Product Description
This imaginative, comprehensive course, designed for both individual and classroom use, assumes no previous knowledge of the language. Everyday situations and local customs are explored through dialogues, newspaper extracts, drawings and photographs. The book also includes a Polish-English glossary, an exercise key, and two accompanying CDs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Disappointment
This book/CD set didn't help me at all. I listened to this several times and followed along with the book, but didn't learn anything. The only thing this program consists of is listening to conversations in Polish and reading along in the book. Nothing is explained in the book, it's just chunks of dialog. It wasn't hands on at all and was actually quite dry.

I'm a hands on learner, though, so those who learn from being read to in a foreign language, have at it!

Not a good choice at all
This book is a bad bad investment. It has many drawbacks:
1.- Every lesson begins with a dialog that has no connection at all with the explanations inside the lesson.
2.- Dialogs are full of past tense, cases and many complicated forms that are not explained at all.
3.- Grammar is faulty and very short, with just a few (2 to 3) examples.
4.- Recordings are at very low speed, not good for learning.

Good grammar guide
This book is handy because it covers grammar principals at the basic conversational level and includes English translations.

Not for idiots
I'm trying to learn Polish, the language of my ancestors, and I was immediately drawn to this book (which comes with two audio CD's) because the conversations are not just about shopping, dining, arranging transportation and checking into hotels. Instead, there is a much more interesting range of scenarios, including visits to a forest preserve, a concert, a university, a relative's garden, an art gallery, an author's reading and more. Albert Juszczak has created a basic language course that has one discussing the science fiction of Stanislaw Lem and pianist Garrick Ohlsson's mastery of Chopin. The grammar exercises are equally high-minded and engagingly accessible. Generally in language instruction, I find I am bored by the lesson content while trying to grasp the linguistic form, but that is not the case here. Bravo, Dr. Juszczak!

An interesting grammar
Doctor Juszczak produced a good grammar with some very thoughtful and entertaining practice conversations. The vocabulary is much of what you would have in other languages' grammars, i.e., the words for airplane, passport, etc. What sets this book apart is the vocabulary of ordinary people meeting and chatting with each other about all sorts of everyday things from doorknobs to tomatoes to ambulances. For a grammar of its size and breadth, it covers a lot of ground. I used it as Doctor's student and commented in our evaluation at course end on a few missed points of grammar, the lack of tables explaining a little more of the special ways Polish verbs are conjugated and the ways nouns, pronouns and adjectives are declined. This is not meant to be a very deeply technical grammar. It's good and interesting and just nicely different from grammars I'm used to from other languages I have been able to study. (The cassette tape which is also available is a nice thing to have.) For the price, it's certainly worth having. Other grammars can get down to the nitty gritty. This one is a good people kind of grammar. ... Read more

Product Description
A new fully-bilingual Polish-English dictionary, especially designed for Polish speakers who are learning English. It contains over 55,000 words and phrases and is the perfect portable dictionary for use in college, at work and in daily life.* headwords printed in blue, so that it is always easy to find the word you are looking for* the new words and meanings that you really need (e.g. webcam, cellphone, skateboard) so that your English is complete and up-to-date* the top 2000 words in English are marked so that you know the most important ones to learn* notes on common mistakes and false friends between English and Polish* 16 full-page pictures to show vocabulary in a visual way* Appendices including a 28-page mini grammar of English. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

One-way bilingual dictionary
Impeccable printing and binding, but the dictionary can only be a disappointment for English speakers wishing to use it to work in Polish. The book targets only Polish speakers seeking to work in English. For the Polish user, there is a 75-page supplement at the end treating English grammar, English correspondence, English geographical names, English-Polish false friends, etc. For the English user, there is nothing of the kind. While the individual entries in the Polish-English section do give some indications of usage, there are no means offered to verify a verb form, check a declension case, etc. The somewhat smaller Langenscheidt Pocket Dictionary Polish is far superior. Though it offers a smaller vocabulary - 50,000 references against the 55,000 of the Cambridge dictionary - it offers grammatical help for both English and Polish users, providing the English user with helpful declension and conjugation tables, something totally absent in the larger dictionary. In addition, I found the vocabulary of the Langenscheidt dictionary more useful than that of the Cambridge dictionary. ... Read more

Product Description
This new edition of the best-selling Polish course for beginners has been completely rewritten to make learning the language easier and more enjoyable than before. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Language learning for intelligent people, not for Pavlov's dog
This book is light-years better than many of the so-called conversational methods around, such as Pimsleur -- which repeats so often and goes so slowly that one loses all interest -- and unlike those books, it actually teaches grammar, but in a logical order.I have no idea what "Hello Kitty" reviewer could possibly be criticizing: how can one learn a language without learning grammar?(I am a language teacher myself and have taught myself several languages with textbooks.Good language students want to learn grammar!)If one wants actually to understand what one is learning, so that one can freely produce the language oneself rather than mechanically repeating phrases, this is the way to go.It is indeed a book for beginners, but beginners who think, not parrots (which is what many other language tapes are designed for).

Quite hard. Not really a beginner's book.
I have taken 3 non-credit Polish language courses and found this book to be quite hard. It starts out teaching a lot of grammar rules, like how to change the endings on verbs, rather than starting with easy words to learn. Each chapter includes a couple short dialogues (only the 1st 8 chapters includes an English translation of them) and then lists some words to learn. Since it is so difficult, and throws you into sentence structure a real Polish person would use, you can pick up a few things but you cannot expect to just read through a chapter and understand everything. I think this book is much too hard for someone who knows no Polish or for someone just traveling to Poland for business/pleasure, even though the book jacket says it was written with these people in mind. It is more of an intermediate college-level course. I do love its word lists in the back, though. It has Polish words with quick English meanings and vice versa. It may be worth the price just for these word lists (I love memorizing new words!).

A Good Choice to ADD to Your Books on Polish
In short, I have used 3 books in the Routledge series (Polish, Slovak, and Czech) and they are all fairly good - not great.A four star choice for $30.

The Polish book was a very helpful beginning for me with the language.For less time and money than it takes to drive to one college class, you can learn a great deal.

Many people, including me, find that Routledge does not organize these books particularly well.e.g. The index is so-so and does not provide page references - only chapter references; however the chapter numbers are not printed on each page, so it becomes a bit of a treasure hunt each time one wishes to find a topic e.g. superlatives, perfect tense.

A confusing way to learn a language
This book is ok if you're a tourist wanting to learn some quick phrases or if you have a prior knowledge of the polish language, but if you actually want to learn and understand the language then this book is not for you. It starts off with a dialogue, but they don't tell you the meaning of any of the words. It tells you a phrase and has it's english equivalent, it may be used the same way but if you look up the words in a dictionary, not a single word is the same as in the english equivalent. I like to be told what it really means. Plus the layout of the book is confusing and takes some getting used to. Overall this book was not worth the money.

totally awesome
I've been learning Polish for almost two years, but most of the courses I've gone through have been keeping the vocabulary and grammar below the intermediate level and not going beyond that point.Of all the courses I've gotten so far, this is the absolute best.It keeps the language at a level of simplicity that almost everybody who uses it will be able to understand.If you have a sufficient knowledge of how Polish pronunciation works, you might be able to use just the book only.If you don't know the sounds of Polish or are unsure about certain sounds, I'd recommend getting the cassettes that accompany the textbook.(I already had some cassettes for Polish when I bought this course, and I also have a Polish friend who helps me with speaking the language, so I didn't buy the cassettes and can't tell you about their content.)The pronunciation, though at times difficult to enunciate clearly and often frustrating to those who aren't used to the frequent combinations of consonants, is mercifully straightforward and has few exceptions.Once you know how Polish pronunciation works, you can read Polish right off a page.The books details the common exceptions (very few words are read differently than they're spelt orthographically.One tense has a switch of stress, from the penultimate to the antepenultimate), and the grammar is explained clearly.It speaks from a "native-English" point of view so that all native speakers of English can relate the information through the idioms and logic they naturally use.Overall, this is the best book you can buy for learning how to both write and speak Polish.Speaking what you read or hear is the absolute best way to keep your knowledge fresh in your memory. Langenscheidt offers an awesome dictionary which can be used to further your Polish after completing the course.With this dictionary and the course, you should be able to converse with Poles is a short time. ... Read more

Product Description
Defines approximately 30,000 words and phrases used in English and Polish. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Content seems fine, but binding disintegrated.
I have owned this dictionary for years, and it seems to meet my needs.My only complaint is that the binding on the hardcover edition disintegrated to an extent I've never seen before in any book.I'm very kind to my books, but the spine split on this one not long after buying it.And even where the spine isn't split, pages are falling out.

I'd like to buy another copy to replace the one that's fallen apart, and I would if I knew it would hold together better than the first did.

Great book for English speakers
I've went through many English Polish dictionaries and this is the most comprehensive one I've found to date. In most others I have trouble finding the Polish word to translate it back to English. This book seems more well thought out because I find all the words I am looking for, and have used this book for years. I am buying a second one so I can have it handy in the office as well! ... Read more

Product Description

Fast, focused lessons for when you need to learn the essentials of Polish today

When traveling to a foreign country, you aren't looking to become fluent in the native tongue--you just need to learn enough to get by. Teach YourselfOne-Day Polish suppliesyou with 50 key words and a handful of essential phrasesand is today’s most effective, no-nonsense crash course.

The entertaining and remarkably informative 75-minute CD provides you with real-time instruction as author Elisabeth Smith teaches language essentials to a fellow airline passenger, while the eight-page booklet outlines key words and phrases from the CD in written form.

Includes one 75-minute audio CD

Customer Reviews (3)

Dziekuje, Elisabeth!
Plan for a bit more than a day, I am still listening after a week in Poland. It has been a lifesaver, though. Very good basic stuff, will help you get by.
Only suggestion for improving it would be phonetic spelling along with the translation in the accompanying booklet.

Good for tourists.
It's entertaining and has lots of useful words and phrases for tourists. And I love the British accent of the actors. :) Although some of the pronunciation is questionable and there is very little grammar introduced (and Polish has very complex grammar). I already know some basic Polish and this CD leaves me not very satisfied. Although I did learn a few words from it.

A Very Good Buy - but not one-day!
I must admit I rather pooh-poohed this item when I went into the bookshop to buy a Polish CD course, and I opted for the full 'Teach Yourself Polish', which I then found much too difficult, too fast (check out the reviews for this course). So I went back to the bookshop and bought 'One-Day Polish'.

And I am so glad I did!

Ignore the 'one-day' bit, of course, but within a week together with my iPod, I was most satisfyingly grounded in 'meeting and greeting', 'finding my way around', 'buying things' and 'going to a restaurant' - I had learnt 50+ words and a number of sentences - 'wietnie!' - 'Brilliant!'; maybe not completely grammatical - as 'Magda' on the disk says - "The grammar's not completely right but you're communicating!" At least I felt I was progressing.

I think that this was an excellent, fun little course to get me started. It would be nice, however, if more use could have been made of CD technology, by allowing the listener to 'go back' to certain points straightaway without 're-winding' which is never accurate, thus avoiding all the English bits, which, after you've heard them several times, you don't really need again.

But overall I am very happy with my purchase (I can't say the same about 'Teach Yourself Polish' which I have now gone back to!) - it would be fantastic if Elisabeth Smith could produce similar courses, each one level slightly higher. That would be great. 'wietnie!'

... Read more

Product Description

With Teach Yourself Polish Complete Course, you can learn this language from the comfort of your own home, at your own pace. It introduces you to practical themes, such as making travel arrangements, meeting someone new, shopping, and other every day activities.

The two audio CDs feature native speakers so you can hear how everyday people speak Polish.

Customer Reviews (17)

You will need more than one book, but include this one.
One is not going to learn Polish best with any one book.However, the approach used by Nigel Gotteri and Joanna Michalak-Gray is very good in my opinion.I have an earlier copy of this book (1997), but I assume it is still the same one.(I don't have any CDs.)They start with simple conversations at the airport, using important words you will get the maximum usage from.They don't overpower you with needless details, but do explain when the word takes a different form from the one found in your dictionary.(You need a dictionary for learning any language.)Every word in the conversation is defined.I am only making this review because I think this book deserves more stars than it has received.I have lived and worked in Poland, and this is one of the few of my, maybe two dozen Polish books, that I bothered to take along with me.Polish is a great and beautiful language.Good luck in your studies.

P.S. If you can also afford the Pimsleur CDs, they are very good too.

Terrible
This was a terrible waste of money.My wife and I are moving to Poland in 6 months and wanted to begin learning Polish so that we can get around Warsaw without much help and to be able to communicate effectively.This CD and book set was practically useless for beginning language students.After 3 weeks with the CDs we are still on Lesson 1 and cannot understand half of what is said.The book as a great deal of information that is not even included on the CDs.No phonetic pronunciation guides are included in the book so new vocabulary that is introduced is a guessing game as to how you should pronounce it.A native Polish speaker that I know looked at the book yesterday and told me that there are incorrect sentences and slang introduced in the book as "correct grammer" and that we should not use this series to help us to transition to life in Poland.I would not recommend this set to anyone.

It's OK but...
I think this course has some good features - it teaches you some useful phrases, without too much attention to the grammatical reasons behind them, eg., so if you wanted to just get out and have a go, you'd have something to work with. But my complaint is the same - if you want to start to understand, learn and apply rules, the grammar is spread all over the place, and only part of it - the 'easier' bits - seems to be included in the book at all. It does a bit of the accusative, eg., but not the more complicated aspects, and nowhere does it bring all the rules applying to any case together in one place, so you're left guessing a bit what the rules might be (eg. instrumental). If you wanted a phrase book, you'd buy a phrase book. You can learn some vocab, of course, but it's hard to apply it more broadly without the knowledge of the grammar to do so. The CDs are useful as far as they go, but they're not great. It's OK, but I'd expect more for the price.

Teach Yourself Polish Complete Course
THEY NEVER ARRIVED....I HAVE TRIED TO TRACK THEM DOWN THROUGH THE USPS.
please help.... i need these tapes !!!!! PLEASE HELP.

Terrible AND a RipOff
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! ... Read more

Product Description
This new edition of the best-selling Polish beginners course has been completely up-dated. Pack includes book and cassettes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

well-written but poorly planned
This is a lucid and well-written language book, that delves quickly into realistic and colloquial conversation. Descriptions of grammar rules and usages are thorough, and descriptions of the typical "patterns" of noun & verb endings may spare the learner from too much rote memorization.

The problem with this book, and it's a substantial problem, is that it is not at all suitable for beginners- at least not by itself. New grammatical structures are unnecessarily introduced in the context of new vocabulary. Instead of learning in baby steps, you are expected to learn several new things simultaneously. Many new words are never again seen in subsequent chapters, and this book puts far too much emphasis upfront on the exceptions rather than the rules. I'm amused at how often the book plays "gotcha" with the brief exercises by highlighting exceptions as often as rules; sometimes these exceptions aren't even introduced in the text.

If you are a very disciplined student and have other resources available, it's possible to get through this. In my case, I skimmed through each chapter, and memorized all the new words before even attempting the exercises. But, as the exercises are terse and focus too much on exceptions, it's possible to master a chapter and still not be able to readily construct even the most basic sentences in Polish. You need other resources- either a workbook, a teacher, or some practice via reading Polish children's books.

The accompanying audio cassettes are practical, in terms of learning to listen to full-speed Polish, but I'd argue that for most learners (myself included), it's far more effective in the long run to start slow and steadily build up to speed.

If you already know Polish and are looking for a compact but nuanced, tedium-free review, this book is actually pretty good. Unfortunately, it completely misses the mark as a "complete course for beginners."

Well, for a good part, this is worth your money.
Colloquial Polish is a satisfactorily written book that comes with a pair of cd's and cassettes. But all you need to are the cd's. Too bad you end up paying for the cassettes too.

Anyways, I'm on lesson 17 now and I feel that I've made some sort of accomplishment and beofore long I will have finished the whole book. This isn't particularly a major problem, but my learning hasn't been fully smooth and trouble-free for reasons that are because of the book and the language itself. I'll tell you about my problems with the language and the book.

The book isn't too bad. But the reason I say it is only satisfactorily written is because there is a considerably serious problem with it. Just one. In Polish, it is necessary to learn both the imperfective and perfective verbs. (However, a minority of verbs exist in only an imperfective form.) For example, 'do' is robiæ(imperfective) and zrobiæ(perfective).

With the imperfective, you can say the following:
I do(present tense)
I was doing(imperfective past tense)
I will be doing(imperfective future tense)

And with the perfective form you can say the following:
I will do(future perfective tense)
I did(perfective past tense)

The author thinks that perfective verbs aren't too important and (finally) introduces them in lesson 13. And the reason why I was somewhat pissed was because imperfective and perfective verbs, with the execptions of common yet relatively few in number of irregular verbs (I hope) share the same conjugation rules after all! By lesson 13, you will have learned several imperfective verbs, but guess what? You encounter very few perfective ones. And what's more, there are some verbs that are completely different from each other like: mówiæ(imperfective) and powiedzieæ(perfective) which mean speak. These two do not look or sound similar to me and there are more that are like that. If you want this book, I'd advise you to look up in the glossary or a Polish-English dictionary for the perfective counterpart of any imperfective verbs you learn until lesson 13. Don't worry too much about the conjugations. They show you the conjugations of irregular verbs at the back of the book or you can go tohttp://www.logosconjugator.org/newverb/verba_dba.verba_main.create_lang_page?lang=PL&total_verb=1156

And also, they did not bother to record everything and the total length of recorded material comes to about 1 hour and forty something minutes. I'm not complaining about that because it only turns out to be something less than 2 hours but because not everything is recorded. These are: one reading lesson, and three brief letters which they should've recorded anyway. Why oh why? And unfortunately, there is a 'Recipe for Potato Pancakes'. Why did they even put that in? They offer no vocabulary assistance and give only a translation. When I speak a language, I want to know and understand exactly what I'm saying. It's like listening carefully to a song in another language but not understanding it but they teach you to say it and tell you whats it means only.

In Polish, you'll have to know that adjectives and nouns always have to come in a case. There are seven in all. Although they will take a little time to learn, they will not prevent you from learning the language.(There are five genders in existance for this language, but thankfully, they it seem like there are only the usual three:masculine, feminine, and neuter.) But you will learn the five genders.

And what I find worst are the sounds. There is nothing that could annoy you more than not being able to pronounce the language correctly. In Polish, several consonants have a 'soft' pronunciation and a 'hard' one. Soft and hard ones are considered different but as a native speaker of English in the US, I cannot understand or hear the difference in the 'b' sound between 'bank'(this loanword in Polish uses the hard sound) while the 'b' in 'bilet'is soft. I got a dictionary for the heck of it, and it even uses different symbols in the phonetics to show pronunciation between hard and soft. The book explains it briefly followed by examples, but I still just don't get it. Also, I don't understand the difference in sound between the letters '' and '¯' as they sound the same to me. I wonder what I will do...to correct my pronunciation...sigh.

Anyways, you'll make it through with this book, but I think the sounds is what's really bad. it's not that they don't show you, its just that I can't understand these differences.

Good for those who know some polish
I grew up in a Polish speaking family and have taken lessons. I think without that this book would quickly leave me behind. There is some tendency to make things a little more difficult than they could be by adding extra words in greetings. I bought this book for review and to help me retain what I learned, and I think it serves this purpose. Really a good buy with book, tapes plus CD.

A practical guide for new adult learners of Polish
B.W. Mazurs colloqial POLISH provides good practical examples for adults trying to learn Polish for the first time. I have tried several other books which have also been quite good however some are a little short on detailedexamples. This book seems to me to suceed better than some because multipleexamples are often used. I found the practice section examples at the endof each lesson to be well chosen. ... Read more

Product Description

Teach Yourself takes the pain out of picking up a new language

Teach Yourself Beginner's Polish requires no prior experience in the language and gives you the opportunity to study at a reasonable, steady pace. This course makes the process nearly painless--it is written in a friendly and supportive tone, and the structure offers you plenty of opportunities for self-practice. You are in control of your learning experience, so you never feel overwhelmed or rushed.

This practical course introduces the new language without inundating you and includes dialogues and exercises, a helpful pronunciation section, manageable lists of practical vocabulary, a glossary of grammar terms, and more.

Customer Reviews (1)

FANTASTIC book set
This book set was delivered quicker than expected and in FANTASTIC condition! I am completely satisfied with this set and with the publisher: Teach Yourself because I am understanding and learning the language. I, most definetly, recommend this book for everyone desiring to learn Polish. You will most likely not be disappointed. I was not! ... Read more

Product Description
Mr. Schenker now supplements his "Beginning Polish" with a selection of fifteen unabridged, annotated short stories, each by a different author, to be used in beginning and intermediate college courses in Polish. All of the stories are set in contemporary Poland, and are by authors generally considered to be among the most significant and interesting in post-World War II Poland. Each selection is preceded by an English-language biography and literary appreciation of the author. Problems that might be encountered by the reader-whether of a linguistic or cultural nature-are explained in footnotes, and a glossary at the end of the book contains all of the words occuring in the stories. There is no other reader dealing exclusively with twentieth-century Polish prose. "This collection of modern (post-war) Polish short stories representing fifteen authors, may be used, as the author suggests in the introduction, as a companion volume to his "Beginning Polish", and is intended for the use of first and second year students of the Polish language."-Slavonic and East European Review ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Interesting stories for Intermediate plus Polish Learners
These 15 short stories are in the Polish language. They are appropriate for those with an intermediate(or higher)level of Polish. Footnotes and a glossary provide English translations. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
The much-anticipated Pocket Oxford-PWN Polish Dictionary brings together the authority and expertise of two of the world's major reference publishers, in a compact and affordable format.
With more than 80,000 words and phrases, and over 120,000 translations, here is all the vocabulary readers need for day-to-day use, presented in a very easy-to-use format, with thousands of clear examples to help to choose the right word in the right context. For example, if readers wish to translate the word "firm," this dictionary will help them differentiate between "a firm handshake," "a firm mattress," and "a firm date." With Polish material taken from the PWN Corpus of Polish, a huge databank of real Polish, and English language material derived from the Oxford English Corpus, a multi-million word databank of real English, this dictionary is clearly the most authoritative on the market.Moreover, the dictionary has been checked throughout by Polish and English native speakers, to ensure that the information given is more accurate and up to date than in any comparable dictionary.
A conveniently sized paperback that is both portable and accessible, the new Pocket Oxford-PWN Polish Dictionary is a great resource for everyone from the lover of Polish culture to the beginning or intermediate language student. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

It's OK..but missing a lot
This is a good dictionary overall but I found that it was missing many words especially when it came down to names of animals, trees, etc. If you are an advanced Polish speaker and need a dictionary to find very specific word translations that are not used commonly this would not be the ideal dictionary for you.

The Best Dictionary for Polish Learners, Hands Down
This is without a doubt the best affordable dictionary for Polish learners. The two most comprehensive and accurate Polish-English dictionaries out there are the Kosciuszko and the Oxford-PWN, but the full versions of those (both 2-volume monsters) are crazily expensive. Luckily, this dictionary by Oxford-PWN is much, much cheaper and still very comprehensive for all but the most advanced study. It has nearly 10x more words than the Pogonowski and more accurate translations as well. A lot of the other Polish-English dictionaries are from foreign language companies and are better when translating into their own native tongues (i.e. German-Polish for Langenscheidt, French-Polish for Larousse). But if you need precision in Polish-English, then this is the way to go. Just be warned: at over 1,000 pages it is hardly a "pocket" dictionary and may be a bit tough to carry regularly to class. ... Read more

Product Description
Now learning a foreign language can be enjoyable as well as challenging, and not require a trip back to the classroom. Available in both book-only or book-and-cassette format, these Three-Month Language Courses are outstanding self-study programs designed for the individual seeking to acquire a good working knowledge of a language in a short amount of time. Devoting just over an hour daily to the course, the program provides grammar lessons, contextual conversion drills, relevant word lists, and graded exercises, giving you an immediate and practical grasp of the language. In addition, pronunciation is made easy with Hugo's unique "imitated pronunciation" system, which represents foreign sounds with English syllables. Whether you are a businessman tackling an international account, a student preparing for an adventurous holiday, or simply a lover of new languages, the Three-Month Language Course makes learning easy, satisfying, and more fun than ever before. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Scatterbrained
I've been searching a long time for a book that could effectively teach both pronunciation and grammar, and this still isn't it.

On the one hand, the tapes are very effective for getting the sound of the words 'in your ear,' and you find that you can soon say 'krzyczysz' without stuttering. : )The book is also helpful for verbs, although it does run through them very quickly.

On the other hand, the British way (I assume) of handling the declining of nouns (and pronouns and adjectives, etc. for that matter) is very disorienting in the way it teaches a seventh of single noun at a time.It would be a lot easier if they would explain all seven cases right at the beginning instead of 'all right, this month you'll learn 'I...' , next month you'll learn '...like...', and the month after that: '...chicken.' What's the use of learning 'he' when you don't learn 'him'?This makes learning a single word excruciatingly frustrating, impeding memorization, while easily making errors.

On the whole, though, I'd say it is worthwhile as a starting point for getting a sense of the layout of the language.

Limited Usefulness - not an audio course despite the tapes
I was very disappointed in this course. I bought the course because it had both a book and an audio component. AUDIO: The tapes start off with an excellent section on pronunciation, but soon they're just saying unrelated sentences without any translation. The tapes are completely unsuited for use without the book. There are several long conversations that are useful for practice in listening, but they are not really intended to help you speak better. The narrator's British accent and idioms are very distracting for an American, not to mention that she starts each lesson with a condescending lecture. That approach will not go down well with Americans, either. The BOOK: The book is fairly good for initially learning the grammar, although it gets terribly bogged down very early on with learning the numbers. Each chapter has written exercises which were helpful. The book is not good as a reference due to the weak index and the fact that topics such as prepositions are sprinkled throughout the book.

Good Book (from the cover)
it seems a very good book if you want to learn polhish quickly... Niceilustrations... ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

Great Overall
On the whole, this is an excellent dictionary.Lots of entries with multiple definitions.I've found pretty much everything I've looked for in this little dictionary.It includes an IPA pronunciation key for all words.Since for the most part Polish is phonetic, this isn't necessary per se, but for a beginning student like myself it's a great feature.It also includes grammatical gender and irregular plural form, if applicable.

I do have one minor complaint, namely that the Polish prepositions do not indicate the case (declension) of the noun that follows.My Langenscheidt Russian dictionary has that info and it's immensely useful.If you don't know your Polish case endings by heart, you might have to dig through a grammar book to find the info you need.Still, I suppose I might be expecting too much of a pocket dictionary like this one.

The printing is basic black-and-white, but it's perfectly adequate and the binding is good.And at a penny plus shipping for a clean used copy, it can't be beat. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

A great explanation of grammar!
This textbook is perhaps one of the best due to it's handling of the grammar of the Polish language. As anyone who has tried to learn Polish can tell you, Polish has a high degree of variance in the inflection and tense systems of the nouns and verbs. Thus you either need to do a lot of memorization of noun and verb forms (like in Spoken World: Polish), or you have a ton of grammar to learn. This book doesn't fully explain every single grammar variance, but it does give quite a lot. For more see: Intermediate Polish or Grammar of Contemporary Polish, both by O. Swan.

All in all this is a great introduction to the grammar of the Polish language. Some have stated that the book is outdated. It might be due to it's drills and such, but the language is not outdated really. And the text is set up in your typical language textbook fashion. It has either a few short dialogues or a reading text (sometimes both), and then vocabulary and grammar explanations. It then gives a set of drills and exercises. The only downsides are hard to find audio tapes (which can be found, but not easily, though they are still in print) and no answer key for the exercises.

Useful and simple.
It's hard to find good materials for teaching Polish. This book has the advantage of being simple, clear, and inexpensive. The method of teaching is traditional. It will give you a good foundation in grammar.

Not too bad
This book is outdated and it uses an old style of language teaching.However, it is a good book to start learning Polish.The vocabulary and the expressions used throughout the book are very useful, and in no time you will be able to say many things in Polish.
The exercises can be repetitive and sometimes boring, but they do help you reaffirm the grammar you have learnt in each lesson.

If you are looking for a more up-to-date version of this book, it is available online and free of charge.You can also purchase an audio CD for the online version this book.

The updated version is available FREE online.
I had the pleasure of studying under Dr. Swan, the author of this book.He has a new version of this book for every single semester of classes, but they aren't officially published versions.He used to have the print center make course guides, but now (for the first year book) he has put the book online at http://polish.slavic.pitt.edu/.It's always his most up-to-date version.Also, instead of doing the drills at the end of the chapter on paper, he has a free computer program called Lektorek.It tells you when you are wrong so that you don't learn something incorrectly.It's sort of buggy sometimes, but for the most part it's much easier to learn Polish with this program.Another advantage to the online version of the book is that you can click on the drills that you'll have to do in the Lektorek, and it will pronounce it for you.The conversations border on the surreal, but all in all, I did learn a lot from the Lektorek and online pronounciation.

First Year Polish
This was a very useful book for learning Polish. I lived in Poland for a year and a half. This book was one of the things that helped me become fairly fluent in this hard language. I also reccomend the the Intermidiate Polish by Swan. ... Read more

Product Description
BERLITZ POLISH IN 60 MINUTES

Start speaking Polish in just one hour!


Get a quick start to learning basic everyday Polish words with an all-audio course including more than 250 essential words and phrases needed to start communicating no textbook needed and no grammar rules to learn! Repetition helps learners retain what they ve heard and a 16-page booklet with audio script is provided for those who want to follow along as they listen.


Start Speaking Today:

*1 audio CD (1 hour)

*Completely portable--compatible with your iPod® or other MP3 player

*Learn by listening to native speakers

*Essential everyday language

*Reference booklet included
... Read more

Product Description
The Oxford-PWN Polish-English English-Polish Dictionary is a unique collaboration between Oxford University Press and Polish Scientific Publishers PWN. In two beautifully presented volumes consisting of 400,000 words and phrases, and 600,000 translations, it offers up-to-date coverage of today's language, including business, specialist and technical vocabulary, and detailed coverage of idioms, slang, and formal language. It includes thousands of example sentences, based on actual English and Polish usage, which show how the language works in context. With Polish material taken from the PWN Corpus of Polish, a huge databank of real Polish, and English language material derived from the Oxford English Corpus, a multi-million word databank of real English, this dictionary brings together the authority and expertise of two of the world's major reference publishers.The result is the most comprehensive English and Polish dictionary available; suitable for university level and beyond, and essential for anyone working between English and Polish. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Superb
I was very pleased with this purchase. Though ordered just before Christmas, I received delivery the second week of January as promised.

Essential Reference Tool
In conjunction with a family genealogical project in Poland and a desire to acquire a "working knowledge" of Polish, I have been taking Polish language courses for approximately three years.No one even remotely familiar with this language will disagree that Polish is a very rich - and consequently quite difficult - language to master.While there are numerous grammar books and basic dictionaries that provide adequate direction, I continually consult the Oxford-PWN Polish-English: 2-Volume Set as the ultimate reference tool. As a student of Polish, these volumes bring complex grammar to life and offer "real world" applications.At five times the requested price, they would still be worth every penny! (I do suspect that I would be able to discover in these volumes a Polish equivalent of this American colloquial value statement!!)

Oxford-PWN Polish-English English-Polish Dicttionary: 2 volume set
I found the dictionary to be very extensive in the amount of English words that have their Polish equivalent.The grammer section along with examples of how to write letters, resumes, etc. is also very useful.

My one complaint is that it still could be more exhaustive.It would be nice to get a dictionary that takes the definitive English dictionary that has all the English words imaginable and gives the Polish equivalent in the English-Polish section, and the reverse, of course, in the Polish-English section.

Comprehensive Polish-English, English-Polish dictionaries
These dictionaries have a lot of terms in them.I'm surprised and extremely pleased at how comprehensive they are.So far, every term I've wanted to look up has been in them.If you intend to stay in Poland for a long period of time, you need these dictionaries.The standard ones out there just don't have nearly all the terms you need to know.

Polish/English Translating
I have taught ESL for quite some time and also write articles for a Polish-American biweekly newspaper. I've had numerous penpals from Poland over the years - and well, bottom line is that I've become very fluent with the Polish language but still, from time-to-time, find the need to have a good Polish/English dictionary at hand. I have used one of such for many years - it's tattered edges are proof of the need I've had for it over the years!However, over the years, I've outgrown my old dictionary and as new words have come into every language, so too have they into Polish....

This year I came across a project which is translating a book that someone wrote, from Polish to English. The book deals with someone's life story during WWII, and there are many terms in this book that I had trouble finding in my old dictionary. That is when I began looking for something newer, better. I came across the Oxford double set, and although I must admit that it's price might be the highest from any of the other out on the market presently, it is the best product I could've gotten. The definitions for each word entry are not only many and thorough but also sentence examples are given for everything. It's an amazing product. Definitely worth the price. And I'm sure I will have this dictionary for always. I highly recommend it. ... Read more

Product Description
Written by an accomplished team of lexicographers, this dictionary is based on the acclaimed and authoritative two-volume "The New Kosciuszko Foundation Dictionary" (English-Polish, Polish-English), one of the most comprehensive Polish dictionaries ever published. With over 30,000 entries and an extensive number of idioms and phrases, this dictionary is an excellent resource for students, businesspeople, immigrants, and anyone else in need of a dependable Polish-English reference. The entries are rich in grammatical and usage information, including irregular forms and related words and phrases. Also included are short guides to English and Polish grammar, declension and conjugation tables, and tables of Polish irregular forms and English irregular verbs. This title features: unique focus on modern American English; over 30,000 entries; and, special guide (in Polish) for Poles who visit, study, or settle in America by Tomasz Deptula, Chief U.S. Correspondent for Newsweek (Poland). ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

Great book
The book was in NEW condition even though the seller's review stated that it was fair. The only thing that was different was the cover of the book. The book I received was a different color and no photo like the website shows. Other than that, it is NEW and in great condition! ... Read more