I recently got to that next level with my boyfriend. The level that consists of the topic, “Do your life goals coincide with mine?” Rob makes fun of my love of the French language and culture, so telling him that I wanted to get my master’s in French wasn’t something I was looking forward to. After I prefaced it with, “I really need your support,” I told him my goals. For days I waited for him to respond, taking the silence as his way of saying, ‘French!?! What the hell are you going to do with a master’s in French?” Instead, he surprised me with “Hide this French Book” as a way to show his support.
The “Hide this Book” series comes in French, Spanish, and the newly added Italian and is full of expressions that you wouldn’t learn in a classroom. The company takes a refreshing look at the languages by breaking the books down into sections, such as basic expressions, breaking up and hooking up, love and sex, gay and lesbian life, shopping, sports, gossip, food, and partying. What makes the books great for travelers is that, even though the books have more than a dozen topics, they give a crash course in all of the most important aspects and are small enough to be read during a flight. Not the best with pronunciation? That’s also OK. The company has a Web site made for readers to follow along that provides the pronunciation of all the words and phrases.
What I personally love about these books is that they have a ton of colloquial phrases, and the series is updated often enough to keep pace with evolving catch phrases and expressions. The authors do a really good job of giving the readers a great understanding of the language and help break down words. For example, in the chapter about gossip, they break down phrases like “t’es relou,” which means “give me a break,” or literally meaning “you’re heavy.” They then explain that “relou” is verlan (slang) for “lourd,” or “heavy.” Every so often, there will be a section within a chapter labeled “The Scoop.” This gives readers inside scoops into the French culture and helps them avoid falling victim to any faux pas. For example, in one scoop it shows how the French break up with their significant others via text message, first showing French abbreviations, then the literal French meaning, then the English equivalent. For example: To say “see you tomorrow” via text in French abbreviations would be @2m1, which means “à demain.”
The Hide this Book series also includes books devoted to subtopics within the language. Hide This French/Spanish Book for Lovers includes phrases and words used when trying to pick someone up, get them in the mood, or have a little fun behind closed doors. While the original book has all of that in it, the lover’s edition is more in depth.
Hide this Phrase Book includes up-to-date phrases in Spanish or French for young travelers to use while overseas. They even have a Hide This CD package designed to help foreigners get in touch with French/Spanish pop cultures. The CDs are helpful in teaching the languages and breaking down sounds and pronunciations.
While these are all really neat books, the original Hide this Book—or Hide this Book 101, since 101 is just the reprint of the original—it is the best buy. It has everything that the other subtopic books do and can easily fit into just about any travel bag.
Traveling soon? Pick up a copy!
photo courtesy of: www.languagequest.com
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