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Title: Berlitz: Korean Phrase Book by Berlitz Editors ISBN: 2-8315-0924-6 Publisher: Langenscheidt Pub Inc Pub. Date: 01 January, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.95

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Average Customer Rating: 2 (3 reviews)

Rating: 2
Summary: Get the Lonely Planet Korean Phrasebook Instead
Comment: The major criticism I have is the rather curious and confusing proprietary pronunciation and romanization system that Berlitz uses. Why not use the more straightforward and internationally accepted revised version of the McCune-Reischauer romanization system which was adopted by the Korean government in July 2000 (used by Lonely Planet)?

Other issues I have are:

1. The pronunciation section on pages 7 and 8 does not cover the double consonants and double vowels that are common in the language and appear in the rest of the book. Even the Lonely Planet Korea Guidebook (which is not even a full phrasebook) covers this in its brief language section.

2. The Berlitz romanization for the very basic and essential phrase "I'd like" is inconsistent between p.18 and p.129 "chooseep-seeyo" vs. "chooseep-seeaw"

3. The pronunciation of the word for "museum" is incorrect on p.13 and 99 and in the dictionary. It should be "pak-mool-gwan", not "pang-mool-gwan", I believe.

I would not have thought a company as reputable as Berlitz would allow these types of deficiencies in its phrasebook.

Get the new Lonely Planet Korean phrasebook instead (unfortunately not yet published when I took my trip).

Rating: 2
Summary: Something Important Missing
Comment: The major problem with this Korean phrase book, is that it does not show any accent marks for the words it lists. Seeing the pronunciation is not helpful at all, if the reader does now know which syllable(s) to accent. Otherwise it seems to be a good book.

Rating: 2
Summary: Small, Convenient, and Annoying
Comment: I like Berlitz' little guides. They are handy enough to put in a pants pocket as I traipse across a land where I'm illiterate and unable to speak good (insert language here). This book, however, was a more pointed example of another Berlitz book trait: Most of the time, the Korean folks I met had a puzzled look on their face, not because of the (horrible) accent, but because of the archaic and stilted Korean this book translated my phrases into. One new friend borrowed it for a few minutes and couldn't stop laughing. These books are useful but for this particular one I'd be forewarned.