Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
HUGE disappointment !, October 5, 1999
By A Customer
Just before my husband & I took off to Spain for a week, I shopped for a dictionary that would help two non-spanish speaking visitors. Except for a handful of words, we don't speak the language, but still enjoy the culture, food, etc. So I went onto Amamzon to see if they had a dictionary that would be half as helpful as the one we carried when we traveled to France and Italy.I should NOT have listened to what the reviews I read! I knew when we were in trouble when we arrived in our hotel room and I could not find the one-word descriptions on how to work the air conditioner. The rest was down hill. I could not find the key words (fish, chicken, pork, etc) found on most of the menus. Fortunatley for us, many of the people we came into contact spoke some English, but when we have traveled to a foreign country we have always felt the importance of being able to communicate, even on a very basic level, in the language of the land. Oh Well, this did not happen in Spain, not because we did not want to - but our pocket companion was a major disappointment. My suggestion is to keep shopping, and when you do find a good dictionary for Spanish/English - English/Spanish, that is also pocket size (purse), let the folks at Amazon.com know so they can start to carry it.
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
I choose this particluar book based on the positive reviews, October 6, 1999
By A Customer
I was very disappointed when I received this dictionary today. The print is so small that I cannot read it. I tried using a small magnifing glass but to no avial. I am 45 years old and attend college, my vision is 20-20 with my glasses and I can still read the phone book. But this type is just too small. Any suggestions on a different dictionary with average print.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Just not accurate, September 25, 2000
I am a college student who went abroad to Spain a year ago and planning to go to Nicaragua in a month, and as soon as possible I will be buying a different English/Spanish dictionary. This dictionary is often NOT accurate in its translations and leaves me scrambling to figure out the 'real' meaning of what I just wrote. It was okay for Spanish classes in high school (hence the 2 stars), but if you want to have good translations, look elsewhere. My Spanish professor's big thing is "Don't transfer phrases literally from Spanish to English," but this dictionary offers few other options. Each entry has a few different definitions, but I can often NOT find the exact meaning I'm looking for. My friend (who has been to Spain twice) owns the "Dic-Merriam Webster's Spanish English Dictionary" and it is FAR superior. There are tons of different meanings or situations offered for each word, and sample sentences often accompany the definition. It's also a paperback, not that much bigger than the American Heritage paperback, and offers a lot more quality. When my Spanish-english dictionary leaves me in doubt, I run down 7 flights of stairs for hers (now that's proof of my hatred of this [American Heritage] dictionary).
Trust me - do not waste your money on the American Heritage Spanish-English dictionary; there are enough other dictionaries out there for the same price, convenient size, and with much better translations.
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