From Zero to Hero: How Long Will it Take to Learn Polish? - PolishPod101.com Blog (2024)
Like many people who are about to embark on a new language learning journey, you may be asking yourself: How long will it take to learn Polish?
The answer is: “It depends on the level you want to achieve!”
In this article, you’ll find out how long it takes to reach the different proficiency levels of Polish. You’ll also get exclusive tips on how to accelerate your progress and use PolishPod101 to your advantage every step of the way.
Table of Contents
Beginner Level
Intermediate Level
Advanced Level
Final Thoughts
Beginner Level
How long will it take to learn Polish if you hope to surpass the beginner level? And what skills are expected of you as a beginner (początkujący)?
Here are some answers to your questions, and more!
At level A1, you’ll be able to have very simple conversations such as introducing yourself or talking about your likes and dislikes. By level A2, you’ve deepened your basic vocabulary knowledge. Upon completion of this level, you can go to shops and museums, ask for directions, tell the time, and talk about your family.
How Long Will it Take?
You need around 200 hours of study to get to level A2. How fast you get there depends on how much time you spend studying. Here are some tips on how to learn the Polish language faster:
Set up your social media in Polish. If you’re feeling brave, do it to your phone too!
Listen to a lot of Polish music on YouTube and watch Polish-language movies on Netflix. This will allow you to hear a lot of the language and get used to how it sounds. Can you understand some of the words? That’s great!
Last but not least, prepare your own flashcards with new vocabulary you’re learning.
How to Use PolishPod101 as a Beginner
Are you wondering how to learn basic Polish as you begin your studies?
PolishPod101 can help you improve your Polish at any level. When you first start learning Polish, you’ll be studying simpler things such as saying hello and giving a self-introduction.
Our lesson Saying Hello No Matter the Time of Day in Polish is a great example of what we have to offer our students. It will teach you the very important skill of greeting people at any time of day and with the required formality level.
Apart from the dialogue, you also get a vocabulary list, lesson notes with additional tips, commentary on the cultural context (kontekst kulturowy), and even some additional vocabulary. You can read the lesson, listen to it, or do both at the same time using the transcript.
Here are some similar lessons you may like:
Introducing Yourself
Directions
What Time is it?
What’s more, PolishPod101 also has a specific pathway (ścieżka) for absolute beginners. Thanks to this functionality, you won’t get lost among the countless lessons the platform offers.
Intermediate Level
Moving from the beginner level to the intermediate level is an accomplishment to be proud of!
The intermediate level (poziom średniozaawansowany) is an exciting new adventure that comes with its own challenges. Keep in mind that your progress will slow down at this point. But this isn’t something to be worried about, as it’s a natural part of the process.
Intermediate Level: What Does it Mean?
You have reached the intermediate stage of your Polish learning once you attain level B1 or B2 of CEFR.
Level B1 allows you to have conversations on most everyday topics (codzienne tematy). You still lack vocabulary and struggle to express yourself concerning more complex issues.
Such issues disappear at level B2, when you’re capable of having longer conversations on more difficult topics. You’re able to express your political views at this level, speak about the environment, and agree or disagree with others.
How Long Will it Take Me?
Level B1 means an additional 200 hours on top of the time you already put in to reach A1 and A2. This means your overall language learning time by this point will be 400 hours.
Level B2 will require another 150 hours of studying, for a total of 550 hours.
Would you like to know how to learn Polish faster? Here are some language learning hacks to accelerate your progress:
Watch movies and listen to songs like you did as a beginner. At this level, you should be paying attention to vocabulary and grammar. Make notes as you listen and watch. Not sure where to find more Polish movies? Start here.
Find a friend to help you practice your language skills. A language partner can’t replace a study program, but it can definitely help with your progress. Not sure where to look for a partner? Try the Tandem app!
Look for free grammar exercises online to internalize the structures you’re struggling to remember or understand.
How to Use PolishPod101 as an Intermediate Student
PolishPod101 has many resources for intermediate students. The lessons may cover some of the same topics that you’ve seen as a beginner, but the vocabulary is more advanced. Check out this lesson on choosing your meal at a Polish restaurant to see what we mean.
In this lesson, you’ll pick up some basic vocabulary related to food so you can communicate in more complicated situations. In addition to the lesson recording, you have direct access to the dialogue, vocabulary, and a lesson transcript.
Here are two other intermediate lessons:
5 Tips to Reach an Intermediate Level
Environment
If something isn’t clear, you can always comment with a question. A friendly Polish teacher will provide you with a useful answer so you can overcome learning hurdles more easily.
Are you interested in a specific topic? Use our search option to find related lessons!
Advanced Level
The advanced level (poziom zaawansowany) is the Holy Grail of language learning. Did you know that some students never get there and remain at the intermediate level indefinitely? Don’t worry! There are steps you can take to avoid that fate.
Advanced Level: What Does it Mean?
Reaching an advanced level in Polish means that you can speak about pretty much any topic with confidence. This is level C1 of CEFR. At this level, you could study or work in Polish.
There’s also level C2, which represents a higher proficiency than even the average native speaker has. At this level, you could give speeches and write essays in Polish.
How Long Does it Take to Learn Polish Fluently?
To get to the C1 level, you’ll need about 900 hours (900 godzin) of work.
C2 is trickier to evaluate, as this level requires academic skills on top of general language fluency. It also means that you rarely make mistakes.
To make the jump from the intermediate level to the advanced level, you need to focus on two things: fluency and accuracy. With that in mind, look over these tips on how to make further progress in learning Polish.
Work with songs and movies by transcribing them. Pay attention to how native speakers talk. What expressions do they use? How do they use grammar? Make notes and learn!
Read books in your target language. You can read for pleasure too, but to see improvement you need to work on really expanding your vocabulary and learning more expressions. Tip: Choose modern books rather than the classics to learn the language as it’s truly spoken today.
Participate in an internet forum about a topic you’re interested in. Get involved in a discussion and learn from native speakers how to use the language.
How to Use PolishPod101 as an Advanced Student
While you work to achieve a higher level, you should complement your language learning with knowledge about the country. That’s why PolishPod101 offers many lessons for advanced students focused on improving your understanding of Poland.
Have a look at this lesson about the famous Polish composer, Frederic Chopin. Lessons like this one are similar to what a native Polish speaker would listen to, should (s)he want to learn more about the composer (kompozytor). Along with the lesson, you get access to the dialogue, vocabulary, lesson notes, lesson transcript, and comments.
Interested in advanced Polish lessons? Remember to check out other lessons from the advanced audio blog, such as:
Top Ten Polish Cities and Regions
Are you on your way to approaching an advanced level and need a way to prove your proficiency? Remember that there are Polish exams you can take to do so. You can read all about them in our dedicated blog post!
Final Thoughts
In this article, we answered the question: How long does it take to learn Polish fluently?
We’ve also provided you with details on how long it will take you to reach each level of proficiency, and how to learn Polish faster. You should have a better idea of how to best utilize PolishPod101 and other resources to meet your language learning goals!
How many hours have you studied Polish already? Let us know in the comments section.
PolishPod101 is a platform designed to help Polish learners at every level reach their goals. In addition to countless lessons on various topics, we provide additional vocabulary resources with pronunciation examples (such as our vocabulary lists and dictionary). If you feel like you need a teacher, we’ve got you covered with our Premium PLUS MyTeacher service!
Don’t just take our word for it. Start your free trial today to start learning the Polish language as soon as possible. Remember that you need roughly 900 hours to become fluent. The sooner you start, the better.
Don't just take our word for it. Start your free trial today to start learning the Polish language as soon as possible. Remember that you need roughly 900 hours to become fluent.
With the long-term memory method and the superlearning technology of 17 Minute Languages, you will reach level C1 on Polish after a total of only 65 hours if you start with no previous knowledge at all. How long does it take to reach level C2 in Polish? For level C2 you need a vocabulary of around 5,000 Polish words.
According to the FSI (Foreign Service Institute) of the US government, a native English speaker would need about 1100 class hours or 44 weeks of practice to become fluent in Polish. Thus, Polish is not actually one of the hardest languages to learn because it does not compete directly with Japanese, Chinese or Korean.
Many language experts recommend immersion as the fastest way to become fluent in Polish; move to Poland, live with a host family and have every interaction in Polish. The idea is that, without English to fall back on, the desire to speak Polish will become a real necessity, a sink-or-swim survival pressure.
C1 and then C2 would be acquired if you stay in the country for several months and be engaged in some social and intellectual activities; you'd also have to calibrate your ear to jargon and expressions of the moment.
Polish is amongst the hardest languages to pick up in the world. Polish words are confusing and can be hard to pronounce for English speakers. Though the language uses the Latin script, it has some additional letters, a complex grammar freestyle system and relies heavily on consonants.
While one of the reasons that Polish is hard to learn was the pronunciation, there are a couple of reasons that make it easier. Polish is phonetic. So, when you learn the Polish alphabet, you know it for life. You won't ever have to question how a letter is pronounced.
Dziewięćsetdziewięćdziesięciodziewięcionarodowościowego. This word consists of fifty-four letters, and it is the genitive singular form of an adjective meaning roughly “of nine-hundred and ninety-nine nationalities”. It is often considered the longest Polish word.
You have reached the intermediate stage of your Polish learning once you attain level B1 or B2 of CEFR. Level B1 allows you to have conversations on most everyday topics (codzienne tematy). You still lack vocabulary and struggle to express yourself concerning more complex issues.
Grammatically, Russian is not as difficult as Polish but pretty darn close. Polish has seven cases, while Russian has six. Also, Russians omit the verb “to be” in the present tense, which can throw beginners for a loop when they try to form basic sentences.
Passing the B1 writing exam is not an easy task. You need advanced preparations to successfully complete this English test. Languages are the most complex subjects. You need lots of patience and practice to learn a new language.
The B1 level is the most difficult because of the lot of grammar and vocabulary knowledge that you need to grasp. No matter, how difficult or lengthy it looks, learn things slowly and reinforce all you have done as you may go through.
You can be fluent for most everyday situations if you know at least the 5000 most popular Polish words. You will have a vocabulary similar to that of a native speaker with high school diploma.
He/she can express him/herself fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for the right expression. He/she can use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes.
In everyday speech, this level might be called “bilingual”, as in “I am bilingual in English and French.” A well-educated native English speaker is technically at a C2 level.
The main differentiating factor between the C1 and C2 is the type of display used. The C1 plumps for a standard OLED panel, while the C2 boasts brighter OLED 'Evo' technology.
But Polish is a very difficult language to learn as an adult English speaker, for two formidable reasons: The sounds you need to produce and understand, and the grammar.
Across multiple sources, Mandarin Chinese is the number one language listed as the most challenging to learn. The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center puts Mandarin in Category IV, which is the list of the most difficult languages to learn for English speakers.
Many English speakers believe it is easier to learn German than Polish. With German, there is significant overlap in vocabulary with English, versus very little overlap with English and Polish. Polish has far fewer commonalities with English, making it harder to learn generally.
Polish uses Latin letters, just like English. So, when you're learning the Polish alphabet, all you have to pay attention to are the special accents and the pronunciation. This makes Polish a much much easier language to learn than Russian.
YES you can! You're native language. If you're native language isn't in the same family tree as polish (Slavic) then you may struggle with pronunciation and some grammar concepts.
Level B1 corresponds to independent users of the language, i.e. those who have the necessary fluency to communicate without effort with native speakers.
They are grouped into three broader levels: A1-A2 (Basic User), B1-B2 (Independent User), and C1-C2 (Proficient User). What is the most popular CEFR level? The B2 level is the most demanded level when employers require “active command of the English language”.
GCSEs are a UK qualification typically taken two years before A Levels. For applicants from Poland, we accept the Matura as the equivalent qualification for both A Level and GCSE.
The Polish language (native name: język polski, polszczyzna) has its roots in the Indo-European language family. As a percentage of the total population, the largest share of around 98 percent is in Poland. A total of about 38.7 million people worldwide speak Polish as their mother tongue.
Wymysorys is an endangered language with very few speakers. It is native to Wilamowice, but, unlike the similarly endangered Karaim language, it was practically unknown during the preparation of the aforementioned Act.
Polish is spoken by most of the population of Poland, and by sizeable populations in Ukraine, the United States, Belarus, Lithuania, Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, Israel, Russia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Australia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Brazil, Argentina, Austria and Hungary.
Additionally, spoken Ukrainian has partial intelligibility with Polish. Ukrainian is a descendent of Old East Slavic, a language spoken in the medieval state of Kievan Rus'.
Both German and Polish are Indo-European languages. German belongs to the subfamily of the Germanic languages (together with English and the Scandinavian languages) while Polish is a Slavic language, which means it is similar to Czech and Russian.
Once you learn Ukrainian, you can understand Polish, Czech, Belarusian, or other Slavic languages because they are quite similar. Coming from the same family of languages, they share common sounds and roots of words.
If you take intensive classes (around 20 hours per week), you can reach the B1 level of day-to-day fluency. Fluency takes more than 3 months, but you can still learn in less time if you adjust your strategy.
To move from level B1 to level C1, learners need to be able to understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts, and recognize implicit meaning. They should also be able to express themselves fluently and spontaneously without having to search for words all the time.
For both tests, the results last for 2 years. If you fail, there is no limit to how many times you can retake the test, so you can simply try and try again!
The best way to study Polish is to study the language in short bursts every day. Avoid tiring yourself learning for hours one day and then not learning at all the next few. Instead, practice for as little as 10 to 15 minutes daily and allow your brain to cement the knowledge bit by bit.
The answer is yes! You will need to work a lot harder and be serious about your preparation for the C1 Advanced exam. While the B2 First shows you have a good grounding in English, the C1 Advanced is closer to the level of a native speaker.
-Level C1: 700-800 hours, equivalent to 35 or 40 weeks. -Level C2: 1000-1200 hours, equivalent to 50 -54 weeks. AIL Madrid uses this scale too. For students hoping to gain a 'working knowledge' of Spanish, which means knowing enough to 'get by' in most situations, students should be aiming for A2 or B1.
After you've reached B2, getting to the C1 level requires you to study around 200-240 additional hours, but you may be able to do this faster or slower depending on your learning method. If you're following a very intensive path, you'll need approximately four months.
For those of you who wonder how long it takes to learn Polish, the FSI offers these numbers: Polish is a Category 4 language. Which means that it takes around 44 weeks or 1100 hours of study to master it.
C1 Advanced, formerly known as Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE), is one of our Cambridge English Qualifications. It is the in-depth, high-level qualification that shows you have the language skills that employers and universities are looking for.
A C1 level of English allows for a full range of functionality at work or in an academic setting. The C1 level would allow for full autonomy in a native English-speaking country.
It takes 8-12 months if you practice 1 hour per day to complete the Spanish Language. Firstly, if you practice 3 times a week, it takes approximately 1 year to reach C1 level of Spanish language. Secondly, spending 3 hours a day can help you learn in 6 months.
For most people, around 30 minutes of active study and 1 hour of language exposure a day is a schedule that will give you great results. It's a model that's sustainable over a long period to help you reach fluency.
How Many Hours Does it Take to Be Fluent in Spanish? If you start out as a beginner and manage to spend an average of 1 hour per day working on your Spanish, you should be able to reach conversational fluency within 8 – 12 months. That translates to about 250 – 350 hours spent.
How Many Hours Does it Take to Be Fluent in Spanish? The US Department of State says that it takes an English learner 575–600 class hours. That's quite a long time! In case you are doing the math at home that means you would need to work for a little over 10 hours a week for an entire year to achieve Spanish Fluency!
If you think about native-level fluency, you'll need to master between 20,000 and 40,000 words, and as you can see the margin is quite large. If you want to have a basic conversation, experts say that you'll just need around 3,000 words.
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