English-Cantonese Dictionary (Paperback)

by New Asia - Yale-in-China Chinese Language Center (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
English-Cantonese Dictionary is a handy, user-friendly dictionary that emphasizes the Cantonese spoken dialect. It is designed to help users find the best word or phrase in Cantonese to express the meaning of an English word or expression. It features: over 15,000 entries of the most commonly used words and phrases; a brief introduction to Cantonese pronunciation in accordance with the Yale System of Romanization; a comparative chart of four different systems of Romanization; and grammatical notes for beginners.

About the Author
The New Asia - Yale-in-China Chinese Language Center is one of the largest institutions of its kind worldwide. Founded in 1963 under the auspices of New Asia College and the Yale-in-China Association, it became part of The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1974. Three to four hundred students from over fifty different countries or regions attend the Center each semester, including summer, to study Cantonese or Putonghua from beginning through advanced levels.

Product Details

• Paperback: 608 pages
• Publisher: The Chinese University Press; 1st Copublished Ed edition (November 28, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9622019706
• ISBN-13: 978-9622019706
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #532,012 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If you're waiting for THE dictionary, buy, but keep waiting, October 1, 2001

By	S. Glicken "steveboston" (sharon, massachusetts USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This dictionary just came out as a companion to the Yale-in-China Chinese to English dictionary. It has a lot of the charm of the earlier volume: waterproof cover, handy size, useful appendices on grammar and pronunciation, and broad vocabulary. The English is not excessively British, and there are a lot of idioms which are nicely translated into equivalent Cantonese phrases. That being said, there are several real problems:
1. There are printing errors in the pronunciation section where the IPA symbol for Cantonese phoneme "s" is the IPA letter pronounced "sh"--a BAD error, especially for beginners, especially as Cantonese uses no "sh" sound.
2. There are many English spelling errors, not such a big deal most times.
3. Worse, there are errors in the Cantonese transliteration, putting in entirely wrong words by leaving out letters. This was a minor problem in the earlier Chinese-to-English book in only a few words. But when you're using the book to learn the pronunciation, such errors are especially annoying.
4. English synonyms often have different Cantonese translations, for instance check out "maybe" and "perhaps"--this is a minor problem.
5. There are no Chinese characters in this book. While it makes the printing a lot simpler, it hinders the mastery of phrases, not knowing the precise meaning of particles which are homonyms with identical English spelling and tone, but different connotations in Cantonese. If you want to write a translation, you're on your own! I'm not sure this was a great editorial decision.
6. As always happens in a first edition, many idioms are lacking, but I can't complain too much about this.
7. The books are somewhat flimsy--my copy of the earlier text is about 3 months old, and a section has already fallen out. For a reference book, this is not good.
Overall, not a bad reference for pronunciation of Cantonese, with some useful grammar, but with significant flaws.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The worst bi-lingual dictionary I have ever used., March 8, 2005

By	T. Paulsen (New Jersey, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Probably the worst language dictionary I have used so far.
I am attempting to learn my 2nd asian language and find this dictionary to be of almost no value whatsoever.
I have some major issues with this book:
1) For starters, there are no "Chinese" characters in the book, making it nearly impossible to truly learn the language.
2) The publisher of this dictionary claims to have "15,000 of the most popular words and phrases", yet a majority of the words are obscure deriviatives of common words or will never come up in daily conversation.
- For example, how often have you used the following words: "Cogent","Elf Land","Quayage", or "Trepang"???
3) Worst of all, there are various spelling errors in both the English and Cantonese languages.

Not a bad reference, but not very useful for the beginner.

5.0 out of 5 stars A handy guide, April 21, 2009

By	Pierce C. West (Denmark, SC, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book's one short coming is that it does not include the Chinese characters to go with the Yale Romanized Cantonese words so that if you need to translate something you need another book. So it is a very good book for looking up the pronunciation of the Cantonese word you need, but of no help at all in translation of written characters. If I could afford only one book, it would be the Chinese?English version, but if I could have two books, this is a good addition.