[.ca] Lonely Planet Czech Phrasebook (ISBN 1864501847)

Good investment:
For only 8 dollars I think this book is a good buy. Sure, you will find people who speak English in the Czech Republic, but I think it would be 'slightly' rude that you didnt even make an effort to learn some key phrases in Czech before your visit. Czech is their official language, and if you want to have a real cultural experience rather than getting by on your English, then I would recommend looking into this product. This book will lend you some key phrases as well as background to the country and people of ancient Bohemia. I visited the Czech Republic also, and found that many of their street signs, signs in general were in Czech, and it was really useful for me to look it up in the phrasebook. Also as well as the dictionary, it has subject vocabulary, as in what to do when you're in a restaurant, what to say in a doctor's office, telling the time, things like that-mostly anything you can think of. The biggest plus of this product is that it is actually up to date, and gives you vocabulary for anything (even what to say on a date!) and isnt out of sync with the times. Also it was coveniently sized to fit into my small purse or pocket withouot being an incovenience. I think this product helped me in familiarizing myself with their culture before going there-so I wasnt as culture shocked as some of my other colleauges. I recommend this book.

Don't bother:
If you're going to a major city in the Czech Republic, say Prague, don't bother with this book. Almost everyone there speaks English anyway so to the extent that you need to learn phrases like "thank you", "please", etc. just to be polite, you can use the language index from a regular old guidebook like Fodors. Even if you do go out into the country, you won't be able to use much more that what's in the guidebooks anyway. After all, a few key phrases and lots of pointing and smiling will get you farther than being able to say "You should visit us in Scotland sometime when you're in the area". And you'll never ever ever understand anything that's said back to you based on a book like this. The motto "Don't just sit there, say something" is meaningless. Sure I can phonetically babble all the mumbo jumbo I want, but that doesn't mean that I can actually communicate something with someone in Eastern Europe. And we couldn't find how to ask for the check in a restaurant anywhere in this book, which is one of those useful phrases when you head to places like this.