Colloquial Polish review — Routledge course for beginners in English
Self-study course in English
Best for: English-speaking beginners who want a gradual, self-study course with translations of the dialogues and a full answer key.
- Authors
- Bolesław W. Mazur
- Publisher
- Routledge
- Edition
- 2011–2015
- Level
- A1–A2
- ISBN
- 978-1-138-96010-7
What this book is
Colloquial Polish is the Polish course in Routledge's Colloquials series for beginners, written by Bolesław W. Mazur. It is in English: dialogues are translated, grammar is explained without jargon, and every exercise has an answer at the back. The current (third) edition is about 390 pages, and the audio is free to download from the publisher's website.
Who it suits best
- Absolute beginners studying on their own in English.
- Learners who want a gradual introduction — reviewers find it gentler than other English-language courses.
- People who like to check everything themselves: there is a full key to the exercises.
Who should pick something else
- Learners who want to reach B1 with one book: it is a beginners' course.
- Exam candidates: there are no exam-format tasks.
- Readers who do not use English — a Polish-only coursebook will serve better.
What's inside
- 18 topic units — greetings, hotels, free time, shopping, eating out and more — plus 3 revision sections.
- Dialogues with English translations, vocabulary, grammar notes and exercises in each unit.
- A key to the exercises, a grammar summary, Polish–English and English–Polish glossaries.
- Free audio for the dialogues and exercises.
What learners and teachers say
On Amazon the current edition has 4.3–4.4 out of 5 from about 30 ratings; on Goodreads it averages 3.64 from 28 ratings (checked October 2026). Reviewers broadly agree with each other.
- Praised: it is approachable for self-learners, with a logical, linear structure — one Amazon reviewer calls it "probably the easiest and most approachable beginning textbook on Polish for self-learners that there is"; grammar is explained clearly; and the native-speaker audio is essential and good.
- Criticised: it moves fast and packs a lot into some units ("too much is covered in too short a book", writes one reviewer; another says it can be discouraging for a beginner); the hints about noun gender confuse some readers, and a few spotted slips in the grammar explanations; some disliked the English introductions on the recordings. Learners who already know another Slavic language find it easier.
- Price: imported copies are expensive in Poland — roughly 350 zł on Polish price-comparison sites in October 2026, several times the price of a Polish-published coursebook.
Our verdict
A reasonable first-year companion for English speakers. Use it to build a base, then move to a course that reaches B1 and to exam practice — for example our free B1 practice tests.
These reviews are independent. We are not paid by any publisher or bookshop, and we do not sell these books. Descriptions are based on the publishers' information, the books' contents and publicly available reviews by learners and teachers.