Chinese For Dummies 2nd Edition

Chinese for Dummies is a good supplement that should be used with other texts. The topical organization of the book makes sense. I find the topics to be useful and helpful. I think the book would be improved if "Talkin' the Talk" sections included Chinese characters in addition to the pinyin text. Chinese characters and the meaning of their structures are a window through which a student gains more understanding of Chinese culture, so using more characters is always a good thing to do. I find the author's personal romanization system to be a distraction, gratuitous, and a complete waste of space in the book. The book would be improved if there was a chapter about vowel, diphthong, consonant, and tone pronunciation (including diagrams of the mouth to show tongue positions that are used to produce sounds) of Mandarin Chinese sounds, so that the pinyin romanization system could be better understood by novice users. A chapter about pronunciation would make the CD supplemental material more useful. Also, the book could be improved by better editing, since there is at least one incidence, such as one on page 79, where an expression (Happy almost birthday!) is not used.

This is a very good reference book for learning spoken Mandarin. As stated in the Introduction, this is not a book intended to be read from cover to cover. Instead, it's written for browsing. I agree with some other reviewers that this book isn't exactly a basic Dummies book. Some previous Chinese language experience before reading this book makes more sense. The information in this book is still very useful though. One problem I have with this book is that the type is small. Sometimes it's hard to see the tone marks without wearing reading glasses. A larger font would make the transliterated text easier to read. Also, this book does not have any information about reading Chinese characters. I think this book is worth the low price as a reference book, but you'll still need other references.

The book and disc content are slightly out-dated insofar as the disc begins by telling you his to pronounce consonants and asks you to repeat conversations between two people but does not tell you what the people are saying. If you listen to the disc while driving you may well be soeakkhg Chinese but you do not know what you are saying. Although it is explained in the book you would need to have the book alongside you to understand. Later versions might correct this, and i was aware that the version I bought was probably obsolete.

After trying the first couple chapters and loosing interest real quick I pretty much quit. Too much is thrown at you all of a sudden and random Mandarin words are put in without explaining how to properly say them (tones & all). It's good if you already know the language and just need a refresher but that's just it. I'm currently using (and personally recommend) YoyoChinese, YangYangs an excellent teacher and may cost a lot more, but it's worth it!

I am totally satisfied with this purchase in every aspect. The material quality of the book is better than I expected it to be. I though Chinese was going to be very difficult to learn but once you get the consonant & vowel sounds down, it's a piece of cake. This takes a little work and time and I would advise anybody targeting this language to commit to this section of the book until they have it reasonably memeorized. After that, it's a breeze thanks to the transliteration by which you can check yourself. Also, there are some really good Chinese movies with subtitles and when you start to realize you are starting to understand what's being said, you'll be giggling like a kid in a candy factory. Good luck with it.

I started with Rosetta Stone, and while it is extremely expensive, is well worth the price if you will put in the time. So, this is not a great first text given that background.The book jumps right in with full sentence structures and long vocab lists. Unlike Rosetta Stone, this book provides some basic grammar and usage rules, as well as a good view on cultural mores and potential trip-ups.Don't rely on this alone, but in conjunction with another system, it may be a good resource to have on hand. Xie xie.

An upbeat glorified phrase book. Only an idiot would undertake to learn a language using material like this. OTOH, plenty of useful information for the not-particularly-adventurous planning a trip. The CD was defective on a couple of tracks.The Dummies series generally has a good reputation. The books are what they are, and if you buy them with your eyes wide open and your expectations dialed in modestly, they can serve their purpose. This volume conforms completely to the general approach, and in that sense it's outstanding.

This was a gift for my son who will be going to China in March. I purchases this and one other CD to help him get a feel for the Chinese language. He said this was a typical "Dummies" book and it was very helpful not only for the language portion but for the information on the country. Very easy to read and you can pick and choose what areas are of interest. The reviews on this book were very helpful when I made the decision to purchase this book.

I am an absolute beginner at Chinese and I have found this book absolutely awful.For anyone seriously looking to learn Chinese,  Chinese For Dummies (For Dummies (Lifestyles Paperback))  would not be a great start.To begin with, this 'for Dummies' book has not been set out 'for Dummies'; upon every page there is an overload of information and new words. It is not clear which words you should learn. Some are in tables, others are in lists and many are just thrown into paragraphs. Instead of speeding up your learning all it does is slow it down.The next problem is that whenever a new Chinese phrase or word is given the information is cluttered. For example:gûdông jiājù 古董家具 (goo-doong jyah-jyew) (antique furniture)All the text is in the same font and the same size. This makes it very difficult to read through as the more important information is not brought forward and made clear. The extra pronounciation guide is not necessary and makes it difficult to study vocabulary because your eyes are forced to jump from one side of the page to another just to assimilate a single word or phrase. Ideally, the characters and definition should be together on one line and the pinyin* underneath (in smaller font or grey etc.). This would make it much clearer to read.Another problem I had with the book is that the Chinese characters are too small to read! You cannot clearly see the strokes of the character. This makes it near impossible to gain any understanding from.My final issue is that there is far too much an emphasis on reading and understanding pinyin - all the example dialogues are written 100% in pinyin! Chinese publications are written in characters and NEVER in pinyin. Pinyin should ONLY be used for reference. Because of this the example dialogues are near useless at helping you 'learn Chinese'There are far better books for beginners on Chinese (a good one for example is ( Chinese Demystified: A Self-Teaching Guide ). I do not recommend you buy this book.*Pinyin is the official phonetic system for transcribing the sound of Chinese characters into Latin script. Chinese For Dummies (For Dummies (Lifestyles Paperback))Chinese Demystified: A Self-Teaching Guide

I have many books on the Chinese language as I am teaching myself and this book is an absolute winner. Wish I had brought this one first, so easy and informative. Characters, pin-yin, help in pronunciations, tips and grammatical information. My version is a download so the cd that accompanies the book you have to download as well but Norton warns it is an unsafe site, so no cd. Buy a hard copy and get the cd...

It is actually a good book, with many useful sentences to learn. However I have discovered there are some pronunciation mistakes. Such as Xi is pronounced as "see" not "shee". Shenme is pronunciated "Shen muh" not "Shummuh". A chinese freind has helped me correct others in the book. Useful book otherwise.

Great book to start learning as it explains things very simply. Mandarin is a very difficult language but with this book the learning is made slightly easier.

I gave this rating because i found it easy to use and it says what it does on the book chinese for dummies