Berlitz Cantonese Chinese: Travel Pack

Rating:
Summary: Terrible...do NOT buy this!!!
Review: I can't add much to Mr. Ulrich's very on-target remarks besides my agreement. He has already mentioned the two most irksome things about the book, namely the lack of tone indicators, and the lack of correspondance between the Cantonese and the Mandarin text. Let me clarify this for those who haven't looked at the book. Each sentence is presented in both romanization and in Chinese characters. The trouble is that while the romanization is faithful to the language spoken on the tape, the Chinese characters seem to have been borrowed wholesale from (I'm guessing) the Mandarin version of their phrasebook, leaving only the loosest of semantic ties between the two. There is thus no question of using the characters to find out exactly what you are saying. It's as if the authors were actively hostile to the ambitious student.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I can't add much to Mr. Ulrich's very on-target remarks besides my agreement. He has already mentioned the two most irksome things about the book, namely the lack of tone indicators, and the lack of correspondance between the Cantonese and the Mandarin text. Let me clarify this for those who haven't looked at the book. Each sentence is presented in both romanization and in Chinese characters. The trouble is that while the romanization is faithful to the language spoken on the tape, the Chinese characters seem to have been borrowed wholesale from (I'm guessing) the Mandarin version of their phrasebook, leaving only the loosest of semantic ties between the two. There is thus no question of using the characters to find out exactly what you are saying. It's as if the authors were actively hostile to the ambitious student.

Rating:
Summary: Simply not up to par with past Berlitz publications.
Review: I was extremely dissappointed in Berlitz's new series of phrasebooks. I have been collecting Berlitz phrasebooks for years in every language available, and have always found Berlitz products to be of great quality. Yet the recent changes, such as the elimination of tonal indications and textual discrepancies in the Mandarin and Cantonese series, have resulted in a poor product that will definitely weaken my loyalty. I give them credit for attempting to create a more visually appealing phrasebook. I do not, however, think that this should compromise the overall quality of the series. The use of tonal markings and the inclusion of an audio script for the cassette would greatly enhance the utility of this product. The cassette should also repeat the phrases in Cantonese so that the listener can strengthen oral and aural skills. These faults make it almost impossible to become proficient in the language as past editions have. I sincerely hope that Berlitz attempts to remedy the current situation, because there are a great deal of new phrasebooks on the market that offer both appealing and practical approaches to learning the language.

Rating:
Summary: Simply not up to par with past Berlitz publications.
Review: I was extremely dissappointed in Berlitz's new series of phrasebooks. I have been collecting Berlitz phrasebooks for years in every language available, and have always found Berlitz products to be of great quality. Yet the recent changes, such as the elimination of tonal indications and textual discrepancies in the Mandarin and Cantonese series, have resulted in a poor product that will definitely weaken my loyalty. I give them credit for attempting to create a more visually appealing phrasebook. I do not, however, think that this should compromise the overall quality of the series. The use of tonal markings and the inclusion of an audio script for the cassette would greatly enhance the utility of this product. The cassette should also repeat the phrases in Cantonese so that the listener can strengthen oral and aural skills. These faults make it almost impossible to become proficient in the language as past editions have. I sincerely hope that Berlitz attempts to remedy the current situation, because there are a great deal of new phrasebooks on the market that offer both appealing and practical approaches to learning the language.

Rating:
Summary: Not up to usual Berlitz quality.
Review: Usually a great enthusiast about the Berlitz products, I can't say enough about how poor this offering is. An obvious departure from their other works, this one doesn't.