Rating: 
Summary: great dictionary on the PRC standard
Review: So far, I have found nearly everything I have tried to look up in this dictionary, and it offers a great number of usage examples. In fact, every phrase I was looking for turned out to be one of the examples :) The only problem I ran into is that the usage examples are only in Chinese, not Pinyin.In response to a previous review, this appears to be Mandarin based on both the pronounciation and usage, which is also good since I was expecting Mandarin. As for the "UK" pronounciation, well, that's not a big problem since the minor pronounciation differences between UK and USA English are not that serious. Granted there are a few usage differences, but those are also not very serious. The main focus of this dictionary is translating INTO Mandarin rather than from it. Oh, and the pinyin organization is by alphabet first, then by tone, so "A1" [first tone] comes before "A2" [second tone], etc. A little confusing, but easy to figure out after a while. If you are mainly translating FROM Pinyin however, get the ABC Chinese-English Dictionary by John DeFrancis.
Rating:
Summary: a Chinese/English standard for students
Review: The Oxford Second Edition is one of the better English-Chinese/Chinese-English dictionaries on the market. It's a standard for students at most levels of Chinese or English language study and encompasses a broad selection of words and phrases from a variety of disciplines, including science, politics, language, and humanities as well as colloquialisms. Definitions of more common words and characters, though not exhaustive, give a fairly complete outline of meaning and usage. A user's and pronunciation guide pretext; also helpful is a radical index for Chinese characters. The English-Chinese section lists characters followed by pinyin, and the Chinese-English section is arranged alphabetically by pinyin. While characters appear in simplified script, the traditional character is (usually) provided. Some may find this dictionary slightly bulky, and true, it does not have the convenience of the pocket varieties. My friends and I did not find it burdensome during our study in China, however, and it does have the advantage of durable binding for students and travelers. My only reserve is the lack of proper nouns listed, especially places. Although there is a table of China's provinces and municipalities, this dictionary will not be helpful for other basic translations (ex. Pacific Ocean). Overall though, a necessary reference for students of both languages.
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