As one of my new year resolutions I challenged myself to learn a new language. Thankfully, doing so is becoming much easier thanks to the Internet and computer software. Now you can get a basic grasp of 20 different languages from the palm of your hand thanks to this helpful pocket eBook, which is compatible with any mobile device.
Before you start you need to install a mobile eBook reader on your device. Once you've done this though it should recognise Phrasebook straight away and you can instantly get stuck into the 1,349 pages.
There are a whopping 20 languages covered. OK, here we go, deep breath: German, French, Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, Italian, Greek, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Czech, Polish, Russian, Hebrew, Arabic, Japanese, Chinese, Indonesian, and Malay. Phew!
Each chapter represents a different language and all are structured neatly in the same way. You get an interesting history of the language and its usage at the start, followed by a prononciation guide then a phrasebook divided into 'Basics', 'Problems' and 'Numbers'. All the phrases are the same for each language. The basic phrases are useful, though you want be having many intellectual conversations after learning them.
I would have liked to see more of these simple conversational phrases instead of the Problems section, which concentrates on negative stuff like: 'Leave me alone', 'Stop! Thief!' and 'I'm going to call the police'. Using these won't exactly endear you to the locals, will they?
There are plenty of interactive features in here to give the Phrasebook a more proactive learning approach. For instance, you can highlight words, add notes, insert bookmarks and even add drawings to the text.
If you'd like to get a very basic handle on some of the World's most widely-spoken languages, install this one and you can do so on the bus.
