Read and Write Chinese: A Simplified Guide to the Chinese Characters

Rating:
Summary: An indispensable bargain for anyone studying Chinese.
Review: In the category of reference and learning tools for the study of Chinese, Rita Choy's book is the best one I have encountered. Among its unusual features, each of the 3,200 words include the Cantonese pronunciation as well as the Mandarin pronunciation. Furthermore, the publisher also sells audiotapes of a native speaker pronouncing each word in this book. At only $12, this useful book is a bargain for anyone studying Chinese. Traditional dictionaries, which costs many times more, are time consuming and difficult to use. Choy's book allows you to locate a word by number of strokes, English definition, Cantonese pronunciation and Mandarin pronunciation as well as the traditional radical approach. As such, the book is an easy low cost substitute for the beginning/intermediate student and a convenient supplement for the advanced student.In addition to its usefulness as a dictionary, Choy's book is also great for the student who want to focus on the more common words because a frequency indicator accompanies each word entry.Although I unequivocally recommend this book, there are flaws worth noting. While not excessive, this book does contain more errors than you would find in a traditional dictionary. It also does not consistently include all the alternate ways to pronounce and write each word.

Rating:
Summary: An essential tool for the beginning language learner
Review: Never believing this book to be a dictionary substitute, I was not disappointed, as was Amazon's reviewer, with the content. But as a student at the Beijing Language Institute, where the faculty assumed you knew how to write characters, or would find out, I found this book invaluable. As students of Chinese know, the exact configuration of characters in language texts isn't always apparent--the calligraphy isn't clear or is too small or contains an unfamiliar feature. Rita Choy's book enables students to find almost any word in their text, fairly easily, and provides clear stroke order charts for the learner.One caution: the book uses complex characters. Nonetheless, even in Beijing, I found the book very useful

Rating:
Summary: A must!
Review: This book is a must for learning Chinese. The cross reference dictionaries are a life saver. The book is well thought out and very easy to use. You can learn from the book and also use it for reference!