Language courses

Language laboratory, Faculty of Philology and History, Jan Dlugosz University in Czestochowa

Estimates indicate that Polish is the mother tongue for ca 46 million people, including mainly those living in Poland and the so-called Polonia (Polish communities abroad) scattered in various parts of the world. It is also one of the official languages of the European Union.

The grammar and punctuation of the Polish language comprise an enormous number of rules and even more exceptions.

There are lots of language centres, both public and non-public, with Polish lectors and academic schools for foreigners in Poland.

Language schools for foreigners

Foreign Language Centre, Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce, author: P. Małecki

Programmes are tailored to individual needs and often enriched with "practical training", for example: walking tours around the city combined with practising the language in shops and museums.

The most common forms of education are:

regular, standard courses once or twice a week in a group,
intensive courses, which take place every day or at least two days a week and last one or two months,
summer courses,

weekend courses, being held on Saturdays and Sundays, sometimes at the countryside to relax while learning,
individual classes at the student or teacher’s place; sometimes using an online video chat,
courses preparing for state certification exams,
special courses for children.

The prices vary from 1000 to 4000 PLN (250 to 900 EUR), depending on the school and the type of the course.

Characteristics of the Polish language

Foreign Language Centre, Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce, author: P. Małecki

Polish uses the Latin alphabet. It is a phonetically rich language, with 9 vowels and 23 consonants. Letters such as q, v and x are not in the Polish alphabet, though they are sometimes used for proper nouns.

Foreigners, and sometimes Poles themselves, find it difficult to learn the spelling of words which include such letters as ch or h, u or ó and ż or rz because both sounds in each pair are pronounced in almost or exactly the same way.

The history of the Polish language

Institute of English Studies, Faculty of Philology, University of Lodz, author: Maciej Andrzejewski

The Polish language belongs to the group of Slavic languages. Together with Czech and Slovak it represents West Slavic languages separated from the Indo-European language family. All Slavic languages evolved from one common language called proto-Slavic. The beginnings of shaping the Polish language date back to the 10th century. The first Polish words included names such as proper nouns and the names of places.

Institute of English Studies, Faculty of Philology, University of Lodz, author: Maciej Andrzejewski

They were written in Latin in documents like chronicles and legal acts. The oldest sentence written in Polish, ‘Daj, ać ja pobruszę, a ty poczywaj’ was found in the Book of Henrykow (Księga Henrykowska) and meant ‘Give it to me, I will grind and you can rest now’ and it dates back to the XIII century. Later on, the Polish vocabulary has been influenced primarily by dialects and other Slavic languages (Russian, Czech, Ukrainian), but also by Latin, German, Italian, French and English.

There are several regional types of Polish, such as Silesian, Malopolan, Wielkopolan, Mazovian and Kashubian. Some of them differ significantly, especially in terms of vocabulary and intonation. The Polish grammar and lexis in large measure come from Latin.