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Resources for learning Polish?

Lebannen — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 16:45:10 -0800

What can I buy, download or find online to help me learn as much Polish as possible in the next ten days, with a budget of about £50? I currently have no access to a bricks-and-mortar bookshop to compare different books, and no access to native speakers. I have some words of Polish already, and will be working (again) with native speakers in the near future, but I'd really like to try and get some understanding of grammar (and spelling) before heading back into highly informal attempts to learn new words from guys who have themselves learned most of their English casually.

Beyond achtung and sig heil.

hoverboards don't work on water — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 08:46:54 -0800

My brother and I would like to learn German. Any book recommendations or other tips? We don't know any Germans, so this is probably going to be an exercise in grammar and vocabulary to begin with. Are there any highly regarded teach-yourself books for beginners? Or perhaps useful websites or flashcard programs, or, well... anything? Danke sehr!

Piano for Drop-outs

xanthippe — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 14:28:45 -0800

Help me remember how to play the piano. I played for about eight years, and haven't for nearly as many. When i quit, i knew most of what i needed to know to pick up anything and learn to play it well; sadly, this is no longer quite the case. I'd love some advice on:

1) How to quickly and painlessly jog my memory on music theory (I can still read music - notes, that is - and know my scales, but everything else is like pulling teeth). I can't take lessons, so i'd like to find, in addition to/instead of a book of exercises, some text that will tell me all the things my teacher did so long ago (and, optimally, weighs less than my cat). Like what all those numbers on the left side mean, and what kind of chord that is. And,

2) What composers/pieces i should start with: I will probably grab some flashcards, and some of the recommendations in this thread. What next, and more importantly, how does one generally go about finding pieces that suit one's taste and ability? I used to love playing Bach inventions and sonatinas at super-sonic speeds when i was 14, but i'd like to start with some more mature material while i'm still refreshing my memory. What composers/pieces do you most enjoy playing?

Also, i'm poor and have to have most books that are in English expensively shipped to where i live, so bonus points for online resources. Any websites from which i can print out sheet music?

I have a question on learning programming if you have no programming experience.

TeamBilly — Sun, 30 Jan 2005 08:38:10 -0800

Inspired by this thread on programming languages, I have a question on learning programming if you have no programming experience. (more) I didn't want to derail the other thread because the poster had a very specific question which was answered comprehensively...

If someone wanted to make a complete career shift and begin teaching themselves to code from the ground up, what would be the recommended strategy? For example, I know HTML fairly well, but I also know that HTML is not, in the pure sense, a programming language.

So, aside from the possible "How to Code for Dummies" idea, I'm curious if the more experienced could point someone who has never written a line of compiled code in his life in the right direction. Thank you.