I have bought a lot of books. Very good are from Universitas, but these are quite difficult. I have almost all and very good when I need to check something in the grammar.
I also have the Teach Yourself one but I don't like it.
After buying a lot of books and learning for 4-5 years now I can tell you that (for me) the best books is:
Polish in 4 weeks.
The name shows that this is a travel guide kind book, but not. Very detailed. The 2 books contain B1 level grammar and vocabulary. I am trying now to learn from A-Z because I prepare for B1 exam. Looks super.
I'd like to invite you to my new website with student resources for learners of the Polish language - The Polish language with gregloby (polish.gregloby.net), mostly Polish recordings with full transcriptions, but not only.
The website is at its start, so I appreciate any feedback and ideas. Let me know what kind of content interests you the most? Thank you in advance.
I'm presently searching the Web/Internet for an easily downloadable version (preferrably Adobe!) of Maria Zagórska Brooks' monumental "Polish Reference Grammar" ('74 Mouton, The Hague). Her section particularly on 'Numerals and Numeral Syntax' is awesome-:)
which of these would yous recommend for someone who kinda has a moderate grasp of the language and just wants to improve? I can speak the language mostly fine, but my vocabulary is pretty limited and I have a really tough time reading it.
Has anyone ever looked at the book 'Polish verbs and essentials of grammar second edition'? I'm not sure if I should buy it or not. I looked at the first few pages on the amazon website but it looks very similar to this website that i have seen before. Does anyone know if it is the same?
I have a copy of this book, and as it's by the same author it seems simalir. This book is very well laid out and is a good read. It is also quite inexpensive and is better than scrolling through lots of pages on your PC.
Most of these are from my favorites Busuu.com (The iphone app is great, takes you from A1 to B2) Polishpod101.com (monthly subscription but you get a week free with registration) Livemocha.com (This is ok for the basics)
okay, so i read similar questions like these before and many people said good things about "hurra po polsku" and "lonley planet polish"
so i started reading about these, and an a costumer's review, he said hurra po polsku is all in polish; is that true? if i were to buy it, would i have bought something usless to me? also these "a1s" and "a2s" keep popping up, what are they and is there any series that goes up to the highest?
i can read in spanish, so if there's any spanish-polish book that's really good, please put that up
and the "lomely planet" how does that teach polish"? is it any good?
if you have any other books, please tell me and post how they teach the language too
and please do not put up any pdf files, because i just want an all natural book.
When learning a language, there's a standard level of grades. Book publishers use this to tell you what level the material is aimed at.
A0 is absolute beginner, then A1 and A2 are the elementary and pre-intermediate stages. From there, B1 and B2 take you to an intermediate level, and C1 and C2 cover Advanced and Proficiency. You'll be looking for A0 or A1 books.
Hurra Po Polsku, while glossily printed with colour photos, is pretty much useless for teaching YOURSELF Polish. It's designed as a classbook, to be followed with a teacher; there's lots of groupwork exercises in there too. So for home study it's a waste of money.
Unfortunately Polish is an unloved language; there aren't many resources out there that simply and logically introduce you to the language. The best start is the free download First Year Course from Pennsylvania University: polish.slavic.pitt.edu
TBH I've found most books are dull, and all have that boring element of learning lists of words. I've tried many different books, and I get bored of them very quickly. The conversations are so plastic and unreal in most cases, and the exercises have you write about things you'd probably never write about in real-life, like "What is your opinion on women's fashion?".
I've learnt more by just reading and watching real language content, and making notes of things I don't understand and then getting a grammar book and dictionary out and learning things I think I will find useful. You'd be surprised how much you can just pick up by reading stuff you are interested in (even if you initially you don't understand much of what you are reading).
I gave Hurrah po Polsku a go earlier this year; it's eye-bleedingly awful.
I can recommend 'Colloqial Polish' by Boleslaw W. Mazur. It does a good job of gradually introducing things. I found a lot of books are either at too much of a beginner level to adequately cover the grammatical concepts that make Polish quite different to English, or they smash the concepts into your face with a load of incomprehensible jargon. This one seems quite good though.
This is designed for little children but I find it quite helpful. digitaldialects.com/Polish.htm
I ike it.....yes some bits for me were really simple but the vocab builders were great :) Thanks and the more simple things my son is enjoying doing :)
