Customer Reviews

Concise English-Chinese / Chinese-English Dictionary (Third Edition)

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

 

 

This is the dictionary I usually use when visiting China. It has a lot of contents for the price. Multiple definitions are given for most words, sometimes with illustrative sentences. Pinyin, simplified and traditional characters are shown for all entries in both directions. There is also a radical index to help you find the pinyin equivalents of characters. (A stroke-count index, such as in some Taiwan dictionaries, would have been a helpful addition.) The fonts used are a bit small throughout, however.

One complaint I have that isn't unique to this dictionary concerns a word of great importance to a traveler -- "hotel". Check the E-to-C section of this and most other dictionaries, and you'll find only one gloss: "lu3guan3" (number indicate tones). This is also the word used in the Berlitz Chinese phrase book, BTW. But all but one of the dozen or so different places I've stayed at in Beijing & Shanghai have been called "fan4dian4", and the exception was a "jiu3dian4" (Pudong Shangri-La). "Fandian" is also the word taxi drivers use and respond to. Sure enough, if you look up "fandian" in the C-to-E section of the Concise Dictionary and several others, you'll find it glossed as "hotel". Why there isn't more symmetry regarding this important entry beats me.

By the way, if you're visiting a major city in China, consider winging it on a phrase book until you can visit a large bookstore. The Concise Dictionary 3E is widely available there in a convenient vinyl-covered pocket edition for Y36 = about US$4.50.

I ordered a version of this dictionary based on Elizabeth Yu's comment that it was readable for one with failing eyesight. The book I got was NOT readable for me (it must have been 6 pt type or less--I have normal vision problems for a person in their 40s, I have no trouble reading a newspaper).

I think there is a large and small print version of this book with identical titles--note ISBN: 0195911512 has dimensions of about 5" x 7", but ISBN: 7100039339 does not give dimensions and the photo looks narrower (mine is about 2.5" x 5").

So if you want readable print, check the size of the book.

I saw comments that the print in the third edition was too small, but I bought it anyway. Big mistake. The print is so small that the dictionary is virtually useless. It's about 5-6 point type. I need a magnifying glass to read it, and complex Chinese characters come out as little more than a black blob, even with a magnifying glass, because the characters can't be printed that small. Don't buy this dictionary!!!!

The only reason I gave it a "2" rather than a "1" is that the content seems okay (as much as I can see of it, anyway).

I found this book so useful I bought three, just to have spares. I didn't pay Amazon's price though; the same book is under $6 in China.

Regarding some of the other reviewers' complaint's:

Yes the print is tiny, and well-nigh illegible for the more complex characters, and the pages are very thin. That is the inevitable result of cramming large amounts of information into a small space. I do have to say, though, that it wasn't necessary to have printed the diacritics so small. The printing is crisp, however, under magnification and I recommend keeping a 1/2" fold-up magnifying glass in your pocket. Even at that, the thing is barely pocket size; I would have preferred a smaller number of broader pages so it were not so thick.

The definitions are not as authoritative as the best desktop dictionaries, but it is better than any other pocket or PDA-based dictionary I have found. For important situations, check your word with a reverse-lookup. That's life folks.

Chinese usage hints are in hanzi with no pinyin. I understand the need to conserve space, but if you have to choose one or the other, I think pinyin would have been better. Those experienced in Chinese can figure out which sense is being referred to, while those inexperienced in Chinese will need the pinyin to look up the words.

The radical index is immensely useful to look up characters by shape only, but a 4-corner index would be much more accessible to Chinese beginners. Including both might add 20 pages of heft, but would be worth it in my view.

Those last two issues (usage hints lack pinyin and no 4-corner index) make me say that this dictionary is not suitable for beginners. You have to have a few weeks of study and mastery of some basics in order to use it.

Having said that, I can offer no higher endorsement than to say that this dictionary is my linguistic side-arm whenever I go pounding the pavement in China. Not as good as the best dictionaries for European languages, but the best Chinese I have found, and my key to successful communication.

Beginners should start with an introductory phrase book and audio course, though. PDA owners, whose goals are less ambitious and who want to save space, might consider the MSDict PDA software, which appears to be built on the Pocket Oxford's lexicon. A better PDA dictionary, but not as good as this printed one, and less suited than MSDict for beginners, is Clavis Sinica.

Serious students will need a "real" desktop dictionary with more space to expound on usage and more terms of art.[...]

I only gave the third edition of the book a 1 star partially to gather attention of new buyers. Please note the content is very similar to the second edition but has one major flaw. The physical and print size is about half that of the second edition making it hard to read and use as a functional at home dictionary. I recomend anyone needing a dictionary with traditional (very hard to find a good one) to buy the larger "Oxford Chinese Dictionary" ISBN: 0195964594.

I didn't realize what a wonderful dictionary this was until mine got stolen (here in China).

If you want a good dictionary, then there are several things that you will need, at a minimum:

1. Chinese-English and English-Chinese in one single volume (instead of having to buy two volumes that you need to lug everywhere).
2. Portable and paperback and light enough to carry.
3. Characters indexed by radicals and then by stroke count after that.
4. Simplified characters as well as traditional (in hexagonal brackets in this particular book).
5. A good sampling of words that can be made by combining the root character with several other characters, and PINYIN NEXT TO THOSE COMBINATORY WORDS (since seeing a character next to one that you don't know entails your looking up that character to find its spelling-- and some of these characters can take as much as 20 minutes to look up).
6. Traditional characters and Hanyu Pinyin *in the same place* (the only place that uses traditional characters is Taiwan, which also uses Wade Giles-- to varying degrees of consistency-- and that can be a bit confusing as a way to look up a word).

Finding a dictionary that fit all those constraints was impossible-- IN CHINA!!! (Can you imagine being in China and not being able to find a suitable Chinese dictionary?). There were a good number of dictionaries that had 2 or even 3 of my needed things, but not one (and this is after visiting about 15 bookstores) that had the same features as this dictionary. When I asked for dictionaries that contained traditional characters, people looked at me like I had exposed myself to them.

This dictionary used to be sold in China. I am not sure what happened. But every single store to which I went in this city was sold out. So apparently many other people have realized the value of this dictionary.

If you are a student coming to China to study Chinese, be warned that it is best to bring your own dictionary with you.

Concise English-Chinese / Chinese-English Dictionary (Chinese Edition)Recently met a young man from China who spoke almost no English. This book arrived in just a few days and was greeted with many smiles. A hungry man at a banquet couldn't have been happier. I am very pleased as well. Thanks Amazon and "hellofromyang".

I have bought almost all of the Chinese dictionaries commonly available, and this one remains the "go-to" workhorse in all situations needing a quick Chinese-English translation.

It is small enough for the pocket (not as small as the tiny Langenscheidt Universal which I use when I don't want to have a "bulge"), but not wanting in words. It's packed to the brim! Yes, the print is small. I'm sorry for folks with worse eyesight, for for those who can see small print, it is a boon that they could cram so many words, example sentences (both English and Chinese, which are ESSENTIAL to understanding), traditional characters, and a true radical system inside, as opposed to Lagenscheidt dictionaries which have a non-standard alphabetical by pinyin layout.

The coverage of this little dictionary is really large for a pocket dict. I essentially use it for a desk top dictionary, only turning to my Chinese-Chinese dict once in a while. This more than suffices for almost all everyday reading, conversation, that the advanced user of Chinese would encounter.

I've bought 2 of these already, and I think the legend will continue once I wear through this one! As far as I see it, this pocket dict is the only true dictionary (ex sent, true radicals, trad char etc), the others are more like guides.

A very comprehensive dictionary, but you must have the patience to go over the many itterations in the hope of finding the English corollary. There is no English to Chinese and no special sections like "marrying/measuring" words. but the more I use it the more I realize that this is the most definitive Chinese dictionary for English speaking persons. I would prefer a little larger print, but it is bigger than some other dictionaries.

A somewhat useful book. However: print is far too small, pages are impossibly thin, it is impossible to intuit strokes because you can barely SEE the character. Sometimes, the traditional character is omitted completely. It is not easily navigable and seems to be based in British English. Seems to be designed for a Chinese-speaking audience, not the other way around. Not very useful for a beginner. Try: Far East New Practical Chinese/English Dictionary edited by Liang Shih-chiu.