How would you start learning Polish? (Any tips?)

[OCCASVS]

I would recommend Pimsleur Polish (30 lessons edition) to anyone. At the beginning it's especially important to develop an intuition sense with the language.

And I would strongly discourage against learning grammar rules, other than the very basics. This language is so full of exceptions, that even the native speakers have trouble with it. I am not exaggerating!

[William Camden]

Polish is something of a heritage language for me, it was also a small part of my university course in Scotland although the main languages studied were German and Russian. I used quite a good beginner's textbook for Polish but I no longer have it and have forgotten the author's name - it was a paperback with a grey cover, published in the UK c.1980. It was good for learning elementary Polish although it would hardly get you to fluency.
Despite some early exposure to it I have largely approached Polish via Russian, whose grammar is quite similar and whose vocabulary is also somewhat like Polish.

[William Camden]

Also, I have occasionally gone to cafés where the staff are Poles, just to practise my Polish. Depending on your local circumstances that may be an option for you.

[Longinus]

Others have already posted excellent reviews of the available materials, but there is one additional resource that I would bring to your attention. It is the single best language-learning podcast that I have seen. The site is http://realpolish.pl/. There is a very large amount of free material, and some inexpensive paid content also. Strongly recommended.

[milena novak]

"We learn Polish" is really good, yet I don't think it can replace a proper language course. When I decided to take a Polish course, I realized I made mistakes before, when I was learning only from books. Good language course saves your time. The best way to learn Polish is to take a Polish course in Poland. I chose Prolog: www.polishcourses.com. Now I speak pretty good Polish and I understand Polish comedies The nice thing about language courses is that you meet new people. I even think about studying at a Polish university. My friends say it's really good education here and there are great job prospects for people with languages.

[gangies]

In my opinion it would be also good for you to speak with Poles as often as you can and go to some language school like international school Poznań http://www.berlitz.pl/en/poznan. You can also learn other languages here even if you don't know Polish

[Lysander]

The audio for Schenker's Beginning Polish used to be hosted at the Yale website: archive.cls.yale.edu/polish/ This link is now dead. The University seems to have moved things to a new Slavic Languages website, and I cannot find the audio anywhere. I suspect it may be hidden on this Yale-only part of their site now: https://cls.yale.edu/audio

I did find it using the wayback machine here: https://web.archive.org/web/20180201000 ... du/polish/
Unfortunately, though the audio shows like it is playable, it is not. Downloading the files also does nothing.

Does anyone know if any other place to find this audio? I did not see it on yojik's site.

[Speakeasy]

The audio for Schenker's Beginning Polish used to be hosted at the Yale website: archive.cls.yale.edu/polish/ This link is now dead. The University seems to have moved things to a new Slavic Languages website, and I cannot find the audio anywhere. I suspect it may be hidden on this Yale-only part of their site now: https://cls.yale.edu/audio. I did find it using the wayback machine here: https://web.archive.org/web/20180201000 ... du/polish/
Unfortunately, though the audio shows like it is playable, it is not. Downloading the files also does nothing. Does anyone know if any other place to find this audio? I did not see it on yojik's site.

This happened eight years ago and, being young and foolish at the time, I requested that Yale render the audio files once again freely available, which they promptly did. I will try contacting Yale with a view to having access restored (see "update" below). However, there is no guarantee that this will work a second time. Having just checked Indiana University's CeLT Recorded Materials Archive, where the audio was also once available, I notice that it no longer is. Hmm, perhaps there has been a change of ownership to the copyrights or some other problem. This turn of events makes me doubly pleased that I downloaded the audio files some years ago.

UPDATE: I have sent an Email to Yale University requesting that free access to the audio recordings of Alexander Schenker's "Beginning Polish" be restored. Cross your fingers!

[Speakeasy]

UPDATE 2: Audio Files for Alexander Schenker’s Beginning Polish
Not long after sending a request to Yale University that free, public access be restored to the audio files of Alexander Schenker’s Beginning Polish course, I received an automated reply by Email advising me that the Director, World Languages, Yale University was presently away from the office and that he would reply upon his return. That was last weekend. As we are now Wednesday afternoon and as I have not yet received a reply to my request, and giving that we are well into the Summer Vacation Period, I would imagine that the Director is presently on vacation and that, upon his return to the office, he will have to wade through a gillion Emails, decide which ones require his immediate attention and, hopefully, get around to responding to my request by Christmas. Be not dismayed, I shall not allow this matter to expire for want of attention!

PERSONAL OPINION: Free access to the above-named Audio Files
As a side note, should there have been a change of ownership of the copyrights to the above-named audio recordings and should access to these files now be restricted owing to such a change, while I am by no means an expert in such matters, I will offer my personal opinion that, given the free access to these files via the websites of at least two U.S. universities, for over a decade, they are de facto in the public domain. I reiterate, this is but a personal opinion on my part.

EDITED:
Formatting.

[rdearman]

I will offer my personal opinion that, given the free access to these files via the websites of at least two U.S. universities, for over a decade, they are de facto in the public domain. I reiterate, this is but a personal opinion on my part.

Just to clarify, regardless of how many copies of things there are floating around the Internet, it doesn't make them public domain. Just because everyone else on the motorway is speeding doesn't make it legal.