Polishpod101 is an online course turned mobile app that teaches you conversational Polish through lessons in the form of podcast episodes. In this post we’ll take a closer look at Polishpod101 and its features, so you can decide if it's the right learning tool for you.
Polishpod101’s Polish learning podcast
The bulk of Polishpod101 is made up of it’s podcast lessons. Their library of episodes is impressive. There’s hundreds on the site. Polishpod101 sorts its podcast episode by difficulty. The lowest difficulty is absolute beginner and the highest is advanced. Altogether there are five difficulty levels and each one has a decent amount of lessons.
Every podcast lesson on Polishpod101 follows the same format. Every lesson is about 10 to 15 minutes long. In the beginning the podcast hosts introduce lessons and brief you on the dialogue that will be used. Then comes the dialogue: a short conversation between two native Polish speakers. After the dialogue is played the hosts return and teach you about any new vocabulary or grammar that was used.
After listening to the audio portion of the lesson you’re free to explore the various review options offered on Polishpod101. You can listen to individual phrases from the dialogue at different speeds and record yourself practicing them. You can also add words from the lesson to an ongoing deck of virtual flashcards to review later. There’s also lesson notes which dive deeper into grammar and give you further explanations and examples of whatever grammar concept was covered. You can even download full transcripts of the lesson in both Polish and English.
Polishpod101’s other resources for learning Polish
While the podcast episodes are the main feature of Polishpod101, the site also has some other useful resources as well.
First and foremost are the video lessons, which cover everything from pronunciation, vocabulary, to grammar. Next to help you with your Polish vocabulary there are interactive phrase lists and a Polish to English dictionary.
There’s also a large collection of other smaller tools like a pronunciation guide, a Polish learning blog, listening comprehension exercises, and more.
Final thoughts
To be honest, there aren’t a ton of good courses out there for learning Polish. Polishpod101 is one of the rare exceptions. It’s a great tool to help you learn practical grammar and vocabulary in a way that prepares you for conversations in the real world.
