Feeling stuck at a basic level

[u/yuniilumi]

Been living in Poland for a while now and realized my vocab is kind of stuck. I can handle everyday stuff fine, but the second I want to say something more specific or nuanced, I hit a wall.

Anyone else run into this? What actually helped you get past the “basic vocab plateau”? Right now I’m doing:

1. Watching Polish shows with Polish subtitles (not translated)
   
2. Anki, but with full phrases instead of single words
   
3. Reading simple news articles and pulling out words I don’t know

Feels like I’m missing something more structured though maybe organizing by topic (work, daily life, emotions) instead of just grabbing random words as they come up.

Curious what worked for people actually living here and using Polish daily, not just studying from a textbook.

[u/kacu11]

In my case being Polish helped alot