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| Customer Review: |
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1: Too tiny
Yes its good to be portable but you would need Superman eyes to read the tiny print. I'm sending it back.
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2: OK book for those totally new to Amharic
I bought this book with me the first time I ever went to Ethiopia. It actually wasn't very helpful to me in helping me speak Amharic and there were a lot of mistakes that were pointed out to me in the book. However the fact that the words are also written out in Amharic are most helpful because you can always point to the word if you have trouble and someone will be willing to help you pronunciate the correct word in Amharic. If you want to learn some very basic words then this book is good. However if you want to speak phrases or sentences, that book does not exist just yet. This book also does a good job of telling basic facts about the culture which was very helpful to me during my first trip to Ethiopia. Overall I'd say that it is a good book and was well worth my money. I would say that others also enjoyed this book because when I left Ethiopia I could not find my book ;-)
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3: Communicatinig in Ethiopia
This is a helpful phrasebook, usable without any previous knowledge of Amharic. As I am not a native English speaker, I appreciate the way the sounds used are described in the beginning of the book. It is well organized, with different, logical, chapters; i.e. the possibility to find the phrase I am looking for in the chapter where I think it should be is high. The dictionary part is short (as it of course has to be), and I really miss "please" as a word in the dictionary.
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4: Excellent Book
I'm married to an Ethiopian and have found this book to be a lifesaver each and every time I go to Ethiopia. The book gets you close enough to the correct pronunciation that anyone can half way understand you and correct your pronunciation of the words. Although Tigrinyan's are now in power Amharic is still the national language of Ethiopia so it's better to learn Amharic if you plan on speaking to anyone in Ethiopia.
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5: Amharic usefulness depends on where you are
Actually I didn't use the book very much, as my surroundings were almost all English or Oromo-speaking. Before spending much time on a learning a language to use in Ethiopia, be sure to check out the location. Since the Amhara's are no longer the dominant tribe, their language may be less useful. Tigrayans are now in power and Oromo are the largest language group.
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