The fastest way to learn Polish is to spend most of your study time on Polish you can mostly understand. That kind of Polish is called comprehensible input. What you read and listen to should change as you improve, so the plan below shows what to do at each level and how to split an hour of study.
What to Do at Each Level
Find the level that sounds like you. Its bar shows how to spend an hour of study.
- Level 1
I'm just starting out or know only a few words.
Read and listen 35 min. Review 15 min. Speak 10 min.
Read short stories with audio, and listen to each one twice. Watch the picture stories for super beginners from Think in Polish, and say a few lines out loud.
- Level 2
I can handle simple exchanges.
Read and listen 40 min. Review 10 min. Speak 10 min.
Hide the translation and look up only the words that stop you. Listen to Polish with John and watch the Easy Polish street interviews, then start short talks with a tutor or a friend.
- Level 3
I follow conversations on familiar topics.
Read and listen 40 min. Review 5 min. Speak 15 min.
Read the news in simple Polish on Polish Learner News, and listen to each lesson once more without reading along. Talk about what you read for longer.
- Level 4
I understand most content but miss some nuance.
Read and watch 45 min. Review 5 min. Speak 10 min.
Listen to Polish Stories, a podcast for intermediate learners about Polish books, films and culture. Watch a Polish series with Polish subtitles, one episode a week.
- Level 5
I read complex topics but rare words slow me down.
Read and watch 50 min. Speak 10 min.
Listen to Polish public radio and read articles about things you like. Look up only the words that block the story.
- Level 6
I read at near-native level.
Read and watch 50 min. Speak 10 min.
Read Polish novels and newspapers, and talk about them, for their own sake.
Move up a level when your lessons start to feel easy, and move back down if you lose the thread by the third line.
How Long Does It Take to Learn Polish?
Polish takes 1,012 class hours, or about 44 weeks of full-time study, to reach professional fluency, according to the U.S. Foreign Service Institute. That puts Polish in the third of its four groups for English speakers, with Russian, Czech and Ukrainian.
| Language | FSI group | Full-time weeks |
|---|---|---|
| Spanish | Category I | 30 |
| German | Category II | 36 |
| Polish, Russian | Category III | 44 |
| Japanese | Category IV | 88 |
The Polish Language Center at Warsaw University of Technology teaches beginners up to level B1 in three modules of 200 lecture hours each, or 600 hours in all, and each lecture hour lasts 45 minutes. Here is how long those take at different amounts of study a week:
| Study per week | One Warsaw Tech module (200 hours) | Warsaw Tech beginner to B1 (600 hours) | FSI professional fluency (1,012 hours) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3½ hours | About 13 months | About 3¼ years | About 5½ years |
| 7 hours | About 6½ months | About 20 months | About 2¾ years |
| 14 hours | About 3 months | About 10 months | About 17 months |
| 28 hours | About 7 weeks | About 5 months | About 8 months |
These are class hours, so treat them as a rough guide. Time you spend understanding Polish on your own counts too.
What Slows Learners Down
- Guessing the SoundsPolish letters such as ł and ś, and pairs such as sz and rz, have sounds of their own. Listen while you read, so you learn each word with its real sound.
- Case Tables AlonePolish has seven cases, so a noun such as kot (cat) can also be kota or kotem. A table of endings is hard to use until you have read each form in many sentences.
- Content Far Too HardA Polish film where you know one word in five teaches you very little.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Polish app should a beginner choose?
If you are serious about learning Polish, start with Bubblegum. Poppy writes lessons at your level about things you like. Our Polish app comparison covers courses, tutors and speaking apps too.
Can I learn Polish in three months?
You can learn the sounds of the Polish letters and enough Polish to order food and talk about your day. At 14 hours a week, three months is about 180 hours, which is close to one 200-hour module of Warsaw University of Technology's beginner course.
How much should I study Polish each week?
Aim for three to five hours a week of Polish you understand, in sessions of at least 15 to 30 minutes. A longer session lets you get lost in a story, which teaches more than five minutes a day, and steady time each week matters more than a daily streak. Our post on deep sessions over daily streaks explains why.
Is Polish hard for English speakers?
Yes, by the Foreign Service Institute's measure, it takes longer than Spanish or German. Its 44 weeks are about one and a half times the 30 weeks for Spanish, and half of the 88 weeks that Japanese takes. Most of the time goes into the words and the case endings, which you pick up fastest from Polish you understand.
Is Bubblegum free?
Yes. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn. It holds lessons that other learners asked Poppy for. A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so your first one is free, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons.
Sources
- U.S. Department of State, Foreign Language Training (FSI language categories)
- Warsaw University of Technology Polish Language Center, Polish for International Students: Beginner to B1, Curriculum (three modules of 200 lecture hours, 600 in all)
- Wikipedia: Polish grammar (seven cases)
- Wikipedia: Polish orthography (letters and their sounds)
