The Rough Guide to Mandarin Chinese (a dictionary phrasebook)

By Rough Guides

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1858286077
• ISBN13: 9781858286075
• Release Date: May 2000
• Publisher: Rough Guides
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.0" x 0.8" x 4.0"

Customer Reviews

A Must Have Guide to Mandarin

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.

Very good phrasebook

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.

Simple, Catchy, Extremely Helpful!

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!

A very useful, nearly indispensible, guide to Mandarin

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).

Surviving in China

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...