Rating: 
Summary: Very good Beginner Dictionary
Review: A very good English/Mandarin Chinese dictionary. I would give it five stars if it was more complete. The dictionary is missing a lot of words. PROs
The best layout I have found for Mandarin/English dictionary
Clear Large Type (somewhere around 10 to 12 point font size)
Chinese Characters are easy to read CONs
Very basic vocabulary, and is missing a number of important words
Rating: 
Summary: Highly Recommended!!
Review: As a "beginning" student of Chinese for a few years now, I have gone through a large number of Chinese language resources. This is one that I would unhesitatingly recommend to anyone. The dictionary is at the right level for beginning students. The entries are limited to the most commonly used words. This is a major advantage for those who like to learn vocabulary by browsing a dictionary -- you are sure to be learning useful words (as opposed to specialty or infrequently used words). There have been only a few times where I have look for a word that wasn't included in this dictionary. I expect that the casual learner of Chinese will not outgrow this dictionary for at least a year or two. I found the format of the dictionary extremely uncluttered and user friendly. In addition to the standard word and definition, entries also include very useful notes of clarification. For example, after the character for hui4 ("to be able to") there a note explaining that this character can also be pronounced as kuai4 with a different meaning. Another resource I have been extremely pleased with and highly recommend is, "Chinese Character Flashcards 888." Good luck in your studies!!
Rating:
Summary: TWO thumbs up!
Review: Don't let the fact that this is a beginner's dictionary lead you to believe that it is wimpy and overly simplstic. You will indeed need several dictionarys anyway if you are going to undertake a study of Chinese; the beginner, especially those who are attempting self-study, can do no better than starting here. If you are a tourist going to China this is the one dictionary you want; its small, cheap, easy to use, and concentrates on commonly used words and expressions. The dictionary is bi-directional with the Chinese entries arranged alphabeticaly in pinyin romanization accompaied by the simplified Chinese character equivalents that have been used in mainland China for the past 50 years. There are brief sections on grammar, the use of tones in spoken Mandarin, radical and character indices, and lots of explanatory notes regarding usage. As you continue your study of Chinese you will eventually outgrow this dictionary. Be that as it may there are some tools one uses more than others and the beginning student of Chinese will turn to this starter dictionary more often than whatever else is likely to be present in his or her toolbox.
Rating:
Summary: great beginner's dictionary
Review: I found this dictionary indispensible during my first year Mandarin class. It's easy to read and contains extremely useful explanations of usage and grammatical points, making it a wonderful adjunct to our textbook. You will need another more comprehensive dictionary for vocabulary purposes, but I haven't seen a better dictionary for first and second year students. Buy it!
Rating:
Summary: As Good As I've Seen For A Beginning Student
Review: I have never seen any "perfect" English-Chinese/Chinese-English dictionary; in fact, most of them seem frustrating to use for me. But this book is the most useful and easiest to use, although I may outgrow it in a year or two. The title of this dictionary does not make it clear that it has two-way translations, but it does, and it provides good explanations and examples as well. The more standard and popular two-way dictionary, "Concise English-Chinese/Chinese-English Dictionary," by Manser, enjoys good reviews on Amazon for being useful and practical, but I find this starter dictionary to be much better for a beginning learner. And perhaps that is why this dictionary seems better to me, because it is designed to be used by beginning students. I now use this simple test when I am trying to decide which foreign language dictionary I should buy: I take some of my homework to the bookstore and actually look up words I am learning. If I find the words, and if the definitions, explanations, and examples are useful, I know I can use the book. Most of the Chinese dictionaries fail this test miserably, but this "Starter Chinese Dictionary" did quite well. Try it and see for yourself!
Rating:
Summary: Very Good Basic Dictionary
Review: I'm very satisfied - I can find every word I need a definition for. The typographic style (colors, bold, etc.)is a pleasure to use. I recommend highly.
Rating:
Summary: Very Good Basic Dictionary
Review: I'm very satisfied - I can find every word I need a definition for. The typographic style (colors, bold, etc.)is a pleasure to use. I recommend highly.
Rating: 
Summary: Terrible, content is extremely limited.
Review: I've just completed my first two semesters studying Mandarin and they would have been a lot easier if I had had this dictionary from the beginning. Everyone says how easy Mandarin grammar is and that may be true relative to other languages (and relative to learning Chinese characters!), but you still need to learn quite a bit of Mandarin grammar before you can start formulating sentences. I always felt very uncomfortable doing my homework (translation from English to Chinese) because I didn't know whether I was using the grammar properly or not and had no way of checking. I was worried about accidentally getting into bad grammatical habits without even knowing it, because my textbook (Integrated Chinese) has really very little usage information and neither did the dictionaries I had on hand. Once I got "The Starter Oxford Dictionary," however, homework became so much easier and I no longer feel insecure about sentence formulation. The emphasis in this dictionary is on usage, so instead of having tons and tons of words (which you can get from a regular dictionary), it has a fewer number of words with their usages very clearly explained and illustrated. For example: the entry for the English word "can": "Oxford Starter" divides "can" into three subcategories: "to have the possibility" (translated as neng); "to know how to" (hui); "to be allowed to" (keyi). The "neng" entry then gives two illustrative sentences "Can he come?/Ta neng lia ma?" and "Where can I buy stamps?/Wo zai nar neng maidao youpiao?" The "hui" subcategory has three such illustrative sentences and the "keyi" has four. There are also two warnings on translating "can," one for "hui" and one for "keyi": "Note that when talking about the ability to speak a language, whether or not "can" is used in English, "hui" is required in Chinese" and "Note that to negate, you have to use "bu neng" rather than "bu keyi." Odds are, if you're studying Chinese, you're a bibiophile, too, so probably you don't need a lot of convincing to buy yet another Chinese dictionary. But in praise of this work I have to say that, if I could have only one book to help me learn elementary Mandarin, this would be it. (Note: "The Oxford Started Chinese" does use only simplified characters. However, I am learning with traditional and found it wasn't that difficult to figure out what the traditional equivalents were, especially since the entries are organized by pinyin. It would be nice to have a traditional edition but I still wholeheartedly recommend the simplified.)
Rating:
Summary: Great for beginners
Review: This dictionary is exactly what the beginning student of Mandarin Chinese needs. It's specifically targeted at English speakers who are just beginning to study Chinese. To that end, the size of the vocabulary is limited to just what you need as a beginner; there are numerous detailed usage and grammar notes throughout the dictionary; almost every entry has example phrases or sentences; all Chinese is given in both Pinyin and characters; and perhaps best of all - it's extremely clear, well-designed, and easy to read. My only complaint is that there is no index of traditional characters (all characters are simplified)...but that doesn't really detract from the quality of this dictionary.
Rating:
Summary: Good Start Starter
Review: This is a handy companion for the beginning of Chinese study. It includes common words, has large type (very important to me), and lots of cross references and "topical" digressions (languages, dates, special words, etc. referenced with citations). It also has a nice measure word section (some are included with nouns, but not always). It also contains both American and British options in word uses. What I don't like. It ONLY has simplified characters (I would like the traditional ones included also with a primary citation). Harbaugh's book focuses on traditional ones but has both; the bigger Oxford (Manser, 2nd Ed.) has both. It does not have a pronunciation guide which, as a beginner, would be helpful to remind us (constrain us?). Some common words are not in there (who's judgement call?). And, some examples would be helpful where the primary citation includes precedent words. For example, look up "qi" and be able to find "tianqi". On balance: good overwhelm the bad. After all, it's only about $12-15. As other reviewers have commented, "You need several dictionaries anyway." Do I use it all the time. Absolutely. It's also more fun than the bigger Oxford (Manser). But if Oxford could see clear to include "my" downsides, I'd be much happier.
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