Polish YouTubers for Language Learners (Top 18 Channels for 2021)
by Marissa Blaszko · January 1, 2021
Polish YouTubers have been key in helping me relearn my native language.
(Yes, you read that right.)
Because of that, I put together this list of my favorite YouTube channels for learning Polish because nothing like this existed when I first began working on my language.
The Polish YouTube channels here are:
- sorted by level;
- to help you with grammar, culture, and listening practice;
- only the Polish YouTubers which I actually use and recommend to friends.
But, these Polish Youtubers are not:
- only for basic Polish students;
- every Polish YouTube channel I know of;
- low-quality channels (like long word lists or “learn Polish in your sleep”).
So I hope you get as much out of them as I have!
Using Polish YouTube to Improve Your Language
As a person who speaks and studies 6 languages (and uses YouTube to learn languages literally every day), here are my tips for using Polish YouTubers in your language journey:
- Use a guiding resource. There are, unfortunately, no Polish YouTube channels which will teach you start-to-finish Polish. So that said, I recommend using the channels on this list in conjunction with a text, private tutor, or class that will help you in a more structured way.
- Listen to subjects you’re interested in. Grammar and vocabulary are great, but you’re going to want listening practice too. For that, find subjects you like so you’re curious and compelled to keep learning Polish.
- Make sure you get conversation practice in. Unfortunately, listening skills don’t transfer to speaking skills. (I myself am a passive bilingual, which is a whole other story.) That means no matter how much Polish YouTube you listen to… you need to actually talk. So make sure you’re speaking Polish with tutors or language exchange partners from early on in your journey.
HOW TO READ THIS LIST
Language difficulty:
- ⭐ ⬜ ⬜ ⬜ ⬜ For Beginner Students (uses some English)
- ⭐ ⭐ ⬜ ⬜ ⬜ For Students (helps with grammar, discusses the language)
- ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⬜ ⬜ Clear and comprehensive (made for natives but explained clearly, uses visual illustrations, and has good sound quality)
- ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⬜ Somewhat difficult (made for natives but has concepts, speed, or audio quality that make them more difficult)
- ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Very difficult (has quick speech, technical language, or tons of slang)
Subtitles:
- 🤖 Auto-generated by computer
- 👩💻 Human-generated
- ❌ none
- 🇵🇱🇬🇧 Language(s) of subtitles
Channel tags: channel’s associated keywords or genres
Polish YouTubers for Beginners (A1-A2)
This section is for Polish learners who are pre-conversational. These Polish YouTubers mostly vlog in English (or Polish with human-generated English-subtitles) and will help you specifically with grammar or listening at the beginner level.
1. Polski Daily
Language Difficulty: ⭐ ⬜ ⬜ ⬜ ⬜
Subtitles: 🤖🇬🇧
Channel tags: Learning Polish
Polski Daily is one of Polish YouTube’s better kept secrets, but by far my favorite Polish podcast.
In her YouTube series, Polish teacher Paulina Lipiec goes over plenty of grammar, greetings, and listening practice for lower-level students. Her website PolskiDaily.eu has additional resources which can be done along side her channel for memberships of €5-8/month .
Language Difficulty: ⭐ ⭐ ⬜ ⬜ ⬜
Subtitles: 👩💻🇵🇱🇬🇧
Channel tags: Polish grammar
Polish with Ania has very few episodes over two seasons but she has the best explanations of cases online.
I highly highly suggest going through her channel as you learn A1-A2 Polish grammar and having her re-explain the grammar you learned with other resources to you.
3. Polish Pod 101
Language Difficulty: ⭐ ⬜ ⬜ ⬜ ⬜
Subtitles: Depends
Channel tags: Learning Polish
I generally don’t love the Pod 101 series, but the listening practice playlists are fantastic for quizzing your Polish listening comprehension.
Here they are for:
Language Difficulty: ⭐ ⭐ ⬜ ⬜ ⬜
Subtitles: 👩💻🇵🇱🇬🇧
Channel tags: Learning Polish
Teach Me Polish has very few videos, but the few they do have are total treats. The host teaches at a real Polish immersion school in Poznań, so all of their videos have an immersive feel: you learn about Polish grammar and vocabulary in real Polish (not through English like other videos on this list) with quality built-in subtitles available.
Language Difficulty: ⭐ ⭐ ⬜ ⬜ ⬜
Subtitles: Depends on the video
Channel tags: Learning Polish
Polonus is another channel that teaches Polish on YouTube through the Polish language (and not English), as well as the host of another podcast I love for Polish learners (“Learn Polish Podcast”).
Their channel no longer updates too frequently, but they do have a large backlog of interesting videos you can go through and watch around classes or other studies.
Polish YouTubers for Intermediate Learners (A2-B1)
Starting to have conversations? (Or getting close?) These are the Polish YouTube channels I recommend for this level (although you can certainly benefit from the beginner ones as well).
Language Difficulty: ⭐ ⭐ ⬜ ⬜ ⬜
Subtitles: 👩💻🇵🇱🇬🇧 built-in
Channel tags: Learning Polish, Polish culture
I am obsessed with all of the Easy Languages YouTube channels, and Easy Polish is no different.
Every week, the hosts walk through the streets of Poland and asks strangers the same question like What do Poles eat? or What are the most beautiful places in Poland? Join them for listening practice and cultural immersion.
Each episode has built-in English and Polish subtitles, but you can find subtitle-free versions (as well as flashcards for most episodes) through their Patreon.
Language Difficulty: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⬜ ⬜
Subtitles: depends on video
Channel tags: language learning, linguistics
Ania’s channel is a bit different: her videos explore other languages through Polish or English.
This channel is awesome for polyglots who want to see her compare Slovak to Polish; hear translations of English idioms into Spanish or Polish; or teach common English mistakes through Polish.
(In this article’s embedded video, she teaches Polish anatomy through Slovak. If you’re a language nerd like me, it’s the absolute coolest.)
Polish YouTubers for Advanced Learners (B2+)
Once you can start understanding Polish fluently (even if you can’t speak fluently) you can finally start enjoying native-level content.
The Polish YouTubers in this section represent a variety of genres which I think Polish students will be interested in. That’s because the goal here is to watch videos you’re interested in.
If there’s nothing here you like, my trick is to go to YouTube and search “whatever keywords” in Polish, not English and see what Polish YouTubers the algorithm picks out for you.
Language Difficulty: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⬜
Subtitles: depends on video
Channel tags: politics, psychology, history, tech, culture
Host Orestes Kowalski explains interesting ideas, theories, controversies, and beliefs in a series of well-illustrated and well-recorded videos.
The audio and speaking quality of his videos is great (so it’ll help learners recognize words they understand) but the language he uses is often really specific to each subject. This would be a great YouTube channel to dive into before a B2 test.
Unfortunately, most of his videos have no subtitle options in any language (although some have human-generated English and Polish in certain parts).
Language Difficulty: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⬜
Subtitles: ❌
Channel tags: European history, politics, curiosities
From European monarchs to serial killers in the USA, this YouTube channel covers some of the most gruesome characters and moments in western history. (And without censorship–which means more than a few episodes come with content warnings in the first few seconds.)
Language students will be relieved to see a large number of context clues through illustrations and images, plus high AV quality, but the quick storytelling (and lack of subtitles) can make it rather tricky.
Language Difficulty: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⬜
Subtitles: depends on video
Channel tags: biology, earth sciences, health, education
Host Kasia Gandor is a self-described “biotechnologist, vlogger and knowledge promoter”. Her videos all deal with the sciences (or learning) but in fun and popular ways.
With the production quality of a full audio-visual department, her videos are not only visually interesting to watch but have the quality of informational news segments.
Language Difficulty: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⬜
Subtitles: ❌
Channel tags: travel
Karol and Ola travel the world in creative and unexpected ways–and take you along for the trip. From giant road trips in campers to lesser-known destinations local to Europe, their beautiful cinematography and travel tips are a treat.
Both hosts speak clearly and slowly, but Polish learners should know that large parts of the videos are hugely cinematographic with plenty of beautiful drone shots but not as much speaking as you get with other Polish YouTubers.
Language Difficulty: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Subtitles: ❌
Channel tags: tech, psychics, science
Armed with a camera and some lab tools, host Darek Hoffmann investigates the world around us through experiments which you get to watch.
He does so clearly and with plenty of visual tools, but the technical language on SciFun’s channel might leave even advanced Polish students scratching their heads. So again: if you’re preparing for a test B2 or higher, this is a great channel to use for super specific technical language.
Language Difficulty: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⬜
Subtitles: 👩💻🇵🇱
Channel tags: booktube, linguistics
Paulina is a Polish YouTuber who loves her language. From books to linguistics (and plenty of vlogs) she discusses all aspects of the Polish language with native speakers.
And while this channel is made for native speakers, advanced Polish learners will get a rare treat into historic linguistics, literature, and the Polish language.
Language Difficulty: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⬜
Subtitles: ❌
Channel tags: podcast, linguistics
Innymni Słowy is a very cool Polish linguistics podcast masquerading as a pretty dope Polish YouTube channel. The only difference is that the YouTube channel comes with some visual examples of what they talk about in the podcast, which will likely help language learners a ton.
Like with Mówiąc Inaczej (listed above), it’ll be a really fun treat for Polish learners to see the Polish language explained by natives to natives.
Language Difficulty: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⬜
Subtitles: ❌
Channel tags: books, communication, linguistics
Host Mateusz goes into a series of topics in the general realm of “communication” that are just plain cool: the history of the middle finger, forensic linguistics, and even Polish spelling.
Unlike the other two linguistics channels listed above, his videos aren’t just about Polish–so polyglots and language learners will have a lot of fun with this one.
Language Difficulty: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⬜
Subtitles: depends on the video
Channel tags: language learning
Polish polyglot Patryk takes you on a journey with him as he attempts to continue learning one language per year. All of his videos have to do with language learning… but not only the Polish language.
If you enjoy following other polyglots on YouTube you’ll know that they normally present in English (no matter what their native language is) so Patryk is a nice change of pace.
Language Difficulty: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⬜
Subtitles: depends on video
Channel tags: vlog, lifestyle
Osi is a Polish-born lifestyler model and vlogger who’s Nigerian parents moved her to Ireland for her teenage years but who is now back in Poland and making videos in Polish.
If you like fashion, fitness, or personal vlogs then Osi’s is a fun twist on the familiar genre.
Language Difficulty: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⬜
Subtitles: depends on video
Channel tags: world news, features
In this Polish YouTube channel, German new site DW runs either original pieces of Polish journalism or stories of note from other countries dubbed into Polish.
If you want to start getting your news in Polish, many of their videos have subtitles so it’s a good place to start.
Other Polish Immersion Resources
The reason I’m such a fan of Polish YouTubers is that I believe that language immersion can, in most circumstances, be done at home.
Here are a few other Polish immersion resources on this site which you might like:
You can also check out our free mini-course to learn and track your at-home language immersion.