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Lonely Planet Phrasebooks
Lonely Planet German Phrasebook
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 first...
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
About the author
Lonely Planet
4,167 books952 followersOUR STORY
A beat-up old car, a few dollars in the pocket and a sense of adventure. In 1972 that’s all Tony and Maureen Wheeler needed for the trip of a lifetime – across Europe and Asia overland to Australia. It took several months, and at the end – broke but inspired – they sat at their kitchen table writing and stapling together their first travel guide, Across Asia on the Cheap. Within a week they’d sold 1500 copies and Lonely Planet was born. One hundred million guidebooks later, Lonely Planet is the world’s leading travel guide publisher with content to almost every destination on the planet.
A beat-up old car, a few dollars in the pocket and a sense of adventure. In 1972 that’s all Tony and Maureen Wheeler needed for the trip of a lifetime – across Europe and Asia overland to Australia. It took several months, and at the end – broke but inspired – they sat at their kitchen table writing and stapling together their first travel guide, Across Asia on the Cheap. Within a week they’d sold 1500 copies and Lonely Planet was born. One hundred million guidebooks later, Lonely Planet is the world’s leading travel guide publisher with content to almost every destination on the planet.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 25, 2014
For all your German needs, including romance
30 June 2012
Maybe I should write this commentary in German but I must admit that my German is not that good at this stage (though I could always try using Google Translate). At least I can string together some simple sentences and am becoming used to thinking in the language, but I guess my proficiency is not quite there yet. What I should mention though is that I suspect that phrasebooks are more useful if you already know something of the language than if you don't. I suspect that the pronunciations can be difficult so my recommendation is that if you are planning on spending some time in a foreign country then a six month beginner course beforehand can make a phrasebook quite useful.
Technically German is my third language because I studied Ancient Greek for two years at university and since I finished my arts degree I have been periodically refreshing my understanding of that language. It is quite helpful that the Bible was originally written in Ancient Greek so that when a church does a Bible reading I can sit in the pews and follow along with my Greek version. I have also noted a number of similarities between the two languages despite there being no historic connections.
I have heard it said that once you have your second language then your third and following languages become easier. When I did German at university I was picking it up but nowhere near as well as I did recently. When I started my six month course the only German that I knew was a few basic words as well as being able to order a beer (rather badly at that). However my proficiency jumped significantly during the course, and one of the things that was happening as I was coming to grips with the language was that I was comparing it to two languages as opposed to one. Thus I have discovered that by having two comparator languages makes the third language easier to pick up.
German inflects some of its words in a similar way to Greek (or at least Ancient Greek). Okay, English doesn't have inflections to the same extent as German, and Modern Greek quite different to Ancient Greek (though the basic principles still apply). However when I had a glance at the French phrasebook (I have not studied French since primary school) I noticed that French doesn't seem to inflect its works either (despite it having a highly inflective language, that is Latin, as its base).
The other funny thing with languages is that with your native language you are generally not concentrating on the grammatical rules. Because it comes naturally you generally don't grammatically construct your phrases. However when you are looking at a different language we have to think about the grammatical structures when constructing phrases. Further contractions do not work the same across languages so contractions that seem fine in English (can't, don't, haven't) don't exist in German, and vice versa (wie geht es ihnen becomes wie gehts, an dem becomes am, zu der becomes zur) which to me simply does not make sense, but then it is German.
I wish to finish off by noting that there is a section on romance, and sex, in this book, which I must admit is hilarious. Okay, speaking to a woman in her tongue can be quite flattering, but honestly, if you need a phrasebook to help you pick up women (or men) in a nightclub or a pub, then honestly, don't bother. Further, I can just see a couple, in the middle of coitus, stopping, so one can grab the phrasebook, look up the appropriate phrase so that they can then continue. Seriously, the thought of using a phrasebook during sex is comical at best, and sehr komisch (German for very strange).
30 June 2012
Maybe I should write this commentary in German but I must admit that my German is not that good at this stage (though I could always try using Google Translate). At least I can string together some simple sentences and am becoming used to thinking in the language, but I guess my proficiency is not quite there yet. What I should mention though is that I suspect that phrasebooks are more useful if you already know something of the language than if you don't. I suspect that the pronunciations can be difficult so my recommendation is that if you are planning on spending some time in a foreign country then a six month beginner course beforehand can make a phrasebook quite useful.
Technically German is my third language because I studied Ancient Greek for two years at university and since I finished my arts degree I have been periodically refreshing my understanding of that language. It is quite helpful that the Bible was originally written in Ancient Greek so that when a church does a Bible reading I can sit in the pews and follow along with my Greek version. I have also noted a number of similarities between the two languages despite there being no historic connections.
I have heard it said that once you have your second language then your third and following languages become easier. When I did German at university I was picking it up but nowhere near as well as I did recently. When I started my six month course the only German that I knew was a few basic words as well as being able to order a beer (rather badly at that). However my proficiency jumped significantly during the course, and one of the things that was happening as I was coming to grips with the language was that I was comparing it to two languages as opposed to one. Thus I have discovered that by having two comparator languages makes the third language easier to pick up.
German inflects some of its words in a similar way to Greek (or at least Ancient Greek). Okay, English doesn't have inflections to the same extent as German, and Modern Greek quite different to Ancient Greek (though the basic principles still apply). However when I had a glance at the French phrasebook (I have not studied French since primary school) I noticed that French doesn't seem to inflect its works either (despite it having a highly inflective language, that is Latin, as its base).
The other funny thing with languages is that with your native language you are generally not concentrating on the grammatical rules. Because it comes naturally you generally don't grammatically construct your phrases. However when you are looking at a different language we have to think about the grammatical structures when constructing phrases. Further contractions do not work the same across languages so contractions that seem fine in English (can't, don't, haven't) don't exist in German, and vice versa (wie geht es ihnen becomes wie gehts, an dem becomes am, zu der becomes zur) which to me simply does not make sense, but then it is German.
I wish to finish off by noting that there is a section on romance, and sex, in this book, which I must admit is hilarious. Okay, speaking to a woman in her tongue can be quite flattering, but honestly, if you need a phrasebook to help you pick up women (or men) in a nightclub or a pub, then honestly, don't bother. Further, I can just see a couple, in the middle of coitus, stopping, so one can grab the phrasebook, look up the appropriate phrase so that they can then continue. Seriously, the thought of using a phrasebook during sex is comical at best, and sehr komisch (German for very strange).
August 22, 2011
Bought this one as my old Penguin phrase book is a little dated.
This one is more adult and with practice I can order stuff in a restaurant, in a pub, get a room in a hotel, get my car fixed, and chat to a prostitute!!
Thoroughly modern.
This one is more adult and with practice I can order stuff in a restaurant, in a pub, get a room in a hotel, get my car fixed, and chat to a prostitute!!
Thoroughly modern.
July 16, 2008
Small phrases for use at work. helpful for that, yes.
Definitely called my boss "Tiger" on accident though.
Definitely called my boss "Tiger" on accident though.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews