Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Cantonese Phrasebook

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

 

 

A lot of info is stuffed in a small pocket book. It will come handy if you are traveling to Hong Kong or Guang-dong region.

Here are a couple of things I liked about this book. (1)Even though the fonts are small (ie, pocket version), it does not strain the eyes because the paper is high quality and has colored fonts. (2)It has the Chinese characters next to all the sentences and words. I did not like those books which only have the romanization but no Chinese characters. In the long run you really need to know them. (3) A lot of handy info/words/sentences included (such as 'I want to make love to you' or 'leave me alone!')

I have two reasons I can't give 5 stars: (1) It does NOT use the 'standard Yale' system--it could be a little confusing to those using Yale system (why don't everybody just use Yale???);(2)right off the bat, I noticed couple typo/errors in the pronounciation--I would use as a reference, not the primary source of studying Cantonese.

Overall, I think it is a worth investment, especially considering the low cost.

In the scope of Cantonese, this is one of the best books out there, as Cantonese is not very well documented. The book has a lot of small mistakes in it, which can be easy to catch if you are familiar with Chinese characters. Also many of the words used in the book are not in the dictionary (last section of book).

The major drawback of this book is that it uses it's homegrown transcription system, incompatible with the various standards floating around. I know the mindset is to make it easier to the reader, but it detracts from the book with one exception regarding tones (which the book does beautifully). Having a different romanization scheme makes it difficult to integrate material with how government/business messages/signs, input systems (e.g. like the Java app CantoInput), and other books write the corresponding roman letters. The romanization was also a source of mispronunciation.

Here's an example (minus the underline for low tone, as Amazon editor won't let me put enter those) from page 24:

Hanzi - (omitted as mangled by Amazon)
Book's Romanization - ngáw ge gaw dóy báy yàn tàu-jáw
Yale Romanization - ngó ge go dói béi yàn tàujó

If you don't want to rely on your smart phone or get stuck whipping out the full over-sized maps in your bag... this is a handy discreet pocket version with some quick tips and guides in it. Its not meant to be the holy grail of knowledge. Its a great pocket guide to help you get around in Hong Kong.

I purchased this book so I could speak canto better. My friend is canto and he wasn't that willing to teach me too much. As I spend much time with him and his family I thought I could gain some utility doing some extra-circular learning of Cantonese.(and to make sure they didn't say anything bad behind my back, just joking hahah) The book was decent to say the least. It turns out my friend is a slightly different dialect then the one used in this book. Though most of the phrases I say coming from this book are understandable (once he decodes my awful pronunciation) I would recommend it, it's small enough to fit in my backpack and the text size is still easy to read. It offers just more then phrases, it even tells about certain customs and some back ground on some phrases, so you get some culture along side the phrases. I think it was a good buy.

Lonely Planet once again comes through with a concise, easy to use, beautifully set up phrase book. Chocked with useful cultural info and tips if visiting China, the book is well sectioned, allowing you to get the word or phrase you are looking for fast. Its tiny size makes it easy to travel with even if you have only a small patch pocket. A must have for those who are tackling Cantonese.