I'm learning Polish using the Michel Thomas Method

Im learning Polish using the Michel Thomas Method:Polish Foundation Course Audio CD. It is quite effective but i still find it a bit confusing. The gender and words always change depending on what your asking, what sex you are or what you are doing and so on. I still think its good though. Does any one else have a more effective way of learning Polish?

also as a begginner, if i went to live in Poland with very very basic use of Polish words, greetings and getting around for about 9months, in % what would i be at at the end of the 9months? 1% is a Polish child learning Polish and 100% is fluent (i know i wont be 100%)I wouldnt have any lessons, i would just learn by ear.

It will totally depend upon your wishes to learn adn in what context and with whom you are there. If you work for a British company or you are working as a teacher of English you may find after nine months that Polish has not improved at all.

It might if you have a significant other :) I worked on the different prefixes before stem verbs today.

Wymówić
Odmówić
Omówić
Rozmówić
Zamówić etc etc

Very helpful it was too :)

I hate the woman on this course.

Tho she is effective.

:D

I think it's not a good mesurement. Children learn in totally different way than adults. e.g. 2 yo kid understands almost everything his mother is saying to him while may not be able to say a word himself. On the other hand, adults usually start with translating from their mother tongue and it takes some time to switch to thinking in a new language.

If you have already learned some grammar and vocabulary you're gonna have a good oportunity to practice it 'in the filed' and you may do really big progress.

But if you're completely blank, being here may not help you at all unless you take lessons to help you to start with the basics, or have someone to talk and explain everything (like mother to her child).

Cinek

You should understand the very basics before you go to Poland. Also you should be able to make very simple sentences. If you then go to Poland and interact a lot with Poles you have the best possibilty of "fast" learning.

Grammar is rather difficult to pick up by just listening to someone speaking. Polish grammar is so complex that you need to have a good structure. Or else it will just sound totally random.

Living in Poland (maybe with a Pole) is the absolutely best way to learn Polish. But you should know the very basics first, or else (as I said) it will just sound random.

THANKYOU

SzwedwPolsce and cinek

the complexity of Polish makes it difficult to grasp by ear only - would advise to use some grammar reference - say us hear some phrases and some grammatical forms and you go to check them in some grammatical reference (it think it is beneficial to have a couple of approaches to the language at the same time)

This course is both good and both at the same time.

The good points are that you start saying things very quickly and are encouraged to create your own sentences. After the first hour, you can put together simple sentences. You don't necessarily understand why things are so, e.g. You just learn to say the genitive "tego" instead of "to" in negative sentences.

Now the bad things:

- The tutor's voice. I find her quite annoying, her Polish doesn't sound right to me. I'm quite sure she doesn't pronounce "ć" or "cz" correctly.

- The guy who is learning. His pronunciation is so bad, and the tutor hardly ever corrects him. e.g. He never says "y" properly at the end of adjectives.

- When listening in the car, you end up needing to pause because the guy or woman talks all the time and confuses you. It's hard to keep pausing, especially when you should be driving.

- The mnemonics are so incredibly bad and stupid, but surprisingly they actually work, e.g. Why does the chair go to Bolivia? Dlaczego, :D

Also, I never listened far enough through the course, but she doesn't seem to mention informal speech, everything is pan/pani, etc.

It's not a bad course, but don't use it on its own, and get someone to help you with your pronunciation. If you are like me, you won't be happy with just learning phrases, but you'll want to know why something is so.