Is Rosetta Stone or Pimsluer better for learning Polish?
Saturday, August 21st, 2010 at
3:52 am
I have some polish background and my girlfriends background is 100% polish, however they don't speak it either, but i have a few friends that are russian and are able to understand it, i've heard they're pretty similar. So i wondered which would be better to learn, and how long it would take maybe to learn it.
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Tagged with: polish background
Filed under: Polish Language
I’m not sure about Rosetta Stone, but I keep on hearing how great it is–it better be with all that money you pay. As for Primsleur, I’ve tried a few discs for different languages, but it’s not my style–I couldn’t go past disc one, I basically just heard others speaking and did my best imitation. All you do is memorize phrases without getting an explanation about how the language works–i.e. grammar and so on. If your serious about learning the language, Primsleur might not be much help, all it does is teach you some phrases and gives you a feel about how the language sounds. If you want to be able to read, write, and speak Polish (or Russian), try elsewhere. I suggest trying your local library–it’s free and you have many resources available, like books, films, CDs, etc.
http://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/polish.php This site might also help introduce you to Polish, it has helpful links and some useful phrases. You should also try finding the Colloquial Polish from the Colloquial series, I haven’t tried this one, but the Italian one was fair! It won’t hurt to try. How long it takes learning depends on you. How committed are you to learning the language, and how well do you do with languages. You should practice everyday, not only in reading and writing, but also in listening and speaking–I suggest you take some interest in Polish music and films, etc. Finding a native Polish speaker also helps–try finding a group or club, trying a class might not be bad, you’ll need someone to clarify things and correct any mistakes.
Same goes for Russian, here are some other helpful links:
http://www.ielanguages.com/russian.html
http://www.masterrussian.com/blalphabet.shtml
More Polish:
http://www.oneness.vu.lt/pl/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/polish/soap/
http://www.polishgrammar.com/ (Test yourself once you get an understanding)
Good luck!
i hear rosetta stone is really great for learning languages, but im not sure if it would be better for polish.
I haven’t tried the Pimsleur version for Polish before, but I have tried the Rosetta Stone one.
I tried learning German with Pimsleur years ago, and I found that it kind of expects you to already know quite a bit of grammar and vocabulary. I wouldn’t recommend it if you know nothing.
The Rosetta Stone starts you right from the beginning and it’s a good tool for learning basic vocabulary such as common nouns, numbers, how to tell the time. etc. The Polish version is pretty good.
I also tried the Russian version. I didn’t get far enough in either (luckily I didn’t buy them :p) to really start solidly understanding Russian or Polish, but I did see the similarities between them. A lot of Polish words sound just like Russian words, except with a different accent.
Russian is probably more worth while to learn though since it is a much more widely spoken language. There is a better chance you will run into a Russian who doesn’t speak English than you are to run into a Polish person who doesn’t.
I hope that helps.