Customer Reviews

South Pacific: Lonely Planet Phrasebook

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A bit surreal that you can get such a treasure trove of information with such a low price. I would not have minded paying twice to get this. As you may be aware, there're very few books out there about the Polynesian languages, and those few ones available are mostly academic monographs each of which costs you about USD$300. As the previous reviewer remarks, this 300-page book is more about the cultures than the languages, but I think it can serve as a good general introduction to the Polynesian languages (to get a feel of the sounds and the word-shapes, and to know something about those who speak these fancinating languages), before you pick the particular Polynesian language you want to master and work on it with specific books.

Yes, most of this thin book consists of cultural information for the South Pacific islands with just a scattering of common words and phrases in the dialects of each island. But this is just about perfect for the individual traveling from island to island. You're not going to learn the whole language, but you'll get phrases, and the phrases and phrases will be similar from island to island, but not exactly the same. And the locals will often speak a little French or English depending on where you are, and a little bit of the local pidgin. Think of folks on a cruising yacht, or Paul Theroux during his Happy Isles of Oceania writing phase.

A great little book for the island hopper. Pick up something more specific if you want to learn some, for example, Samoan.