Product Description

This stand-alone, all-audio course can be used by those who have little or no knowledge of the language, by those who want to learn or brush up basic conversation skills, and by more advanced learners who want require extra audio material to complement their current courses.

The ten units or 'conversations' cover the situations you are most likely to find yourself in while on holiday or on business abroad. They are divided into two parts, with a dialogue in each part. The dialogue in Part 2 reuses the vocabulary and phrases from Part 1 in a slightly different context. Both parts start with an introduction to the words and phrases you'll need, followed by the dialogue. Finally it's 'Over to you': you take part in the same dialogues following the English prompts, playing all the roles in turn. So you get lots of opportunity to practise! Frequent track markers divide the CDs up into short, easy-to-use clips.

Vocabulary and phrases in the first two CDs are kept to the basics and are introduced gradually with lots of opportunity to repeat and practise, to improve your confidence in both speaking and understanding. The third CD concentrates on helping you improve your understanding, so that you will be able to hold two-way conversations with people who speak very fast or use words and phrases you do not know.

The course comes on three 75-minute CDs and has an accompanying 48-page booklet which gives the dialogues and the translations of the dialogues, for those who like to see the written word or want additional practice. The booklet also provides a basic glossary of the words and phrases used.
This is the perfect complement to 'Polish' in the 'Teach Yourself' range.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #150181 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-24
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Binding: Audio CD

Review
"I am a big fan of this series. Commercial packaging, simple concept and a competitive price make these well worth trying....One to watch." (The Bookseller )

About the Author
Joanna Michalak-Gray is an experienced teacher of Polish to English-speaking students from all walks of life. Since 1993 she has been a GCSE examinations scrutineer.

Customer Reviews

Good introduction
Having dabbled with various languages I thought I would learn some basic Polish as I have the opportunity to practice on various people I encounter on a daily basis. I have been very impressed with Teach Yourself Polish Conversation - it has kept my interest (the first failing point for many language courses), covered some useful vocabulary organised into various scenarios, and repeated things enough times for me to pick them up. The only downsides are that the vocabulary never goes quite far enough and that some words that I am very unlikely to use have been included at the expense of space that could have been used for something else (e.g. port cutlets do not appear high in my list of items that I ask for). Teach Yourself Polish Conversation is good for getting you started, getting you hooked and building some confidence, but it won't make you fluent and won't give you enough vocabulary to survive in Polish alone. Start here, but expect to buy other courses afterwards.

Note added June 2008 - having just returned from a holiday travelling around north east Poland, I have discovered that knowing about pork cutlets is actually very useful. Have also discovered that Teach Yourself Polish Conversation is even more useful than I expected. Although I have worked through other courses and taken classes since using TYPC, my wife had only had time to work through half of TYPC and had done no other Polish studies. Even so, what she had learnt from TYPC gave her the confidence to order food, buy stamps and postcards in the Post Office etc. She was very surprised at how useful even the first half of TYPC turned out to be.

Good value
I have only just started with this course, having spent the last few weeks working with 'Collins Easy Learning Polish', an equivalent CD. If you are only buying one then buy the Collins, but this seems like a good offering. I like the way they explain points of grammar amongst the other spoken material. As someone mentioned, the music on this course gets very annoying, but overall I am finding it quite accessible.
I have pretty much everything Amazon has to offer on learning Polish, so while you are reading this, let me also recommend the best book to buy to help: 'Polish Verbs and Essentials of Grammar'(Oscar Swan, Mcgraw Hill). Of course you will want more written material but that book is nicely laid out and has been extremely helpful.

Polish made easier
Bought this item after enjoying Polish in a Day, thought it would make my visit to Poland easier. Would have liked a bit more about using a car in Poland as we drove around. I found the music between each section really irritating after the first few times of going back over a section. Would have prefered another way to distinguish each section.

My Polish friend thought my accent was good and was very impressed.

i would like to do some written Polish to help with reading menu's signs etc.