2007-01-06 Best phrasebook I have ever used

I worked through a number of CD-based Polish courses and had a few group lessons before travelling to Poland. However, when travelling within Poland what I carried with me was the Lonely Planet Polish Phrasebook. Without a doubt it turned out to be the best phrasebook I have ever used. In particular, the menu decoder and food-related section were incredibly useful. Pretty much everything that we ate during our travels was in the phrasebook.

Also useful in the book are the printed, phonetic forms of most of the phrases in the book. It obviously helps to have an idea about the sound of Polish already, but with the basics of pronunciation these phonetic forms are very handy indeed.

Inevitably, there will be phrases that you need when travelling that are not in whichever phrasebook you carry, but the Lonely Planet Polish Phrasebook contained far, far more than I expected.

The book does not give enough detail of grammatical cases to get your grammar perfect when adjusting phrases yourself, but you will certainly be understood in conversation when using this book.