Middle East: Lonely Planet Phrasebook [Paperback]

Lonely Planet Phrasebooks (Corporate Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2007

The Middle East beckons you. With 8 key languages in this first ever phrasebook to the region, let no barriers - language or culture - get in your way. Find your way to the qahwa (cofee house) for a sheesha (water pipe), and have a chat with some of the world's most hospitable people. Immerse yourself in the culture section packed with fascinating and useful info on this unique region.

Our phrasebooks give you a comprehensive mix of practical and social words and phrases in more than 120 languages. Chat with the locals and discover their culture - a guaranteed way to enrich your travel experience.

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

Who We Are
At Lonely Planet, we see our job as inspiring and enabling travelers to connect with the world for their own benefit and for the benefit of the world at large.

What We Do
* We offer travelers the world's richest travel advice, informed by the collective wisdom of over 350 Lonely Planet authors living in 37 countries and fluent in 70 languages.
* We are relentless in finding the special, the unique and the different for travellers wherever they are.
* When we update our guidebooks, we check every listing, in person, every time.
* We always offer the trusted filter for those who are curious, open minded and independent.
* We challenge our growing community of travelers; leading debate and discussion about travel and the world.
* We tell it like it is without fear or favor in service of the travelers; not clouded by any other motive.

What We Believe
We believe that travel leads to a deeper cultural understanding and compassion and therefore a better world.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet; 1 edition (September 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1864502614
• ISBN-13: 978-1864502619
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 3.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #511,105 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting!, July 6, 2008

By 

Laszlo Wagner (Hungary) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Middle East: Lonely Planet Phrasebook (Paperback)

This book offers the phrases any visitor is most likely to need in Turkish, Farsi (Persian), Hebrew, and as many as five different "dialects" of Arabic: Modern Standard, Egyptian, Levantine, Gulf, Tunisian. The variety of Arabic presented is very interesting - I am not aware of any other phrasebook to more than one Arabic dialect.
I did find the phrases were well-selected (and the most important terms in all 8 languages like "please", "thank you", "excuse me" etc. are handily grouped together on the inside of the covers) and the fact that they are accompanied by the original script is very useful, considering how hard to pronounce Arabic can be in particular.
The only reason I give this book only 4 stars is that I'd much rather see Kurdish (spoken by millions in Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria) than Tunisian Arabic in it. Any way I look at it, Tunisia is nowhere near the Middle East, and even without that, 4 Arabic dialects should be enough to get you around the Middle East!

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Mostly useless., July 26, 2008

By 

Vikram Manjunath (Rochester, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Middle East: Lonely Planet Phrasebook (Paperback)

I was just in Syria and Turkey with this phrase book. There are very few useful phrases here. Very little in terms of conversation.

The arabic part is pretty useless since the pronunciation is way off and people have no idea what you're talking about when you use it.

I would suggest saving your money if you're thinking of buying it.

5 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A colossal waste of paper - and money!, May 14, 2008

By 

Atlomt (San Diego, California United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Middle East: Lonely Planet Phrasebook (Paperback)

When I tried to use this phrasebook, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The very first entry for each of the five Arabic dialects is, "Do you speak English?" What?!? If a person who speaks no Arabic, like me, wants to converse with a native Arabic speaker, s/he should ask, "Do you speak English?" IN ENGLISH! Believe me, you will know the answer from the person's facial response. I certainly don't need to pose the question in a language that I am wholly unable to converse in, that's for sure. The very notion is absurd.

Want more laughs? This book is full of them. How about the most useful words to learn in any foreign language: thank you. You can look high and low and you won't find it in this purported phrasebook. Likewise, you will not easily find "Excuse me", "Please", "Hello", or "Goodbye", some of the other most important words you can learn. You will, however, find such useful expressions as "Can you write down the price?" (I'm sure that for one or two persons, the need for that phrase must come up all the time.)

Save your money. You don't want this book.