Customer Reviews

Polish, Basic: Learn to Speak and Understand Polish with Pimsleur Language Programs (Pimsleur Instant Conversation)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I purchased this item with basically no experience learning Polish. The CDs do a great job of bringing you up to speed in the language. The first lesson teaches you the basics and really helps you to understand how to pronounce the words. The first ten minutes of each lesson is a review of the previous lesson, so it's very difficult to forget something that happened in the previous lesson.

The great thing about them is that you can learn while you are doing other activities. The length of each lesson makes it perfect for taking in the car, on a run, or while working. This is very convenient.

Although I am very satisfied, I do have two minor complaints. The first is that you don't learn enough basic phrases in these 10 lessons. You certainly learn a lot, but you don't how to ask someone how they are doing, how to count to ten, how to ask someone's name, etc. My other complaint is that they cheat a little on the lesson lengths: they are really about 27-28 minutes instead of a half hour.

Overall, however this is a great deal. You get about 6 hours of lessons for less than $20. If you actively listen and respond to the lessons, you'll pick up some basic Polish in a week for sure.

Although very, very basic, slow and repetitive; this product has improved my use of Polish language. Having some knowledge of Polish, I should have started with the intermediate level.

Someone just starting to learn the language should find this program very helpfull. It is definitely worth the price.

I tried Rosetta Stone Polish 1 with NO sucess
Pimsleur is the BEST way to learn Polish
I used it for two months before traveling to Poland and did very well speaking and understanding the basics of this difficult language to learn.
Polish natives thought that I was REALLY FROM POLAND and not the USA
Thanks Pimsleur
I recommend you most highly and effective

Although very repetitive, these CDs make you memorize difficult polish phrases and words. Polish is definitely a very difficult language to learn, and this CD is very helpful.

For what they try to accomplish, these CD's are well-designed. After the series, you should be able to pronounce and speak many basic phrases and combine words you know to form sentences. This will certainly help you in your travels in Poland. However, if you intend to learn the Polish language (or any language), you will need more than these beginner audio tapes. But to start out, it is fun to listen to the conversations and get yourself speaking some Polish.

I am planning a trip to Poland, and bought this set of CD's to try to learn a few words and phrases. Trying to read the Polish words in books was very difficult... their letters don't always sound the way ours do! This method doesn't use visuals, only audio, and your own memory. It is surprisingly easy to learn to roll off sentences in Polish, and know just what you're saying. I highly recommend this product.

This item was a gift for my 17 year old nephew, who is of Polish extraction. He hopes to visit to Poland next summer. Apparently he is really excited by it and is enjoying the learning process.

In preparation of a one week trip to Poland in June with my town in France that is twinned with a Polish city, I am trying to learn a bit of basic Polish, as we will be staying with people who do not speak much English or French - plus it is more fun.

The Pimsleur Language Program is step by step, but pretty difficult, as you do not have any written support, which, at our ages (if you are over the age of 7) does really help. I am using it in conjunction with another method, Teach yourself beginner's Polish - plus the first two lessons of Rosetta Stone, which I was able to download, the following lessons are unfortunately blocked as I do not have the key, but this method is much too expensive for me.

So I would give this product 4 stars, not five, and would say that it is good for the ear, but very difficult to remember once you have stopped the computer or cd-player.

The Pimsleur Polish CDs are the absolute simplest way to learn to speak Polish HANDS DOWN. That's saying a lot, since Polish is one of the harder languages (harder than German for example). When I took several years of German in college, I learned all the correct grammar using a textbook; but you know what, I still couldn't speak much of anything, and now remember very little. When speaking, you simply don't have time to think about the correct gender, case, declension, etc. While you are thinking about such things, the other person is five sentences beyond you already!!! Speaking needs to be trained so that it is automatic, not based on thinking. Isn't being able to speak the language, usually the real reason you learn it? After all, when you are a kid, you don't learn grammar until you already know how to speak. Speak first, grammar later.

That's what you get with Pimsleur. A pure audio learning course, for someone with NO experience in the language whatsoever. When new words are introduced, they are introduced slowly . . . syllable by syllable . . . by native speakers. After the word is built and practiced, it is then spoken at full speed after that. Repetition is designed to make it automatic, so you don't have to think and you can build up speed.

Some critics here have pointed out that they repeat some basic phrases too often, but actually I think it is a tactic to give you a little break when learning some new phrase . . . and to distract you so you start to forget the new phrase, and then they can ask you the new phrase again to reinforce it. In some later lessons, some sentences seem too complicated and long, but I think the point is to get you to understand how to construct sentences. Conversation doesn't shift from man's perspective too often in the early lessons, mainly because the sentence structure is actually different from a woman's point of view (crazy Polish language!), and it would be too confusing otherwise (so this is actually a plus I think, not a negative).

NOTE: All the Polish CDs on Amazon by Pimsleur are, in fact, the same; you just get a different total number of lessons. You get 30 of them with Comprehensive I ( Polish, Comprehensive: Learn to Speak and Understand Polish with Pimsleur Language Programs ).

Quick & Simple ( Polish, Q&S: Learn to Speak and Understand Polish with Pimsleur Language Programs ), Basic ( Polish, Basic: Learn to Speak and Understand Polish with Pimsleur Language Programs (Simon & Schuster's Pimsleur) ), and Conversational ( Polish, Conversational: Learn to Speak and Understand Polish with Pimsleur Language Programs (Pimsleur Instant Conversation) ) are just the first 8, 10, and 16 lessons respectively of Comprehensive I.

If you know you really want to learn a lot of the language, just buy the Comprehensive I; however, if you are unsure, you can buy one of the smaller sets . . . good news is that if you do that and later decide on Comprehensive I, you can buy at a rebate that's included in the smaller set purchase.

No Comprehensive II yet (as of June 2011), but they will make it eventually if enough people buy Comprehensive I and pester the Pimsleur publishers via email about making it. Until then, supplement what you've learned with Michel Thomas Polish Beginning ( Michel Thomas Method' Polish For Beginners, 8-CD Program (Michel Thomas Series) ) & Advanced ( Michel Thomas Method Polish Advanced, 4-CD Program (Michel Thomas Series) ) and/or Rosetta Stone Polish ( Rosetta Stone Polish Level 1-3 Set ).

It is pretty good and stick to your mind. It helps to use another system to learn the write Polish.