Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Greek Phrasebook (Lonely Planet Language Survival Kit)

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I used this little book while spending a couple of weeks in Greece. While I needed the assistance of English speakers for at least one sticky situation, between the little bit of Greek I learned from friends and this phrasebook, my companion and I got by pretty well. I particularly remember using it in a hotel where the owners didn't speak English, and again while talking with strangers on the phone.

However, the book (at least the edition I used) has at least one major boo-boo: the phrase allegedly meaning "Do you speak English?" actually means "Do you speak Greek?"! You can imagine the reactions you'd get with that mix-up, although most people would likely catch the error, as I did. Still, it does make me wonder what other errors I might *not* have caught . . .

LP's Greece guidebook is great, for phrasebooks I'd say stick to Rough Guides. RG's all-alphabetical organization is far more intuitive. That said, either phrasebook is a good companion to travel, but you'll get a lot more out of it if you take a basic classroom or tape course to learn a bit of grammar and pronunciation (both a bit hard for English speakers), as well as to get used to reading the alphabet (not as hard as it looks).