Phrase books for foreign language travel: Pros and cons
Learning a foreign language is a daunting challenge for most people, and can take many years to master. It can also be hard to learn to hear and say the basic phrases necessary to get along nicely as a tourist in a place where you don’t know the language. So there are millions of companies selling practical and not so practical tools to help you with foreign language skill development. You can buy gadgets that translate words for you, and appear like a real geek as you type in what someone just said to you, to figure out how to reply. And you can find dolls that speak in another language, computer software to train you, and of course phrase books that teach you “vital language skills for tourists”. Some are lousy, some are okay, and others are excellent.
One thing to keep in mind when dealing with language is that if you can’t pronounce a word with the native accent, nobody is going to understand you, no matter how much vocabulary and grammar you learn. Pronunciation and accent is critically important. So pick books that help you with the phonetics of the words and phrases, if you are buying a phrase book. And keep in mind also that just because you travel - for instance - in a Spanish speaking country, the people may not all use the same version of Spanish. Even natives of Mexico have trouble understanding people in Buenos Aires, and Puerto Ricans drop whole syllables from words, leaving people from Spain clueless. So pick a phrase book designated for the particular region where you will be traveling, and you’ll learn the local way of speaking.