Customer Reviews

Chinese Phrases For Dummies

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There are some things that I like about this book and some things that are very flawed with it. The book has a lot of local phrases and insight into Chinese culture. But it lacks a glossary listing in the back and it is filled with typos. Some of the time the pinying is just wrong. Tonal expressions are inverted from what they are supposed to be. You'd have to have another reference to understand what they mean. This book would be very confusing for a first timer although they try to sound it out with english words next to the pinying (which is helpful to beginners and not included in many other chinese phrase books with exception to Chinese in 10 minutes a Day). But honestly I could only recommend this book if you have a few other books that you are learning from and a native speaker to practice with.

The book is not bad. It is not for dummies but does make learning/reviewing a little more interesting. I wish it had more of a vocabulary listing int the back.

Unlike the big book "Chinese for Dummies" this book provides a decent foundation for the beginning user. It introduces the reader to the four tones right from the start. You are introduced to important things like counting and addressing people respectfully (Sir, Mr. Mrs. etc)After that, you're basically taken on a tour of conversational Mandarin, given helpful phrases for the would-be tourist looking for food, gift shops or trying to find Uncle Wu, their long lost relative.

You won't be a Mandarin expert at the end of this book, but you will have a good foundation on which to build future lessons. It's also a good reference to carry with you, as its size makes it fit quite nicely in a small carry-on bag or even a back pocket.

You don't have to carry around a novel AND you can find a bathroom in most small towns of China... what more do you need from a reference book? (Just kidding, but it IS a great tool)

Chinese Phrases for Dummies is a must have for any traveler going to China. I'm currently here in China for one year as a Spoken English teacher at both a kindergarten and a middle school. Although I'm having difficulties with the tones in the Chinese language, the very fact that I'm trying gets a positive reaction from sales people here, especially those who come into the cities to sell their wares in the open markets. They are very obliging to the "dumb" American and graciously correct my pronunciation for me. This book is easy to read and you don't need to read the whole thing if you don't want to. You can concentrate on just the sections you need. I definately reccommend this book.

This book is helpful but the words are only written in pinyin! If you want to learn the characters then I suggest you get another book. If you want to learn how to say words then this book may be helpful to you.

As someone going to China for a couple of weeks, I was looking for a book that would allow me to function without requiring in depth learning of the language. By showing both the mandarin and pinyin, allows easy pronunciation of the words and tones.

Wendy Abraham supplements her popular "Chinese for Dummies" book with a more portable phrase book for travelers. While I'm sure the author had the best of intentions for learners that simply needed enough language to get by while on holiday, frequent misspellings of pronunciation along with haphazard - and occasionally incorrect - translation of items (such as four-character idioms) that the casual student of the language doesn't need anyway can only lead to misunderstanding and confusion. If normal character-based written entires were included with the text, the traveler could at least use the phrase book for pointing, but with only pinyin romanization (along with Abraham's persistent and distracting toneless phonetic approximations), this book will probably not help much with inevitable language gaps.

Nathan Dummitt
author of Chinese Through Tone & Color

I liked this little guide. The organization is guide and the writer provides background on the Chinese language that is useful for native English speakers who are grappling with the differences between the two languages.

One warning: this book is written more along the lines of Taiwan Chinese. Although most of it is the same, there are some phrases in this guide that people do not use in Mainland China.

I Really like this book and started Learning Chinese the Very first day I used it.