Book Review – Speak Rapa Nui! Hable Rapa Nui!

‘Iorana hakaou!! Greetings again!! This book is for the serious traveller to Rapa Nui who want to know what certain phrases mean and how to say ‘please’ and ‘thankyou’.

Speak Rapa Nui! Hable Rapa Nui was composed by Ana Betty Haoa Rapahango and William Liller, and is currently in it’s second printing by the Easter Island Foundation. My copy cost $25 Australian ($12 USD) and I ordered it through e-mail. They also accept cheques and credit cards.

This book is trilingual, having wordlists available in both English/Rapa Nui and Spanish and Rapa Nui. The pages on the left are in English and the pages on the right are in Spanish.

Perhaps what makes this book better than other phrase books is that it has up to 40 phrases and supplies the grammar and vocabulary to help the reader understand the reply.

The book does not come with a CD however. The best way to get around this is to order music from various groups such as ‘Topatangi’ and ‘Matato’a’ to help acquire an ear to the language. Those who have knowledge of Spanish/Polynesian pronunciation will already have an idea on what the vowels sound like in the Rapa Nui language.

Out of 5 I give this book a 3.5. The reason for this is simply because there are no other products to compare it to. It is the book to buy for learning simple phrases in the Rapa Nui language.