I'm really interested in learning Polish

Just as a disclaimer, my family moved to America at the start of WWII, and my dad's brother and half of his sisters were born, and after my grandparents got here my dad and the rest of his sisters were born, so I'd consider myself 1.5th generation. All of my aunts and my dad and his brother understand polish, but they can't speak it anymore since my great-grandparents and regular grandparents have died. My great-aunt was in an accident, and she's getting kind of old anyway and she doesn't speak English anymore, and no one can really communicate with her because the aid that lives with her speaks poor English.

I'm really interested in learning Polish, and I have a huge Polish-English dictionary and this book with audio CDs, and just recently I'm trying out Rosetta Stone for a month before I actually get the software.

I was wondering if anyone knows the best way to go about learning the language, or if anyone would be interested in being a tutor or a penpal or something to help me learn it better. I have a book written by this Polish guy, and I can't read hardly any of it. It's a moderately sized novel and the cover looks pretty interesting. The only Polish I've learned is (sort of embarrassingly) obscenities, heh. That's all my immediate family really remembers specifically.

Thanks in advance; I want to learn the language so I'm able to think it, instead of hearing it, translating, and then knowing what it means. I can already think in numbers and colors!

Where are you based? Isn't there a Polish centre in your locality? Also, how about contacting the Polish embassy / consulate to find out about Polish courses? And, possibly, it shouldn't be too much of a hassle to find a Polish-speaking carer for your great-grandmother, given that many Poles do such jobs in the US. But perhaps you've already tried those...

I am also learning polish, I have been studying for 1 week only and I am starting off with the basic colors,greetings,days of week.....that sort of thing.....I want to be able to say some freaky stuff to a guy I'm seeing....I don't want him to teach me it...I sort of want to surprise him and say it....I don't see anything on the web at all to help me....anyone have any forums that they no of where I could go?

If you have skype you could contact me and I could help you pronounce some freaky stuff or over the phone. Where are you located?

Krysia, do you have skype? Do you have web cam too to teach me Polish?

Yup. Got the whole deal. If you want you can e-mail me I can give you my name or you can give me your's.
Do you have skype?

i also just starting learn Polish. i bought English_polish from AMAZON. com. and it's work very good, very easy. I PROOVE THAT. i can speak in basic conversation, even i don't know how to speel it. but for me, language is for practise not only for keep in brain. GOD LUCK.

What is it called exactly??

im learning Polish, and i bought CD from amazon.com English_Polish. and it works very good.

When I started learning English .. in order to practive the reading comprehension I used to read books for kids.. they have bigger font, easier vocabulary, I found them INTERESTING so I wouldn't get bored or dismotivated, you know, it kept me going ... this way I improved my reading skills and vocabulary. If you try it, and I hope you, read them loud, this helps you notice your own mistakes... I believe you can achieve same results with Polish language.

I believe you could be correct Kamyk

I have the Prismular (or however it is spelt) lesson program on disk of the Polish Language that gets you to speak out aloud after each sentence or main word but i havent gotten hold of any books like you mention though in Polish

I have the Czesc Jak Sie Masz book one (and cd)
The cd mentioned above
Lonely Planet Phrasebook -- this i find very useful and in fact i recommended it to a few of the oldies on my polish course and they went and bought it and find it very helpful as well
I also have a dictionary and a dictionary program on my PC (occassionally i will use e-dict)

During the 1960's Poland produced an excellant book with a set of records and the course was called Mowimi Po Polsku. I do not know if you can get hold of such a course now but it was one of the best courses for beginners of Polish that I have seen.

Hi,
Do you know who the author is of that book?

I don't know what is skype. Also have heard of gg now in this forum. What are these tools?

VOIP... internet telephony... get with the 21stC maryann

skype.com

skype.... connect people ;-)

Is a way to talk to people on the computer to a phone line or mobile or to another PC skype.com

GG is Gadu Gadu a polish instant messenger similar to msn and yahoo and icq and that but it is solely in polish language maryann -- so unless you are somewhat good at understanding polish or have a polish friend to hand you may have difficulty installing this program with it being all in polish

thanks to all of you for your reply. i am trying to learn some polski before i visit my family in sept. i am also interested in all that is polish... i just found this forum and am very happy i did... you are right GG is not for me but I hope some day, skype is a site i will be looking at... thanks to all of you again.

As long as you go over and try your best, most people appreciate a little effort. skype has many benifits, but for those that don't know... alot of broadband companies now do free telephone calls if you take up the wireless package. I have the orange wireless package and they give free calls to 100 countries (Poland is one of them) You have to hang up after 2 hours I think and re-dial, but for free calls is no hassle I think. Unfortunately my Polish is not good enough for a good conversation! (YET?!?)

Off topic tip... For anyone with a wireless set up, if you experience your connection going slow or it completely freezes, do not phone technical support! They don't understand the problem and go through a complicated routine for about 30 mins. GO TO YOUR MAINS PLUG (the one where its plugged in) TURN IT OFF AND THEN ON AGAIN. Problem solved. Don't ask me why, but it works. Alot of people have this problem and say the same. Hope this saves at least one person the hell of technical support!

hello i am paul klein ,and by my name you can probably guess i am half polish ,and this is the reason i want to learn polish aswell as i feel its part of my family history ,i know abit already ,heres a quick greeting to all the polish people out there , Chesc ,jak sie masz ,mam na ime palvo

It's the paul bit isn't it.

Nice to meet you anyway.

Children's books like Wakacje Mikołajka (available in the US - google it) are I find a good way to expand vocab by reading. You'll need your słownik though and a basic understanding of Polish; how verbs conjugate, and the basics of the cases.
As an exercise I am translating it from Polish to English (This also serves to build charcter!) - and the story is funny, a good read.

Originally a french language book, there's a whole series of them (they might even be available in English, never looked).

My advice to all is to find a book written by a native author. My husband almost gave up learning polish untill we stamped on "Polish in 4 weeks" by Marzena Kowalska published by REA Warszawa (with CD and CD-ROM). As you know there is many types of publications covaring individualy most of the commonly sought for languages "teach yourself...."for eg. In my opinion languages varies, therefore the same system can not be apply across the board. My husband is able to converse with my family now, he finds it exciting and challanging, his knowlage of latin makes it even more fun. My point is that native author know what it is there to learn, and as a good teacher he/she will extract the essence of it, and give it to you in its most clear form so that you can easy absorb it and enjoy the benefits of the work they have put in to writting it. My english however has a lot to desire for, but it isn't the only language i have to use in my travels, so im not depressed about it. At the moment im in to spanish and all my learning material comes from polish publishers.
Good luck !!!!!!

learning polish language - come to Texas, I will help ya