French Visual Language Guide: Visual Language Guide

by Rudi Kost

International travelers will value this quick-reference vocabulary and phrase builder. Hundreds of color photos and cartoon-style illustrations present visual images of words and phrases that travelers typically need when they are getting around in France or French-speaking Canada. Here's how to ask for gasoline when driving into a service station—with pictures and bilingual phrases and answers to dramatize the situation. Here too are words and pictures depicting all kinds of food and drink—a pineapple, a mug of cold beer, a sandwich, a fresh apple. The book is color-coded along page edges according to topics to help travelers find what they're looking for in a hurry. General topics include transportation, accommodations, food shopping, department store shopping, furniture and appliances, sports and recreation, and many others. This good-looking book also makes a handy reference source for language students.

256 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2003

About the author

Rudi Kost, 1949 in Stuttgart geboren, ist gelernter Journalist, war Redakteur bei Tageszeitungen (u.a. als Ressortleiter Feuilleton) und arbeitet seit langem als freier Autor und Herausgeber. Er hat in der Vergangenheit Hörfunkfeatures und Hörspiele veröffentlicht, PC-Fachbücher, Reiseführer und vieles mehr, nun hat er sich der Belletristik zugewandt. Seine Krimiserie um den Versicherungsvertreter Dillinger (»Die Nadel im Heuhaufen«, »Siedend heiß«, »Leichenacker«, »Fisch oder stirb«) spielt in Schwäbisch Hall und Umgebung. »Wenn Oma Öchsle zweimal klingelt« ist eine schräge schwäbische Familienkomödie. Er lebt in einem kleinen Dorf bei Schwäbisch Hall.

Reviews

[Elisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a quirky little reference book for either people traveling to France who want to make an effort to be understood over there or for people who know a thing or two about French already.

In the first case, it's not so useful because there's no phonetic guide and because the editors themselves tell the reader to point at the pictures in case they get lost in translation when they need something from a French-speaking person. In the second case, it's a fun refresher course.

For me, what this book did to earn three stars instead of two is its wacky pictures and asides. Among other jewels, there is a cartoon of someone tossing his cookies out of the porthole of a ship, another one of a happy drunk guy spilling out of his car in front of a policeman, and yet another one of a woman explaining to a man that she is particularly interested in art while a thought bubble shows her looking at a scuplture of a naked torso, genitals clearly outlined.

Not to be outdone, the written part includes the phrase "But only with a condom!" (Oui, mais seulement si tu as un préservatif!)

You might laugh more than you learn.