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Beginning Polish by Schenker | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| Lusan Diglot Newbie United States Joined 3793 days ago 35 posts - 53 votes  Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Polish | Message 1 of 4 20 March 2014 at 2:11am | IP Logged | ||
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"Beginning Polish, volume 1, by Schenker, I heard, has a fsi approach and the books and
the audio are available. I began making plans to use it in my Polish journey. Has anyone use it to learn Polish? Care about sharing a working strategy? Thanks. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Speakeasy Senior Member Canada Joined 3903 days ago 507 posts - 1098 votes Studies: German | Message 2 of 4 20 March 2014 at 10:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hello Lusan,
The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) was one of the sponsors of "Beginning Polish" by Schenker. The course follows the same format of the FSI Basic courses that were published in the 1960's; that is, essentially, a dialogue with accompanying notes, followed by drills (substitution, repetition, variation, etcetera). You mentioned Volume 1 only. Please note that Volume 2 is an "accompanying" manual, NOT a "follow-up" manual, to Volume 1. It contains additional exercise material and an extensive presention of Polish grammar. I recommend that you purchase Volume 2 and work with both volumes simultaneously. You are probably already aware that the audio files for both volumes are freely available at YALE UNIVERSITY. If not, here's the LINK: http://archive.cls.yale.edu/polish/ As to your question asking if anyone has used this course, I started it and truly appreciated the quality of the material. But then again, I respond well to the FSI-style of instruction. You should be aware that, while the material is quite extensive, as for the FSI courses, it was designed to be presented in a classroom by a competent instructor; so, there might be some gaps. I have not yet completed the course because I devote most of mine study time to trying to improve my German. Nonetheless, I enjoyed working with the Schenker course and I intend returning to it. I have a few friends who were born and raised in Poland and they are quite impressed by the material. Although "some" of the vocabulary is outdated, most of it is still quite relevant. I suspect that they are other discussion threads that deal with the Polish language and/or with the Schenker course. Perhaps some other member can dig them up for you (I'm not sure how to do this). Hope this helps! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Lusan Diglot Newbie United States Joined 3793 days ago 35 posts - 53 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Polish | Message 3 of 4 21 March 2014 at 12:26am | IP Logged | ||
I have both volumes. Did you work with vol 1 and 2 simultaneously? I was planning to use only volume 1 and use volume 2 as supplement but not worked on. This is a lot of material. I thought that 3 passes through the drills of vol 1 and learning its grammar would be helpful and enough to start activating my passive vocabulary. I have looked into Oscar Swan approach which some people like. I did not because I love drills. I used drills in high school with a method called 'English 900'. A bunch of drills and dialogues that I memorized. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Speakeasy Senior Member Canada Joined 3903 days ago 507 posts - 1098 votes Studies: German | Message 4 of 4 21 March 2014 at 2:14am | IP Logged | ||
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Hi Lusan,
FSI-STYLE POLISH COURSES: The two volumes of Beginning Polish actually contain somewhat less material than the FSI Basic courses for Spanish, French, and German, all of which are renowned for their thoroughness and rigour. It is not at all surprising that some independent learners find these types of courses overwhelming when compared to many commercial courses; the sheer mass of material can be quite discouraging and many people never complete them. As to their usefulness, I suspect that personal preferences, learning styles, goals, needs, and just-plain-old personal opinions will be the deciding factors. I chose to use the Beginning Polish volumes 1 and 2 simultaneously because I found that the additional drills helped me absorb the sentence patterns. I found that the grammar section in volume 2 exceeded my immediate needs and I relied on McGraw-Hill's "Polish Verbs & Essentials of Grammar", by Oscar E. Swan for a basic understanding of the structure of the language. I also tried working with Oscar Swan's "First Year Polish" (second edition), which I found every bit as good as the Schenker text. The underlying approach is, to my mind, virtually identical to the FSI-style method that Schenker adopted and, for me, the differences between the two books are superficial. Ultimately, they both contain similar amount of drills and exercises; they're merely presented differently. Sound Files for Oscar Swan's "First Year Polish" You can find SOME (but not all) of the sound files for the Swan text in the University of Pittsburgh archives. Note carefully that these are "aiff" files. You can convert them to mp3 format via numerous file managers. Here's the LINK: http://polish.slavic.pitt.edu/CDs/FYP-CDs/ You can find ALL the sound files (along with additional files) for the Swan text at the Ohio State online bookstore. Here's the LINK: http://flpubs.osu.edu/cataloglist.cfm UNE ALTERNATIVE: If your French is up to the challenge, you might try ASSIMIL LE POLONAIS. While the Assimil courses do NOT use the sentence-pattern drill approach that the FSI-style courses do, massive repetition of the short sentences and dialogues can, to a limited extent, mirror the FSI-style approach. However, even if your French is at the C2 level, you'll have to consult a separate Grammar, as, in my opinion, grammar is the major weakness of the Assimil (Grammar is presented as a running narrative. If you already you know what they're talking about, the notes make sense. However, if you do not already you know what they're talking about, the notes can be quite opaque). D'AUTRES COMMENTAIRES? Lusan, I think that's all I can really say, for now. I invite comments and advice from others who have studied Polish, or who are currently doing so, or who are native-speakers, or who have broad experience with a number of language-learning methods, even if it means only directing Lusan to other discussion threads. Merci à l'avance! Edited by Speakeasy on 21 March 2014 at 2:17am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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