Customer Reviews

Berlitz Italian Phrase Book (Berlitz Phrase Books) (Italian Edition)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I had a previous edition of this phrasebook/dictionary when I was stationed in Naples, Italy, and this one is even better! The book will walk you through all of the situations you could expect to encounter on a trip (including emergencies, car repair, car rental, shopping, introductions, etc.). It gives you the phrase to use along with phonetic spelling for pronounciation. A very practical book which, in addition to language, gives you the responses to questions you may encounter. It also gives you technical terms you might not find in a regular dictionary such as a list of automotive components in the section on auto repair or a list of foods in the restaurant section (especially helpful when ordering food). The book is organized by sections (i.e. "Dining Out," "Meeting People," "Renting a Car," "Emergencies!" etc... This saves you from flipping around the dictionary looking up individual words and ushers you methodically through a conversation. Highly recommended.

If you are planning to use this book as a tutorial for an extended stay in Italy, then this book just might be helpful. However, if you want to use it as a simple phrase book AND as a dictionary, it is completely frustrating. Even the most basic words are not located in the dictionary section (most likely because there were included somewhere else in the book). Thus, if you need to quickly look up a word, it is incredibly annoying to sift through all of the sections of the book to figure out where that particular word might be defined.

While the title of the review sounds a bit narrow in focus, you'll probably be spending most of your time in Italy doing one of these things - navigating or eating. Don't even try going to a restaurant without a phrasebook with a thorough section of food like this Berlitz guide has. North Americans may think they have a grasp of Italian dishes, but go to Italy and you'll find out how little we know! I also brought along two other phrasebooks. One of them was written for British tourists, where you'll find eggplant translated as aubergine, and all sorts of other lovely surprises. If you buy one of these phrasebooks, you'd better bring one along that translates dialects of English. :) I highly recommend the Berlitz book for its thoroughness and usefulness. Your time in Italy will be a lot more enjoyable if you bring it along for the ride!

I bought both the Berlitz and Barron's phrase books. This review is a comparison of the two.

They are both small enough to fit in a pocket. The Berlitz is 220 pages, the Barron's 320 pages -- the Barron's is marginally thicker. The Berlitz page seems slightly denser, with more lines per page, although I believe the font sizes used are almost identical (Berlitz sans serif (Arial-like), Barron's serif (Roman-like). The Barron's comes with a plastic cover which seems durable. Both are sorted into sections, for example, travel, eating out, etc. Berlitz has a 12 page menu reader. The Barron's covers a little more in 26 pages, including a guide to regional specialties. Barron's has a 47 page Italian-English and English-Italian dictionary. Berlitz is about the same. Both show Italian pronunciations in a phonentically English spelling. Barron's has a larger section on Italian grammar. Both have a good table of contents; only Barron's has an index as well. One small complaint with the copy of the Berlitz I received -- the print flows into the gutter (the spine of the book) too far, so that one has to really bend open the book to read the entire line. I think this will make the book fall apart sooner. One small complaint with the Barron's -- in a few cases they print black font on a dark color background for page headings (e.g., "Telling Time," "Months of the Year") which makes the headings difficult to read.

They are very comparable and both will do the job. Both can server not only as a travel guide, but also as a vocabulary builder for an Italian class. My overall impression is that the Barron's is marginally better.

Having this book in Italy really improved my experience and my Italian. It is great from the English to Italian standpoint, but for translating Italian back to English, you still really need an Italian-English/English-Italian dictionary along with you. The nice thing about this book is its small size. It fits nicely into your pocket and you can leave your dictionary in a backpack for less frequent uses. The best tip I can give is this: when you're interacting with locals, just try and muddle through, ignoring the phrases you don't remember. Then, afterwards, go back and find the phrase you needed. It'll be more likely to stick with you then.

Despite two years of high school Italian, my skills are pretty weak but I know the basic grammar, conjugation, etc. This book was a wonderful resource for two weeks in Italy as well as a handy way of reviewing those old lessons. Yes, it would have been nice to have a larger vocabulary coverage, but that then leads to a book too difficult to keep in one's pocket. The vocabulary coverage was still quite good and key phrases were well organized. For those that have had some basic Italian, there are some more advanced lessons for tenses, forming adverbs, etc.

Using this book does require a bit of flexibility and don't expect to find everything in a split second. It helps to skim through the book in advance and always keep it by your side.

Berlitz Italian is respectably OK actually, but it's structured to be a lot more useful for you in emergencies and under unusual circumstances than for actual utilizing any Italian(however minimal perhaps) on a daily basis. So, if you're the nervous type, worried about what may happen and you want the Italian for such in your pocket, then this phrase book will suit you. If you want to exchange simple comments with Italian folk, answer questions about yourself in Italian, ask directions (and understand the answers), then Berlitz is not going to be as useful to you as say, Rough Guide Italian, or even Lonely Planet Italian will be.

Lonely Planet Italian, for instance, is basically two helpings of basic grammar followed by many sections of phases you won't likely ever use. For instance, the guide provides several pages each of lists of occupations, nationalities, college majors, items of stationary, colors, insects, flowers, camping terms,and so on. Also provided are pat phrases to employ at a hotel's front desk, at a doctor's, at the optometrist, and eating out, among other mini-sections. The book, in effect, is set up to be taken out to be used once a day, if that.

It's an improvement on Berlitz phrase books, but not by much. Berlitz, in comparison, simply divides their books into 10 or so color coded sections such as: "sightseeing," "relaxing," "shopping," traveling around," "money," "eating out," etc. So, if you want to ask someone a casual question, for example, you have thumb to the "relaxing" section and then choose one of the half dozen choices there. If nothing suits your situation, oh well, tough luck.

Rough Guide Italian, in comparison, is structured completely differently. The first several dozen pages give you numbers, days of the week, time, etc., and a 20 minute course in grammar. Oh no, you might be saying, but it is presented very simply. For instance it presents a handful of common verbs and their conjugations. So on one page you can see how to say "I have," "he has, " etc. and "I like," "he/ she likes," etc. The rest of the book is split between an English-Italian dictionary, an Italian-English dictionary, and a multi-page menu reader. What makes the English-Italian dictionary pages unique, though, is that most every other page (at least) has dialogue boxes relating to the most useful word(s) on that particular page. For instance, when you thumb through the book for the word "live," you get the word itself, but also the phrases "I live in..." and "Where do you live?" It'll take you 10 minutes to find such a phrase in Berlitz or Lonely Planet in their "getting to know others' or 'relaxing' sections. But because Rough Guide is structured as a dictionary, with hundreds of really useful phrases highlighted in boxes within, you can access something you want to say rather swiftly...and actually deliver it just a minute or so after looking for it. Add the grammar section, where you learn useful verbs and how to conjugate their past tenses, and the number section, and you can easily learn to chat with someone about where you are from, where you are going, where you have traveled thus far, what you like/liked, and so on. Likewise, knowing how to say "have" makes it easy to ask whether a hotel has rooms, whether the room has a shower (after thumbing through the book for the word for shower), etc. And when the answer comes back that the hotel doesn't have one, or they say "we have...," you can actually catch what they are saying.

If still not persuaded, next time you're in a bookstore compare a Berlitz, a Lonely Planet, and a Rough Guide language phrase book side by side. If you just want a book for emergencies (say, breaking a leg, etc.) then Berlitz and/or Lonely Planet phrase books will serve you well...in your pocket until you are faced with such a situation, since they do have many more specific terms (like 50 different parts of the the body), but if you really want to be able to say some things in Italian on a daily basis during your trip you'll be much better served byThe Rough Guide to Italian Dictionary Phrasebook 3 (Rough Guide Phrasebooks). Cheers

Thank you very much for my Italian Phrase book and dictionary I love it and carry it everywhere I go to practice my Italian.My dream is to live in Tuscany Italy and this book is really helping me learn the language. it is easy to read and understand, i just love it.Thank you Amazon for the prompt and efficient service all the way to Australia for me.The book arrived in perfect condition and your price for the book was very cheap.Regards Margaret

I'm surprised that other people don't like this book - I LOVE IT! It's small and fantastic for quick references, culture tips, needed phrases, and most of all, knowing what the countries food is all about :) It's not good for becoming fluent in the language - you'll probably want a text book, audio CDs, and computer programs for that. THIS book is small enough to travel with and provide you with pronunciation guidelines and what to say to someone in a pinch. Plus, it's $9.00 - you can't go wrong!

I bought one of these books with the CD and another book for my husband. It is perfect for our trip to Italy. I bought two other sets of Italian phrase books with CD, before this and found them impractical. They covered much more Italian than I would ever need or be able to learn.

This book has everything a traveler needs laid out in chapters: At the Airport, At the Restaurant; At the Hotel; Greetings, etc. It's too bad it took me three tries to find it.