Langenscheidt's Pocket Dictionary Mandarin Chinese

This dictionary deserves five stars for being what it is: a pocket dictionary that actually fits in your pocket! It's not a list of a few common words but a real dictionary. That said, the size limits the number of entries (40,000) and also the complexity of the entries. A radical chart and index are included which will be helpful to more advanced users. Although compact, the type is still easily read which is very important when trying to find the right characters. Furthermore, the pinyin and English headwords appear in bold type. The biggest drawback of this dictionary is that it does not focus on spoken Mandarin. I doubt anyone would use a pocket dictionary for writing but when you are carrying it around spoken Mandarin is essential. It should also be noted that although the dictionary includes a list of Taiwanese equivalents this only covers three pages.

This is my favorite Chinese dictionary for traveling. It's rugged, has a lot of useful vocabulary, and the alphabetical pinyin look-up is the most practical for translations on the run. Beginners will find that this dictionary lacks the detailed examples of say the Oxford Starter's Dictionary - but after a few quarters of study, this will be the one you'll shove in your pocket and take along. Highly recommended.

For a while, I'd been searching for a good Chinese dictionary to accompany my classes, and the ones I had looked at did not strike me as very well organized. Considering the complexity of written Chinese, organization is everything. A secondary (but still very important) requirement for me was that whatever dictionary I ended up with be durable. Langenscheidt's pocket dictionary definitely fits the bill on both counts.This dictionary has it all: a Chinese-English section ordered by pronunciation, an English-Chinese section featuring numerous usage examples for many words, an excellent radical index, a guide to common differences between mainland Chinese and the Chinese used in Taiwan, and an overview of numbers in Chinese. I'm especially pleased with the plentiful examples throughout the dictionary, which can eliminate much of the mystery of how to use the words/characters in a colloquial fashion.All the entries are very clear and readable, and despite their size, the script characters are quite legible. If I had to pick something to complain about (and this is a bit of a stretch), it would be the lack of traditional Chinese characters in this dictionary. In my classes, we learn the traditional characters, but it is not a big deal to learn the simplified versions along the way (especially since out of the 100 or so characters covered each semester, only a handful differ between traditional and simplified Chinese).What more can I say? This dictionary has it all as far as information goes, and the rubbery cover and excellent binding just scream "durability" to me. I have no doubt that this will be a tool I keep by my side for years to come, both in the classroom and in my travels to China itself. HIGHLY recommended.

I took a quick course in conversational Chinese. Being a bad student, all I really learned was basic phrases and how to read pinyin. Suddenly I was offered a chance to go to Shanghai for two months to stay with a friend of my Chinese teacher. His friend ran a middle school and wanted an American to talk with the students. I agreed, but between the time I agreed and when I arrived in Shanghai, the agreement changed from talking with the students to teaching four hours of classes a day! Having very bad Chinese skills (almost none), this was a little daunting. I somehow managed to get through teaching 13 year-old Chinese students with only a few years of English training, even while I knew almost no Chinese. There is one main reason I was able to do this: Langenscheidt's Pocket Chinese Dictionary. This book saved me every day, and that is no exaggeration.The book gives single words, but it also gives common phrases in which that word is used. The radical index is pretty good, though like others have said, it leaves some characters out. Most of the ones I couldn't find were (I discovered) local characters used mostly in the Shanghai area. When I was standing around trying to read signs, I often would consult this book. Since I had a conversation class, I didn't know how to read anything when I arrived. Once I was able to learn how to pick out a radical, though, I was usually able to find out what the word was just by using this dictionary. During class, when I had written an English word on the board and wanted to write the Chinese word, all I had to do was look up the English word in here. You not only will find the Chinese pinyin next to it, but also the character(s) for writing it. When I wanted to find something, I could do the same thing. Even if I didn't say the pinyin right, I could point to the characters in the book, and almost always people would immediately know what it was and would help me get it. Like others have said, the cover is rubbery, and stands up well to wear and tear. As I accidentally found out, this also means you can cover it with marker writings, or spill coffee and tea on the cover, yet it will wipe away clean. In the back of the book is a quick number section for dealing with all numbers, big and small. It also shows you the characters for writing numbers on checks, which are different than the characters for the regular use of numbers. The book also has the Chinese way of saying a lot of useful in-country phrases, like Communist Party, CCTV, People's Republic of China, and other things like that. It has slang and formal words in it, and covers thousands of words. I cannot believe how many things the dictionary has. I was teaching 13 year-olds, and like most kids that age, they wanted to know how to say some rather weird phrases in English. When they would write the Chinese, I could use the radical chart and look it up. Or, if they spoke it, I could find the pinyin using the Chinese side of the dictionary. I still cannot

I found this dictionary very help for beginning Mandarin. I thought I once bought a better dictionary but they are almost exactly the same. I reccomend this dictionary to anyone.