Product Description

Don’t let your Russian experience become Russian Roulette! Pick up this phrasebook instead, get beyond trivial conversation and avoid the Russian saying ???? ???????? (“you’ll break your tongue”) by communicating with ease.

Our phrasebooks give you a comprehensive mix of practical and social words and phrases in more than 120 languages. Chat with the locals and discover their culture - a guaranteed way to enrich your travel experience.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #136895 in Books
• Published on: 2009-03-01
• Original language: English, Russian
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781741046885
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"...Lonely Planet phrase books have long taken a hip, streetwise approach." -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution, May 27, 2004

"Lonely Planet Phrasebooks. Portable, pocket-size, cheap, and available for almost any country you might want to visit..." -- National Geographic Traveler, September 2006

National Geographic Traveler, September 2006
'Lonely Planet Phrasebooks. Portable, pocket-size, cheap, and available for almost any country you might want to visit...'

Language Notes
Text: English, Russian

From the Publisher
Who We Are
At Lonely Planet, we see our job as inspiring and enabling travellers to connect with the world for their own benefit and for the benefit of the world at large.

What We Do
* We offer travellers the world's richest travel advice, informed by the collective wisdom of over 350 Lonely Planet authors living in 37 countries and fluent in 70 languages.
* We are relentless in finding the special, the unique and the different for travellers wherever they are.
* When we update our guidebooks, we check every listing, in person, every time.
* We always offer the trusted filter for those who are curious, open minded and independent.
* We challenge our growing community of travellers; leading debate and discussion about travel and the world.
* We tell it like it is without fear or favor in service of the travellers; not clouded by any other motive.

What We Believe
We believe that travel leads to a deeper cultural understanding and compassion and therefore a better world.

Customer Reviews

Good for Beginners
This phrasebook is better than most for people who know no Russian (or very little) and who want to try to communicate with Russians. It is full of positive messages about trying, and it opens with a concise explanation of Russian grammar. Russian grammar is not something you can just master easily, but it helps to at least have an idea of how the language works - it makes more sense than just blindly memorizing phrases. The main advantage of this phrasebook it that it truly tells you the easiest way to get your point across. These are phrases that beginners actually can learn and use. Many phrasebooks are full of long sentences that are difficult to reproduce if you have little knowledge of the language, but Lonely Planet is not one of them. It also gives helpful information on how to make substitutions in the book's stock phrases, and it encourages you to put together your own word combinations. Two other good points: it's relatively low cost (a good price to value ratio) and it's pocket sized, so you can easily take it around with you on a trip. The topics covered are useful, everyday ones. In fact, there is more packed into this small book than most people will need. The dictionary is also pretty extensive. Two other things to take into consideration before purchasing this phrasebook: 1) the Lonely Planet series is geared up for young people - many of the expressions and words in the book are clearly targeted to college students and other young folks, which may be off-putting to older users, and 2) there are MANY typos and reversals in the phrasebook (did anyone actually proofread it? ). If you know absolutely no Russian, you will not recognize that these are typos and/or wrong words. This may leave you saying something other than what you think you are saying!

Pass on this book
This is a poorly proofed, haphazard collection of slang, criminal jargon, words used in 19th Century Russia, mispronunciations, incorrect cultural facts, and some spot-on phrases that will have you sounding like an idiot in no time flat. There are much better phrasebooks out there and although this book isn't entirely bad, if you are not a native speaker, you will never know what to steer clear of and what is ok to say.

As examples: the "Dating" section of the book includes a phrase for "Nice Bum!" -- I'm not sure exactly who would be flattered by that, but its inclusion is more comical than useful.

There is also a cultural factoid that Russian men wear black shirts, beige shoes, and matching brown tie when dressing up to go out. A friend of mine from the Ukraine tells me that only gangsters and nouveau riche urchins dress like that.

Using the word "ditYO" to refer to a baby will make you sound like a hick from a remote village.

The word for Pen provided actually refers to a marker.

Referring affectionately to a lover as a "pigeon" in Russia was popular in the 1800's. You will find that mostly in literature now and not in practical use.

There is also a section on how to insult your waiter -- something that is sure to endear a traveler to the locals.

The book is not all bad, but without an intimate knowledge of the language and the culture, you won't know where the land mines are.

Stamp of approval from a Russian
My husband is Russian and I am trying to acquire at least a fundamental understanding of the language for when I visit his family this New Year. This book is invaluable, and my Russian husband has read it from cover to cover and has given it a big stamp of approval - in particular he feels that the transliterations are excellent in giving the student an accurate guide as to how the words should be pronounced. He also derives a lot of amusement from the various social descriptions in the book which he feels are spot-on.
I have to disagree VERY STRONGLY with the reviewer from Austria who said that the book is filled with typographical errors - I have not found this to be at all true! Is he confused by examples where the word is written in Russian as though it should be pronounced with an 'o' but the transliteration has it written with an 'a'? If this is his source of complaint then he ought to read the introductory chapters.