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 Excellent Tool for Beginners Jun 09, 2008
Conversational Polish: Learn to Speak and Understand Polish with Pimsleur Language Programs (Instant Conversation) gives an immediately useful and practical method for learning a difficult language. Through listening and repeating, and repeating and listening, I think I may have enough practical language to feel confident speaking and understanding the basics on my upcoming trip to Poland. I've found this the most helpful of the Polish language tools I've tried.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 Too many gaps Apr 15, 2008
I did learn some from these lessons, but I found that there were too many gaps to make it really useful. We do learn to establish if the person with whom we are speaking speaks English and/or Polish, but we do not learn how to become acquainted. It would be useful to know how to make acquaintances through questions like "What is your name?" We only learn formal forms of address. Another gripe that I have is that the pronunciation is not consistent. There is too much of an emphasis on translation from English into Polish and not enough on trying to think in the language. Yes when we are learning our native language as children we learn to speak before we learn the grammar, but we are immersed in the language. Yes, this course is easy, but we do not really learn to communicate.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 Good, with 2 exceptions. Jan 19, 2008
It is one of the better methods I used. My Polish friends did NOT understand a couple of the words on this CD.
I feel the introductory course left out some very basic, vital words.
All in all I was able to communicate much better with my Polish friends after listening to this set just a couple of times. It was easy.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
No regrets with this purchase Nov 04, 2007
The method is quite amazing. I'm on disc 11 of 16 and I haven't forgotten even ONE thing I've learned! This is the first language I've taken since high school and to my surprise, it's easy and fun.
The beginning of each disc is a little intimidating because you listen to a short polish conversation with new words that you might think you'll never learn how to pronounce, let alone, remember. But by the end of the disc, confidence is back up. It may take two reviews of each lesson to move on to the next, but that is certainly no discouragement. It also does a good job in explaining WHY you say certain things, for instance, why you use a long e sound instead of a short a sound for the word "and," and it provides enough examples for it to make sense.
The conversation is limited to very basic conversation, but this is exactly the intention of this cd. It's a great launch pad to the next level...
The ONLY negative comment I have about this cd is that the majority of the conversation is focused towards a male listener, which I am not. BUT again, this is not that big of a deal, because it does a great job of demonstrating how a polish woman would speak as well. I guess I was just a little offended that Pimsleur would make the assumption/choice to focus towards a male.
Also, one last comment, which I'm sure is pretty obvious considering the media... you may be able to speak what you've learned confidently, but don't expect to be anywhere near ready to read polish. I'd recommend you save that for another time...
Like I said... absolutely NO regrets with the purchase. I have already recommended it to several friends. The method is very effective!
Enjoy and (phonetically) doe-vied-zen-ya (goodbye)!
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Great for Auditory Learners! Oct 11, 2007
Travelers wanting to learn basic Polish for traveling will like this program. It presents words and phrases, then continues to incorporate them throughout the remainder of the program. It presents words uniquely (from my experience), as it presents the pronounciation from the end of the word forward. It's a great program for auditory learners.
The only drawback is the lack of visual materials to follow along with or refer to.
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