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Product Description
Product Description
Look and learn to recall a wealth of everyday vocabulary in Chinese with this intuitive easy-to-use visual language dictionary
Whether it's for business or pleasure, pick up 6,000 key Chinese words and phrases on a range of subjects: from shopping and eating out, to sport and beyond quickly and easily. Find every word you need to know fast using the clearly labelled colour illustrated scenes from everyday life.
Plus, find helpful features on key Chinese nouns, verbs and phrases to improve your understanding.
Pocket-sized so you can take it wherever your travels take you.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
I agree with the positive comments given by other customers so you may ask why I've only given this dictionary 3 stars.
While the medium of a visual dictionary uses pictures, a visual dictionary must still fundamentally be about words (mainly nouns since other parts of speech are less suitable for photos).
The problem with this dictionary is that the words are printed in too small a font size. This is particularly true for the Chinese characters, making the structure of the more complex characters only apparent with the use of a magnifying glass.This is a major problem for a Chinese dictionary, where it must be assumed that the reader may not already know all the characters.
Given that the font size is more of a problem with the Chinese characters, since the English (in bold) and the pinyin are both fully legible (albeit small), the dictionary is far better suited to Chinese readers who are learning English than to anglophone readers learning Mandarin. (The comment from several others that the pictures are mainly from western countries perhaps reinforces this.)
I suspect the problem with the Chinese characters is lessened the greater the reader's existing knowledge of Chinese characters since the task becomes one of character recognition rather than initial learning. Nevertheless, it must remain crucial for any dictionary that words should stand out and be easily read.
The undoubtedly high quality of both paper and printing is insufficient to remedy this. At the very least, DK needs to produce a revised edition with a larger font size for the Chinese characters even if there's insufficient space within the current format to increase font size for the pinyin and English.
While the medium of a visual dictionary uses pictures, a visual dictionary must still fundamentally be about words (mainly nouns since other parts of speech are less suitable for photos).
The problem with this dictionary is that the words are printed in too small a font size. This is particularly true for the Chinese characters, making the structure of the more complex characters only apparent with the use of a magnifying glass.This is a major problem for a Chinese dictionary, where it must be assumed that the reader may not already know all the characters.
Given that the font size is more of a problem with the Chinese characters, since the English (in bold) and the pinyin are both fully legible (albeit small), the dictionary is far better suited to Chinese readers who are learning English than to anglophone readers learning Mandarin. (The comment from several others that the pictures are mainly from western countries perhaps reinforces this.)
I suspect the problem with the Chinese characters is lessened the greater the reader's existing knowledge of Chinese characters since the task becomes one of character recognition rather than initial learning. Nevertheless, it must remain crucial for any dictionary that words should stand out and be easily read.
The undoubtedly high quality of both paper and printing is insufficient to remedy this. At the very least, DK needs to produce a revised edition with a larger font size for the Chinese characters even if there's insufficient space within the current format to increase font size for the pinyin and English.
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
This is not a book for the faint of heart.
Inside this book are around 6,000 (Chinese equivalent of) words divided into categories, in sections of around 25 words each.
For those of you learning Chinese, and wanting to increase your word power, this is an excellent book. Familiarising yourself with the vocabulary in this book will give you an excellent grounding on the road to fluency in Chinese.
There are one or two mistakes (characters given the wrong pronunciation, and some of the English meanings are missing), but generally, a very complete, very accurate set of vocabulary sheets.
I would have also liked to have seen the traditional form characters included. However, with the Pinyin given throughout, these are easy enough to look up.
But, be warned; this book is not for beginners. I would recommend John DeFrancis' excellent readers is you are a beginner for learning some of the basic characters, and any number of the CD/book combinations for listening and speaking.
However, if you have around 500 characters or more under your belt already, you will find this book an excellent vocabulary builder.
Overall, an excellent buy, with a hell of a lot of hours of learning inside. Highly recommended for the more advanced student.
Inside this book are around 6,000 (Chinese equivalent of) words divided into categories, in sections of around 25 words each.
For those of you learning Chinese, and wanting to increase your word power, this is an excellent book. Familiarising yourself with the vocabulary in this book will give you an excellent grounding on the road to fluency in Chinese.
There are one or two mistakes (characters given the wrong pronunciation, and some of the English meanings are missing), but generally, a very complete, very accurate set of vocabulary sheets.
I would have also liked to have seen the traditional form characters included. However, with the Pinyin given throughout, these are easy enough to look up.
But, be warned; this book is not for beginners. I would recommend John DeFrancis' excellent readers is you are a beginner for learning some of the basic characters, and any number of the CD/book combinations for listening and speaking.
However, if you have around 500 characters or more under your belt already, you will find this book an excellent vocabulary builder.
Overall, an excellent buy, with a hell of a lot of hours of learning inside. Highly recommended for the more advanced student.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
This book is not only fun, it contains practical terms you'll never find in a ordinary dictionary. And both illustrations and keywords are up to date.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Where is the synonym of Turkey?
My friend purchased this dictionary few weeks ago. I just wanted to examine it. While I was looking page by page, I came across countries. Read more
Published 3 months ago by dursun
Very Useful
I bought this for my elder teenager son to learn Chinese. My 2 years old son loves it. He spends lots time everyday to at look all the pictures, particularly he likes to see all... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Chinese Peony
It's useful, but..
It seems the publisher used a generic 'visual dictionary' design and plugged Chinese words in. While it is odd but obviously not a problem that the faces in the book are... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Silas Coker
Chinese-English Visual Bilingual Dictionary
I think that this book is well worth the buy and on getting it am surprised that it didnt cost more than it did! Read more
Published 16 months ago by Steph
Chinese-English visual dictionary
This dictionary is invaluable for some items which are hard to sign or show...My Chinese student thinks it is great and those who help her and teach her think it is invaluable when... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Mikaela Jackson
No title necessary
This excellent and reasonably priced book only loses 1 star on account of its small print, although this should not prove a problem for younger readers. Read more
Published on 9 Feb 2010 by Ancient Mariner
Fantastic to learn manderin words
This book is fantastic to learn a great deal of Mandarin words.
The book quality is absolutely brilliant, with glossy pages and great pictures throughout to help you... Read more
The book quality is absolutely brilliant, with glossy pages and great pictures throughout to help you... Read more
Published on 14 Jan 2010 by Mr. A. J. Whitaker
Chinese-English Visual Bilingual Dictionary (DK Bilingual...
This is an excellent reference resource - just about every noun for everyday life that you could ever wish for. Though compact, the book is well organised by subject eg. Read more
Published on 10 Nov 2009 by Mrs. Ruth Poole
Room for improvement
I found this a very helpful book to take to China with me and a boon now I am trying to learn Mandarin. Read more
Published on 31 Oct 2009 by C. B. Tomkinson
chinese visual dictionary
this dictionary has proved to be an invalual resource for a non english speaking chinese student.
Published on 8 July 2009 by Hils
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