Customer Reviews

Teach Yourself Polish Complete Course Package (Book + 2CDs) (Teach Yourself (McGraw-Hill))

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

 

 

This book is clearly written, and easy to understand. Instead of overwhelming you with huge amounts of grammar to MEMORIZE, it takes a more conversational approach, and explains cases and conjugations as they come up. The chapters are short enough and varying. If you haven't already noticed, there are few decent books on Polish. This is a beginner course, but I am pleased with it so far.

The problem with this CD & book combo is that it teaches you Polish as if you already know it - and know it very WELL. Polish is a language that many of us don't know at all - I mean, not even one word - and this CD moves right into it without those important first steps (slow pronunciation, breaking down the word little by little, explaining the meaning of the words, etc). When I'm learning a foreign language, I like the "Sesame Street" approach - you know- A-Pul - APPLE!) so that I get the pronunciation right and know what I'm saying. I would not go with this course. A better one would be Pimsleur Polish (the one with the 8 CD's and word booklet) because it's easy to follow and you don't need to stop and start your CD every two seconds to replay the section. Teach Yourself Polish only taught me how to pull my hair out in frustration. I say, skip it.

As a language instructor of English and French(MA in TESOL) I found this book to be problematic. There are not enough listening and vocabulary activities on the c.d. As a total novice in Polish I need a lot more chances to hear the pronunciation. Each chapter gives you a very brief dialogue and doesn't even review the pronunciations of the lists of new phrases and words from the book. Then, in the chapter review they include new words and phrases not yet introduced!! Hello? How can you review something not yet introduced? My fiancee is Polish and I will be going to live and work there next year. If anyone can recommend a decent polish workbook with grammar for beginners I would really love to hear about it!

This book is well laid out and easy to follow. However, I made a big mistake and ordered the version without the Audio Tapes. If you are beginning to learn Polish DONT FORGET THE TAPES!! Without the tapes, it's easy to become intimidated by the pronunciation, and then become disheartned, like I did..... :(

I bought this yesterday the local bookstore. The packaging on the outside reads "Includes Two 60-minute CDs". CD #1 contains 48 minutes of audio and CD #2 contains another 22 minutes. That comes out to 1 hour and 10 minutes...NOT the 2-hours proclaimed on the packaging! Very misleading.

On top of that, this book/CD set jumps into the language as if you know some of it already. Little discussion/explaination of the nuances of the Polish language. It jumps into dialogue immediately with very fast speakers (instead of slowly exploring the pronunciation in depth) and I missed several consonant sounds. The alphabet was glossed over so quickly that I had to hit "rewind" on the CD player every 10 seconds. Bad investment. I'm taking it back and hope I can exchange it for a better program!

Any way you look at it, to a complete novice, learning Polish is difficult. The book seems fairly well-laid out, but there is just not enough Polish on the cds to be helpful. Each lesson is approximately four minutes long. The dialogue goes by too fast to be comprehended and it seems that there is more English on them than Polish. That is annoying when I have to keep replaying the lessons.

Polish is most definately not the easiest language to learn, but this book is a great aid in learning the basics, and beyond.
It starts with helping you throung the pronunciation of polish letters like cz, dz, cd, sz, rz, etc. Sometimes this might bring you close to despair, but once you get the hang of it, the rest of the book only becomes that much easier.

I couldn't wish for a better book, that makes it possible for me to learn polish at my own pace.

Apparently, when coming out with the new edition, the publisher spent the money to redesign the graphics of the book, but transferred the taped material to CD, without going through the very simple step of cleaning up the audio. The result is CDs that contain loud, annoying tape hiss. What a stupid move.

Teach Yourself has been revising its language books lately, and the improvements have been remarkable. You are now given practical vocabulary and dialogues with which to learn the language, and the series is especially good for tourists or business persons intending to visit the countries where the language is spoken.

Truth be told, however, Polish can be intimidating at first with its unique orthography and pronunciation. The first unit of Teach Yourself Polish will definitely be a challenge unless you've had some Polish before. But, if you're patient, what seems insurmountable at first will eventually become second nature.

The grammar notes are excellent, introducing points in a logical and consistent fashion. Certain points are introduced early and developed more thoroughly later. However, it is sometimes difficult to locate a point that was covered early in the text without thumbing page-by-page through the book since it contains NO index. If you order this book, you should try to obtain the version containing cassettes. Though they are fairly Spartan (presenting, as it were, only half the dialogues covered in the text), they are helpful for pronunciation and intonation.

By the way, this book contains twenty units, not eighteen, as the editorial review indicates.

Moved way too fast for me. The first lesson starts out w/ the Polish alphabet and immediately jumps into pronunciations. The CD does not walk you through each lesson the way a CD-ROM does, it only gives the correct pronunciation of the words. You'll have to read the book closer to be able to follow. Even when they speak, they speak too fast to hear them. I had to keep backing up the CD and replaying it. If you are a beginner and catch on super quick, this may work for you. But if you need more detailed instruction and build things slowly in your mind as you understand them, this would not be your item. Not a bad item but too fast for my taste.