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For an English speaker German is the easier of the two: the Foreign Service Institute puts it at 828 class hours against 1,012 for Polish. Their everyday vocabulary is mostly different: roughly 1 in 10 everyday words look alike, so knowing one gives you little to lean on in the other.
For an English speaker German is the easier of the two: the Foreign Service Institute puts it at 828 class hours against 1,012 for Polish. These are the figures behind the how long does it take to learn a language calculator, from the US Foreign Service Institute's published language training times.
| Polish | German | |
|---|---|---|
| FSI difficulty group | Category III | Category II |
| Class hours to working proficiency | 1,012 | 828 |
| Full-time weeks | 44 | 36 |
The hours are for a native English speaker in full-time classes aiming at professional working proficiency. Useful everyday conversation comes sooner, and the calculator breaks the time down by level.
Their everyday vocabulary is mostly different: roughly 1 in 10 everyday words look alike, so knowing one gives you little to lean on in the other.
A few everyday words that look alike in Polish and German:
| English | Polish | German |
|---|---|---|
| architecture | architektura | Architektur |
| continent | kontynent | Kontinent |
| harmony | harmonia | Harmonie |
| kilogram | kilogram | Kilogramm |
| kilometer | kilometr | Kilometer |
| photography | fotografia | Fotografie |
| psychologist | psycholog | Psychologe |
| temperature | temperatura | Temperatur |
And a few everyday words that look completely different:
| English | Polish | German |
|---|---|---|
| Friday | piątek | Freitag |
| bread | chleb | Brot |
| daughter | córka | Tochter |
| fifty | pięćdziesiąt | fünfzig |
| hour | godzina | Stunde |
| net | siatka | Netz |
| road | droga | Weg |
| sweet | słodki | süß |
| Polish | German | |
|---|---|---|
| Writing system | Latin alphabet | Latin alphabet |
| Grammatical genders | 3 (masculine, feminine, neuter) | 3 (masculine, feminine, neuter) |
| Noun cases | 7 | 4 |
| Tones | No | No |
If your main aim is the fastest route to holding a conversation, German asks for fewer hours. If you want to reach a particular place, a person or a job, start with the one you will actually use: steady motivation counts for more than the difference in hours.
For an English speaker German is the easier of the two: the Foreign Service Institute puts it at 828 class hours against 1,012 for Polish. Hours are for a native English speaker reaching professional working proficiency in full-time classes; casual learning gets you to useful conversation well before that.
Their everyday vocabulary is mostly different: roughly 1 in 10 everyday words look alike, so knowing one gives you little to lean on in the other.
If your main aim is the fastest route to holding a conversation, German asks for fewer hours. If you want to reach a particular place, a person or a job, start with the one you will actually use: steady motivation counts for more than the difference in hours.
Watch Your LanguageVocabulary widgets for iPhone & Apple Watch
Watch Your Language puts Polish or German words in a widget on your iPhone Lock Screen and on your Apple Watch face, and brings back the ones you keep forgetting, so the practice carries on every time you check the time.
