Rating: 
Summary: Very useful and easy to pack phrasebook
Review: This book was pretty much my bible when I spent two months in beautiful Costa Rica this winter. I was studying Spanish in Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, and all of us students were clutching this book, especially the first couple of weeks. The phrasebook has a complete listing of words for any situation. It saved my life getting busses, ordering in restaurants, meeting new people, getting directions, and even talking politics. And, I really appreciated the listing of tico words, cultural tidbits, and Costa Rican expressions. The most entertaining chapter in the phrasebook has to be the "Dating and Romance" section where everything from "Can I buy you a drink" to "Can I take you home" and finally "Will you marry me" is translated! Oh yes, and "This isn't working out!" I also was amused by the drug section. "I am a heroin addict!" "Do you have clean syringes?" Umm... OK! Whatever. I highly recommend this book to novice Spanish speakers, in Costa Rica. It will help you get by on either a short or long stay. Pura vida!
Rating:
Summary: Dialogue & Dialects
Review: This little phrasebook is invaluable because Costa Rican Spanish is dialectical! Another book I found that spoke to Costa Rica's idiosyncracies was "Costa Rica: The Last Country The Gods Made," sort of a hybrid of a coffee-table book, a social/ politcial discussion and a geological history of the country in a series of essays and sidebars. It truly does lives up to it's scope of topics. Aside from geology and social history, it covers the political and economic history of the country and emphasizes its liberal reformist tradition as exceptional in Central America.A series of essays by the two authors A good read, especially while one is traveling because the 2-30 page segments stand on their own.
Rating:
Summary: Dialogue & Dialects
Review: This little phrasebook is invaluable because Costa Rican Spanish is dialectical! Another book I found that spoke to Costa Rica's idiosyncracies was "Costa Rica: The Last Country The Gods Made," sort of a hybrid of a coffee-table book, a social/ politcial discussion and a geological history of the country in a series of essays and sidebars. It truly does lives up to it's scope of topics. Aside from geology and social history, it covers the political and economic history of the country and emphasizes its liberal reformist tradition as exceptional in Central America.A series of essays by the two authors A good read, especially while one is traveling because the 2-30 page segments stand on their own.
Rating:
Summary: A Very Useful Language Book for Future Residents
Review: When I moved to Costa Rica I purchased two fantastic and helpful guides. "The New Golden Door to Retirement and Living in Costa Rica" and this Spanish booklet. I keep both by the side of my bed and refer to them constantly. The Costa Rica Spanish Phrasebook has helped me out of many jams. I've used both of these books so much that I've had to buy another copy of each. If you plan to live in the country you should have both of these guides.I've never read any other books that prepared me so well for living in a country.
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