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Rating: 
Summary: A very useful, nearly indispensible, guide to Mandarin
Review: I recently spent 6 months working in central China (Luoyang). In preperation for the trip I picked up a copy of the Rough Guide to Mandarine Chinese. It is a little book that fits easily into the back pocket of a pair of jeans. I carried it everywhere from work to shopping trips. It NEVER let me down. It is by far the most well rounded phrase book. Simple, yet comprehensive. It teaches quick pronunciation and the choice of words will get you through any situation. To show you how good it is. My chinese friends had me ship 6 more for them to have to cross reference back to English. A lot of the americans there with me had other books, but everyone liked the Rough Guide the best. The proof is in the pudding. It works...
Rating:
Summary: Excellent help for the beginner, needs to add entries!
Review: I was weary of buying this book after reading some of the reviews, but I did it anyway, and I am glad I listened to myself. This book's greatest attribute is that, after each entry it shows pronunciation. Which as you may know, chinese letters are usually not prenounced as english speakers would like. It has all the necessities, although I would recommend buying a companion dictionary like the oxford chinese starter. This book would be best if it was unabridged and too heavy to carry! I love it, just make it bigger!
Rating:
Summary: Simple, Catchy, Extremely Helpful!
Review: I've been to Taiwan 5 times and learned Mandarin for 3 years. This book teaches beginners to learn the PinYin system and learn how to utilize it immediately. It even has helpful tips for touring China. EX: Do not take pictures of strategic buildings or bridges or structures. The government is very protective of these and will consider you a spy. Anyhow, it does the English-Chinese and Chinese-English deal so you can look up either one. If you are an intermediate to advanced user I would buy this along with the "Langenscheidt Pocket Chinese Dictionary" which is a complete 40,000 word dictionary. I find the Rough Guide more than rough. It is helpful, fun, and very unique. A definate KEEPER!
Rating:
Summary: Simple, Catchy, Extremely Helpful!
Review: I've been to Taiwan 5 times and learned Mandarin for 3 years. This book teaches beginners to learn the PinYin system and learn how to utilize it immediately. It even has helpful tips for touring China. EX: Do not take pictures of strategic buildings or bridges or structures. The government is very protective of these and will consider you a spy. Anyhow, it does the English-Chinese and Chinese-English deal so you can look up either one. If you are an intermediate to advanced user I would buy this along with the "Langenscheidt Pocket Chinese Dictionary" which is a complete 40,000 word dictionary. I find the Rough Guide more than rough. It is helpful, fun, and very unique. A definate KEEPER!
Rating:
Summary: A very useful, nearly indispensible, guide to Mandarin
Review: This book was the handiest thing and I got my friends and I out of a bind more than once with it. By looking up words and showing the characters to taxi drivers, waitresses, people on the street, I navigated through a large chunk of China. It was particularly indispensible ordering in restaurants, the majority of which (even in Beijing) housed no English speakers. I managed to set up a day tour (including date and time) with a random taxi driver by using the main dictionary and the special section on public transportation. A number of the larger tourist attractions are listed in the dictionary too, and as I encountered nearly no one who could read pinyin, the Chinese characters were crucial.
Although, as one reviewer noted, the dialogs seem to be laid out in odd places, with a little observation it can be seen that they are inserted where one would look up the verb (usually) or major noun. So "how do you do?" is under "do." But I hardly used this book as a phrase book as practially no one will understand your pronunciation anyway, especially outside of Beijing (if you haven't already had heaps of practice listening and speaking Mandarin).
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