Customer Reviews

Pimsleur Polish

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is definitely the way to start learning Polish on your own. Like all Pimsleur programs its expensive and is not geared towards building a large vocabulary but it is unsurpassed in helping you develop a good speaking proficiency and you will remember what you've learned for a longer period of time compared to other methods of instruction. Use this course as a starter and follow it up with Boleslaw Mazur's Colloquial Polish (with cassette accompaniment) to further develop your vocabulary, reading, and grammar skills.

If you've used Pimsleur tapes before the format will be familiar to you. Among other things you'll learn some key words (please, thank you, etc), how to ask for directions, and how to set up a lunch or dinner date. Its not much but you'll learn it well. Polish is full of awkward consonant combinations and none of the other courses is better than Pimsleur in helping you deal with these. This is only a 10-lesson course (about 30 minutes per lesson) which is far too brief. Hopefully the Pimsleur folks will put out a Comprehensive Program (30 lessons) for Polish as they have for other languages.

Do not purchase this program if you are going to Poland soon and just want to know a few key phrases for the trip. There is little provided in this regard and youll be better off with a travel-oriented phrasebook. If you already know some Russian you should also skip this one and start with Mazur. But if you are keen on developing a speaking proficiency that, with some follow-up work, will impress a Pole, this is the place to start.

I've bought 3 other audio courses on Polish... I wanted something I could use in the car while commuting. This should have been the first one! It is 100% audio. They teach you to speak and understand the way those skills should be taught. They repeat every phrase 3 times for the first 7 lessons. That means you never have to rewind the tape in order to get enough practice before moving on. They use "backwards build-up" to help you master longer sentences. They teach you proper word order by sticking with the same vocabulary and varying the sentence structure, for example, starting with a statement in the first person, then converting to a question in the third person, then converting it from a masculine to a feminine subject, then adding a direct object, then an adverb, then a prepositional phrase, and so on. This course will not teach you to read and it won't teach you formally about the noun conjugations and verb declensions. But it goes a long way toward getting you accustomed to the sounds/patterns of the language so that when you're ready to tackle the written language or want to expand your knowledge, you will have a comfort level that comes with a solid feeling for the language. My only complaint is that there doesn't seem to be a next level course.

Pimsleur's Polish 1 provides the student with a graduated series of Polish conversations. While the content is composed mostly of words and phrases useful to tourists and business travelers (and a lot of stuff that would be helpful for a guy trying to score a date in Poland!), the covert introduction to grammar is universally helpful. These lessons are convenient and enjoyable and can be listened to many times, always offering an opportunity for improvement. However, I don't prescribe to the pie-in-the-sky notion of purely inuitive, drill and memorization-free language learning. This is a great place to start, but the next step should be a more grammer intensive program.

Paul Pimsleur provides an excellent template for learning Polish in 10 lessons. You will be able to easily carry on conversations with natives and because of the Pimsleur language system , you will be confident in developing and expanding your vocabulary. The Pimsleur system uses backwards buildup and recognition by repetion to reinforce each lesson. I have used the Pimsleur system to learn Spainish, French and Polish and have become very comfortable in using these languages and this remarkable system.

I learned a lot over the past 2 months of commuting to work with these cassettes playing as I drove.

I studied on my own out of books, books with cassettes, went to a class and got grammer instruction. But all that knowledge of how to spell, how to construct grammatically correct sentences did not get me TALKING. For me at least, written and printed Polish was easier, spoken Polish had me lost for lack of practice in using it.

Pimsleur's method teaches pronunciation and gets you talking to the point where you can respond in confidence because you pronounce correctly, and your ear is trained to the spoken language rythym so that you can understand what is said to you and remember the Polish to use in your response. Those who have experience know how fast Polish-speakers can talk and so this tape will help train you to listen, comprehend, and respond at conversational speeds. My only regret is that there is no further Pimsleur tapes of Polish after this one. If there were, I would gladly buy it.

Beginners should get this tape set and should get a good beginner's book - my favorite pick would be: Teach Yourself Polish, by M. Corbridge.

Pimsleur has quite a unique method of teaching. This method has really worked for me so far. I still wish there was a book with the conversations written down, also not available on CD only tape. Still an excellent buy!

I am now well into the program and feel this is helping build basic grammar and syntax at least as fast as one on one tutoring. I recommend this program to anyone wishing to learn or improve their Polish, and I hear it is equally effective for other languages.

Good basic CD's, to give you some rudimentary vocabulary, basic pronunciation, and some common phrases / short sentences. Pretty well done, at an easy-to-follow pace. The only thing that frustated me personally was the lack of a written accompaniment, showing the written version of all the words & sentences you are learning on the cd's, preferably with phonetic spelling also, as many language courses have. Unfortunately, there is NO written material with this program at all, except a small booklet that has some written words that go along with some brief pronunciation sections on the cd's.

I was really impressed by the thoroughness of these beginner's level cassettes. I used the phrases I had learned in Krakow on a recent visit and, even though I had mastered only a few sentences, I found I could speak well enough to cab drivers to get me where I wanted to go.

Pimsleur Polish's unorthodox method of teaching the language (without a manual, purely listening and repeating after the speaker) proved to be very effective. Although I have only completed a few lessons so far, I feel confident in using the skills that I HAVE acquired and would highly recommend this product.