Essential Chinese for Travelers

This is a handy reference to 2,000 common words and phrases in Chinese. As of this writing, February 2007, you could go to China Books and Periodicals website and download the audio in MP3 form for free. That's right, $0. I downloaded the MP3, and listen to it at home. It takes a little over an hour to get through the 2,000 words and phrases. The expression is first given in English, then a man speaks the equivalent slowly in Chinese, followed by a woman who repeats the phrase more rapidly in Chinese. On the China Books and Periodicals website, on the left go to "Browse" > "Language Learning" > "MP3." <br /> <br />Good luck!

Unless you have studied foreign languages since those college days, don't even try to actually learn Chinese before traveling to China. This concise and well laid-out book is all you need. It gives essential information on basic Chinese grammar and pronunciation and then breaks into various scenarios to provide words and phrases that you might need. For each word or phrase it gives English, pinyin, pronunciation and Chinese characters. The Chinese characters are convenient to have in case your pronunciation or tone (you'll learn about tone in the book) is a bit off. For example, after asking the maid several days in a row to leave three towels instead of two and her shaking her head in agreement but still left only two, I simply copied the Chinese characters from the book and taped the note to the towel rack; we got three towels from then on! The book also includes a brief (60 page) dictionary in the back and it is small in size, so it is easy to carry around with you. When I bought my copy the tape was not part of the package, but I am sure that it can only be an additional asset.