Amazon.com Review
Lonely Planet takes the fear out of travel and the dread out of German. Like all their foreign language titles, the German phrasebook is klein, hilfreich und billig (small, helpful, and inexpensive). The editors tackle German grammar in 30 easy pages, but you needn't sweat it if the mere mention of past participles makes you cringe. There are pages and pages of learnable, speakable phrases to enable you to get help at the hotel, ease your way around the market, and let you babble in the beer garden. There are chapters on chitchat and transportation, jargon for health and politics, and a beefy chapter devoted to food (from a variety of wursts to finding vegetarian cuisine) and drink--beer, wine, and nonalcoholic beverages. With vocabulary for business and religion, camping and clothing, family roots and finding a job, this phrasebook loosens the tongue and lets you make the connections your trip is about. --Stephanie Gold