Hi! Thanks for visiting! As I am living in Poland, I’ve been teaching myself some Polish phrases. I use Duolingo to learn Polish everyday. It isn’t much, but it’s five minutes of learning and recycling new words. With my teaching schedule, I don’t have enough time to take language classes. But with constant exposure to the language, greeting my coworkers in Polish, as well as watching Polish TV, I’m learning and retaining new words all the time!
What does Polish look like? I would say it is similar to Russian since it is a Slavic language. It does require a learning curve and many Poles are aware of this. Here’s a crash course in Polish:
Dzień dobry (jEN dobree) – Good morning, good afternoon
Dziękuję (jEn-koo-yeh) – thank you
Dobry wieczór – good evening
Dobranoc – good night
Tak – yes
Nie – no
mleko – milk
chleb – bread
jablko – apple
kawa – coffee
piwo – beer
jeden (yeden) – one
dwa (dva) – two
trzy (tshi) – three
cztery (chteri) – four
pięć (p-yENch) – five
Pronunciation is harder than you think. Thankfully, Duolingo shows you how words are pronounced by native speakers. I’m inclined when it comes to learning languages; I speak Spanish and some German and French.
When Polish becomes tricky, I simple say “Nie mowię po polsku” (I don’t speak Polish). Poles really appreciate it when you try to speak their language, knowing very well it’s not the easiest language to learn. Luckily, when I go to Warsaw or Krakow, English is widely understood and spoken.
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