Berlitz Czech Travel Pack, including CD and Phrase Book and Dictionary
Berlitz Publishing
ISBN: 981-246-344-5
Reviewed by Jim Curtiss
More and more Americans travel abroad and in so doing discover that the maxim, “They all speak English over there,” is simply not true. Indeed, there is no better way to create goodwill in a country’s natives than speaking their language, and the Berlitz Czech Travel Pack, including CD and Phrase Book and Dictionary, is an excellent way to gain an understanding of the Czech language before and during a trip to the Czech Republic.
Organized into well-thought-out chapters such as Basic Expressions, Accommodations, Eating Out, Health and Stores and Services, each of which begins with an ESSENTIAL section, the reader is able to quickly locate the needed or relevant family of phrases from which to choose. Further, the original Czech phrases are accompanied by phonetic spellings directly underneath, which, as a middling Czech speaker, the
reviewer found to be very accurate.
But perhaps even more important than the phrases themselves are the dialog boxes that are liberally spread throughout the book. Therein, important phrases appearing on public signage that the traveler will find useful, such as the Czech equivalent of “Nothing to Declare” (Nic k Proclení), are presented. Moreover, many of the dialog boxes contain possible questions that the traveler might be faced with. For example, the dialog on page 135 between a shop assistant and a potential customer illustrates a likely real-life exchange. The reviewer found this aspect of the book to be a refreshing feature, as questions are the most likely form of communication a tourist will face in her or his travels.
However, as with any pocket phrase book, this one has its downsides. For instance, and perhaps due to space limitations, the English-to-Czech dictionary at the back of the book lacks those abovementioned phonetic spellings. Also, some relatively difficult phrases are supplied where easier and perhaps more common responses would suffice. On page 128, for example, when providing the Czech equivalent for “Just a moment, please,” the book says to use, “Okamžik, prosím,” which is correct, but which also contains a completely foreign word, Okamžik, where the English word “moment” can be used with equal correctness.
But these criticisms are largely negligible and should not lead the reader to think they can buy a better pocket Czech phrase book. Being married to a Czech wife, the reviewer has looked long and hard for exactly this type of book – one which allows the learner to communicate effectively to the natives. Indeed, after I used a handful of grammatically-correct memorized phrases taken from Berlitz’ Czech Phrase Book and Dictionary while conversing with my mother-in-law, she remarked, “You’re speaking really well. Have you been studying Czech?”
And what better compliment can a
phrasebook receive than that?