Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Polish Phrasebook (Lonely Planet Phrasebook: India)

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

 

 

I brought this book to Poland with me, and it proved invaluable to someone like me who only spoke "stupid tourist" Polish. I went to the country knowing virtually nothing about the language, and the book proved invaluable in making simple, stilted communication. Without the book I would have been completely lost. The phonetic pronunciation proves invaluable for a language like Polish where the words don't sound like they look (to a stupid tourist like me).

My one complaint was the occasional presentation of very important words with supplemental information about why the word is important, but without any phonetic pronunciation. The words are essentially useless if you don't know how to say them, and in Polish, that's pretty much all the time. Other than these occasional oversights, the book does a pretty good job of guiding you through the language for basic survival.

I bought this book a few days ago knowing zero Polish. I like this book as it does a great job with phonetical spelling, making it very easy to figure out how to pronounce the words. It's also a good pocket size that you can take with you anywhere if you have a few extra moments to practice on the bus or eating a burrito or something. My goal with this book is to get something that was useful and just allow me to just get an initial foothold in the language that I'll supplement with a more in-depth course. In that regard, it's been great. I already have the basic phrases down. Plus, it's cheap!

This neat little book is much more than just a phrasebook and two-way dictionary! There is a great "chapter" on pronunciation and another great "chapter" on basic grammar. Those two sections are worth the price of the book. They effectively present what some entire books on learning Polish fail to do.

The book is arranged really nicely, too. The content groupings (chapters) and sub groupings (sections) are great for study and quick lookup. The groupings allowed me to see patterns in the language that are just not apparent in my other books.

I have numerous little English-Polish communication books and guides; but, if I could take just one to carry around Poland, it would surely be this one.