Eyewitness Travel Phrase Book: Hebrew

Rating:
Summary: An easy way to learn Hebrew
Review: After a couple of months I knew how to speak hebrew: Not fluently, but understanding and it's improving all the time.The course is very well put and it makes it easy and fun to learn. I can now, already, communicate with the natives and that's thanks to this book. I save the fifth star though, for the lack of exercise tasks.

Rating:
Summary: this shouldn't be your only guide...
Review: I like the DK (Dorling Kindersley) books as a rule. They usually have rich, clear photos and are easy to follow. This Hebrew Phrase Book does not follow the form of the typical DK book. There are no photos or even illustrations in the book.

A person well versed in Hebrew doesn't need this book and a complete neophyte to the language will have a hard time navigating this book in an emergency. Sections are labeled in English-only, so a traveller to Israel cannot hand the book to an Israeli to help them communicate.

There are no vowel pointings anywhere, just the consonants. While there is English transliteration, there is no mechanism for someone to truly learn to read Hebrew from this book, only to continually use it as a crutch.

The feminine numbers are listed, but the masculine numbers are not... a good way to embarrass yourself if you use the wrong gendered numbers.

The book gives the impression to the non-initiated that it will help you in any situation, but it is not realistic. There are words for "heart attack," "German Measles," "hemorrhage," and "pneumonia," among others. If you are sick enough to need these words, do you really think you will have the energy to look it up in this ridiculous phrase book?

The hospitals in Israel are very modern and very westernized and most of the medical staff have at the very least some English skills and they can always get a fluent English-speaking nurse and/or doctor to answer your questions and to explain treatement, etc.

Most of this medical stuff is just fluff to make you think the book supplies all of your needs, but to work the way it implies it should, the book should be color-coded and have Hebrew & English headings, as well as an index in Hebrew.

The book has a plethora of information, but it is not designed in such a way to maximize a newbie's absorption of a new language. If you already have basic Hebrew under your belt (Modern Hebrew, not just something you vaguely recall from your Bar Mitzvah), this book can be of some help when you're looking for one or two words that have either slipped your memory or that you're unaware of... but this book will not help you if you're trying to do anything other than to blurt out a phrase - there is no way you're going to really understand a response unless the speaker says it in the same exact word order (and the same exact words) as appears in the book. Those planning more than just a site-seeing trip to Israel should really invest in Pinsleur's Hebrew audio course instead (also sold here on Amazon). After studying all 30 lessons, this book will be a nice back-up when you're trying to find a word - but otherwise, this book is useless.

Rating:
Summary: Great book, BUT....
Review: This is probably the best book you can get if you want to learn how to speak Hebrew quickly. You should get the tapes that come with it also, and you should order the book and tapes from your local bookstore. Amazo n is a bad place to buy books...