Customer Reviews

Living Language: Chinese: 2008 Day-to-Day Calendar (Living Language Daily Phrase & Culture Calendars)

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The phrases or characters on each day are in pin yin (Mandarin). This calendar doesn't come with a reference guide on how to read pin yin. I didn't care for the stand on the back of this daily calendar, in fact I accidentally broke it by trying to extend the plastic stand so that it would stand up better. It's a good review resource for those who want to refresh their Chinese. However, it contained phrases I'd probably never use: "There was a hailstorm in the northeast region."

I was disappointed with this calendar. The basic format is to show the word with pinyin and character on one day, then the next day shows the word used in a sentence. So essentially, you're getting about half the vocabulary you could be getting. They should show the word, character and sample sentence on one page. The same company makes an Italian calendar that does just that.

I also agree with the previous review in that the calendar has a lot of vocabulary you'll probably never use. For example, there was a two week section on family members. And although the distinction between paternal and maternal grandfather is important in Chinese, I would've rather seen more everyday words that would help someone who was, say, traveling in China.

On the plus side though, on November 19th I will learn how to say that someone is an "enlightened monkey".