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- Polish Golden Owl Hall of Fame
Polish Golden Owl Hall of Fame
As I will be taking over the Hall of Fame post, a new topic had to be created as I cannot edit another contributor's post. The old topic, with many interesting and valuable stories of the learners, can be found here. This post has been updated to account for the users who commented since the last update of the old post.
Disclaimer: You do not have to have every skill at crown level 5 to be listed here, the topic after all was first created when the crown system didn't exist yet. You just need to have all skills til the very end of the tree finished, at any level :)
Finishing a skill tree takes a lot of work... especially when you're learning Polish.
Few have managed to achieve the extraordinary feat of getting the Polish Golden Owl. Are you one of them? This is the place to brag about it!
Just leave a comment in this thread to let us know that we should add you.
Polish Golden Owl holders (175):
Last Update: 05 March 2019
171 Comments
I have the golden Polish tree. I started taking lessons from a Polish friend when we were both living in St. Petersburg.
I've worked my way to the end of the tree :D I only have 200 something crowns, so still some work left until all lessons are level 5. (Hope I didn't misunderstand and that by golden owl you mean everything is level 5)
Actually when the topic was created, there were no crowns yet, so the Golden Owl was awarded after what would now be considered Crown 1 (well, the exercises were more mixed in difficulty). So many people listed above don't have everything at level 5, I guess.
I will mention it at the beginning that you only have to finish the whole course to be on the list, nevermind the crown level.
Congratulations on finishing and good luck making it level 5 :)
1163
It's great to see my name here again :D I'm improving my record so as to be at level 5 at every lesson - and consequently catch all crowns available.
- 1729
Hello everyone! Congratulations on having finished the Polish tree! I conquered my Golden Polish Owl quite a long time ago, so I'd appreciate being added to the list. And thank you Jellei for keeping it alive, it's really good job!
Czy możesz mnie dodać do listy? Skończyłam dzisiaj kurs języka polskiego. Jestem taka szczęśliwa! 314 dni, 335 Crowns, 50.080 XP. :-D
- 208
If you have a lot of patience and kindly wait for a long time, I'm doing my best to join you; don't give up, please
- 1006
I finished Polish tree.
My native is Serbo-Croatian and I'm fluent in Russian so that probably helped. Grammar and pronunciation were quite easy for me,but spelling is so hard. Polish also has a lot of "false friends" for other Slavic languages.
Added, welcome to the list :) And congratulations!
Yes, that's the thing about being Slavic... many things are very easy and suddenly you encounter something that works completely differently and that's really hard to get to remember.
- 1815
Isn't this reinventing the wheel? Or rather, laboriously handcrafting the wheel when someone else has already invented the super-luminal, anti-gravity jet-bike?
It kinda is. But this topic existed, people were commenting, so I figured it should be kept alive. Also, my guess is that not many people know about Duome.eu, but everyone on the web version can easily see this topic.
- 1815
Fair enough; efficiency generally precludes commenting, and comments can be very worthwhile (they can also not be, of course). More people seen to know about Duome than about this thread going by the number of Polish-owl-holders, unless we are to consider owl-holders to have statistical bias towards knowing about Duome. I have a Polish owl, and know about it, so perhaps I am biased myself, but I think I should be on your list, either way.
Sure thing, adding you now :)
I believe that Duome somehow collects the data automatically, I'm on the list for Russian and I don't recall 'signing up' in any way so potentially I could not know about it despite my nickname being there.
- 1815
Thanks!
I think you 'sign up' simply when anyone enters your username into the duome URL; duome then collates whatever public information is available from your DL user file and, if it meets certain requirements of streak, XP, etc, saves it—only then does it update automatically.
My inference above about people knowing about duome going by numbers is obviously utter nonsense—what I probably meant was that duome is a bit more representative of learners than a list in a forum post. The moral of this story is not to try to construct a cogent argument after consuming an excessive quantity of brandy; I am frankly amazed that what I wrote makes any sense at all. Apologies!
Hi Jellei, this certainly is not true, as I have never been added. Even after asking for some time time ago, but now, I guess duo will drop this soon enough and nobody bothers about it. Have a grest day though
- 646
I haven't gotten far into Polish, so maybe this is a stupid question, but what makes getting the golden tree so hard? Is the difficulty due to tedium (i.e. lots of lessons in higher crown levels), or just difficulty?
- 919
For me it was limitations of Duolingo. I am a native Polish speaker and I had problems with many sentences due to the fact that the contributors had not foreseen many correct answers. It took sometimes a long time to find an answer that would fit. Also, I had problems with American English used on Duolingo. I live in the UK and my British English answers were often not accepted.
The same problem exists in Turkish Duolingo too. Although I am a native Turkish speaker, my answers weren't correct.
Please report them - while American English tends to be used in the main answers, all answers correct in (standard) British English should be accepted.
- 675
Thank you Jellei for your continued support! Great contribution to the Polish-Learning Duolingo society :)!
I've managed to get the Golden Owl - wow that was hard work! I will keep on going though.
I finished the Polish tree. You guys helped me learn much more in Polish than "Polak-Węgier dwa bratanki..." verse, so thank you very much! Also got acquainted with two Polish girls via Erasmus who after leaving Hungary, showed me Kraków and since then I also visit Poland regularly.
Z tym Polak-Węgier dwa bratanki, to bym jednak uważał. Polska była pod zaborami austrowęgierskimi swego czasu i nie każdy Polak podchodzi do tego wyrażenia zbyt pochlebnie. ;-)
And my nickname is SupremeAcorn2359 instead of Achipa19 it's possible that Duolingo hasn't updated it yet...
So you just changed your nickname and I'm not seeing it yet? OK, I can include you under SupremeAcorn2359 if you want.
Thank you very much! And about the nickname, I had changed it a couple of days before commenting here, but it still shows the previous one.
Yeah, something clearly didn't work, you still have the old one. If you want I can change it to achipa19 on the list.
- 904
I was unable to find my name on the list of Polish Golden Owl holders, would you please check and add me to the list, thank you very much.
wow! I'm working on the polish tree, It's HARD! well done to all those who completed.
I got the owl! My family is from Poland and I've known how to speak it for a while, but I had very little understanding of the grammar. The course certainly helped!
I got the Polish Golden Owl. I am very thankful to all the contributers and moderators for their work. This Polish course has a great influence on my entire life, because I am planning to move to Kraków and to study in the Jagellonian University. This course greatly improved my ability to understand and speak Polish when I was on A1 and A2 levels. Thank you all again! May God bless you!
- 218
Hi ! I have the golden owl too! i finished the Polish tree some time ago and now i'm going for the German one
I finished the polish tree as well :) - still trying to keep everything golden.
I've got the owl too and continue studying the language. My native language is Russian. I am originally from Ukraine, so I know Ukrainian too. I think knowing Ukrainian helps to learn Polish better than knowing Russian. Thanks to all contributors to this course for your hard work!
Jellei, please check my name "PinkHill552" - I did not find myself in your list. (do not look at this actual nickname "WiseFox31"). Thanks.
- 308
I finished the Polish tree about two years ago, but didn't know this "hall of fame" existed until now! Since the implementation of the crowns, I'm going through to upgrade all my skills to level 3 - over halfway through that. This is a lifelong pursuit!
- 999
I finished Polish tree 01.10.2018 (at Level 12). Now I am on L24. Polish is my "heart-language", I live near the Polish border, in my youth everybody near me spoke some Polish words, I watched Polish TV (Bonanza, 4 Pancerni i pies, kpt. Klos ...). It was a great school for me to easier learn Polish now. Thanks for your comments as our tutor Jellei !.
As mentioned under the other comment - welcome! :) And thank you for your kind words :)
If you finished the whole course and want to be added, I guess it counts... did you?
- 386
Please add me to your list, which I only recently discovered.
After 16 months I finally finished Polish for English speakers on 26 Nov 2018 a few days after reaching Level 18, gaining 165 crowns in the process of completing each skill at least twice.
I now use this Course for practice only, and occasionally encounter unfamiliar material in the process of becoming more familiar with features of Polish I still find difficult (some verb forms; prepositions, ...).
For extra revision I recently began English for Polish speakers, a very different course, with fewer skills:
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There is new vocabulary to learn (e.g. czerń for czarny)
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Expressions & vocabulary I learned in PL for AmE are sometimes rejected.
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Moderation on that Forum is very rare. Maybe Jellei has spoiled us on "our" Forum... ;-)
I was born in the UK (where I learned some French and German at school), and in Jan 1979 moved to Germany and gradually became bilingual. That October I visited Poland (Lublin) for the first time. In Jan 1980 I felt my German was "firm" enough to survive my learning a further language. Hungarian and Swedish were candidates, but I knew more Poles, and Polish was somewhat related to the Russian I briefly tried to teach myself at 16. However, Polish evening classes were for beginners only (the Intermediate and Advanced courses lacked participants), so - after two rounds as a Beginner - my efforts lapsed until I discovered the Duo course mid 2017.
[3 Mar 2019 14:03 UTC]
- 777
I have one too, but I finished the course to help out in eliminating errors from it as I'm native Polish and felt it's my time to contribute to this awesome app in some way. On the same token, if anyone needs any help with their Polish, hit me up and I'll see what I can do to sort you out. Cheers!
I got the golden owl a few months ago: now all my skills are also at gold (level 5) and I have 335 crowns. Jestem bombą :-)
Awesome. Would you consider yourself fluent then? Did you make use of any other resources besides Duolingo?
far from fluent, to be honest. But yes used other resources including grammar books
nope, one year later and only 60% of the crowns or so are complete! I will get there one day and reply to this again!!
I have now the golden owl! A big thanks to Jellei and all others, it has taken some time but Poles I know are always asking how I learn Polish? Well, a lot of Duolingo and for the last seven years an hour a week on Skype to a friend in Warsaw. But even so I still struggle in conversations and reading, I would have to get over there to really make a difference. Whatever, many thanks to Duolingo, I often recommend you to others.
- 29
I´ve also conquered the polish tree a while ago...I am super proud :-) Still, I have a looooot more to learn. Please add me to this list and congratulation to all of you.
Z poważaniem Steffi
Hey, I did it! Appreciate all the work that has gone into this. It's hard, coming from English, but every day I am closer to being able to read those Ryszard Kapuściński and Olga Tokarczuk books I have my eyes on!
I've started Polish this weekend, hope to be on that list in the future!
Hello community :)
Hope you all are safe and sound...
Saturday I reached a big lil milestone...in a language, which brought me to Duolingo in the first place...
I finally earned my golden owl!!
I still struggle with the language, but Duo helped me out a lot there, it definitely improved my Polish skills...
Next steps...practising Polish in real life AND getting the golden tree (halfway there)
I'm a bit late as I started 2 months ago :) Can I get added to the list, I have the trophy.
Check on my duome for proof:
I've heard this language is rather difficult. About how many hours would it probably take for a native English speaker to finish the skill tree on Polish? I've got a goal to be a Hyperpolyglot and Polish is on my list.
I don't know about the time in Duolingo. But if you spent some time on other European languages, this map may give you the idea: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/language-difficulty-map/
Finished the tree. But really there should be more recognition for people who have managed to turn the whole tree golden. Only half of mine is golden as I ended up blitzing through to the end on level 1. It's taken me 17 days but I'm sure it will take me a lot longer to turn the whole thing golden. My native is English so unfortunately Polish grammar is 'czary mary' to me!
Thanks for your work here, I continue to learn a lot from the exercises and your feedback. PS, I've received my Golden Owl!
I finally made it! After starting to learn with Duolingo around 2016, I have all skills of the Polish tree thoroughly golden. This is just an incredible feeling, even though I would have loved even more to find a chest of Lingots, or a special learning exercise hidden behind the owl ;)
I have used many sources for practicing Polish, movies, Polish music I translated, Polish natives who got bombarded with my cranky style of writing, talking to natives (and myself, lol) and I improved a lot since I started. One thing that never left me though was practicing with Duolingo, even if I did not manage to do it every day, sometimes I let it slide for a few days, but I always returned, it became a real habit I missed when I did not get my daily dose :)
A special thanks to everyone who answered my numerous newb questions, and an even more special thanks to you, Jellei! I cannot fathom how much Karma points you must have accumulated by now, but I really always felt that you wanted us to get better, to help and spread the knowledge about your mother tongue! It is just crazy how someone in another country, which you never met, can have such an influence on a topic which has actually become a big part in my life now.
So, thanks again, and please, put my name up there :P :) <3
I finished the tree a while back during my Erasmus in Kraków (a city I recommend everyone to visit). Dziękuję bardzo, dobra robota! P.s. when is the tree 2.0 finally coming? Czekamy :P
- 624
Hi , I finished the Polish tree on Friday, far from fluent:( (byloby lepiej, gdybym mowil po polsku z moja zona...)
- 857
I've conquered the Polish skill tree!
First of all I want to thank Duolingo's team for their great work!
Also I thank Marek(Jellei) and other contributors of Polish course. I have a good time learning Polish with your help. I don't think that I have learnt Polish already but yesterday I listened to 18-minutes audiostory in Polish and uderstood everything without repetitions.
Thank you very much my dear friends!
finally! after a lot of work, I have finished all the levels in all the exercices in the polish tree. you may now add me to your list after 164 days of hard dayly work. the owl has been there for quite a while, but i really wanted to finish all: thanks for all support, and thanks for this great free app. I just read the post to the end and now I know that I could have claimed a place on the list quite a time ago.
I've completed the tree. Learning polish on Duolingo has been a great supplement to my studies. Thanks, Jellei, for all your help in every comment section and for all the improvements you've made to this course :)
Hi everyone! Who know when next update list owners golden owl? Thank for your answer.
Hi richard, none of the administrators is giving a look to this. I guess, they are going to change the whole system, feel quite frustrated myself. But for a free app, it was a good deal, so I am glad I did not pay, as I had intended too and do not complain too much.
I did it a few weeks ago AND today is my 200th day of my Polish Duolingo streak. I've learned a lot and I'm still learning every day. And I can see the improvements that I've made in the months thanks to the owl. :)
hey man learning polish as well wondering how you are finding it in terms of trying to talk to someone polish
Dzień dobry! I must admit that talking is still difficult. But when you visit the country and you can read things, and understand things more and more it gives you a feeling that you're doing well. I try my best on talking and actually more on writing. But my Polish friends admit that I still have a lot to learn. ;-)
I already finished the Polish tree but im not on there, Could you add me?
Congratulations, i can give you a lingot. Nobody is taking care of the list anymore, it is a pity, but that’s how it is. I’m glad I did not use the paying version, that would have made me feel frustrated. Have a good day.
Congratulations, since nobody else seems to bother, I do. You’ve done a good job.
Please add me to the list, I just got the Golden Owl. Next step is to keep all skills golden and shining. :D
How did you complete the tree with only 6066 xp? Not saying you haven't somehow but I was on at least 50k XP when I completed it
- 293
Just finished the golden tree in Polish, and I want to thank Jellei for his support. I can start reading Sienkiewicz in the original now!
- 554
I finally got my golden owl in Polish after more than a year of practicing on the course! big thanks to the contributors for making a great learning tool!
Congrats Iva. I did it half a year ago and still nothing. But your name is here with the comments so it is some kind of in the list. :)
What if someone is fluent in polish? Can't they just skim through the tree by doing the placement test and then skipping ahead to the last checkpoint?
I got the Golden Owl in the course a year ago. My username is blairecoucher.
- 162
I have finally finished the Polish tree! Although I don't know if this post keeps getting updated, but just in case
I finally finished the every skill to crown level 5 in the Polish tree!
I'm certain this has grammatical errors (I still feel like I have a lot to learn), but: Dziękuję, DuoLingo, za pomocy uczyć się języka polskiego!
- 293
I finished the Polish tree, all gold, and I proudly posted the result here a few months ago, but I still do not see myself on this list. Is there some special procedure that one has to use?
- 293
Jellei, could you please add me? I finished the Polish tree at level 5 some time ago, and I posted it here a couple of times as you can see, but nothing happened. I would like to appear in the Polish hall of fame before I die. Thank you!
