ISBN: 1858286077
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Avg Cusomer Rating: 4
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Summary: Invaluable!
I would have been lost in China without this book! It gives the most common words needed by a traveler and except for the short conversational sentences, shows the words in Chinese script as well as pinyin and phonetic English. Having the words in Chinese is important because when you can't pronounce them, you can then point to them! Chinese friends told me that some words were wrong, and indeed the word for 'Bandaid' was wrong- using that got only some sort of long, hardly sticky tape, however overall, the book was excellent, well laid out and with most of the words and phrases one needs to survive in China.
Summary: Excellent beginner's dictionary, very good phrasebook
The book opens with an excellent 45 page section on basic ways of forming common sentences: yes/no questions, questions about how much or how many, handling verbs, et c.
The English to Chinese dictionary gives 160 pages with examples, and notes on usage, and some cultural notes to explain nuances of meaning. The Chinese words are given in pinyin, and a phonetic spelling (adapted to Chinese sounds but to American ideas of how a sound might be spelled), and Chinese characters -- so if you cannot successfully pronounce one you can point to it and people anywhere in China will be able to read the characters.
Then come 50 pages of Chinese to English alphabetized by Pinyin spelling. When you achieve mastery of Mandarin you'll use dictionaries arranged by Chinese characters but I can assure you that would do me no good at this point.
Useful signs like "information desk" or "International departures" are collected in one section, and menu items in another. Signs are organized thematically with Chinese character spellings -- since you may see them that way, or you may need to point to one in the book to ask a local where it is -- and they are also in pinyin, and English. Menu items get all of that plus a phonetic spelling since you are more likely to try to say them. All very nice.
However, this is much more a dictionary than a phrasebook. The rival Chinese Phrases for Dummies has many more phrases, very usefully organized by theme. They are given in Chinese by pinyin and a suggestive phonetic spelling. The Dummies book also gives basic grammar and probably more helpful advice on pronunciation than the Rough Guide and it gives very much more help on how to talk to a waiter, for example, and it has a long section on how to deal with medical questions (which the Rough Guide barely touches) and other topics. Dummies collects a number of especially useful idioms at the end, mostly to make you more graceful or polite. Plus Dummies is laid out in a large and systematically varied typeface which will help you to find a phrase on a page if you are bit flustered, rushed, or tired.
If you want this kind of book at all then you should probably buy both the Rough Guide and the Dummies. They are cheap.
A warning: Many beginners' dictionaries try to "help" you by not using the official pinyin romanization -- the official Chinese method of putting Chinese into the basic western alphabet. Instead they give something between their idea of how pinyin ought to be done, and their own idea of a phonetic spelling. Some omit the tones altogether. Do not even look at anything that omits the tones. Mandarin, like all varieties of Chinese, is incomprehensible without the tones. As to pinyin, there are serious problems with making it universal in China: It works better for Mandarin than for other dialects such as Cantonese; and it fails to distinguish between homophones so that it works poorly for people's names and for literature. But the usage in China seems decisive to me:
China means to become the world's number one tourist destination. They know that will not happen unless they include western alphabetic spellings on important street signs and shop signs and so on. And they have chosen to use pinyin. They use English too in especially international places, but not everywhere. When you go to China you will see pinyin and you will not see some American publisher's idea of how it should have been done instead. So you may prefer some other phonetic system but I want to learn the official hanyu pinyin that I will see there. It is just a small investment of time learning, for example, to say "ch" when you see q, plus you get help with this in both the Rough Guide and the Dummies since they give phonetic spellings along with pinyin.
I have not seen the The Rough Guide to Mandarin Chinese Dictionary Phrasebook 3 published by Rough Guides; Updated edition (May 29, 2006). It is just a few pages shorter than this and is probably just a minor update.
Summary: A Must Have Guide to Mandarin
I spent a month in Beijing this past summer and this particular guide was absolutely invaluable. I went to China with about 30 other Americans and we all agreed that of all of the guides we had, this book was by far the easiet to use. It provides short phrases in Mandarin, Pinyin and English. I used the book to buy "Bandaids" and special order a birthday cake. You simply have to point to the phrases that are applicable. I also liked the book because of its compact size.
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