Customer Reviews

The Rough Guide to Mandarin Chinese (a dictionary phrasebook)

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I recently spent 6 months working in central China (Luoyang). In preperation for the trip I picked up a copy of the Rough Guide to Mandarine Chinese. It is a little book that fits easily into the back pocket of a pair of jeans. I carried it everywhere from work to shopping trips. It NEVER let me down. It is by far the most well rounded phrase book. Simple, yet comprehensive. It teaches quick pronunciation and the choice of words will get you through any situation. To show you how good it is. My chinese friends had me ship 6 more for them to have to cross reference back to English. A lot of the americans there with me had other books, but everyone liked the Rough Guide the best. The proof is in the pudding. It works...

I was inspired to write this review by the rather negative review I saw displayed. Contrary to that reviewer's opinion my experience with this book is that it is well set out and easy to use. I have used it in China and whilst learning Mandarin at an evening class. It has a very useful English-Mandarin dictionary (and vice versa) with characters included. I found this most useful as when my pronounciation failed me I was able to show a native speaker the appropriate character. It also has a good introductory section on the basics of the language, a menu reader and much more. On the downside it sometimes requires a little hunting through to find what you are looking for, but all in all I highly rcommend this as an excellent travelling companion.

This book was the handiest thing and I got my friends and I out of a bind more than once with it. By looking up words and showing the characters to taxi drivers, waitresses, people on the street, I navigated through a large chunk of China. It was particularly indispensible ordering in restaurants, the majority of which (even in Beijing) housed no English speakers. I managed to set up a day tour (including date and time) with a random taxi driver by using the main dictionary and the special section on public transportation. A number of the larger tourist attractions are listed in the dictionary too, and as I encountered nearly no one who could read pinyin, the Chinese characters were crucial.
Although, as one reviewer noted, the dialogs seem to be laid out in odd places, with a little observation it can be seen that they are inserted where one would look up the verb (usually) or major noun. So "how do you do?" is under "do." But I hardly used this book as a phrase book as practially no one will understand your pronunciation anyway, especially outside of Beijing (if you haven't already had heaps of practice listening and speaking Mandarin).

I've been to Taiwan 5 times and learned Mandarin for 3 years. This book teaches beginners to learn the PinYin system and learn how to utilize it immediately. It even has helpful tips for touring China.

EX: Do not take pictures of strategic buildings or bridges or structures. The government is very protective of these and will consider you a spy.

Anyhow, it does the English-Chinese and Chinese-English deal so you can look up either one. If you are an intermediate to advanced user I would buy this along with the "Langenscheidt Pocket Chinese Dictionary" which is a complete 40,000 word dictionary. I find the Rough Guide more than rough. It is helpful, fun, and very unique. A definate KEEPER!

I spent a month in Beijing this past summer and this particular guide was absolutely invaluable. I went to China with about 30 other Americans and we all agreed that of all of the guides we had, this book was by far the easiet to use. It provides short phrases in Mandarin, Pinyin and English. I used the book to buy "Bandaids" and special order a birthday cake. You simply have to point to the phrases that are applicable. I also liked the book because of its compact size.

The book opens with an excellent 45 page section on basic ways of forming common sentences: yes/no questions, questions about how much or how many, handling verbs, et c.

The English to Chinese dictionary gives 160 pages with examples, and notes on usage, and some cultural notes to explain nuances of meaning. The Chinese words are given in pinyin, and a phonetic spelling (adapted to Chinese sounds but to American ideas of how a sound might be spelled), and Chinese characters -- so if you cannot successfully pronounce one you can point to it and people anywhere in China will be able to read the characters.

Then come 50 pages of Chinese to English alphabetized by Pinyin spelling. When you achieve mastery of Mandarin you'll use dictionaries arranged by Chinese characters but I can assure you that would do me no good at this point.

Useful signs like "information desk" or "International departures" are collected in one section, and menu items in another. Signs are organized thematically with Chinese character spellings -- since you may see them that way, or you may need to point to one in the book to ask a local where it is -- and they are also in pinyin, and English. Menu items get all of that plus a phonetic spelling since you are more likely to try to say them. All very nice.

However, this is much more a dictionary than a phrasebook. The rival Chinese Phrases for Dummies has many more phrases, very usefully organized by theme. They are given in Chinese by pinyin and a suggestive phonetic spelling. The Dummies book also gives basic grammar and probably more helpful advice on pronunciation than the Rough Guide and it gives very much more help on how to talk to a waiter, for example, and it has a long section on how to deal with medical questions (which the Rough Guide barely touches) and other topics. Dummies collects a number of especially useful idioms at the end, mostly to make you more graceful or polite. Plus Dummies is laid out in a large and systematically varied typeface which will help you to find a phrase on a page if you are bit flustered, rushed, or tired.

If you want this kind of book at all then you should probably buy both the Rough Guide and the Dummies. They are cheap.

A warning: Many beginners' dictionaries try to "help" you by not using the official pinyin romanization -- the official Chinese method of putting Chinese into the basic western alphabet. Instead they give something between their idea of how pinyin ought to be done, and their own idea of a phonetic spelling. Some omit the tones altogether. Do not even look at anything that omits the tones. Mandarin, like all varieties of Chinese, is incomprehensible without the tones. As to pinyin, there are serious problems with making it universal in China: It works better for Mandarin than for other dialects such as Cantonese; and it fails to distinguish between homophones so that it works poorly for people's names and for literature. But the usage in China seems decisive to me:

China means to become the world's number one tourist destination. They know that will not happen unless they include western alphabetic spellings on important street signs and shop signs and so on. And they have chosen to use pinyin. They use English too in especially international places, but not everywhere. When you go to China you will see pinyin and you will not see some American publisher's idea of how it should have been done instead. So you may prefer some other phonetic system but I want to learn the official hanyu pinyin that I will see there. It is just a small investment of time learning, for example, to say "ch" when you see q, plus you get help with this in both the Rough Guide and the Dummies since they give phonetic spellings along with pinyin.

I have not seen the The Rough Guide to Mandarin Chinese Dictionary Phrasebook 3 published by Rough Guides; Updated edition (May 29, 2006). It is just a few pages shorter than this and is probably just a minor update.

For the first year of my life in China, I carried this phrasebook with me at all times. It covers most of what you need in a very small package and also (essential to learning Mandarin) has tones accurately and clearly marked over pinyin characters. If "worse comes to worst," you can show the Chinese character in the book to the person you are trying to communicate with. There are helpful explanations in various places in the book as well. For instance the listing for train carries an explanation of the different categories of seats available (hard seat, soft seat, hard sleeper, and soft sleeper). There are sample conversations, there's a very brief section for translating some Mandarin back into English. For those who are trying to learn the language more in depth, the introductory sections in the front are helpful when it comes to grammar and verb tense. For what it's worth, this book is sold for double its face value in bookshops located inside hotels that cater to foreigners within China.

I bought this book for a 7 month trip to China. I've found it quite handy. The English pronunciations seem a little off from the local sound here in south China. I think they are more of a Northern pronunciation- extra "r" sounds on the ends of many words. I've learned pinyin well enough to just read from that now, and if I really get stuck, I can always show the characters.

The organizational system took a few minutes to figure out, but is really pretty logical, and the culture notes are consistent with reality here. The Basics section is just that, a crash course in what-you-need-to-know Chinese, and the Menu Reader at the beginning is also a really handy feature.

I compared this book with a friend's copy of Survival Chinese, and was very glad I'd bought this one! Much, much more useful.

Overall, a good, useful little travel companion. I wouldn't hesitate to buy it again.

If I could find the receipt, I would return this book. I can speak a fair amount of Mandarin, and I find this book a mystery. For someone who knows no Chinese, it would be pretty near worthless. First, dialogues are almost all in English and pinyin (transliterated). If you are really stuck, you want a book you can hand to your Chinese counterpart to read your question or find a reply. Second, those dialogues that are there are scattered throughout the dictionary section. For example, introductions are found under the letter "D" for "How do you do?" Who would think to look there? Third, The dictionary approach might be more useful when you have time to plan and anticipate your needs. On the fly, I doubt it is much use.

I swear by the Rough Guide Guidebook to China. It eschews the annoying "cool speak" of the Lonely Planet series. I expected to be similarly wowed by the phrasebook. I am going to leave this one at home.

I would have been lost in China without this book! It gives the most common words needed by a traveler and except for the short conversational sentences, shows the words in Chinese script as well as pinyin and phonetic English. Having the words in Chinese is important because when you can't pronounce them, you can then point to them! Chinese friends told me that some words were wrong, and indeed the word for 'Bandaid' was wrong- using that got only some sort of long, hardly sticky tape, however overall, the book was excellent, well laid out and with most of the words and phrases one needs to survive in China.