Hello Everybody, I'm a brazilian girl, living in Dublin and engaged to a polish man! Yeah, I know it sounds crazy but, that's life and I couldn't be happier... There's just this one (little) thing. We're planing on moving to Poland in 3 years and I don't speak a word of polish and I really want to learn, so every help is more than welcome!!!!
Although my fiance is polish he doesn't have a clue on how to teach me but he'll be a great help when it comes to pronunciation.
A lot can happen in 3 years. Hope you guys be still together... Just speaking from experience. Rosetta stone and byki.com offers Polish language courses.
Gee Urszula, you could just be happy for her. Anyway, I'm using the Pimsleur audio CD's. I think using that and the Rosetta Stone at the same time would be good. You can usually find short versions of both of those programs at the library. My library had to inter-loan them, but they found them for me. The Pimsleur set from the library consists of the fist ten (of 30) lessons. Some people have recommended the BYKI (Before You Know It) software, which is basically an electronic flash card system with the benefit of audio. I personally don't like the quality of the audio... it's hard for me to distinguish the sounds. Maybe when I get more of the basics down, I'll try BYKI again.
Also, it's fun to listen to Polish radio over the internet and get yourself a Netflix account so you can rent Polish movies. I believe that exposure to the language, even when not studying, is important and fun.
I've been at it for a few months, and being "older" I think I learn slower. I don't have any natural aptitude for language but that can be made up for with motivation. Polish is hard, I think, but if you keep at it, just like anything else, you'll be successful. Have fun!
Get a phrase book -- Lonely Planet is good. It's better to learn from specific phrases that you use immediately -- you retain the information better if it's in context.
Thanks for the tips! I'm trying the (before you know it) method but I find it very hard because the words have different endings (like in portuguese) but phonetically is a nightmare!!!!!
Rex
Are you in Poland ate the moment???? How's life in there? If you don't speak polish how are you working? Can you undertand them but you don't speak or nothing at all? Sorry for asking so many questions, but I don't have a clue of what lies ahead!!!
