Customer Reviews

Central Europe: Lonely Planet Phrasebook

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This is a good book for those wanting to travel light as they go throughout Europe. Be aware, though, that due to the compact nature of the book and the large number of languages covered, the dictionaries and phrase selections are much smaller than a dedicated language phrasebook. But, if you are traveling light, go this route. It has all the basics. As usual, Lonely Planet has done a very professional and easy-to-read book.

There's just enough vocabulary to ask someone, "who speaks English?" The book is small enough for a pocket, and if you'e doing the Central Europe loop that is recommended by the Lonely Planet Central Europe Guidebook, this should fulfill your basic language requirements for all these countries. The phonetic pronunciation guide left me a little confused, so I looked up some key words with online audio, where native speakers pronounce the words. Then I made little notes in the margin. My experience is that there is little hope that the natives with understand my version of their language, and no hope that I will understand their version of their language. Thus phrasebooks in general are a waste, except to find someone willing to converse in English (very unPC). The most inexpensive offer was from a bookstore in the UK. The price was right, but it took 2 weeks to arrive in the mail.