Colloquial Polish (Colloquial Series)

I came to the Polish language with no background (e.g. family) to draw on and over the last couple of years have used a number of introductory textbooks. This is the one I keep coming back to time and time again both to brush up on the basics and as a quick reference guide. I now realise that it doesn't cover every nuance & exception of basic grammer. What it does do is concentrate on what is correct in 99% of situations, thus getting you up and running pretty quickly. It is aso stronger than other books I've used on Polish as it is actually spoken. It also introduces grammar in a logical order given what the language demands.

I don't pretend to be fluent, but I have used the language in Poland with some success so the book works. As somone who is not a natural linguist this is something of an achievement. Additionally if you can conquer the rudiments of Polish (which is one of those languages with a high initial pain barrier), you can get by in Czech, something which I can attest to (although beware of the differences - don't use Polish to ask for a cheese sandwich in Prague!)

As the preface says, this book "is intended to serve as ... a short but detailed review of first principles for ... [amongst others] those who have forgotten the Polish they once knew". Since I am Polish-born I cannot judge whether this book is good or bad for someone who knows no Polish at all, but for me it has proved very useful in getting my broken Polish up to scratch. There are a few inaccuracies in the book (e.g. the whole section on page 58 about family relations) but these should cause the reader no problem if she has a Polish friend to double-check such things with. And this is the rub: you will *not* learn Polish pronunciation from this book (even though there is a detailed section on pronunciation). You must have access to real Polish people or at least cassettes if you are to pronounce Polish, and the book does in fact tell you where you can get cassettes from.