Tsara dia tsara - really good!
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I bought this book last year before going on holiday to Madagascar. I'm really glad I did - I found it extremely useful! I couldn't find anything else with Malagasy phrases.
The Malagasy people really appreciate visitors trying to speak a few words of their language, as so few do! This book provides plenty of instant `ready to use phrases' - from the obvious counting numbers, `please' and `thank you' to `pleased to meet you', `that was delicious' and `watch out!' - to name just a few! There are sections on various travel / holiday topics - including food and drink - so I was able to ask for `red wine' and/or `water' in restaurants and buy bananas in markets in Malagasy.
The book also has really useful sections on pronunciation, a mini dictionary (Malagasy-English and English-Malagasy) and a basic grammar section. So with a little investment of time, I was able to work out how to put together phrases like `Did you sleep well?' and `I saw a lemur'. ... Verbs are actually very easy - no verb endings! Just a change of first letter for past, present or future!
The only difference I found was that the greeting used throughout Madagascar was `salama'.
Using this book to learn a few Malagasy phrases really added to my enjoyment of our holiday there! I highly recommend it! Tsara ny boky! The book is good! (Tsara dia tsara - really good!)
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Yes, but how do you say the words
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While living in Madagascar, I found this book very helpful, especially with some of my staff who were non-English nor French speaking, and we used this book a lot for "point to the word you know" communication. No book I have ever seen will properly explain pronounciation though and that comes with experience.. For a vacation of two weeks this is not necessary, for anything of duration, I highly recommend it. Enjoy!
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