VocabuLearn: Polish, Level 1

By: Penton Overseas Inc.

Narrated by: uncredited

Length: 2 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's Summary

VocabuLearn is the only audio language learning system designed to teach the way you learn best...concentrating on vocabulary and helpful expressions. This three-hour program contains over 1,500 commonly-used words and expressions - the building blocks of language. This audio flash-card system will have you communicating effectively in the shortest time possible. Recommended by educators world-wide, VocabuLearn is prepared by professional instructors and recorded by dialect-free native speakers, giving you the authentic pronunciation of each word. VocabuLearn is ideal for those studying foreign languages. It can also help you prepare for more enjoyable trips to foreign countries...and can even improve your job and business opportunities. Best of all, you can listen to VocabuLearn anywhere...in your car, at home, or on a portable digital audio player - wherever you are. No textbook is required!

(P) and ©1989 Penton Overseas, Inc.

A Boring Waste of Time

This is not the way people learn a language. It might be a cure for insomnia, but as a language tape, it's next to worthless. Try Pimsleur's, if you don't mind the price.

Better sources elsewhere

I listened only to a few minutes of this audio book, and I found it to be a waste of time. Pimsleur is an excellent audio course for learning languages, but they only have Polish 1 (the basic stuff). It is really well done, though. The best book I have ever used for Polish is an old one called "Mowimy po Polsku", which means "we speak Polish." It's a bit hard to find, but you might get lucky on an Internet search.

Too boring

This audiobook only consists of a long list of random words that are read aloud, first in English, then in Polish. After a long list of words, the words are first read in Polish, then English. This is meant as a review exercise, but doesn't work because the list of words is too long, and you don't use the words in a meaningful context. This title should definetely be avoided.

Perfect for increasing vocabulary

Vocabulearn is EXACTLY what it claims to be. It's a list of more than 1500 words (not that I've counted). First a word is given in English, then a pause to let you think of the answer, then the answer is clearly stated in Polish. This process is reversed in the second half of the program. What hasn't been mentioned in previous reviews is that sentences actually are given later in the recording, but not until you have learned a large number of words. I am using it along with Pimsleur and have found that the two audioprograms complement each other very well. Pimsleur focuses on conversations and sentence construction but offers relatively limited vocabulary, whereas Vocabulearn is straight-up vocabulary with limited sentences and context. If all you want to learn is a few phrases like "thank you" and "excuse me," get a phrasebook instead. But if you are trying to become fluent in the language you'll need a large vocabulary, which Vocabulearn will provide.

It is not that bad...

A lot of people here are trashing this vocabulary book/audio. I agree that this shouldn't be your first language experience with Polish, but it is very valuable when you have the basics of grammar down, and are adding vocabulary beyond the most basic first 200 words. I studied Japanese a few years ago, and VocabuLearn really helped increase my vocabulary way beyond the 1,000 - 2,000 worlds in the typical upper beginner level. Now, as I am learning Polish, I like the familiarity of the VocabuLearn system, and together with the booklet (you have to contact them directly to get that), you can learn a lot of words quite quickly with this series. Audible really should provide the PDF booklet here as a download, one star off for not having that available.

Gentle vocabulary practice

This audiobook is exactly what it says, a set of audio flashcards. Each word is very clearly pronounced in English and Polish. It's not a complete language course, but a useful supplement to any other way of learning Polish. I found it helpful for picking up some vocabulary, and easier to follow than In-Flight Polish. The pace is slow and gives you plenty of time to think.

Look elsewhere to learn..

Would you try another book from Penton Overseas, Inc. and/or the narrator?

No, Both my parents were Polish and I can speak, read and write the language. I purchased this book so that a friend could learn the language as she expressed interest in doing so. It was of no help at all. Even I had trouble understanding the spoken examples at times!

Has VocabuLearn turned you off from other books in this genre?

Absolutely.

What didn’t you like about the narrator’s performance?

The voice and spoken examples were unclear

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment in the entire course.

Any additional comments?

Look elsewhere to learn this language.

If you cannot sleep..

I cannot use this. Like others say, its so tedious. Insomnia is never a problem with this purchase.

Terrible Product

This was a terrible product. It is nothing more than repetition of words/sentences with their translations. It doesn't get into any sentence structure or the like - you learn only the phrases that are on the recording, with no way to build sentences ofyour own. Even for a level 1 product, I expected much more.

Useless for me

Long spoken lists of words, with English translation following. There is no contextual point of reference, only the list, and after five minutes or so, I just tuned it out. I tried this audio book no less than six times and each time realized I needed something a bit more.. educational. Pimsleur is the way to go.

Very disappointing.

If you feel listening to someone benignly reading from a dictionary in english followed by someone repeating it in polish, then repeating another word in english followed by polish and so on and so on for three hours will help you learn then this is for you! Personally I have never been so disappointed (or bored) with a purchase and sincerely wish I could claim my money back for this item and it's companion volume 2, which is more of the same.

Confusing

My problem with this mp3 is that half the recording is English words followed by their Polish translation and the other half Polish words followed by their English translation. I was confused as to which I was listening to. Was the polish translation of English the word before or after the English word. So was learning the wrong word? Confusing.