Having difficulties to speak in Polish... how to improve my speaking?

Hi, I've been learning polish by myself for the past year. I am able to read and understand quite a bit...but when it comes to speak I usually get stuck! and that is kinda frustrating :(....Anyway I was wondering if there is a class or a speaking club or something like that in the Washington DC area, I will appreciate the info or any other suggestions to improve my speaking skills, thanks :)

If you have pronunciation problems and don't have anyone to ask you can always try ivona.com

Just enter whatever you need into the textbox and hit play. If it's more about the conversation try finding someone, on skype or language exchange sites, who can chat with you every now and then.

Has anyone ever tried to speak to another learner of Polish? Is there any advantage to this? I am sure there are disadvantages because you are not communicating with a native speaker etc.

No kidding!

Well I'm pretty sure that finding a native speaker is always the best solution in learning foreign languages, especially Polish with its relatively difficult pronunciation. You really should look on the Internet and chat via skype or something it will help you a lot, it's the most important thing to speak, even if it sounds terribly at first. Good luck!

I tried this a few times but I found it difficult to have some kind of a structure or plan when talking with the other person, there was no purpose to our conversations.......... I hope that you know what I am talking about.

How did you organise the time/what to learn with the other person?

Propose playing a scene (in shop, in restaurant). Try to prepare useful phrases before and use it in conversation.

Thanks A.K.

Hello,
If you want to speak proper Polish we can offer you tailor made conversational course. Please email me on office@pff-warsaw.com, so we can discuss your needs.

Hi, you can see Polish films and speak following them, pcbaclone.com, I think it's a very effective way.

Best is to practice the language with somebody native or at least fluent. Books,CD-s etc help a lot, but at the end of the day there is gonna be needed a human who speaks polish.

At home I've got several comtemporary or mostly contemporary Polish films, among them "Zmróż Oczy", and I always watch them WITHOUT subtitles. For the latter, the film wonderfully enough has Polish subtitles so that I can see as well as hear what the characters are saying! I can't stress how important this is, especially since, as with most foreign films, the foreign-language subtitles usually have squat to do with what is being said throughout the movie. Often, the translations are just plain laughableLOL

By understanding the speech in context, the spoken idiom becomes second nature instead of having to use the intermediary of subtitled translation which is once again rarely accurate! Frequently, vulgarisms are sanitized ("Good grief!" for "Gówno!" etc..) and slang is standardized to the point of becoming unrecognizable from the original.

May be sth. on YT?
Lessons: (search: polish pronunciation)
(3xW).youtube.com/watch?v=rnXYW1RcLUg Learn to Speak Polish Lesson 1
(3xW).youtube.com/watch?v=aJI6JDAxUd4 Polish Pronunciation Guide
(3xW).youtube.com/watch?v=cGMDFcUvCa0 The Travel Linguist - Polish
Easy words and pronunciation: (search: kreskówki)
(3xW).youtube.com/watch?v=W6eXC-Corc8 Smerfy - bajka po polsku
(3xW).youtube.com/watch?v=dRXLcdh4Ep4 Flinstonowie
A Very good movies: (search: film polski cały)
(3xW).youtube.com/watch?v=ZXMu1vnKv7w Różyczka
(3xW).youtube.com/watch?v=0YhThTZkzeM Wszystko Co Kocham
Also interesting:
(3xW).youtube.com/watch?v=j-ffwkGWvX0 Bezmiar Sprawiedliwości
(3xW).youtube.com/watch?v=Qa9PAJkqksI Uwikłanie
(3xW).youtube.com/watch?v=rFGIHK6N_rI Katyń

Bookbox is great also, for almost any language:-)

The movies are good, but recently some/most movie dialogs seem to have limited vocabulary and a lot of obscenities. Start reading polish books (not newspapers, these have a specific language) even if you initially understand every third word. It will get better. You can even get some polish books for Kindle or in an ePub format format (for example, here: woblink.com). There are also some free books (usually old ones) from public domain available here:

wolnelektury.pl/katalog/lektury/

If you do not mind reading Andersen, Defoe, Kipling or Sienkiewicz, that is.

The other good news is that Amazon has just released and international version of Kindle fire: swiatczytnikow.pl/kindle-fire-hd-ma-wersje-miedzynarodowa-wysylka-od-13-czerwca-appstore-juz-dziala-w-polsce/

Older movies though are surely superior in terms of dialogue anyway to the newer ones. Early Wajda, Polański, Andrzejewski, the post-War school, are outstanding and not only in terms of cinema! The language in "Kanał" for instance, I found exceptionally clear (though full of colloquial Polish to be sure). If only to hear the great Andrzej £apicki's enough for anyone wanting to acquire a clear Polish pronunciation:-)

Otherwise, nice links Jackmark^^

Wow !! How I envy you. Within a year you are able to read and understand moderately, did you day ? Well, I have been teaching myself Polish for almost two years, not intensely, and I still cannot even understand even simple passage. I have to admit though I have been focusing a lot on pronunciation so i have devoted myself to listening lots of Polish songs but guess what ? I could not even pronounce 'Edyta' properly..I am not giving up yet. Good luck in your journey to learning Polish :-)

Building consistently is really the key here! Start off with easy stuff, like a child learning their first words in their mother tongue, later moving on to writing and reading comprehension. Make sure in the beginning you can understand what people say as well as make yourself understood to them in your new language. You don't want to be in the embarrassing position of having studied tomes of grammar etc., yet neither being able to order a cup of coffee not understanding when the other person responds.

You then wonder, "What've I been waisting my f*******k time for anyway?!"

I would simply begin with simple, self-written dialogues, e.g. in a restaurant: Dzień dobry, panu/pani! Poproszę o jadłospis. etc.
Then, I'd run them by a native speaker (presumably my teacher!) and get some further tips on cultural cues from them.

Only a suggestion:-)

Here is another one:

You need Bogusław Linda putting a gun to your head and telling you to have a few gulps of whisky and then pronounce difficult Polish words correctly. Everybody will learn in a second.

See it live:

youtu.be/6jZhJ9yGSZw