've gone through the Harry Potter series twice. I probably read another five or so books on top of that. So my reading level is high. My conversational skills (hearing and speaking) are worse. I have a polish friend and we speak for an hour online once every two weeks. I realise I've been stuck in a bit of a comfort zone and I need to challenge myself more.

Do you have any ideas for how I can expand my study?

I contemplated starting some course, but I am working odd hours and I don't know if it would be worth it. One thing I will do is take the B1 exam, and then hopefully after passing I will take the B2. My thinking is that this will motivate me to study more.

Cześć! My name is Sara, and I’m a native polish speaker. I’m down to help you practice your language skills. We can just hang out online and chat about whatever you like. Personally, I’m really into art, dancing, and culture in general. I’d love to meet people from around the world:)

Polish

When I am full because of eating does it make sense for me to say jestem pełna ? Or do I say nakarmiona

I just watched a really interesting video on YouTube, but while I was watching it, it kept driving me crazy. :(

In Polish, we say:

• To kosztuje jednego dolara. Kupił to za jednego dolara. It costs one dollar. He bought it for one dollar. || Masculine currency names are treated as animate nouns, so in the accusative they take the same form as the genitive.
• To kosztuję jedną rupię. Kupił to za jedną rupię. It costs one rupee. He bought it for one rupee. || Feminine gender.
• To kosztuje jedno euro. Kupił to za jedno euro. It costs one euro. He bought it for one euro. || Neuter gender.

Here, the declension of the numeral jeden "one".

However, we say:

• To kosztuje jeden złoty. Kupił to za jeden złoty. || Because the name of the Polish currency, złoty, is grammatically an adjective, not a noun.

More at: Które formy są poprawne?

Numerals (including collectives) are the hardest part of Polish grammar for native speakers. As children, we simply didn't need large numbers in everyday life. We learned the rules at school, but, like most kids, we already felt we "knew Polish", so we didn't pay much attention to the finer points of our grammar :(

The biggest problem was that in math class our teachers usually accepted answers written only as symbols. Instead of writing: Dwudziestu pięciu pasażerów wsiadło do pociągu. Twenty-five passengers boarded the train., we simply wrote: 25., and that was perfectly acceptable. Math teachers cared about getting the correct numerical answer, not about how students would express it in proper Polish. We haven't had oral math exams for twenty years, so most younger people rarely have to produce complicated numerals in speech.

So if you're learning Polish, don't worry about making mistakes. Native Polish speakers make them quite often too. That's why we tend to avoid grammatical constructions that we find difficult ourselves. Instead of inflecting numerals like "25" as collective numeral or saying phrases like "1 zł", we frequently use the nouns instead (dwudziestka piątka, złotówka).

Good luck with your Polish

I am trying to learn polish mostly for fun and maybe a future trip. Citizenship is also a reason. I am wondering people who learned polish coming from english what were your ways/apps to learn it?( i have tried Duolingo. sucks practically learned 5 basic phrases in a month)

Hi everyone,
For those of you who passed the Polish B1 state exam,,,especially (the writing and speaking parts)were you already confident in every sentence you produced? I feel that I can write and speak, but I still make a lot of mistakes, and I’m worried that this might stop me from passing the exam.
Thank you very much for any advice or feedback

My partner and I don't want to keep either of our last names when we get married, so we thought it'd be nice to just take a totally new one. His family is of Ukrainian origin, and my grandparents immigrated to the US from Poland in the 30s. I've been trying to learn Polish and reconnect with the lost heritage in the last generations over the last few years.
My current last name is from non-blood-related family anyhow, so I don't have any attachment to it. My grandparents name was Nowakowski.

I'd like a last name that starts with an A, but couldn't find many Polish ones.

I'd like to understand how Polish people feel about the differences between Polish and Kashubian, Silesian, Czech, and Slovak. Which of these languages sounds the most similar to Polish to you? And which one feels the easiest to understand when listening or reading?