42 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not for beginners, September 2, 2005
This review is from: Oxford Chinese Dictionary and Talking Chinese Dictionary and Instant Translator: Book and CD-ROM package (Hardcover)
I recently bought the Oxford Chinese dictionary (2003 edition) and although I've only had it for a few days, it has already annoyed me sufficiently that I felt impelled to write a review here.
1.
Printed Dictionary Comprehensiveness:
Having searched the Chinese-English section exhaustively for yi4qi3 (meaning `together') I had to admit defeat. It's in the English-Chinese section but I haven't been able to find it in the Chinese-English section. I read every entry under `yi' but didn't locate it. Considering that this was the first Chinese word I attempted to look up, my confidence in this dictionary was shaky from the beginning. I might have a fourth try later on to make sure I didn't miss it.
2.
CDROM Sound Quality:
The CDROM application has a facility whereby Chinese words are spoken for you, which would be useful if you were unsure as to the sound of a word. However, the sound quality is terrible. It's like trying to make out what someone is saying at the other end of a telephone, instead of the clarity you would expect (and for a beginner, need). It should not have been difficult to supply accurate, CD-quality sound, and I have no idea why the authors didn't do this.
3.
CDROM dictionary comprehensiveness:
Don't expect much from the CDROM in general. Again, I couldn't find "yi4qi3" (I used an asterisk in place of tone marks, instructing the dictionary to return all matches regardless of tone). I also tried entering the simplified Chinese characters but again, it did not show "together" under any of its definitions. The CDROM application itself is written in Java and don't expect the polished look-and-feel that you might from other Windows programs. When I attempted to look up "together" (using the English word), again yi4qi3 was nowhere to be found.
4.
Pinyin provision:
Most examples of the uses of words in the printed dictionary are written only in simplified Chinese, and not in pinyin. This is particularly true of the Chinese-English section. This makes the dictionary far less useful for someone beginning to learn the language, as you will most likely have to look up each word in the Chinese examples, making them next to useless unless you're the masochistic type. The claim at the back of the dictionary that "Pinyin romanization and Mandarin pronunciation [are] shown throughout" is only a half-truth at best. The number of examples given is far smaller than those given in Oxford's Starter Chinese Dictionary, although I can understand the need for this as this dictionary has so many more definitions.
5.
Radical Index:
A minor point of note is the radical index, given at the beginning of the Chinese-English section. The only English you will find in this section is the words "Radical Index." Stroke counts are given using Chinese characters, and while this is not a huge inconvenience for someone who is aware of these characters, it does present a problem to newcomers to the language. As far as I'm concerned, it makes no sense for the dictionary to be formatted in this way. After all, many people will be consulting the Chinese-English section because they do not _know_ what the Chinese character means. Using Chinese characters to "help" you find other Chinese characters is a bit stupid in my opinion.
6.
Dictionary Layout:
Anyone who expects this dictionary to have the clear, two-colour entries, typefaces, and examples that made Oxford's Starter Chinese dictionary so pleasant to use will be sorely disappointed in this dictionary. Although it may have been too much to expect this dictionary to include measure words for relevant nouns, it would not have been difficult to implement devices such as clear typefaces, different colours, and bold print to distinguish between different definitions. The choice of typeface the authors have used for pinyin characters is awful and could easily have been made clearer.
7.
Paper Quality:
Although this is a large dictionary (over 1,000 pages), the paper is easily seen-through and the print can be made out on the other side of the paper.
The CDROM dictionary does have some good points however; it shows pinyin under each simplified character, and right-clicking on any character allows you to look that character up directly.
Conclusion:
In short, I would not recommend this dictionary to any beginner of Chinese. It does not seem to have been designed with them in mind. I cannot offer a comparative review of comprehensive Chinese dictionaries because I only have this one, but if I had the choice again I would not opt to buy this dictionary.
Although the Oxford Starter Chinese Dictionary may have far fewer definitions, it is at least legible, approachable, easy to understand, and supplies all of its many examples in pinyin as well as simplified Chinese. There is no contest for those beginning to learn Chinese, in my opinion.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Simple yet a tool of survival, April 24, 2006
In my experience traveling and living in China for two years, having arrived in the country with this dictionary and no prior experience in the language, I have become competent in Mandarin with the great help of this little 'friend'.
Although certainly not concise, it is missing a great deal of (usually) less practical words, it is small enough to carry in your pocket as you wander the streets trying to self-study or translate. It explains grammatical terms with amazing clarity in a tone that an amateur in language studies can understand. Often if will give 4 definitions for a word, but will explain the application of each definition. Moreover, it will give example sentences to help with grammatical and further vocabulary retention. It also uses both PINYIN and Characters in the Chinese definitions.
Basically it is a huge communicative aid and learning tool but should accompany another source to fill in the vocabulary blanks.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Oxford Chinese-English Dictionary & Software - Strong points & Weak, October 3, 2007
This review is from: Oxford Chinese Dictionary and Talking Chinese Dictionary and Instant Translator: Book and CD-ROM package (Hardcover)
The dictionary is very full, and has a wealth of contemporary terms. These are very useful in a world that is experiencing rapid technological and social change. The written dictionary tends to give fuller treatment of the entries. The software is a bit sparse on discussion and examples. Sample sentences and usage examples would have been ideal. (I have in mind two older Oxford electronic dictionaries, one Spanish-English, the other French-English, that offered very full discussion of the entries.)
Also, if you are reading along in hard copy and come across a character you do not recognize, or view same on a computer graphic, it is not possible to look it up in the electronic dictionary. Other programs I have come across have a built-in writing table for this purpose. And I have even used a free-ware program that allows you to click the radical, then shows you characters based on the radical organized by stroke order. The paper version does have a radical index (based on the simplified form of the characters).
The dictionary does have a document viewer which can open text files or into which you can paste plain text. You can work with Unicode or ANSI-based text. It has the ever-popular mouse-over feature, which allows you to hover the mouse cursor over a character or combination of characters, and the definition pops up. Here the drawback is that the actual functioning is slow and a bit awkward. Sometimes only one character pops up when you would like a highlighted combination. Sometimes a nearby character is defined.
Finally, you cannot copy and paste dictionary entries into another document. That, quite frankly, is ridiculous. People using a dictionary are obviously trying to build up their vocabulary. Every other electronic dictionary I have come across facilitates the copying of entries so that you can build up a vocab list of your own. This one positively hinders it. (If copyright infringement is the concern - as if someone owns the English or Chinese languages - then at least allow users to build up vocabulary lists within the dictionary itself or a coordinated utility.)
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