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Title: transliteration makes lao even more complex than it is
Review: The Lonely Planet phrasebooks are usually a great help travelling around the world. This one however turned out to be creating more problems than solving them. The transliteration is so weird that you actually have to learn two new languages before pronouncing anything closely right. I tried the book with several english speaking lao persons and lao speaking native english speakers while travelling around the country and all had problems with the transliteration. Nothing is like you would naturally pronounce it. For example who would say Khoj if you see Khawy?Helpful is the lao bit so you can point, in the end its how I got around. A pity, there are much better transliterations around.
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