Customer Reviews

Pocket Cantonese Dictionary: Cantonese-English English-Cantonese (Periplus Pocket Dictionaries)

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

 

 

I don't think the other reviewers actually read cover of the dictionary. It says, "Contains the 3,000 most useful words for everyday communication". I'm not sure why someone would be surprised by the fact that it has "limited vocabulary". That's actually the point. Direct your attention to the words needed for daily communication before learning how to say things like, "grandiloquent". Basically, if it's in this dictionary, you need to know it. Not to mention, it is a pocket dictionary. Also, it's not a character dictionary. You look things up either by Cantonese pronunciation or English.
As far as Cantonese being a "fading" language, there are 55 million speakers worldwide, in Guangdong province in China, news is broadcast in Cantonese, school up to university level is conducted in Cantonese. Cantonese won't be making its exit from the world language stage anytime soon.
This dictionary does what it claims to do very well, namely giving you simple definitions for the most common 3000 words (not characters, although the characters for each word are given which is a huge plus). In addition, it works great as a list of "must know" vocabulary. Once you finish some beginning course (I highly recommend the two FSI courses by Elizabeth L. Boyle), this is a great way to expand your vocab.

I'm in agreement with one of the reviewers below; I'm curious what other two critics were looking for too, because this is meant to be a limited vocabulary reference book. I like that this includes words not common in most of the other dictionaries, and an additional bonus is that it has the Chinese characters, which are legible and clear. This is the one title that consistently comes up in the "recommended texts" at universities and language schools. Thumbs up for me.

As the cover says, this dictionary is for travelers and beginners of Cantonese, so the focus is on daily and useful expressions. The Cantonese-English part is arranged alphabetically using the Yale romanization, so no knowledge of Chinese characters is required. The definitions are short and clear.

The only problem is that the author favors more formal expressions. For example, if a certain verb has a colloquial/slang variant that is used by most Cantonese speakers in daily life and a more formal variant that is used in both spoken Cantonese and written Chinese, the author selects the latter.

Nevertheless, I find this dictionary extremely useful.

This book is a good reference if you want to know some common Cantonese words. I suggest you have a knowledge on how to PRONOUNCE the words because the words are sometimes not pronounced how they appear.

My cantonese is rusty and having this pocket size book in my bag is handy when I can't remember a word in cantonese. It's great that all the words are in english as well since I am unable to read chinese characters.

This is an excellent little dictionary, and the $6.95 price is very reasonable. The vocabulary of 3000 words is of course quite limited, but the selection of words and phrases for inclusion seems well done. Use of the popular and easily learned Yale romanization is a positive factor.

There are a few typographical errors. For example, in the C-E section, Ajau 'Asia' is capitalized but au'jau 'Europe' is not; the wrong character is given for kahmmouh 'aunt' in both C-E and E-C sections, and in the E-C section two of the 'aunt' entries don't make sense ("wife of mother's sister").

The introductory note on pronunciation should mention the initial n-/l- confusion and the variation among speakers in use or omission of initial ng-. Listing of entries with these initial sounds is also not uniformly handled. The notes on pronunciation of vowels o and eu work for British English but not for American English, and initial kw- should be explained as "like kw in Kwanza" or "like qu in quick" rather than "like Gwendolyn with a strong puff of air."

If the book were printed on thinner paper and had more flexible covers, it would be much more comfortable to hold and easier to spin the pages back and forth looking for entries.

How can I rate a product I never received? I will be doing less business with Amazon in the future. Fortunately there are many sites to do business with. It's deserving of zero stars.

NO RADICAL INDEX OR CHARACTER CHART, that sums it up and then some. If you don't know what you're looking for, you won't find in here. Too bad, I seldom can find NOTHING good to say about a book but this one would get a negative star rating if I could give one. Sorry, but this thing is useless, spend your money on something that will actually be of use like Langenscheidt's.

Not an extensive dictionary but considering the low price, the dictionary is mediocre. The vocabulary is very limited with no sentence examples but I personally found it extremely handy for verifying the pronunciation of most every day words. Cantonese is a fading language, its materials are limited and for most people, not worth spending much money or effort on.