I'm Looking for Someone to Teach My 4Yr Old Polish

B.,
If you are in Chicago area, here are many Saturday schools next to many polish churches. Find one in you nieghborhood, they usualy take kids from 3-4 years up for few hours on Saturday. Kids learn best being around kids so...or you hire grandma who speaks Polish:) like mine
Good luck
Lili

I have a friend who speaks Polish. Her grandparents spoke nothing but Polish, so she had to be able to communicate with them. She hasn't taught anyone the language that I'm aware of, but I'm sure it wouldn't be hard for her to come up with a plan (such as teaching the alphabet and numbers to ten first, then moving on accordingly). I began speaking in German to my daughter when she was 5. Just the general that I can remember (danke, bitte bitte, ich liebe dich, how to count, etc). They do pick it up pretty fast, but it's the dialect that needs work. But if you want, I can always pass along her information.

St. Cyril's, in Lemont, offers Polish school every Saturday. You may want to look into that. There is information on their website, www.stcyril.org, about the Polish School.

I don't know tutoring, but I've been learning more Polish through free podcasts downloaded from itunes.

My suggestion would be to go to the family members who speek Polish and ask them for help. Wouldn't they appreciate your interest? Wouldn't they enjoy sharing their heritage with you and your family? If this is not a possibility because of distance or some other reason, they may be willing to help you practice when you do get together.

Hi,
Somebody has mentioned that already,there are polish saturday schools in Chicago and some of the suburbs. My girlfriend's daughters go to Schaumburg and Chicago polish saturday schools. I can get more information from her if you are interested. Most of those schools are in Chicago.If you prefer at home tutoring you could call those places and ask for at home tutors. I know a lady who is a teacher of polish, maybe she would be willing to teach polish at home.
There are also other options, but I'm not sure if that's what you are looking for: Wright College provides polish classes,there is also Polish Teachers Association in Chicago, they might have tutors. If it's for kids -I think the best way to learn another language is through the games and contact with other polish speaking kids. How about finding some polish friends for you and for your kids? You could meet for playdates.That would also help in learning another language,and could be fun too.

From an educational stand point we don't begin teaching the 2nd language until the child is grounded in English about 4th grade. Children from a bilingual home must often be tutored in English as it is often times below the average for admittance to school b/c of the use of another language at home. Just be careful and have fun.

Hi B.,
I don't know where you live, however, there is a Polish school in Algonquin. There is a class once a week held at St. Margaret Mary (that's where my 4 year old daughter goes). Classes will be ending the end of May but will resume again in early fall. I know you can "volunteer" in the classroom or while your child is at class you can attend a class at the same time just for adults who would like to learn Polish. If you would like more info. you can phone me 847/658-2128. Hope that helps!!!!
R.

My husband is also 100% Polish and teaching our kids the language. The only luck I have had is at our local church, it has Polish school. I have not contacted them to see at what age they start, I was thinking at age 4 of sending our kids. I am also considering buying a computer program, Rosetta Stone, to learn Polish myslef. Good Luck...I found no place in our area that has any Polish classes.

If you live in a major metropolitan area, there might be Polish agencies or groups that can help you. In my area, they teach Polish for credit at UIC (University of Illinois, Chicago) and for non credit at various local community colleges. You can also find tapes at the local library or even buy a set on your own. What does FILS mean? Ask your relatives to help, especially with your daughters. With children you start teaching a different language slowly. I learned some Lithuanian and Polish from my grandparents and great-grandma who spoke little English. I have the pronunciation down fairly well.

Another idea is to watch tv. We have a station in Chicago that has various different language programs. Even though I don't understand 99% of what they say sometimes, at others I get the idea. It helps.

Check out your local library for resources as well. Good luck.

My nanny tutors kids in Polish. She lives in the western suburbs and typically comes to the student's home. She was a teacher in Poland and speaks excellent English. Email me at ____@____.com and I will send you her contact info and find out how much she charges.

I asked my brother in law's girlfriend who is 100% polish if she had any suggestions. She said to look into polish schools. They are usually on Saturdays from 9 to noon or from noon to 2:30 at almost every single polish catholic church. The cost is like $200 a year and they teach kids everything from Polish language to the culture.