Customer Reviews

Concise English-Chinese Chinese-English Dictionary

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

As a Chinese language learner for 20 years and as a college teacher of Chinese for five, I have found this dictionary to be invaluable. It has many important features not found in most other dictionaries, not the least of which is that it has C/E and E/C sections in the same book. One previous reviewer said his Chinese friends found mistakes. Welcome to language learning! No dictionary can possibly handle all the subtleties resident in language translation, especially between English and Chinese since both languages are spoken by an enormous variety of speakers (usage varies widely from one region to another). Having the ability to cross check (ie look up a word on one side and take the translation to the other side and see if it comes back the same as you started) is the only way to be sure you're using a word properly. The pinyin with each Chinese word in the E/C allows that very easily. I own 5 copies of the first edition, one for every room and my brief case, and all are worn to the spine. While not as portable as the smaller first edition, this present edition was more warmly welcomed by my students (and my own eyes!) for the larger characters. Also useful when you get a little farther along are the multitude of example sentences and phrases included. I own probably 20 dictionaries of various types and flavors, and this one is not the only dictionary a serious language learner should own, but it should be the first.

I am a teacher of Mandarin Chinese and this is the dictionary I recommend to all my students. The book uses pinyin romanization which is standard in most Chinese language classes in the US today. When a character is written in its simplified form, the traditional form is also shown - a feature hard to find in many Chinese dictionaries. Definitions are followed by the word used in a simple phrase or sentence. The English-Chinese, Chinese-English format makes it convenient for students to cross-reference words. A radical index in the center of the dictionary enables you to look up a word if you only know what a character looks like but you don't know how to pronounce it. (However you do need to know how to identify all the radicals first). The book is relatively small and easy to carry (unless you are one of those unfortunate students who have to lug a twenty-pound backpack to school each day).

After struggling with the miniscule type in the first edition, it's a joy to use the second edition with its extensive revisions and much larger type.

This is the only dictionary that allows you to look up Chinese words by their pinyin spelling and to look up English words and find their pinyin and Chinese character equivalent. If you are studying Chinese this book is an absolute must. If you are traveling and want a pocket-sized dictionary, get the first edition otherwise you'll be a lot happier with the second edition.

I spent a lot of time in the bookstore looking at this dictionary. It seems that there are few Chinese dictionaries on the shelves these days.
Good:
1. there are both traditional and simplified characters
2. print is nice and rather clear
3. you can look up words by radicals as well as Pin Yin pronunciation (and I've read by stroke count too).

HOWEVER, it seems to be geared more to the Chinese person leaning English. For example, when you look up "Chinese", there is zhongwen, zhongguo, etc., but it doesn't tell you how to use the different words. You would then probably have to look up these words on the Chinese side for more information.

Enjoyed using this latest edition for personal study using the easy to use (and see) radical index for looking up characters. Many characters are used in combination to form words and word groups. This dictionary makes it easy to formulate your own sentences (if you have a basic knowledge of Chinese grammar) with suggestions in the English-Chinese and Chinese-English sections. Used in combination with Understanding Chinese, I can communicate in writing or speech and feel fairly confident that I'm speaking and writing as well as someone receiving formal instruction (instead of the self-taught student that I am). Great dictionary!!!

Content-wise, this is a good dictionary for everyday use by learners of Chinese. It might not be the dictionary of choice for reading newspapers or Chinese literature, but it's perfect for basic conversational Chinese and most day-to-day use.

So why did Oxford make the 2nd edtion so big? The 1st edition was a terrific little dictionary-- small enough to carry to class or in your bag while travelling, and it fit very comfortably in one's hand, yet it was surprisingly comprehensive. Granted, the type was small, but I was quite willing to make that compromise for such convenience.

The new 2nd edition is much larger-- not as large as a normal full-sized dictionary, but way too big and heavy to comfortably carry to class or on trips to China, and it simply doesn't fit as well in my hand as the 1st edition. Therefore, it isn't nearly as useful as the amazing 1st edition.

For my money, I would have much prefered Oxford to correct the typos in the 1st edition, and perhaps update the entries a bit (adding names of countries would be nice)... but I wish they hadn't messed with the size!

I am very disappointed in the 2nd edition. I will use it at my desk, but I am taking very good care of my well-worn 1st edition for use when I need something more portable.

The Oxford Second Edition is one of the better English-Chinese/Chinese-English dictionaries on the market. It's a standard for students at most levels of Chinese or English language study and encompasses a broad selection of words and phrases from a variety of disciplines, including science, politics, language, and humanities as well as colloquialisms. Definitions of more common words and characters, though not exhaustive, give a fairly complete outline of meaning and usage. A user's and pronunciation guide pretext; also helpful is a radical index for Chinese characters. The English-Chinese section lists characters followed by pinyin, and the Chinese-English section is arranged alphabetically by pinyin. While characters appear in simplified script, the traditional character is (usually) provided.

Some may find this dictionary slightly bulky, and true, it does not have the convenience of the pocket varieties. My friends and I did not find it burdensome during our study in China, however, and it does have the advantage of durable binding for students and travelers. My only reserve is the lack of proper nouns listed, especially places. Although there is a table of China's provinces and municipalities, this dictionary will not be helpful for other basic translations (ex. Pacific Ocean). Overall though, a necessary reference for students of both languages.

As concise dictionaries go this offering from Oxford is my cup of tea. I have two huge dictionaries: C-E and E-C but when I want to look up a word I always turn to this one first. It does not pretend to have everything, but nine times out of ten it has what I am looking for.

The first half of the dictionary is English to Chinese with the second half reversing that. The E-C section has the English word followed by the Chinese equivalent (if there is such a thing :) in characters, followed by the pinyin. For common words it also includes variations and short examples. This seems to be somewhat inconsistently done in terms of the amount of English included and/or pinyin. It assumes that the reader has at least a minimal grasp of Chinese. If they do not what are the expecting from a dictionary? Language cannot be equated word for word. You must study it in its cultural context.

The second half of the dictionary is arranged alphabetically by pinyin, tone and radical. In other words if you knew rice/meal was "fan" you would look up "fan" and then find the fourth tone section and then the character for rice. If you do not know the tone (always a challenge) or the character (a bigger challenge) it gets a little harder. Chinese is not a language designed for dictionaries. As with most Chinese dictionaries it is almost impossible for a non-native speaker to look up a character to find its meaning. It is an involved process of figuring out which stroke was first and how many there are and whether or not the character is single or combined with others. The radical index is well laid out and I have seen a Chinese locate a character in seven seconds with little problem. Anyone using this dictionary should already know that however, so I do not count it against the dictionary.

For the benefit of those who might buy this dictionary let me say what it is not. It is not an exhaustive dictionary. It is not designed as a textbook for learning new words. It is not a phrasebook for tourists. It also assumes that you know enough Chinese to tell the difference between shi (ten) and shi (rock). If you fit this description and are looking for a concise dictionary for everyday use I would not hesitate to recommend this one.

This is the best Chinese-English/English-Chinese dictionary there is. The earlier edition of this book was simply too small. I suffered thru the early small size book using a magnifying glass for details of the written characters for 4 years before this one became available. No more magnifying glass!

As a new student of chinese, this dictionary has served me very well. The C-E section is organized in a non-obvious way to somebody new to the language, and there is no explanation of it in the beginning, but I figured it out. I do find it odd that you can't look up a character without knowing how it's pronounced, but I guess that's normal in dictionaries these days.

Smaller type in the paperback would be nice since it's far too large to travel with now.

Overall it's a good work though.