Recommend a text book for learning Polish...

So, now I've got myself a Polish teacher who is happy to fit in with my erratic schedule in return for beer and curry...

All we need is a text book. Any suggestions?

I was reading all about it on Amazon, when I suddenly realised.... the guy who wrote it used to be my Russian tutor :)

Has anyone else used this book, and did it help them?

I bought this when I was first learning (my copy came with only one cd, probably not the complete edition).
I didn't find it particularly useful. For me it got too advanced too quickly. Maybe it's just me! Perhaps the new, complete edition is better...

I agree, Teach Yourself Polish isn't great.
May I suggest the course here:
polish.slavic.pitt.edu/firstyear/lessons
It's a free download.
Grab all of the other bits too - a dictionary and grammar book in particular, plus sounds files:
polish.slavic.pitt.edu

The course starts you at the beginning and should keep you going for a good while. If it get too tough then it hasn't cost anything to try it, and sure work at your own pace :)

Beer and curry eh...!

Cheers Hal - v. interesting links.


Hmm... when I was studying Russian at Uni, we used the TY as the basis of the course, and I quite liked it.


The poor guy had been living in London and hardly ever went out... so the deal is that I give a gastronomic tour of London in the process :)

There u go, everyone's experience is different.
However, some TY books are different to others, I have used two versions of TY Finnish (my language first love) in my time. The older one was very good, the modern revised edition was poor. I think this reflects a general simping down of language learning books and courses in general over the past couple of decades, which is a pity.


My teacher is worth her weight in gold encrusted diamonds. I will marry her someday - after I have learned Polish first of course :D

Oopz, wrong user name (bit of dislexia there, too much -ubruwka), and I was wondering what was wrong with my posting cookies.
The above post is moi, and not a similarily named guest!

I can recommend "Basic Polish" (A Grammar and Workbook) by Dana Bielec. I bought this ages ago and I've just gone back to it, ideal for refreshing your memory of all those Polish lessons. It covers all the cases in bite-sized chunks. Complete with test exercises and answers. This book doesn't really cover many verbs so I would also recommend "301 Polish Verbs"

I think the two best are:

Teach Yourself Polish (the original by Patkaniowska, the newer version is just your standard confusing conversation textbook)

Among Poles (I forget the author)

Thanks for posting this link. Loving it and using the lessons together with my audio learning packs :)

Smacznego! :)