5.0 out of 5 stars
Pocket Size!, April 17, 2005
This review is from: Traveler's German Dictionary (Cortina Dictionary Series) (Paperback)
What a great dictionary for traveling! It actually fits in my pocket! That's not saying it's lacking anything; over 10,000 entries, pronunciation guides, menu reader, grammar & verb tables, and phrases for use abroad! Wow! None finer for the size, and price. Be sure to get one with the free cassette offer! you get a postpaid postcard; you send it, and they send you a free tape that starts you learning to speak, and understand German almost overnight!
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent help to a tourist and student!, March 15, 2005
This review is from: Traveler's German Dictionary (Cortina Dictionary Series) (Paperback)
Clearly, there is only so far a dictionary can get you, but the help it gives is the best I have seen. I never took a German class, but wanted to see Germany, so I went not knowing more than a few words of the language and got this to help me with some of the situations in which knowing a few native words are invaluable.
Important Pros:
1. It included all of the words I needed for travelling (such as reservation, train, hotel), which is more than I can say for other "traveler's" dictionaries I saw. I got another dictionary for Italian, and it was useless, not having these needed words.
2. It gave example sentences of how to carry out necessary interactions (make a reservation, ask for the costs of services, etc.). Admitittedly, I knew how to ask, but didn't necessarily understand the answer, so this only gets you so far. However, I at least was able to try speaking the native language, which I think was appreciated. For the most part, when possible, the speaker switched over to English almost immediately (I kept to the big cities). I also was able to look up enough necessary words ahead of a specific trip so that I could ask broken yes/no questions to people who did not know English and every single one of them really tried to help me.
3. The best part about this dictionary is that it shows you how to pronounce each word using English phonemes. I don't know how to stress the importantance of this for me. After my trip I knew I wanted to return, and have started working on learning the language. This is the book I use to figure out how to prounce the words on my vocabulary list.
Something that needs work:
1. I really thought the menu reader would be useful, but I found very few words on the menu that were in this. (I saw about 6 different words to describe chicken, and still don't know the reason for the differences) Luckily I have no food allergies, and wanted to get a good sampling of the food, so I didn't let this stop me. After a few meals, you can get a pretty good feel for some of the words. The reader at least gives you a basis for figuring some things out, but definitely is not all inclusive.
I have no comments on the grammer/verb sections. That was just beyond me for my trip, but still nice that it is in there as a guide if you are better with the language. For such a small book (which can easily fit in the front pocket of your backpack, most purses, or even a fanny pack if you must), it is chock full of useful information, and was very user-friendly. If you are any kind of tourist or beginner, I would highly recommend you buy this book for your trip or even just to help you start learning the language. Happy traveling!
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