Costa Rican Spanish: Lonely Planet Phrasebook [Paperback]

Thomas Kohnstamm (Author), Lonely Planet Phrasebooks (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2006

Lounging around in a resort will make great use of your English. You could, however, grab this phrasebook and trade tiquismos with the Ticos, chase the best beach break, track down a toucan and go home knowing you’ve had an all-round pura vida time.

Editorial Reviews

Review

National Geographic Traveler, September 2006
'Lonely Planet Phrasebooks. Portable, pocket-size, cheap, and available for almost any country you might want to visit...'

From the Publisher

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet; 2 edition (September 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1740591194
• ISBN-13: 978-1740591195
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 3.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #701,365 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Inferior to previous edition, February 4, 2007

By 

PDSF (SF, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Costa Rican Spanish: Lonely Planet Phrasebook (Paperback)

This 2nd edition is more than just a beauty cleanup of the 1st. It completely changes the content, the intent and therefore the usefulness of the book. It is full of pronunciations, painstakingly spelled out as if someone was going to read them preferentially over the Spanish words. It's sort of lame, because Spanish pronunciation is basically invariable (accents aren't, of course) and if you are having trouble with it that is best fixed with a different book. It seems like there is less information, because a big chunk of the page has gone over to pronunciations. It has been scrubbed of most of the sketchier inclusions of the 1st edition, which are fun. The very useful verb endings charts and some of the Tiquismo sidebars are gone. I also find the typeface harder to read in dim light, especially the dictionary. On the plus side, it is prettier, and perhaps better organized and easier to find information.

I had my 1st edition stolen while down there. I hadn't been in a hurry to replace it, but the minute I received this 2nd edition, I scoured the 'net to locate another 1st. You should consider the same.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Some improvements, March 6, 2007

By 

John M. Hall (Alabama, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Costa Rican Spanish: Lonely Planet Phrasebook (Paperback)

This new edition has corrected some of the mistakes I pointed out in a previous review and in an email exchange with the author. As I thumbed through the book I didn't see any "tu" conjugations, only "vos" and "usted". This is much more accurate for Costa Rican Spanish and was a blunder in the first edition. There is also an explanation at the beginning of the book about Costa Rican Spanish, which includes mention of the predominance of the voseo en Costa Rica. Nonetheless, I still give the book one star for two reasons. First the pronunciation section, as Mr. Kohnstamm informed me, was done by someone from Australia (if I remember right). So if you are from the U.S. several of the pronunciations are incorrect. Second, it only took me about a minute of looking through the book to see several mistakes in grammar and translation. Example: "Si vengas a Costa Rica..." should be "Si viene/venis a Costa Rica..." and "Adonde es la sala ejecutiva?" should be "Donde esta la sala ejecutiva?". These types of mistakes really stand out and defeat the purpose of the book, which is to help English-speaking tourists fit in and learn correct phrases for interacting with the locals... at least I think that is the purpose here.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars OK for beginners, November 21, 2009

By 

William "WG" (Aurora, Colombia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Costa Rican Spanish: Lonely Planet Phrasebook (Paperback)

Book is fine for beginning Spanish speakers but only somewhat useful to semi-fluent Spanish speakers.