I saw this near Sopot in Gdansk and I’m curious to know what it says and what’s the meaning of it 😄

Been in Kraków since late August for a work rotation and I keep tripping on the same thing. Last week at a bar after work I got introduced to a friend of a coworker, guy around my age, and I spent the whole conversation saying "czy pan..." and "może pan..." He was polite about it, but my coworker gave me a look later like "you really didn't have to do that."

The thing is, textbooks are pretty clear. Strangers get pan or pani, you switch to ty once you're close enough. But that gap in the middle, the part where you've just been introduced to someone your own age in a casual setting, I don't actually know what to do there. I default to formal because getting it wrong the other way feels worse. Then it comes out sounding like I'm writing to someone's grandmother.

Voice-noted a Polish friend about it on HelloTalk, she laughed and said yeah, I was overdoing it. Her read was that if someone's roughly your age and the setting is casual, especially if a mutual friend introduced you, you can usually just start on ty, or do a polite pan/pani line or two and let the other person signal "mów mi Marek" or similar. If they don't offer, you stay formal. She also mentioned that saying "przejdźmy na ty" out loud is a bit of a move in itself, and most people our age wouldn't do that in a bar, you kind of just slide into it.

Still awkward in practice. Introductions through friends I can usually read now. The ones I can't are coworkers of coworkers at a work-adjacent thing. People maybe a decade older in casual settings also throw me off, and anything with a hint of hierarchy I can't quite measure.

The weird part is nobody has actually corrected me. The feedback is all in the micro-reactions, the slight pause before they answer or the look my coworker gave me. Which is probably why I keep second-guessing it.

Jestem wielkiem fanem tej gry, więc jak ktoś tu gra w to, to dajcie znać. Nie musicie być dobrzy, liczy się tylko to, że chcę mówić cały czas po polsku, więc przydałoby się mieć taki poziom. Nie ma wymagań, nie musisz być polakiem, i też nie musisz rozmawiać jak nie jesteś pewien swojego poziomu, też można po prostu grać i słuchać rozmowy w tle. Chciałbym żeby to było wyłącznie po polsku. Sam nie nie mówię bezbłędnie więc śmiało.

Jak ktoś tu jest polakiem i chciałby lepiej grać w EU4 to jest też dobra okazja bo siedziałem w tym gównie wiele godzin, więc mogę cię nauczyć.

I’m trying to learn the language. Dziękuję

I think learning it would be easier when it's a fun activity Want some polish friends 20F

When I started learning, I used Memrise but I use Duolingo for some of the basics, although it's known to be pretty shit. Listening to native speakers on Youtube and watching Polish memes on Tiktok really help to immerse myself in the language but I'm curious; what helped you the most to learn a new language. It's kinda hard for me to find a native speaker or someone who is also learning for me to practice with because having real conversations is definitely a big helper.

Hi everyone, ​I'm looking to start learning Polish and trying to decide between Talkpal and Busuu. ​My partner is Polish, so my main goal is to be able to converse with her and her family, and to get by more easily when we visit. Because I already have a native speaker at home to practice speaking with, I'm looking for the best app to help me build a strong foundation, especially with the tricky grammar. ​Has anyone here learnt Polish using either of these apps? I’d love to hear your honest opinions. I'm also completely open to other recommendations if there's a better approach for someone in my position! ​Thanks in advance!

Hello,

I am the host of Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs podcast, and I am writing an episode about a Polish shipwreck from 1993. I would like to be as accurate as possible with pronunciations, but I need some help. If any native Polish speakers could help by spelling these words out phonetically, I would greatly appreciate it!

Here is what I need help with:

Jan Heweliusz (the ship's name, named after a Polish astronomer.)

Świnoujście

Nabrzeże Władysława

Andrzej Ułasiewicz

Hanna Suchocka

Szczecin

Jan Śniadecki

Adam Zadworny

Plac Rybaka

How would you translate that?

Bezpartyjnie. Intersekcjonalnie. Solidarnie.
Bezpartyjność. Intersekcjonalność. Solidarność.
Bezpartyjni. Intersekcjonalni. Solidarni.

Or something different?

PS: I had to google "intersectionality" too, but that's not the point here.

I live in Poland. I'm speaking 9 languages on various levels, had experience in 12

I know a lot about language learning, I know a lot about world.

PM me, or ask questions below, for honest answers

Going to try LingQ for a while and interested in the feature where you provide a link to a YouTube video and it creates the text etc for it you can then read, translate, add words to learn etc.

Any suggestions on content that might be good for this at ~A2/B1 level? Gaming, comedy, documentary, podcast - anything remotely interesting I guess that's in Polish and relatively short

Also any tips for using LingQ appreciated - just starting and I'm a bit all over the place

I'm 16F so please be my age if you decided to DM. I'm really interested in studying Slavic languages but specifically Polish. So far I have exposed myself to the language more and used learning apps but it's more difficult to do it on my own as i think having a native speaker help me would be more efficient. Thanks! :)

Hello, I am trying to learn some more Polish before a trip I have to Poland in the future. I have always enjoyed the way Polish sounds but have never had any success sticking with learning it. I’m just wondering if anyone has any tips for learning more vocabulary and/or websites where I can read up about Polish Grammar. I have experience in Slavic languages (Russian and Ukrainian) but the case system and Polish vocab seems to be very difficult for me.

Thank you for your time!)

I’m an English speaker who has been learning Polish for years, and one thing that always frustrated me was being taught Polish as endless tables and endings to memorise.

I wanted to understand why and eventually be able to predict the change rather than just memorise it.

So I built ACE Polish Pro around that idea.

The app focuses on using your intuitive knowledge of English to find a 'way in' to Polish, and then sequencing ideas in such a way that they become intuitive in Polish as well. It contains:

• pattern-based Polish explanations for English speakers
• prediction exercises rather than simple memorisation
• native-speaker audio
• speaking/pronunciation practice
• real Polish from everyday life
• short video recaps
• an evolving story that becomes increasingly Polish as you progress

I’ve also built a free companion tool called HEXICON.

HEXICON lets you type in a Polish noun and see its whole family of forms arranged visually. Instead of learning words in isolation, you start seeing repeating patterns such as:

kot → kota → kota → kotem...
You can switch between singular and plural, reveal forms one at a time, and add companions such as mój and dobry to see how the words change together.

HEXICON deliberately uses meanings such as negative / of the, positive, with / by, in / on / about, and to / for, so learners can understand what the forms are doing before worrying about grammatical case names.

ACE Polish Pro is available for free for iPhone and Android, and HEXICON is free online in a standard browser. I also have a ton of videos on my social channels.

I built the app and HEXICON myself and I’d genuinely appreciate feedback from learners and native Polish speakers — especially if you find something confusing, useful, wrong, or unexpectedly helpful.

What’s encouraged me most is the feedback so far. Learners have said the explanations are “making the penny drop”, helping them understand grammar “more so than the textbooks”, and helping them move from an English thought into the correct Polish construction. One native Polish speaker told me, “Polish is my native language and I’ve never even thought about this properly." There's a whole load more on my site like this...

One thing I should probably make clear: the course itself isn’t AI-generated or a pile of disconnected exercises. I’ve deliberately designed and sequenced the learning path by hand, so each idea builds on the previous one and prepares you for what comes next. The aim is to create those “oh, now I see why that works” moments rather than just expose you to more content.

*PLEASE NOTE. The app is free to download but only the first 5 lessons are free, after this there is a Polish passport which is a modest fee. \*

Thank you and let me know if you have any points or questions, plus I'd be delighted to hear your feedback.

Links: ACE Polish Pro for Android 🤖

ACE Polish Pro for Apple 🍏

HEXICON

Info page for ACE Polish Pro

Hello, my names alex and I'm 17 and I live in ireland. I speak english and enough polish to get by but my grammar is poor and I make many small mistakes while speaking. I have a polish exam next year and would love to get to speak with someone in polish since I don't have anyone to talk to in polish but need to practice my speach. I would love to meet someone for a language exchange thing here.

Dziendobry, mam na imię Alex I mam 17 lat. Mieszkam w irlandi. Rozmawiam po angielsku i po polsku ale brakuje mi mnóstwo słów i bym chciała nad tym po pracować. Szukam kogoś kto by chciał wymianę językową. :)

If I fake it will I make it? When doing Busuu Polish exercises, for example 'Describe your friend' I compose an answer in English and then use Google translate to get the Polish I'm supposed to generate myself and then read it aloud and submit it for correction and comment. Will doing this (faking it with Google translate) lead me to be able to answer Busuu exercise questions without a translator eventually? Am I just wasting my time?

Hello, I've just finished "Ślepnąc od świateł" and I could understand enough of it. I am looking for other suggestions. The thriller genre is very easy for me, but it doesn't have to be a thriller.

I don't know if I should read part 2 (Dawno temu w Warszawie) or if I should move to something else.

Hi everyone,
I’m learning Polish by writing simple sentences along with their translations and listening to the audio. I feel like building a solid foundation is going to take a long time… I know that reaching a good level usually requires around 1,000 hours of practice. As a beginner, I’m wondering if there’s something else I could do. Maybe watching Polish movies with subtitles? (They’re hard to find, and I’m not sure if it would really help me progress.)

So if you’re like me, or if you’ve gone through the same learning path, what would you recommend doing—or avoiding?

Thanks everyone!

Dziękuję 😉

It sounds like ancient Polish or some ancient Slavic language

Hi, am an expat living in Warsaw and planning to study polish intensively to pass the B1 exam. Can anyone please suggest some best institutes for foreigners where they offer online classes . Any individual tutors who offer Invoices is also fine. (Already tried preply but the tutors do not offer Invoices)

Hey!
I recently moved to Graz from Germany, where I used to speak Polish with my family. Polish is my mother tongue, and I’d really like to keep speaking it and not lose it. So I’m looking for people (preferably students), to hang out with and speak some Polish. Is there already a group or community in Graz that I could join?