Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Cantonese Phrasebook (Lonely Planet Language Survival Kit)

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

 

 

I will temper this review by noting that this is a _phrasebook_ and not explicitly intended as a learning tool. The book could be useful as a way of looking up something you want to say (if you can find it) and pointing to the chinese writing, but that's about all.

Cantonese pronunciation is very complicated, and this book isn't very helpful in explaining it. The section that tries to give a broad introduction to the language is terrible. For example, early on it gives a list of 8 "useful verbs" which is missing staples like "to want" and "to have", and in fact only has about 3 that are even remotely useful. One of the listed verbs is "to trick" -- a word that every traveller struggling with a language wishes they could remember.

The majority of this book is organized by topic. Within each topic, it goes into too much depth to be able to find anything quickly, but being a small book it is not comprehensive at all. The dictionary section in the back is tiny and not very useful either.

My copy ended up in a trash can in Hong Kong a few days after I bought it.

This phrase book has authentic cantonese characters. Cantonese is an oral language and they use a few special characters aside from the "chinese" characters. I have seen another phrase book which uses all "chinese" characters. If you literally read it in cantonese, the pronunciations are all wrong, but the meaning is the same. It is frustrating if you know a little cantonese, and want to know the cantonese characters. This book is good because of the cantonese characters and the correct pronunciations that go along with them. If you have no background in a language and want to learn never choose a phrase book. Go buy a textbook.

First of all, I have to give credit to anyone who writes a book explaining the pronunciation of cantonese. However, this book would be more useful as a reference or supplement guide to those learning cantonese but already know the basics of the language. I wouldn't recommend it for beginners, but it wouldn't hurt to have it if you're looking to expand your vocabulary.

Have found this useful for basic phrases and general conversation, however for anything harder, I've had to go back to a more authoritative source, a native-Cantonese speaker to get the info that I'm looking for. This isn't good for learning as such, but it is a useful tool if you know some cantonese already to reinforce what you know for general converstaion and also if you are stuck in Hong Kong with the characters being alongside the romanization for easy pointing to the locals if you are having trouble with the tones.

Mostly all the translated words are on the mark and in nice neat cantonese. Lonely planet has done a great job. Much better than the yale style because the cantonese part is broken into syllables and you don't have scratch your head too much about where the stress/intonation points go. Hamburger is "hon bo baau", museum "bok mat gwoon" It does take a small degree of guess work and a decent speaking knowledge of cantonese get it 100% right, but that's life. Also provides sample sentences for everyday actvities. Would be useful for learning colloquail terms and traveling. Of course if you're in Hong Kong you could just speak english... Lastly I also have the Periplus Pocket cantonese dictonary, it is just that a thin long dictionary and hardly "ideal for...travelers"

This was my first book on the long trek to learning Cantonese. The book provides a detailed food section, which will come in handy when dining with the girlfriend's family. Food seems to be of high importance with the Chinese culture, so it is good that this section is very well done.

The problem I found was that the book does not use the widely accepted Yale romanization. I've been collecting all kinds of books for the last year, and Yale seems to be the most easily understood and most intuitive romanization technique that I've found.

Overall, the book has a diverse collection of phrases and vocabulary. It is a good book to have in your Cantonese collection.

For a small little book, there is a ton of information. Useful and fun. Great value.

Explains basic grammar and useful words well classified. Cantonese being a tonal language, pronunciation is very crucial; for which this book can not much help. Rather, I find this useful to convey my own simple messages in written Chinese. Sounds strange but easier than the modulated oral communication which can only come with practicing time.

I am an American born Cantonese speaker and grew up bilingual, but I speak English 99% of the time. I bought this book so I can brush up on my Cantonese. That is how I use the book. I don't know how any English speaker can learn from this book. The pronunciation keys are too hard to remember. It's is just because I know some Cantonese vocabulary that I can use it. For the words that I don't know I have a hard time of figuring out how it is supposed to be pronounced. I'll have to ask a relative or friend who is fluent in the language for the correct pronunciations. Cantonese is a very difficult language and a phrase book without any audio input is impossible. It would be great if Lonely Planet could come out with a Cantonese phrase book with an audio CD like they now have one for Mandarin.

Better than most beginner's guide. Very easy to understand and made very interesting. Believe it or not now I can find the context of conversations.