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Concise English-Chinese / Chinese-English Dictionary (Third Edition) | 
 enlarge | Author: Martin H. Manser
Publisher: The Commercial Press & Oxford University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $12.65
You Save: $17.30 (58%)
Rating:  39 reviews
Sales Rank: 41473
Media: Paperback
Edition: 3rd
Pages: 676
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 6.1 x 3.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 7100039339
Dewey Decimal Number: 423
EAN: 9787100039338
ASIN: 7100039339
Publication Date: June 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Authentic, Brand New in Original Shrink-Wrapped Condition. Ship within 24 Hours.(Satisfaction and 100% Authenticity Guaranteed) (Buy with Confidence and Peace of Mind)
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Product Description
Based on its highly acclaimed first edition, this pocket-sized new edition has been enlarged (25% more pages), extensively revised and updated to take account of new vocabulary and recent developments in English and Chinese. Thousands of additional words sand phrases have been included. With Pinyin romanization of each of the more than 20,000 entries in both sections, accompanied by simplified and traditional Chinese characters, and examples of usage.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 34 more reviews...
 I bought three of them... April 24, 2008
The Conductor (Upstate, NY USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I found this book so useful I bought three, just to have spares. I didn't pay Amazon's price though; the same book is under $6 in China.
Regarding some of the other reviewers' complaint's:
Yes the print is tiny, and well-nigh illegible for the more complex characters, and the pages are very thin. That is the inevitable result of cramming large amounts of information into a small space. I do have to say, though, that it wasn't necessary to have printed the diacritics so small. The printing is crisp, however, under magnification and I recommend keeping a 1/2" fold-up magnifying glass in your pocket. Even at that, the thing is barely pocket size; I would have preferred a smaller number of broader pages so it were not so thick.
The definitions are not as authoritative as the best desktop dictionaries, but it is better than any other pocket or PDA-based dictionary I have found. For important situations, check your word with a reverse-lookup. That's life folks.
Chinese usage hints are in hanzi with no pinyin. I understand the need to conserve space, but if you have to choose one or the other, I think pinyin would have been better. Those experienced in Chinese can figure out which sense is being referred to, while those inexperienced in Chinese will need the pinyin to look up the words.
The radical index is immensely useful to look up characters by shape only, but a 4-corner index would be much more accessible to Chinese beginners. Including both might add 20 pages of heft, but would be worth it in my view.
Those last two issues (usage hints lack pinyin and no 4-corner index) make me say that this dictionary is not suitable for beginners. You have to have a few weeks of study and mastery of some basics in order to use it.
Having said that, I can offer no higher endorsement than to say that this dictionary is my linguistic side-arm whenever I go pounding the pavement in China. Not as good as the best dictionaries for European languages, but the best Chinese I have found, and my key to successful communication.
Beginners should start with an introductory phrase book and audio course, though. PDA owners, whose goals are less ambitious and who want to save space, might consider the MSDict PDA software, which appears to be built on the Pocket Oxford's lexicon. A better PDA dictionary, but not as good as this printed one, and less suited than MSDict for beginners, is Clavis Sinica.
Serious students will need a "real" desktop dictionary with more space to expound on usage and more terms of art.[...]
 another chinese dictionary February 10, 2008
Charles J. Hecht (new york city)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A very comprehensive dictionary, but you must have the patience to go over the many itterations in the hope of finding the English corollary. There is no English to Chinese and no special sections like "marrying/measuring" words. but the more I use it the more I realize that this is the most definitive Chinese dictionary for English speaking persons. I would prefer a little larger print, but it is bigger than some other dictionaries.
Concise English-Chinese-English Dictionary Review February 8, 2008
William F. Mccoy
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A high-quality book.
Just be sure to have your reading glasses or magnifying glass available!
 Useful, but there must be better. January 30, 2008
Anna L. Glaze (Northern California)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A somewhat useful book. However: print is far too small, pages are impossibly thin, it is impossible to intuit strokes because you can barely SEE the character. Sometimes, the traditional character is omitted completely. It is not easily navigable and seems to be based in British English. Seems to be designed for a Chinese-speaking audience, not the other way around. Not very useful for a beginner. Try: Far East New Practical Chinese/English Dictionary edited by Liang Shih-chiu.
 3rd edition print WAY TOO SMALL December 29, 2006
permutations (New York, NY USA)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
I saw comments that the print in the third edition was too small, but I bought it anyway. Big mistake. The print is so small that the dictionary is virtually useless. It's about 5-6 point type. I need a magnifying glass to read it, and complex Chinese characters come out as little more than a black blob, even with a magnifying glass, because the characters can't be printed that small. Don't buy this dictionary!!!!
The only reason I gave it a "2" rather than a "1" is that the content seems okay (as much as I can see of it, anyway).
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