Mandarin Chinese Phrase Book (Berlitz Phrase Book)

Rating:
Summary: A poor choice - see Rough Guide
Review: Berlitz made a poor choice by not including tones - they say it's too difficult for the beginner. Well, you can't speak a lick of Chinese without at least some tonal knowledge. Adding in tonal indicators would have made this book acceptable and would not distract anyone who chose to ignore them. As a result of Berlitz' poor choice, this book is also a poor choice for you.

Berlitz also chose to use their own tweaked pinyin system. This might actually be helpful for the beginner in pronounciation, since pinyin (the standard Romanization of Chinese) is a bit confusing at first. However, if you ever want to learn to read road signs (all in pinyin as well as characters) or use any other learning materials, you will have to learn the real thing anyway.

Fortunately, there is an excellent alternative - the Rough Guide. I looked at quite a few books, including Lonely Planet, and Rough Guide's is the best. It includes characters, pinyin, AND a helpful, more natural phoenetic spelling. Excellent for the beginner and casual learner - the target market for phrase books.

Rating:
Summary: Get the "cassette pack with phrase book" instead
Review: This phrasebook doesn't use pinyin or accents. This means no Chinese will understand you no matter how well you follow the book's pronunciation system. Mandarin relies on pronunciation more than anything else. If you enjoy the Berlitz series, then get the cassette+phrasebook pack instead (ISBN 2-8315-6270-8), so you'll hear basic Mandarin spoken. However, I've heard other audiocassettes packs are better.

Rating:
Summary: If you want to visit China, GET THIS BOOK
Review: You can't learn Chinese from a phrasebook.
This book is great because it has the Chinese characters in it.
It is well thought out and has color coded sections.
I found it great when I visited Shanghai, Hagzhou, and Qingdao.
If you don't speak the language you will love this book. It helps you get what you want done. Whether you want to order at a restaurant or find a hotel or get to the train station or many more, you will use it.