Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Costa Rica Spanish Phrasebook (Lonely Planet Phrasebook: India) (Spanish Edition)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

As a professor of Spanish I was hoping to find a good phrasebook on Costa Rican Spanish for a group of students that will be studying in San Jose next summer. I have always used Lonely Planet's guides when travelling abroad. However, I was very disappointed with this phrasebook. Beginning with the explanation of pronunciation, which is basically a guide to pronouncing Spanish with a strong American accent, the book is full of elementary mistakes regarding grammar, vocabulary and phonetics. For example, the "o" in Spanish is never pronounced as the "o" in "hot". There are similar mistakes throughout the pronunciation section. Perhaps one of the most important facts about Costa Rican Spanish is the complete absence of the subject pronoun "tu" (you) and its accompanying verb conjugations, as is the case in most of Central America, Argentina and many regions throughout Latin America. All Costa Ricans either use the more formal "usted" or the less formal "vos". You will never hear "tu tienes" (you have) in Costa Rica but rather "vos tenes". But this phrasebook claims that the "vos" forms are less common than "tu", when in fact the later doesn't even exist there. There are many more mistakes in the explanation of grammar, the subjunctive, "ser" and "estar", and others. The rest of the book is a series of phrases with the English translation. You would assume that Lonely Planet would have the resources to provide better material for travelers.

As a Costa Rican living in the US, I often think of my beautiful home country. This book, by Thomas Kohnstamm, brought back many memories of home and brought a smile to my face. It is accurate and contains many quirks of Tico culture and language that I had started to forget about. I especially like it because it is respectful of our culture and appreciates our land and people. It does not treat Costa Rica just as another travel destination. If you plan to visit Costa Rica you should definitely check out this book.

I was extremely pleased to see that Lonely Planet came out with a phrasebook specific to Costa Rica. Prior to this, they (and most other guidebook companies) had only general Latin American Spanish phrasebooks. This was silly as Spanish varies considerably from country to country in Latin America. The author, Mr. Kohnstamm, does an amazing job of including the nuances of the Costa Rican dialect while offering interesting cultural insight and traveling tips. This book is perhaps a little over the head of your average tour group or package tourist. However, for those who see travel as a way or life and as an art form, this is an indispensible text. Costa Rica is a travel hot spot and sees greater numbers of foreign visitors each year. This phrasebook will help the reader to respect the local culture and conduct themselves in an efficient, responsible manner while traveling in Costa Rica. I highly recommend this phrasebook to anyone plannning to live, study or take an extended trip to Costa Rica.

This book was pretty much my bible when I spent 6 weeks in beautiful Costa Rica this winter. I was studying Spanish in Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. All of us students were clutching this book, especially the first couple of weeks. The phrasebook has a complete listing of words for any situation. It saved my life getting busses, ordering in restaurants, meeting new people, getting directions, talking politics and even talking with biologists. And, I really appreciated the listing of tico words, cultural tidbits, and Costa Rican expressions. The most entertaining chapter in the phrasebook has to be the "Dating and Romance" section where everything from "Can I buy you a drink" to "Can I take you home" and finally "Will you marry me" is translated! Oh yes, and "This isn't working out!" In any event, I highly recommend this book to novice Spanish speakers, in Costa Rica. It will help you get by on either a short or long stay. Pura vida!

P.S. That guy from Forest Hill NY who considers running down rare birds in Costa Rica on his motorcycle to be at worst a form of entertainment... at best, something funny to joke about (see review of Lonely Planet Costa Rica Guidebook).... kinda lacks social skills and should be banned from any tropical paradise where he is not confined to the grounds of the local Club Med. IMHO. :)

I agree with several of the criticisms raised about this book. Imagine if you picked up a phrasebook for your native region and found mistake after mistake about your native language and about how you and your fellow countrymen and women speak the language. Most of the tourists who rate this book excellent probably do so because they don't understand Costa Rican Spanish and because the were able to use some of the phrases and be understood while in Costa Rica. This is fine but they should also know that many of the phrases are incorrect. The point is if you are going to publish something and claim this is the way an entire country of people speak then it should be accurate and at the very least be free of all the grammar mistakes that this book has. It is also true as one reviewer points out that here in Costa Rica we do not use tu but vos or actually usted unless you know the person very well and are being informal. This is a major mistake considering the book is supposed to help foreigners fit in. I could not recommend this book to anyone.

I bought this book and faithfully kept it with me during my two-week trip to Costa Rica in 2003. I went to a rural area on the Pacific coast where English speakers were few and far between. I found the phrase book to be annoying because everytime I tried to find something in it, I couldn't! All I could seem to find was how to ask a girl to dance or to ask if she has Herpes. The short phrase sections in the guidebooks I brought were much more helpful.

And a tip: Ticos under the age of about 16 generally all understand some English thanks to the excellent Costa Rican school system whereas anyone over 30 is hit-or-miss.

I am the author of this phrasebook and would like to respond to recent criticisms on the content of the book. Please excuse my star rating of my own text, but ... will not let you post a review without a rating. I would like to make 3 basic points.

1. This is a phrasebook for travellers, it is not the official Costa Rican Colloquial Dictionary, nor a list of idiomatic expressions. It was written to help travellers to conduct themselves in Costa Rica, not to determine every aspect of the Costa Rican dialect. Many of the more esoteric expressions that were originally included in the book were cut in order to appeal to Lonely Planet's market. Once again, this was not intended to be a dictionary for Ticos.

2. There was consultation and editorial assistance by a bilingual Costa Rican throughout the entire writing process. He is credited in the acknowledgements. Although I am not a native speaker, my experience in different parts of Latin America enables be to determine regional differences in the language.

3. This is a unique book, unlike other phrasebooks on Latin American Spanish. Perhaps if Mr. Mora were not Costa Rican, he would have the perspective to see how the Spanish in the book differs from the Spanish of other parts of Latin America and other phrasebooks. He is taking many of the vocabulary and grammar nuances for granted.

This is a phrasebook to help travellers to communicate and conduct themselves specifically in Costa Rica. If that is what you want, this book will help you in ways that other phrasebooks cannot. Thank you, Thomas

I am so glad I read through the Amazon reviews on this book before purchasing. I realized before I left that I wasn't looking for a treatise on grammar or an indepth look at the local idiosyncracies of the Spanish language. I already speak Spanish (Intermediate-High, ACTFL rating)and, even though I learned my Spanish at school in Monterrey, Mexico, I have been able to successfully navigate around Spanish-speaking countries all over the world. I wanted a phrasebook that would allow me to understand how to visit this delightful country respecting local cutural standards, and that's exactly what this book did. Just as I used the usted and ustedes forms in Spain, and polite and educated people understood me, I was able to use tienes, and the occasional tú, in Costa Rica without creating any confusion. The important thing is that the people, educated or otherwise, in Costa Rica appreciated the fact that I wanted to visit their country and learn more about their culture, and was willing to (use this book in order to) be a respectful visitor. I think it's a wonderful book, albeit not an all all-inclusive resource, but then, what book at this price is? For us average folks touristing the world, this is well worth every cent.

Just for the author's attention in the dating and romance section the phrase "sacate" does NOT mean take off your clothes, and it can be taken as a very vulgar remark in Spanish. Just one many mistakes in Spanish that this book has.

I took this book with me on a 3 week vacation summer 2004. It was so helpful that I kept it in my pocket or purse at all times and referred to it often. I was able to look up 90% of what I wanted to say and was able to communicate pretty well. The people I met were very patient and kind and helped me with my Spanish... even complimented me when I left the country that I had learned a lot of Spanish. The other book I would take is a English/Spanish pocket dictionary for those words that aren't included in this wonderful book. I highly recommend it!