Job Discussion Forums

[dynow]

i started using Hurra!!! Po Polsku a month ago, I got it from Polanglo, it's on the north end of the old market, near the university in Wroclaw.

[misteradventure]

I have also waded through "Ten, Ta, To" and a year's worth of formal tutoring at UJ, though not in their one-year intensive.

Polish in 4 Weeks is alright as a quick reference and a review, but little else.

I have sympathy for a new student of the language. My instructor's advice is both a source of inspiration and insightful to the level of challenge: "Move in with your girlfriend; you will learn Polish."

I agree that one must be 'doing something' in order to use the language. I am now pretty good at bar/restaurant Polish, but conversation can escape me for too often. I went only to 'local' bars and pubs, stayed away from expat hangouts and achieved no success as it seemed that talking to the Foreigner was too laborious and they refused to speak English. Now, had I studied French in school... it would have been another story entirely.

[dynow]

i am struggling with Polish as well.

i can do verb tenses. i can remember words. i even have, from what I'm told, very good pronunciation.

what I cannot do yet.....declensions. OMG.

does anyone know of a book/website that just has drills and exercises to practice cases? i can't seem to get them in my head.

it becomes so incredibly frustrating when you know all the words you need to say, but you just can't decline them properly. it makes me crazy. every time i get the nerve to say something to my girlfriend in Polish, she has to correct me because I always mess up some sort of conjigation with the nouns. totally frustrating.

[Richfilth]

Dynow, I know exactly what you mean. Or you say a sentence to someone with all the right words but the wrong cases and get a stony-faced "bardzo nie rozumiem" from them. It's confidence-shattering.

Aside from the downloadable Pittsburgh university stuff, I haven't found any decent material or tasks either.

[simon_porter00]

There won't be a huge market for it, but i was saying to a student today in fact we need a Raymond Murphy style book for grammar. I know that would help me no end.

All the textbooks i've got are produced in the most unexciting way thought to man. A little bit of creativity and a format as set out in Murphy and suddenly you've got a decent textbook

[dynow]

Something in a Murphy's style would be good, only, there aren't enough exercises per grammar point. there's just one page, and then it moves on.

what I would LOVE, would be literally hundreds of sentences where the 3 or 4 main cases are just mixed, and you have to decide which it is and decline them accordingly. this, to me, is the only way i will ever get these in my head. I could sit and do hundreds of these sentences, no doubt about it, because I am so fed up with knowing so many words, yet not being able to say anything to anyone because I know my declension will be incorrect.

[anospi]

[lit46]

I'm just about to go to warsaw-will any of these books be available?

[Richfilth]

There's a bookshop on Nowy Swiat opposite the Istanbul Grill which does a range of grammar books - not sure of the publisher or the quality though. The American Bookstore on the same road has a few good grammar ones as well, Murphy style but with not as many exercises, and with a niche market price - 119zl per copy.

[redsoxfan]

dynow wrote: