Mastering Polish [With 2 CDs]

by Albert Juszczak

This course, designed for both individual and classroom use, assume no previous knowledge of a language. The combination of practical exercises and step-by-step grammar emphasises a functional... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0781810655
• ISBN13: 9780781810654
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Hippocrene Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Good grammar guide

This book is handy because it covers grammar principals at the basic conversational level and includes English translations.

Not for idiots

I'm trying to learn Polish, the language of my ancestors, and I was immediately drawn to this book (which comes with two audio CD's) because the conversations are not just about shopping, dining, arranging transportation and checking into hotels. Instead, there is a much more interesting range of scenarios, including visits to a forest preserve, a concert, a university, a relative's garden, an art gallery, an author's reading and more. Albert Juszczak has created a basic language course that has one discussing the science fiction of Stanislaw Lem and pianist Garrick Ohlsson's mastery of Chopin. The grammar exercises are equally high-minded and engagingly accessible. Generally in language instruction, I find I am bored by the lesson content while trying to grasp the linguistic form, but that is not the case here. Bravo, Dr. Juszczak!

An interesting grammar

Doctor Juszczak produced a good grammar with some very thoughtful and entertaining practice conversations. The vocabulary is much of what you would have in other languages' grammars, i.e., the words for airplane, passport, etc. What sets this book apart is the vocabulary of ordinary people meeting and chatting with each other about all sorts of everyday things from doorknobs to tomatoes to ambulances. For a grammar of its size and breadth, it covers a lot of ground. I used it as Doctor's student and commented in our evaluation at course end on a few missed points of grammar, the lack of tables explaining a little more of the special ways Polish verbs are conjugated and the ways nouns, pronouns and adjectives are declined. This is not meant to be a very deeply technical grammar. It's good and interesting and just nicely different from grammars I'm used to from other languages I have been able to study. (The cassette tape which is also available is a nice thing to have.) For the price, it's certainly worth having. Other grammars can get down to the nitty gritty. This one is a good people kind of grammar.