Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10739 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Synopsis
The Lonely Planet phrasebooks have good cultural backgrounders and offer solid advice for challenging situations in remote locations.

Customer Reviews

Fool the locals in no time at all!
I took this book with me when I visited Russia for the first time with absolutely zero knowledge of Russian. This book was invaluable! Due to the nature of the Russian language, being one that is spelt as it is spoken, I was using words and phrases from this book and being mistaken for a local! The problem was I could not understand the responses I got many times, but that is not a fault of the book.

The book also lists words and phrases in Cyrillic, which means it's extremely easy to learn to read in Russia and I was able to read nearly all of the Cyrllic alphabet within the day!

On my journey on the Trans-Siberian railway I shared my carriage with a native Russian from Omsk. He had only a bare basic understanding of English from his education 35 years ago but passing this book between us we managed to have a decent conversation all day! It was an experience not to forget and one I would not have been able to have without this book.

The local did have one complaint, however. The dictionary at the back has 'few word'.

The least useful thing I took to Russia
I bought this in a hurry with little thought, and a recommendation. I wish I had been more considered. I found it virtually useless in my brief visit to Russia. Even the alphabet translation (essential for reading cyrilic) was incomplete, it contained only lower case cyrilic I think (it found its way swiftly into the bin). There were two pages in the appendix to my "trans siberian guide" by Bryn Thomas, which contained much more usefull translations than the whole of this phrasebook. My first requirement for russian was a customs declaration in russian on a train full of russian speakers; this book helped none. For reading and being amused at home great, for taking to russia - I wouldnt recommend it.

so small, I lost it on the bus
A useful little book edited by a Russian Australian, it includes some humourous phrases (of a sexual nature), and sentences grouped by subject. But when you are struggling to express yourself, the dictionary section is too limited to be effective.
I didn't find the food/restaurant section much good in rural Azerbaijan. The booklet became heavily thumbed and full of my jottings (more writing space would be a good idea). Then I lost it on a rural bus ride.