A good place to start learning Polish?

Hi. I've recently started dating a girl who is originally from Poland. We're absolutely crazy about each other, and she wants me to go to Poland with her for Christmas to meet her parents. I'd love to start learning Polish, so maybe by Christmas, I can say something without sounding like a complete moron.

Do you have any suggestions about good places to start learning? I was thinking of Rosetta Stone. What do you think?

Also, how do you pronounce "Kocham cie"? Is it "co-ham shee" or "co-ham chee"?

Thanks!

I have that course, it helped me out alot

try Byki.com it gives some free basic lessons

that's the correct version ;) only dont make the e long: it is "co-ham che"
co-ham shee is more like "i love myself" or "i'm making love" :D

Yes, go with Rosetta Stone. It'll get you started.

Also, have a look through this for some stuff available online, much of it free to download: polishforums.com/language-17/learning-links-8328/

I know of a great store if you your in the Detroit area called The Polish Art Center, they have a ton of books on learning polish I think they have audio lessons also here's the site: //polartcenter.com/Learning_Polish_English_Materials_s/63.htm

Oh they also ship, really quick if you need them too, great for all types of gifts too, they'll ship anywhere, //polartcenter.com/

I love that place! Before I went to Poland last month I bought this audio cd called "In Flight Polish Learn Before You Land" on their site, although I admit I had to listen to it 4 times on the plane - but it turned out to be great:

polartcenter.com/In_Flight_Polish_Learn_Before_You_Land_p/9140045.htm

Jak sie masz:)

The best way is to find a pole with skype and talk:)

thats pretty hard to do when you dont know any of the language.. and why could he not do that with his girlfriend?

Some good places to look:

1. Some local colleges/schools sometime offer night programs.

2. Rosetta Stone

3. Find a local Polish Cultural Center or Foundation - There are some good ones in NJ/NY/IL that offer courses.

4. Once you get some basics down you can go on sites such as interia.pl and join Chat rooms to practice.

Thread attached on merging:
Suggestions please

Hi, I'm a 15 year old Student in Philadelphia. My parents are both immigrants from Poland and speak it regularly at home and I can understand quite a bit. I can't speak polish at all however. I am very interested in my origins and I would like to learn polish to continue the heritage. Sorry, my first post. Now to the question.

What is the best way to learn how to speak Polish? I'm not very interested in grammar or writing, the actual language is my priority.

Your parents are native speakers, ask them to help you learn and slowly include you in their Polish conversations. The solution to your problem is right under your nose lol.

I have never seen this course but it is a complete no-no and very expensive too. It is a waste of money learning Polish just for Christmas. Try your local library-there might be a colloquial Polish course or a copy of Teach Yourself, both excellent beginners courses and free too when taken from the library!

i have level one and two of this software :)


or internet :)


the audio was available freely on the internet for this course (you would just need to get hold of the book) not sure if on there now though :)

i am looking for places to teach me how to speak polish, my father is polish and his parents talked polish he never learned the language, but he can understand it.. soo sum1 pleaseee help me find a place that isnt to exspensive to i can learn polish! thank u so much! :D!

Hello. I'm Polish native speaker. I would like to improve my English. If you want to talk in Polish, write me.
mashasrk@wp.pl

I have a Polish friend. he's about 45, and his Sister and most of his family live in the UK. I can say tak, niew, or is it nieb? how are you, dozybreiw etc. and thankyou, but i can;t remember how to write it or say it. I know cheshe means Hi or Hello, and of course, Nezedanyou. I don't wanna be a tourist.

Its a difficult language because it is not Western; its Slavic. My friend, Zibigiew, most people can't prononce it, so I call him, Zebni. Everyone else calls him Zippy. He told me a joke about a Clarinet is like blowing up a Goats arse; he found it very funny, but I still cannot understand why. But I like him,he's honest and a hard worker, I just wish I could think in Polish, rather than in Engilsh, and then try to translate my thoughs into Polish. As with many languages, you have to learn basic phrases and many different words, for the things that are commonplace to yourself, but its not easy at all.

I think of Polish as an enigma within an enigma, I can say proseches, (please), but its just the tip of an incredible iceburg. Nice people, great attitude, good food, but I cannot walk into a resturant and know how to ask for peruglia, (or however it is pronounced) I'd like to go to a Polish Class, and then 6 months later; suprise him. But even then I wouldn't really understand at all.

And which group of languages is that "Western" one?

English is as uncomprehenible as it is to a Polish person. Wultan, I hope that explains my perplexity

So you call Western language the English language, I got it. I agree English is completely different to Polish, similarly like Portuguese, Italian or Greek.

Spot on, polasku newbie!!

Rarely have I encountered a Pole who'll admit to such:-) While I understand why, at least partially, (inferiority complex being the frequent butt of ethnic humor, reputation for generations of being slow-witted (for the men) or slutty and loose (for the women), many Poles have such an arsenal of defense mechanisms regarding fear of being exposed as anything less than proficient and intellectual-sounding in English, merely getting them to fess up to failure is like trying to deconstruct Fort Knox:-)

Hello,

I have been trying to learn polish, for a few month now and have amassed quite a few learning resources, both free and paid for. I have found the following YouTube channel by Arena Witt very useful to get the melody of the language.

youtube.com/channel/UCIj6yjWVKPKO5zNLBjQ8Beg

The site is aimed at Native Poles who are trying to learn English, but I have found that I am starting to pick out more and more words from the videos and get the gist / meaning of what she is talking about.

You could also try the following you tube channels aimed at native English speakers:

Easy Polish - Learning Polish from the streets
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA5UIoabheFN7GIhcfUGQT2S5_U5sWnhK

Arek Błażkowski
youtube.com/channel/UCYKWKnF5IiHnk2PuwBrhm4w?pbjreload=10

This channel is aimed at Poles learning English, but as it has both the English and Polish text I just use it in reverse.

Jezyk Angielski
youtube.com/channel/UCc-OFjP1q1Rd15NTJXOd_1g/playlists

Again this channel is aimed at Poles learning English, but it also works in reverse too.

Let's Polish
youtube.com/channel/UC9a-V-9qyKXxSyxEBDC5tBw

A YouTube channel by a Pole aimed at helping English speakers learn Polish.

Polish Course by Jarowsław Hajduk
youtube.com/channel/UC51VV50h0zI7FxRMLdmTuaw

Polski z Anią // Polish with Ania
youtube.com/channel/UCOJ8InFS6bdCVzsZKIdmK4w

More advanced, covering the dreaded Polish grammer and the seven cases (Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative, Instrumental, Locative and Vocative).

You could also try using iTalki, once you have a little experience with the language. italki.com

PS

Do not try to start learning Polish by studying the Grammar. It will fry your brain!! Ignore the grammer, but learn phrases with the correct grammer usage from native audio.

Find books and phrases with audio, so that you can learn the phrases naturally. After all, you learn't to speak your native language before you could even read, when you didn't have a clue about grammer. The grammatical use of the language came automatically, as you naturally assimulated the language

This was highlighted to me when I was speaking to a Pole on iTalki and he asked me "How would I say that in the Present Perfect tense?"

I'm a native English speaker, who has been on this earth for over 49 years (czterdzieści dziewięć lat) and I had to lookup what he was talking about.

I believe that I speak English well, and that my spelling and grammar are adequate.
However, I left school at 16 years old and therefore didn't attend university.

The very concept of the Present Perfect Tense is strange to a Polish person, so you have to point their attention to the phenomenon by giving a name to that phenomenon first. A lot Polish people who are able to grasp that concept - as simple as it is - on the theoretical level, are not able to make that concept work in pratice, however.

The same is true for the concept of the definite/indefinite or no article preceding the English noun.

A good place for learning Polish can be television. If you have a smart TV set, you can set the subtitles for those programmes of the Polish TV that have them. A public TV may have a set of language courses for people wishing to learn the language. The BBC does have them, but I have recently found an absolutely amazing range of language courses for learning German on the Deutsche Welle's website, perhaps even more impressive than the BBC. Unfortunately, this is not the case as far as the Polish public TV is concerned

Good advice, Ziemowit!

The Michel Thomas courses are GREAT, imho. You will be amazed at how fast you learn!

These sites are good but your best resource is your girlfriend.

Yep, native speakers are usually one's most reliable source in terms of current, natural (if not necessarily grammtically "corrrect"LOL) usage!

Often, a native speaker will instinctively know when or when not to use certain locutions of speech which are usually lost on the average foreign learner. The invaluable aid of having a native speaker at one's disposal (highly educated or not) is that one hears what it used in conventional, daily conversation at its most natural as opposed to even the best textbooks which often (most of the time unintentionally) feature highly bookish, stilted usage, which, though "correct", sounds odd or unnatural in everyday utterance and will immediately stand out as "foreign", regardless of having a near perfect accent:-)