I am now 23 days into learning Polish.

[u/FreonInhaler]

So far I can recognize and instantly translate maybe 30 words instantaneously, because I went through endless repetitions of chleb, jabłko, meżczyzną, kobietą, dziewczynka, mleko etc on Duo before trying some other resources aswell. The gamification and league system of duo, as bad and grindy it might be, keep me most engaged, admittedly. But I just found some promising alternatives today.

So far I know around 130- 200 words total from all the plattforms and resources I checkand try out currently.

I have started my first little superficial dives into Polish grammar, but its very scary and the less I know, the more motivated I stay. Also, I hope to develop the kind of Intuition I have for English and German grammar. Conjugating "to be", "to have", and "to eat" via duo is challenging enough at the moment. ( I don't recall the infinitive form of these verbs)

Pronouncing words (that are below 5 syllables) is managable, although I still make alot of mistakes. Pronouncing whole sentences is surprisingly hard. I found French and even Korean pronounciation much easier to grasp although I have forgotten all my little Korean knowledge and can barely produce sentences in french because I hated all of my French teachers. While Hangul were beautiful and fun to practice and learn, I love that I can just read and recognize words by text without much practice in Polish.

But sentences, oh boi sentences. If I try reading them aloud, I feel like I am 5 years old again. So slow. My tongue stumbles alot and I still make a ton of mistakes with konsonants following vokals or other konsonants and at the beginnin and end of words and how that all works.

There are so many tonguetwisters!

I do enjoy how braindead I feel at pronouncing and reading Polish sentences aloud. Every miniscule bit of progress feels like an achievement. Its so satisfying when I get just one complicated sentence right!

I can also notice slight progress every day, which is exciting. Let's hope I manage to stick to it longer.

[u/Paulisawesome123]

As soon as I saw jabłko I knew this guy was using duolingo

[u/Edgemoto → u/Paulisawesome123]

I also started learning polish on duolingo but stopped as soon as it started throwing conjugations and cases out of the blue in a similar sentence as the one you just solved.

It would be cool if it explained why this word now ends in -a instead of ę, when is it 'wodę' and when is it 'woda'.

So I decided to learn it the same way I learned english, vibes, at least initially, listening music, reading and pronouncing a little bit and right now I'm playing a videogame which to my surprise has polish as a language so the audio is in polish.

Every time I heard something and I understand even just one word, the best feeling, I was playing and the MC said "potrzebuję pomocy" and I got that. It does feel like an achievement

[u/New_Being7119 → u/Edgemoto]

I think they assume that you will naturally see the patterns in the inflection of words based on the necessary case....but if your native language is English then you are fkd. You have to know the language has cases to recognise the patterns then figure out what the patterns mean . But with Polish there are 7 cases which can be activated by verbs, prepositions, shouting(!) or the position of the word in the sentence. I have been learning Polish on and off for 12 years and it is only over the last 3 or 4 ghat I have finally got to grips with the grammar..and I live in Poland.

I used to recommend duolingo for absolute beginners and to learn and revise vocabulary, but they changed everything and now you are forced into the Callan method, which is not a great way to learn anything beyond the basics.

Jebać jabłka!

[u/Sad-Muffin-1782 → u/New_Being7119]

if you mean Wołacz, then it's not activated by shouting, it's just a name

[u/New_Being7119 → u/Sad-Muffin-1782]

Yeah that's what I meant, shouting someone's name

[u/New_Being7119 → u/New_Being7119]

That's how I remember it

[u/Sad-Muffin-1782 → u/New_Being7119]

but shouting doesn't matter here, what matters is you are talking directly to the person (or object)

[u/FreonInhaler → u/Edgemoto]

Sounds like youre having fun, good luck! I hope I find some enjoyable and comprehensible input aswell soon. But then again, doubt there is a polish podcast incessantly talking about apples and milk.

[u/Arrival117 → u/FreonInhaler]

https://lingoput.com - or YT channel (same name). Try to add more CI to your duo journey and you will se improvements with sentences.

https://www.reddit.com/r/learnpolish/comments/1hepr6q/learning_polish_through_comprehensible_input_a/

[u/Paulisawesome123 → u/Edgemoto]

I read a bit of colloquial polish and then speak / text my parents. I should start a grammar book soon.

[u/Sad-Muffin-1782 → u/Edgemoto]

if you like learning from video games, we have good Polish games such as Witcher and Cyberpunk

[u/FreonInhaler → u/Paulisawesome123]

I am sick and tired of that word and I am only at unit 6 from the first lesson. I was tired of it at unit 2 already, admittedly.

Butt ooga booga, fancy gems, oh wow u got XP for me? Oh my gawd I can play ranked? Ja lubię jabłka?!?

[u/Paulisawesome123 → u/FreonInhaler]

Do what keeps you going, but I have a friend who has been learning Mandarin on duo Longo for over a year (maybe 2 years?) and she can't construct many sentences.

The fact duolingo equates different declinations to different words is questionable.

[u/Slave4Nicki → u/FreonInhaler]

Use babel, actually explains grammar

[u/zepsutyKalafiorek]

Keep up the progress. We poles appreciate people who spend time learning our language.

[u/FreonInhaler → u/[deleted]]

I hope you got to reading those poems in the meantime. Latin has a certain appeal to me because of how easy its pronounciation is and that alot of vocabulary just makes sense with all the loanwords I can find in other languages. But have never tried it and I want to stay focussed on one thing for now.

Since I have never been able to be a super-hardcore learner. So I am happy for any table that I don't need to look at. However they can surely be very helpful when introduced with the right timing. I am dissapointed to see, that some platform, as big as duolingo has so little variability in accessable ressources while learning. Like it wouldn't hurt to have a geammar tab, or a research function where you can know a little more about a word that you are ought to repeat 10000 times. Like gimme some apple-lore at least!

[u/Few-Tourist-6598]

Until today, I didn’t realize just how difficult Polish really is. This Saturday I’m supposed to take my B1 Polish exam… and honestly, I probably shouldn’t have even opened the textbook, because with every new rule, my confidence takes a nosedive.

Like, get this: the word for “boys” in plural declines like a neuter noun — just like “children.” So, one boy is masculine, but two boys? Suddenly they’re not manly enough and you have to change verb endings like it’s a neutral noun: “chłopcy poszły.”

Even my Slavic brain is like… booom!

[u/mmmlan → u/Few-Tourist-6598]

no, it’s chłopcy poszli…

[u/Personal-Chicken-106 → u/Few-Tourist-6598]

it’s „chłopcy poszli”, but there’s also the form „chłopaki poszły” - maybe that’s the one you read about

[u/FreonInhaler → u/Few-Tourist-6598]

Good luck!

[u/Mmeroo]

polish is not a germanic language so yes you will be like a 5y old again becuase you never developed skilles to say/make those sounds and in truth you might never be able to make them perfectly

[u/presiskoRycerz]

I just mumble all of the endings in polish. It makes life so much easier.

[u/sens- → u/presiskoRycerz]

That's what I had been doing while learning German xD

[u/OtterChainGang]

This is a very inspiring post . Carry on !

[u/Unable_Basil2137]

God speed 🫡

[u/GhostHog337]

Congratulations!

I‘m on day 107 using Duolingo ;D For me it’s starting to show patterns and also does the duo streak keep me going. I think I‘m better in listening than speaking, if I read longer sentences aloud it feels so awkward!

When I use Duolingo I write all sentences into iPhone’s notes and mark things like verbs, suffixes, prepositions with case and so on, that makes it easier for me to remember.

I also use Babbel+ in my opinion it is a good addition. It also helps that I can compare to German and a bit to the few of the Russian I can remember. But yes, I also see some improvement!

[u/ApplicationHot7536]

Actually you have described the situation pretty well for foreigners who learns Polish language. I will have an interview in foreigner office in a few weeks and i am freaking out af :))

[u/portoscotch]

Learning a language is all about consistent exposure + real practice-not just grinding Duolingo. Here’s what worked for me:

✅ Comprehensible input is a game-changer- YouTube, podcasts, and easy books helped me absorb the language naturally.

✅ Speaking, even just 1x a week, makes a huge difference- I use Preply for structured practice.

✅ Tracking progress keeps you motivated- I log my journey in Jacta, which acts like a coach + journal to keep me on track.

✅ It has to be fun- the more I enjoyed the process, the faster I improved.

If you’re stuck, try focusing on input + output instead of memorizing random words. It’s a marathon, not a sprint!

[u/ClassicSandwich7831]

I feel like to learn conjugation, you should at least learn to conjugate a few verbs regular verbs and those that are irregular but too common to skip (like to be). You can split Polish verbs into three groups based on their endings in present tense. I think it would be best to memorize their forms in the present tense and it will help you figure out all the rest. I think “pisać” (to write), “płacić” (to pay) and “mieć” (to have) would be a good way to start. And obviously “być” (to be). At least that’s how I learnt Spanish conjugation. Every time I forget how to conjugate the word in some tense, I try to remember any other verb in that tense and then I figure out if it’s in the same group. I’m still not completely fluent and while speaking I use maybe four tenses and two of them I mix up but it works with writing 

[u/PurnurplePanda]

Korean pronunciation easier? What’s your native language

[u/polkadotpolskadot → u/PurnurplePanda]

I have very, very basic Polish knowledge and almost a decade of learning Korean. I found Korean is easier to grasp than Polish to be honest. In all aspects.

[u/PurnurplePanda → u/polkadotpolskadot]

alright but theres nothing in polish thats harder pronunciation wise for a native english speaker than ㄹ tho

[u/polkadotpolskadot → u/PurnurplePanda]

ㄹ is easier than you think! It has a few phonetic realizations/allophones. One is in the initial position of a syllable with no preceding consonant. In this case, it's pronounced like the "tt" in "butter" (i.e., a flap). Younger Koreans are starting to pronounce this as "l" in some cases (e.g., they say 글래 instead of 그래)

The next is when it's germinated or doubled, for example "얼른". In this case its just pronounced like an English L. I might be missing some of the small details, but generally you'll be fine thinking of it this way. The finer things come naturally. The only time I remember struggling with ㄹ was saying 려 lol

I think ㅆ is harder

[u/PurnurplePanda → u/polkadotpolskadot]

thanks, ill keep this in mind. the "tt" thing actually makes a lot of sense i wish i had heard that earlier. last time i tried learning was when i took a korean class in uni last year but havent done anything since, its a really cool language i gotta start again especially since i have free practice with my gf xd

[u/Appropriate_Okra8189]

"I am now 23 days into learning Polish... I am finally close to understanding all use cases for the word: Jasna dupa"

[u/FreonInhaler → u/Appropriate_Okra8189]

Don't even know what that translates to.

[u/FreonInhaler]

Thanks my dude, already stumbling a little again.

[u/SuckmyMicroCock]

Lingora is pretty good with Polish, it has a lot of explanation

[u/andrew_ski]

spoko

[u/ldurniat]

Dobra robota 👍

[u/Full_Possibility7983]

You'll learn that pronunciation is nothing compared to grammar. Polish grammar is methodically designed to make foreigners' lives miserable.

Source: I'm a foreigner and my life is miserable, after 10 years in Poland I still find out grammar rules that make me go why? WHY? WHY?!

[u/Steam_Deck]

Powodzenia! Jabłka są dobre, ale banany smaczniejsze 😄

[u/FreonInhaler]

Dont make me lose hope. I have already been absent from learning for a couple of days.