Customer Reviews

The Oxford Picture Dictionary: English-Vietnamese Editon (The Oxford Picture Dictionary Program)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I purchased this book to assist a Vietnamese immigrant that I work with. She knows very little English, but attempts to communicate ideas and concepts with her co-workers. This can be very frustrating for her because we speak English, and have little motivation to learn Vietnamese. So, she's stuck having to learn the language from people that are not teachers, speak too fast, frequently use common slang terms, and have an attitude that "She'll eventually pick it up". I feel sympathy for her, so I bought it for her.

This book contains a few thousand words and pictures, all in the context that they're seen and used. For example, there is a two page spread of an intersection of roads. In that picture, there are pictures of various businesses such as laundromats, bakeries, beauty salon, and such. Car, motorcycle, truck, bus, etc. Parking meters, traffic lights, crosswalks, road, curb, corner, mailbox, fire hydrant, parking space, and many other things you'd find at an intersection of streets in a city. Many of these picture spreads also have verbs identified with a picture. For example, there is a picture of a car backing into a parking spot and noted "park the car", a bicyclist is noted with "ride a bicycle", "wait for the light", "walk across the street", etc.

What makes it perfect is that beneath the English word is the Vietnamese word so the student can identify the nouns and verbs more clearly and what action the picture is conveying, such as "learn to drive", "plant a tree", "hang up your clothes", "wash your hair", etc. In certain instances, the verbs are presented in the order they'd be performed, such as: Wake up, take a shower, eat breakfast, go to work, leave work, go shopping, go home, eat dinner, go to bed. This helps with associating the nouns and verbs with the situations. Pick up the receiver, listen for the dial tone, put coins in the telephone, dial the telephone number, have a conversation, hang up the receiver. That sort of thing. All with clearly identified pictures.

The amount of material is pretty extensive, covering 3,700 words. These words are grouped into 12 broad categories: Everyday Language, People, Housing, Food, Clothing, Health, Community, Transportation, Areas of Study, Plants and Animals, Work, and Recreation.

Each category is then broken down into several picture spreads with all the pictures and activities defined. For example, the section on community is broken down into these picture spreads: City streets, an intersection, a mall, a childcare center, U.S. Mail, a bank, a library, the legal system, crime, public safety, emergencies and natural disasters. All things and related concepts are identified in English and Vietnamese. Very nice.

Some spreads resemble comic book panes. Job Search is an example showing a young man looking for a job, looking for a Help Wanted sign, Looking in the newspaper, Calling for information, asking about the hours, filling out an application, going for an interview, and eventually getting hired. All with relevant and understandable pictures.

For a beginner who knows little English, this gets them started so they can identify time, days, past, present, future, emotions, and other concepts they'll encounter every day. They will still need a native speaker, or someone who is fluent in English, who can assist with correct pronunciations.

After several months to a year (depending on the students circumstances) of studying this book, they will need to move onto an English *grammar* book so they can construct their sentences correctly, instead of the typical, "Me go home", "You no work tomorrow?", or "I are use blue cleaner, yes?" and that sort of thing. There is some coverage of verb forms, but it's virtually useless without more extensive coverage (and definitely needs a teacher).

The back of the book contains an index, in Vietnamese, so the student can look up Vietnamese words and flip to the page were the English word, picture, and spelling is. There is also a simple English dictionary with pronunciation key, but will be of little help to a Vietnamese speaker since the English pronunciation key will be as clear as Arabic or Hebrew. How can they possibly understand the difference between "a" as in "Bake" or "a" as in "Father" unless they actually speak the language? Therefore, this pronunciation key isn't going to be very useful until they are very familiar with a few hundred words or more, along with their correct pronunciation. Then they may associate how to pronounce "a" (with the little straight line above it) with "cake".

Overall, this book, along with a native speaker, is an outstanding start for a new Vietnamese student of English. I highly recommend this book.

- Alleyrat

This book was exactly what I had been looking for! It was easy to comprehend and the pictures are well done. The pictures are also a great learning tool. If you are looking for a great English/Vietnamese dictionary take advantage of the time I spent researching this product and buy it. You won't be sorry!

Excellent resource book both to refresh my own limited knowledge of Vietnamese and to find the right English/Vietnamese equivalent for my Vietnamese students.

I am an ESL teacher and tutor 5 Vietnamese students. They all have purchased this book and we are using it with hands on lessons for each chapter of this dictionary. There are no other books that I have found in the 15 years I have tutored that are more descriptive and the illustrations helpful for teaching English.

Enjoy!

This is a must own if you are learning either language. Well layed out and reminds me of a school book.

My Mom was happy to receive this gift on Mother's Day. The pictures are helpful and so are the juxtaposition English and Vietnamese translation. She liked it so much I think I will buy the second edition.

This dictionary is well-organized with lots of pictures grouped into useful topics. Words are given in English and whatever other language for the edition you have purchased. Recommended.

bought two to avoid shipping. look new and fast shipping. recommend to everyone.

These books were purchased to be used in a church ESL language center. We have used them before. They are very useful working with ESL students. Not only have we used them with this language, but with other languages, too, according to the students being helped.

The authors tried hard to present the materials in an easy to understand format. This book is all about Picture-word association for different settings (at the work place, at home,...etc). It is a "must have" for all. You'll enjoy learning new words and use them in converations, intelligently. I suggest also to get the Pocket Vietnamese Dictionary: Vietnamese-English and English-Vietnamese.