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Talking Your Way Around the World by Mario Andrew Pei
Defines the principle elements and characteristics of seventeen major languages from all over the world, offering tourists a listing of the important phrases of each
Hardcover
First published June 1, 1971
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About the author
Mario Andrew Pei
43 books11 followersMario Pei was Professor of Romance Languages at Columbia University.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 13, 2013
I felt like a genius after reading this book. I've been a lifelong Mario Andrew Pei fan.
October 15, 2015
I was a big fan of Mario Pei during my college days. His books about languages and linguistics provided me with lots of information about a variety of different languages which wouldn't have been readily available to me in any other form in those days.
Nowadays, however, there are lots of better options available, and this book seems very dated. There is also way too much flowery prose and way too little information about the actual languages covered.
These days, Lonely Planet has a nice series of language guides which covers a surprising variety of languages. They are small pocket books, i.e. approximately 4" x 6" with around 250 pages. Some of them are more comprehensive than others, and the ones covering endangered or rare languages are often not very thorough. The one on Persian (Farsi) is particularly good, and I highly recommend it both for people new to the language and also for those who need a review. (Also, those LP guides that combine several languages of a whole region are often not detailed enough. You're definitely better off getting separate versions for each language rather than, say, Languages of Western Europe or Languages of the Mediterranean.)
Also good (if you speak German) is the Kauderwelsch series. They're slightly wider and taller than the Lonely Planet phrase books, and they are also much thinner (generally around 150 pp compared to LP's 250-275 pp). But the information is well organized. What I prefer about LP, though, is that they include the script for languages like Hebrew and Farsi which don't share a common script with English and other European languages.
And there's a similar series of phrase books in French which seem to be modeled on and perhaps even directly translated from the German Kauderwelsch series. (This is the Assimil series.)
Nowadays, however, there are lots of better options available, and this book seems very dated. There is also way too much flowery prose and way too little information about the actual languages covered.
These days, Lonely Planet has a nice series of language guides which covers a surprising variety of languages. They are small pocket books, i.e. approximately 4" x 6" with around 250 pages. Some of them are more comprehensive than others, and the ones covering endangered or rare languages are often not very thorough. The one on Persian (Farsi) is particularly good, and I highly recommend it both for people new to the language and also for those who need a review. (Also, those LP guides that combine several languages of a whole region are often not detailed enough. You're definitely better off getting separate versions for each language rather than, say, Languages of Western Europe or Languages of the Mediterranean.)
Also good (if you speak German) is the Kauderwelsch series. They're slightly wider and taller than the Lonely Planet phrase books, and they are also much thinner (generally around 150 pp compared to LP's 250-275 pp). But the information is well organized. What I prefer about LP, though, is that they include the script for languages like Hebrew and Farsi which don't share a common script with English and other European languages.
And there's a similar series of phrase books in French which seem to be modeled on and perhaps even directly translated from the German Kauderwelsch series. (This is the Assimil series.)
October 11, 2015
So I read the 'Enlarged Second Edition' rather than the 'Enlarged Third Edition'
Given when this book was written it is obviously full of out-dated information, and understandably old-fashioned ideas. It is also, less forgivably, pretentiously eurocentric. When the author finally deigned to discuss the non-European languages it was with an air of unveiling an exotic mystery and shot through with comments about how we shouldn't be scared of their strange and terrible grammars because 'Hey, look! This feature is kind of, sort of (but not really) similar to some feature of an European language!' ... Ok that may be exaggerating a bit, but that general sentiment was present through most of it. Only a broad overviews of the non-European languages where given, with a few of the most major languages given a bit more attention, and always tying it back to Europe any way possible, even when the connections were stretched to the breaking point.
I was prepared to give this book three stars, until I got to section on Pidgins. That whole section is terrible, full of insults and back-handed compliments. It contains very little information, and most of what it does have is thoroughly misleading.
It was tempting to give it one star, but it has some interesting points, and the chapters about European languages are fairly good, if somewhat out of date.
Given when this book was written it is obviously full of out-dated information, and understandably old-fashioned ideas. It is also, less forgivably, pretentiously eurocentric. When the author finally deigned to discuss the non-European languages it was with an air of unveiling an exotic mystery and shot through with comments about how we shouldn't be scared of their strange and terrible grammars because 'Hey, look! This feature is kind of, sort of (but not really) similar to some feature of an European language!' ... Ok that may be exaggerating a bit, but that general sentiment was present through most of it. Only a broad overviews of the non-European languages where given, with a few of the most major languages given a bit more attention, and always tying it back to Europe any way possible, even when the connections were stretched to the breaking point.
I was prepared to give this book three stars, until I got to section on Pidgins. That whole section is terrible, full of insults and back-handed compliments. It contains very little information, and most of what it does have is thoroughly misleading.
It was tempting to give it one star, but it has some interesting points, and the chapters about European languages are fairly good, if somewhat out of date.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews