The Rough Guide to Mandarin Chinese (a dictionary phrasebook) (Paperback)

by Lexus (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
A Mandarin phrasebook designed for the traveller. It provides guidance on Mandarin pronunciation and tones, dos and donts, cultural know-how and other matters where language is important like making a phone call.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Rough Guides; 2 edition (May 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1858286077
• ISBN-13: 978-1858286075
• Product Dimensions: 5.7 x 4.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #695,555 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surviving in China, February 10, 2001

By	Gary A. Goski (Washington, NC USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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...

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A well set out, easy to use phrase book, May 20, 2001

By A Customer

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.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very useful, nearly indispensible, guide to Mandarin, September 2, 2002

By A Customer

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).