This booklet is a primer for those who have no knowledge of Lao. It is a clear and concise introduction into the pronunciation and writing system of this very nice Oriental language. It also contains some basic vocabulary. There are a lot of exercises that help you learn to quickly associate the alphabetic signs with the corresponding sounds. But there are no texts nor situational exercises, and this lack may make your work rather dull.
The audio recordings present the careful listener with some troubles. For instance, several sounds are pronounced differently when passing from the sound's presentation to the examples. I don't know if this variability is a true characteristic of the language or if it is just due to a bad speaking performance. If I go on learning Lao, however, I'll find it out, sooner or later! Furthermore, it is not stated which variant of Lao is taught (i.e. which geographical area the speaker comes from). As there is not an official standard for the Lao language and the Lao pronunciation may vary greatly from one part of the country to the other, this lack of information is regrettable. A further trouble is that some alphabetic signs are not numbered consistently through the booklet.
To sum up, if you are looking for a complete language course with a broad coverage of the stuff at the beginner level, this booklet is not enough for you. But if you are looking for something less, just to get a taste of the Lao sounds and melody, and learn its alphabet and a few useful words and phrases, you will find this booklet useful.