Beginning Polish Schenker's Beginning Polish, although written in 1973, is still widely considered the best introductory text for Polish, as it combines great thoroughness and scholarly detail with a complete immersion in the language. Combined with the cassettes it offers an intensive beginning course that can be used in the classroom or individually as self-instruction. It includes twenty-five lessons each divided into sentences, pronunciation, grammar exercises, and vocabulary. The book is primarily a tool for learning Polish, but as it gives an extremely detailed description of the language, it is also useful as a rudimentary reference grammar. The tapes cover the sentences, pronunciation, and drills in the book, and were recorded by native Polish speakers. Comes with 19 cassettes and a 487-page text. $245
Beginning Polish - MP3 Sample - Table of Contents
Schenker's Beginning Polish, although written in 1973, is still widely considered the best introductory text for Polish, as it combines great thoroughness and scholarly detail with a complete immersion in the language. Combined with the 19 cassettes it offers an intensive beginning course that can be used in the classroom or individually as self-instruction. It includes twenty-five lessons each divided into sentences, pronunciation, grammar exercises, and vocabulary. The introduction presents a brief comparison of Polish and Russian, and a Polish-English glossary lists all the words occurring in the text. The book is primarily a tool for learning Polish, but as it gives an extremely detailed description of the language, it is also useful as a rudimentary reference grammar. The tapes cover the sentences, pronunciation, and drills in the book, and were recorded by native Polish speakers. For extensive detail on what is covered in the text, go to the table of contents here.
The method presented rests on the proposition that the most efficient way of learning a language is to begin by speaking it, and that in order to achieve a modicum of fluency a student must operate with complete utterances rather than with isolated words and grammatical rules. The ultimate aim is to help the student achieve an automaticity of response akin to that of a native speaker. Thus although not an FSI course in its origins, it follows closely the FSI philosophy of assimilation of all basic forms and patterns of the language by guided imitation, memorization, and manipulation of a large number of sentences, and by practice towards a condition of ‘automacity' in speaking and understanding.
"The best textbook for learning the Polish language by English-speaking students that has ever been written" Journal of Slavic Linguistics and Poetics
"Far surpasses anything currently available...reflects a decade and a half of productive search by the leading American structuralist concerned with Modern Polish" Slavic and East European Journal
Here is an MP3 Sample for the CD version of the Beginning Polish Course. MP3 is a common sound format for the compression of CD quality audio, and there are many freeware and commercial players downloadable from the Internet, including current versions of the Windows Media Player.