Lonely Planet Lao Phrasebook (Lonely Planet Lao Phrasebook) (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"...Lonely Planet phrase books have long taken a hip, streetwise approach." -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution, May 27, 2004

"Lonely Planet Phrasebooks. Portable, pocket-size, cheap, and available for almost any country you might want to visit..." -- National Geographic Traveler, September 2006

Product Description

Let language be your guide in the land of a million elephants! From the vital flow of the Mekong to the fertile Bolaven Plateau, words will be the life of your travels in Laos as you make those conversational connections. In the musical voice of this tonal language, you’ll forever be singing the praises of Laos and its people.

• talk yourself into a Lao stupa
• get the goss as you ponder the Plain of Jars
• verify vocabulary with the comprehensive dictionary
• grab a guide and hit the highlands for real Lao coffee
• wondering about wats – ask the locals yourself
• develop an admirable accent with the practical pronunciation guide

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet Publications; 2 edition (February 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1740591682
• ISBN-13: 978-1740591683
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 3.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #628,910 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #17 in	Books > Travel > Asia > South Korea
  #24 in	Books > Travel > Asia > Laos
  #52 in	Books > Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > Korean

• This item is part of The Lonely Planet Phrasebooks Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's a very through pocket book that can guide you in Laos, February 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Lonely Planet Lao Phrasebook (Lonely Planet : Language Survival Kit) (Paperback)

This is an excellent book for those who wish to travel to Laos, or even those who wish to begin learning lao in small steps. I purchased this book in order to learn the language at a quicker and more simplified pace. It contains not only basic phrases that one might need to know in order to conduct ones self in the main parts of Laos but also be able to learn some of the country's culture as well. Even though studying an entirely new language can be laborious, Mr. Cummings has made it easy for anyone to be bilingual, even multi-lingual.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars transliteration makes lao even more complex than it is, December 4, 2003

By	Martin Meerkerk (ROTTERDAM, zh Netherlands) - See all my reviews

The Lonely Planet phrasebooks are usually a great help travelling around the world. This one however turned out to be creating more problems than solving them. The transliteration is so weird that you actually have to learn two new languages before pronouncing anything closely right. I tried the book with several english speaking lao persons and lao speaking native english speakers while travelling around the country and all had problems with the transliteration. Nothing is like you would naturally pronounce it. For example who would say Khoj if you see Khawy?
Helpful is the lao bit so you can point, in the end its how I got around. A pity, there are much better transliterations around.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Helpful little book, May 14, 2007

By	Kelly @ Mango - See all my reviews

Besides my Lao Dictionary, this is *the* Lao book I carry around daily with me. I wish I could post a photo of my worn out dog-eared copy. I agree w/ the one reviewer who said the transliteration is a little wacky, however the Lao script is generally "spot on". (I'll mention transliteration with Lao is a less than exact science) It's one of the few if only books outside of the books attempting to teach Lao that handle things like Grammar.. very handy for the traveler. It also throws some Lao culture in for good measure to make sure you don't do something offensive to the local people. Great book, worth the money and besides... it's so small you can fit it in your pack/bag pretty easy.