Berlitz Latin American Spanish Phrase Book (Paperback)

~ Berlitz Guides (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

This portable, practical phrase book is packed with Latin flavor and flair. From everyday expressions to culture and safety tips, the Berlitz Latin American Phrase Book allows you to converse with confidence and travel with ease! Color-coded sections, a pronunciation guide, and dialog boxes featuring typical conversations help you communicate easily, intelligibly, and comfortably with native speakers. The Berlitz phrase book is the unparalleled market leader in its category. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

In January 2003, the renowned Berlitz Publishing became part of the Langenscheidt Group. The Langenscheidt Publishing Group, the premier group of map and travel companies, offers over 4,000 North American and international street maps, road maps, atlases, language-learning, bilingual dictionaries, and travel-related products covering countries, cities, and languages in every continent. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Berlitz Guides (March 1998)
• Language: Spanish
• ISBN-10: 2831562422
• ISBN-13: 978-2831562421
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 4 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,053,056 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars El Libro es terrible., August 21, 2002

By	3rd Chimp (CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Berlitz Latin American Spanish Phrase Book & Dictionary (Spanish Edition) (Paperback)

If you're doing anything more than going to Mexico on a standard week or less american vacation package THIS BOOK PROBABLY WILL DISAPPOINT YOU.

I bought this phrase book based on a review. Don't make the same mistake. Check it out thoroughly to see if it will work for you.

My biggest criticism is with the dictionary and index sections. They are miserably incomplete listing only about 10-15% of the words actually found in the book. To find a word or phrase knowing either an english or spanish word is nearly impossible. You have to know which section of the book it appears in and go to any number of mini-dictionaries within these sections.

One has to memorize the book to know where to find the various phrases. Typically by the time they're found they're no longer needed.

The book appears to drawn from a european spanish version as several pages still have references to europe. What has been changed is clearly geared solely toward Mexico.

BELIEVE IT OR NOT:
In the medical section, it contains no phrase regarding diahrea or bowel problems!! Nonetheless you can find language relating to water-skiing and toboganning.

Certainly there are much better phrase books on the market.

My advice:
1) Look for a phrase book with a THOROUGH DICTIONARY AND INDEX.

2) Think of a simple question you might have while travelling; If you can't find the words to form the question within a few minutes it's probably a worthless phrasebook.

3) Think about the answers you'll be getting to your questions. Will you be able to look up what's been said to translate them?

33 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best of them all., May 16, 2000

By	Patrick Deese (San Miguel de Allende, Mexico) - See all my reviews

My parents used this when they visited me in Mexico for the first time and were delighted by its ease-of-use, page edges color coded by topic categories for quick look up, and the phonetic spelling pronuciation printed below the spanish phrase. By far the best for novice speakers of Spanish. The rest are pale imitators.