Lonely Planet Costa Rica Spanish Phrasebook

by Thomas Kohnstamm and Lonely Planet

Book Overview

Including sections on cultural differences, protocol and etiquette as well as a menu decoder, this phrasebook includes a two-way dictionary, a pronunciation guide and essential words and phrases... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1864501057
• ISBN13: 9781864501056
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Lonely Planet
• Length: 260 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 3.7" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Great for a vacation trip!

Although I'm glad I read other reviews about the use of the formal you instead of familiar that is addressed in the book, overall, I am much more pleased with the layout and content of the this compact travel book than some of the reviews had led me to believe.

Great for the whole family

I took a copy of this book on our family vacation to Costa Rica over winter break and it got passed along to all family members ages 10 - 75! Everyone got something from the book and my sister purchased another copy while we in Costa Rica. The small size was handy, very light weight and the contents are organized logically.

Very useful and easy to pack phrasebook

This book was pretty much my bible when I spent 6 weeks in beautiful Costa Rica this winter. I was studying Spanish in Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. All of us students were clutching this book, especially the first couple of weeks. The phrasebook has a complete listing of words for any situation. It saved my life getting busses, ordering in restaurants, meeting new people, getting directions, talking politics and even talking with biologists. And, I really appreciated the listing of tico words, cultural tidbits, and Costa Rican expressions. The most entertaining chapter in the phrasebook has to be the "Dating and Romance" section where everything from "Can I buy you a drink" to "Can I take you home" and finally "Will you marry me" is translated! Oh yes, and "This isn't working out!" In any event, I highly recommend this book to novice Spanish speakers, in Costa Rica. It will help you get by on either a short or long stay. Pura vida!P.S. That guy from Forest Hill NY who considers running down rare birds in Costa Rica on his motorcycle to be at worst a form of entertainment... at best, something funny to joke about (see review of Lonely Planet Costa Rica Guidebook).... kinda lacks social skills and should be banned from any tropical paradise where he is not confined to the grounds of the local Club Med. IMHO. :)

in defense of criticisms

I am the author of this phrasebook and would like to respond to recent criticisms on the content of the book. Please excuse my star rating of my own text, but ... will not let you post a review without a rating. I would like to make 3 basic points.1. This is a phrasebook for travellers, it is not the official Costa Rican Colloquial Dictionary, nor a list of idiomatic expressions. It was written to help travellers to conduct themselves in Costa Rica, not to determine every aspect of the Costa Rican dialect. Many of the more esoteric expressions that were originally included in the book were cut in order to appeal to Lonely Planet's market. Once again, this was not intended to be a dictionary for Ticos.2. There was consultation and editorial assistance by a bilingual Costa Rican throughout the entire writing process. He is credited in the acknowledgements. Although I am not a native speaker, my experience in different parts of Latin America enables be to determine regional differences in the language.3. This is a unique book, unlike other phrasebooks on Latin American Spanish. Perhaps if Mr. Mora were not Costa Rican, he would have the perspective to see how the Spanish in the book differs from the Spanish of other parts of Latin America and other phrasebooks. He is taking many of the vocabulary and grammar nuances for granted.This is a phrasebook to help travellers to communicate and conduct themselves specifically in Costa Rica. If that is what you want, this book will help you in ways that other phrasebooks cannot. Thank you, Thomas

a taste of home

As a Costa Rican living in the US, I often think of my beautiful home country. This book, by Thomas Kohnstamm, brought back many memories of home and brought a smile to my face. It is accurate and contains many quirks of Tico culture and language that I had started to forget about. I especially like it because it is respectful of our culture and appreciates our land and people. It does not treat Costa Rica just as another travel destination. If you plan to visit Costa Rica you should definitely check out this book.