Useful tips on learning Polish?

I've been teaching myself Polish (well, trying too :P) and know several simple phrases and words but I'm not sure where to go next.

What are the most important things about Polish that should be learnt early on?
Thanks :)
PS. Any good (free) websites, anyone?

Here are supposedly 'good techniques' for learning polish.

Where did you start or the best techniques for learning Polish.

Also I think that its good to start by simply learning popular words and sentences. And dont get too frustrated over grammar, you dont need to know it perfectly for people to understand you.

Merged thread:
learning

Hi everyone! I am the second generation to be born in the US. I am interested in Polish culture and would like to learn Polish. Any help would be appreciated and if you could tell me where to start?

You can, also, try meetpoland.com and you can listen to it if you need too. :)

I think you can try find Polish - culture spots there. Or if you want to visit Poland, try summer Polish schools, it can be a great experience for you.

I can't suggest any illegal ways of obtaining this but ...

I only had a chance to look through the lessons once while passing a Rosetta Stone stand at an airport and it seemed pretty fantastic.

rosettastone.com/learn-polish

i found that by learning more about my own (english) grammar it was easier to learn foreign grammar. it may or may not work for u.

Merged: Learning polish

Hi, I need a help! :) I have to learn few sentences in polish. Is it ashard as I heard? It looks rather difficult. And I don't have many time.

Why? I met some polish girl and I'm going to visit her soon - I think that it is a good way to impress her :P

If you only want to learn a few sentances it is no problem I'd say. Best of luck.

From my point of view: few tips, just try to listen as much as possible, try to catch the rythm of the language, maybe read some or take some private lessons starting from casual conversation.

good luck. Polish is nice to talk or discuss.
:)

I have been learning Polish myself and the university of Pitts Polish course is amazing, though it is not for absolute beginners. To begin you should learn the alphabet! this is most important as you will need to know the alphabet and sounds that certain combination of letters make to be able to read and pronounce words right. Then go to youtube and watch videos on there of phrases and gramatical case, look up the grammatical cases on wiki (there are seven) and learn the rules to them. ivona.com helps with pronunciation!! then start the online Polish course! you do no have to sign up and all the material is printable, free and at degree level for true deep understanding of the language! This Polish course is for beginners/intermediate learners, you should be fine with it! I am up to lekcja czwarta and my boyfriend (who is Polish) is absolutely amazed with how much I can understand/read/write/say. Good luck!

polish.slavic.pitt.edu/ < (fantastic online free course)
ivona.com/en/ < (for pronunciation)
youtube.com/watch?v=PPZ8hrz0sFI <(useful videos for beginners!)

youtube.com/watch?v=bK9lzr78Ed0&feature=related
youtube.com/watch?v=Y3LRbVw4am8&feature=relmfu
youtube.com/watch?v=9mzh6CSSrJM&feature=relmfu

I'd like to invite everyone to the Polish learning blog:
translator-diary.blogspot.com/2012/02/learn-polish-every-week.html
and please leave comments and share ur opinions;)

this course is really good. a kind pf poster mailed me this, and i can thoroughly recommmend it.

But I have very big problems with nouns - you have many forms, I don't get them :( And talking. Terrible. Why do you have so many 's' near to 'ch'? :P

its a consonant problem lol! its just the way the language is.learn the alphabet and you will understand a bit better!

Get lessons. I have lessons in Warsaw 300zl for 3 months. Also do a language exchange. If you live in the UK this is possible and obviously in Poland too. Declination is a beeatch and this is what messes with my head.

Really? That is good value. In Krakow class rates run at approx 700zl for 60 hours. So I stopped going. Far too expensive.

Normally the courses in Warsaw are around 1500zl but this is EU subsidised. Used to be free.

Course of Polish courses were supposed to be free? Who are people who make marketing issues for them?

12/hr expensive? I can't see how they can offer classes at that price. I'd feel lucky to be able to attend.

Sorry... something went wrong with my maths. I meant 1200 zl for 45 hours teaching time.

It works out as about £5 per hour per student.

When you consider that in the school I was teaching in, in the most expensive part of London, was charging £2.60 per hour in the afternoon for 50 hours a week (and £1 per hour if you booked yourself in for a whole year) it does work out as expensive.

Especially since all the teachers at the school were at least CELTA grade B qualified, some with DELTAs, and some with MAs.

How can it be at least twice as expensive to learn Polish in not even the 2nd largest city in Poland, than it is to learn English in the most expensive city in the world?

I guess it's that old perception some people have that if we're from, e.g. the UK, we must be loaded.


That sounds fair for 1-1 lessons but not if you have to listen to 11 others mangling the Polish language!
Why not try to find someone competent who can give you individual lessons? You could negotiate a fair rate if you offered to help them with their English.

Hi every one,
I am the third generation in my family from Poland in the USA. I have been trying to learn to speak Polish but running into trouble with remembering what I have learned. I would speak in Polish more often but not many people left in the area that can speak fluent. Any tips to helping remember and learn to speak more fluent.

jz I am in a similar situation as you are, I take polish lessons twice a week but have no one to practice conversational polish with outside of the lessons. Online you can find lots of free audio and video helps with words, phrases and pronunciation. I use repetitive writing of polish vocabulary which helps me a lot to remember. I also use a digital recorder to record and play back for review. This forum has lots of resources as well, I will try to gather a few for you.

I hope you already speak fluent polish :)
but for those who still are willing to learn, here are some resources for free that you can use (that may not exist in 2010)
forvo.com for polish pronunciation
duolingo.com (recently they added polish)
and the most important is practicing with real people :) so I found a website with several polish people willing to exchange language here:
difriends.com :) there is other similar websites, but this in particular has a big percentage of users from poland