Languages

portrait of the blog post author and text saying 'Is Spanish difficult?'
Is Spanish difficult or easy to learn? How hard is Spanish to learn? Is it a question you’re asking yourself? Let me tell you this: there are no ‘difficult’ or ‘easy’ languages to learn. Everything is relative. Whether or not you perceive a language to be ‘difficult’ or ‘easy’ will depend on a number of factors, including: your native language (the language you’re learning may, for example, share a lot of vocabulary with your native language, which will make it more straightforward to learn) whether you’ve learned any other foreign languages before (for example, if you already know some French, […]

Is Spanish difficult to learn?

best language learning blogs
Best language learning blogs Here’s my list of the best blogs for language learners!   I will be updating this article regularly as I find more blogs that might be useful for you guys. I’m also going to start with general language learning blogs, which are already included in this article, and I’m going to regularly add lists of my favourite blogs for learning specific languages (French and English coming next!). Make sure you’re part of my community of language learners if you’d like me to send you an email next time this article is updated with new blogs! Blogs […]

Best language blogs to help you learn any language

Get your free English grammar booklet and regular lessons from me by email.  English articles are something that many learners struggle with, especially if their native language doesn’t have them. That’s why I thought I’d write this brief overview of how to use definite and indefinite articles in English. As I’m sure you already know, the two types of articles in English are: the definite article (the) and the indefinite article (a/an). They are used in front of nouns (such as ‘a house’, ‘the book’) and I’m about to give you some rules as to when you should use each […]

How to use ‘a’ and ‘the’ in English

Polish noun genders: how to recognise and learn them Polish noun genders are something that you may be confused about but fear not – I’m about to give you an easy-to-digest introduction to what Polish noun genders are all about! If you’d like to learn Polish from scratch, make sure you check out my beginners course. What’s a noun gender? A noun gender is a quality of a noun (such as an object or a person, for example) that denotes whether it’s feminine, masculine or neutral. I know this sounds weird when you’re a native English speaker and haven’t learned […]

Polish Noun Genders: How To Learn Them

how to learn japanese
How to Learn Japanese My latest language mission (which I started about four weeks ago so it’s not really my new year’s resolution) is to learn Japanese. I’ll be travelling to Japan in March and I’d really like to be able to get to a stage where I can: Introduce myself, say where I’m from and understand my conversation partner’s response Have a basic conversation about what I like, ask my conversation partner what they like and understand their response Ask for information (e.g. a food/drink recommendation in a restaurant or whether a tourist site is worth visiting) and ask for […]

How to Learn Japanese: New Year’s Language Mission

The best books and resources to learn Polish Language books are fun – even in the era of free internet resources and Youtube channels on language learning. If you’re just beginning your Polish learning journey, I’ve got a list of the best books to learn Polish for you. I’ve divided this post into different types of resources, from grammar books to courses in colloquial Polish. When learning a language, I would probably get one of each and supplement this with online resources, podcasts, films and conversation classes. But the choice is yours! Are you ready? Let’s get started! Polish for […]

The Best Books and Resources to Learn Polish

Is Polish the most difficult language to learn? If you think the answer is ‘no’ – don’t worry about reading this blog post. You’re already on the right track! If you think it’s ‘yes’ – carry on! Polish has been named the most difficult language to learn by so many websites, bloggers and people I know. I’ve got a theory about this and I’d like to share it with you so bear with me! Interested in learning Polish from scratch? Check out my beginners Polish course.  Polish is difficult for first-time language learners My theory is that the people who think […]

Is Polish Difficult to Learn?

How to order drinks in Polish In this video, I teach you how to order tea, coffee and beer in Polish. Enjoy! How to order drinks in Polish: phrases covered Proszę herbatę – Tea, please Proszę kawę – Coffee, please Proszę piwo – Beer, please You can also learn how to order two of each: Proszę dwie herbaty Proszę dwie kawy Proszę dwa piwa Have you tried ordering drinks in Polish yet? Let me know how it went in the comments below! Are you interested in learning Polish from scratch? Check out my Polish beginners course. 

Learn how to order drinks in Polish!

Unlike in English, the names of most days of the week in Polish are linked to their position in the week. For example, środa (Wednesday) derives from the word środek (middle) and signifies the middle of the (working) week. Below, you will find a brief explanation of the rest of the days. Remember – in Polish, they’re not capitalised! Poniedziałek (Monday) comes after Sunday (niedziela) – po niedzieli. Wtorek is the second day of the week (wtóry – a rather old-fashioned way of saying drugi, or ‘second’). Środa – the middle day. Czwartek derives from czwarty (fourth). Piątek is like […]

The seven days of the week: what do they mean?

‘Thank you’ and ‘please’ – these two words will take you very far when talking to a Polish speaker. They are also surprisingly easy to master. There is only one little tricky thing about each of them.  ‘Thank you’ or ‘dziękuję’ has two versions depending on how formal you want to be, and ‘please’ or ‘proszę’ has two different meanings. I hope my short podcast below will make things clear for you. Enjoy! Phrases covered: Dziękuję – thank you Dzięki – thanks Proszę – please, you’re welcome, no problem Proszę kawę – coffee, please

‘Thank you’ and ‘please’ – always handy!

You must have, at least once, been at a house party where a Polish host offers one of their Polish guests something to eat. Salad?, the host enquiries. Nie, the guest replies.  Bread? Nie, again. Soup? The third suggestion must be the final one, you’re thinking. But then, the guest says no. A minute later you see the host serve hot tomato soup with noodles (the Polish way) to the guest. The guest seems really up for it. But he said no, didn’t he?! To make sense of this situation, you will need to switch off the English-speaking part of […]

Ever wondered why Polish people say ‘no’ when they mean ‘yes’?

How to say hi in Polish
How to say ‘hi’ in Polish Welcome to my blog about learning languages. I will be posting bite-sized lessons for those of you who always wanted to learn the language but could never find the time to do it! In the video below, I teach you how to say ‘hi’ in Polish. Let me know if there’s anything in particular you would like to learn and I will feature it in future posts. If there’s nothing specific, come back to 5-minute Polish in a few days for your next 5-minute lesson! Enjoy! Glossary: Cześć (hi) Hej (hi – informal) Dzień dobry […]

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