Berlitz Publishing
ISBN: 981-246-344-5

The following review was contributed by: Jim  Curtiss.  Click Here To Read More Of Jim’s Reviews

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, "Okamzik, prosím," which is correct, but
which also contains a completely foreign word, Okamzik, 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?