Reviews

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Bookstores/Libraries

Schoenhof's Website Is a Window to the World

5 Arabic, Dutch, English, French, General, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Yiddish, Websites, Bookstores/Libraries, Kids

Founded in 1856, Schoenhof’s claims to have the “largest collection of foreign books in North America.” As a student at Harvard, I used to shop at their main store in Harvard Square for my language and literature course materials. I…

Inside Polonia Bookstore

4 Polish, Bookstores/Libraries

This Greenpoint bookstore has many books for native and fluent Polish speakers, as well as materials for Polish language learners. I went there looking for language books for beginners, and the employees were very helpful. There were indeed a…

Robin Cook and Tom Clancy in Polish!

3 Polish, Bookstores/Libraries

This Greenpoint store definitely has books in Polish, but if you are looking for books about Polish, it’s probably not the best destination. At least when I was there (this was in mid-2011), they had…

The Greenpoint Public Library

5 Polish, Bookstores/Libraries, Kids

Greenpoint’s public library is full of Polish books. When I visited in 2011, I met librarian Izabela Barry, who is originally from Poland and who had at that time been at the library for nine years. During her tenure she…

For the Kids: Polish Memory Cards

5 English, General, Polish, Bookstores/Libraries, Kids

This lovely independent bookstore in Greenpoint has all kinds of books in English, but what caught my eye when I stopped by in 2011 is that it also had Polish books for children. Not huge numbers of them, but between those…

Mid-Manhattan Library, at 40th and Fifth

4-5 Arabic, Dutch, English, French, General, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Yiddish, Bookstores/Libraries, Kids

The Mid-Manhattan Library, at 40th Street and Fifth Avenue, is the main language-learning repository of the New York Public Library. I used it a lot in 2009 and 2010, mostly for Pimsleur audio lessons, but also borrowed books and other resources as…