German: Lonely Planet Phrasebook | 
 enlarge | Authors: Gunter Muehl, Lonely Planet Phrasebooks
Publisher: Lonely Planet
Category: Book
List Price: $8.99
Buy New: $4.64
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Avg. Customer Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 65556
Media: Paperback
Edition: 3
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 260
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 5.5 x 3.7 x 0.6
ISBN: 1740599802
Dewey Decimal Number: 430
EAN: 9781740599801
ASIN: 1740599802
Publication Date: March 1, 2008
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Shipping: International shipping available
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Product Description
Three travelers walk into a Biergarten. One has a map, one has a Swiss army knife and one has a copy of this phrasebook. Guess who gets served firsta
Our phrasebooks give you a comprehensive mix of practical and social words and phrases in more than 120 languages. Chat with the locals and discover their culture - a guaranteed way to enrich your travel experience.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Useful but imperfect phrasebook June 13, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Some other reviewers have rated this book poorly on the basis that it did not "save them" when they all of sudden needed a certain phrase. The problem with rating the book on that premise is that this is NOT what the book is designed to do. You use this book to learn basic phrases BEFORE you enter conversations, in most instances. From this perspective, it served me quite well as I traveled throughout Deutsch-speaking lands for 2 weeks. Granted, there are times when you might want to look up a phrase on the spot, but to think that this book is going to save you from that awkward situation is silly. You have to put some work into studying the book beforehand.
The other thing to realize is that most Germans do know English, at least the basics. And this is especially the case in tourist areas. So, yes, if you only use this book when you *need* it then you won't use it much. But some of us recognize that to know a culture is to know its language, so learning some German is not only useful but delightful.
As one person said, the sections are well-organized. I thought that the beginning tools section was excellent: it succinctly stated exactly what a traveler needs to know to form basic German sentences. I would have appreciated some more insight on verb conjugation (conversational past tenses are very easy to form), however, because otherwise you are left using un-conjugated verbs that you know will sound awkward. Still, if you're only intent is "get by" then this book serves just fine.
There are a few minor instances where the book is perhaps non-colloquial with regards to vocabulary. Germans say "Eis" in reference to ice cream, for example, not ice cubes, which is "Eiswue:rfel". Also, on one page as an example they say "Ich mo:chte etwas schinken, bitte." Also, they use "ko:nnten" in places where "ko:nnen" would be better.
The above is not really a big deal. What is unfortunate, however, is that the book presents the pronunciations in "Hochdeutsch" (high German), a "proper" dialect of German that almost no Germans use, at least not in conversation. The best example is "ich," which means "I". Germans pronounce this as "ish" but the phrasebook presents it as "ikh"! Likewise, many words with "ch" are rendered as hard k's and not as soft ch.
I write the above two paragraphs not because I am a German expert (far from it) but because I traveled with a friend who has lived in Germany for half of his life and is near-fluent if not fluent in German. He finally told me to just ignore the pronunciation guide in the book because it was messing me up so bad.
Another random complaint: the section on romance is ridiculously long and stupid. I can't tell if this section was put in seriously or as a joke, especially the part on sex. Either way it is largely obnoxious and nothing more.
Overall, I did like this book mainly because it is well-organized and equipped me for basic conversation.
 Good reference September 2, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you know no German, like me, it's a useful book for pronunciation and vocabulary. It also includes useful, simple sentences that can help you out in a pinch. It's not a textbook, so purchasers of it shouldn't expect detailed info. I bought it on impulse at LAX on my way to Munich and was glad I did.
 Not helpful April 20, 2007
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I bought this book figuring that Lonely Planet would have a relatively savvy and useful language phrasebook. However, this is a fairly poor guide to speaking basic German - I took it with me on my first trip to Germany and found this book to be confusingly organized when I wanted to find correct phrases in a hurry. In fact, there were one or two instances where I believe it taught me incorrect contextual usage. Look elsewhere.
Limited use if you speak basic German July 15, 2005
11 out of 20 found this review helpful
The lonely planet German phrase book is well designed for a pocket sized two-way dictionary, but in my past three trips to Germany, Luxembourg, and Switzerland, I only pulled out the book on a few occasions. In fact, I've made more use of the dictionary while in international chat-rooms and trying to type basic German phrases.
The book is divided into some nice subject areas: practical (which includes travel and shopping phrases), social, food, and safe travel (which is more of an emergency section). I've made the most use of the food and social sections. I think most people traveling to German speaking countries will want to invest in a German language CD and learn your basic travel and shopping phrases from an audio program. German is pretty easy to learn for a native English speaker. However, having an extensive food dictionary on hand is a good idea when you are trying to order something other than "bier" or "bratwurst". (Of course, you should still treat yourself to German beer and bratwurst -- it is amazing!)
However, I still found the book to be of limited use, for two reasons: (1) despite the color coded subject areas, when I've really needed vocabulary fast, hunting through the book is still awkward, and (2) many German speakers can understand some amount of English. While I do like this book, I've found that I've not really needed it (I had two years of German as a kid). I carried my book in my small book bag, but never in my pocket. However, if you do not speak basic German, I'd recommend buying a copy of this book.
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