Chinese Course & Dictionary Reviews – Books, Cassettes, & CD's for Learning ChineseRationale: When I first started learning Chinese, I was annoyed by the lack of decent books on the subject. I looked on the web to see if anyone had a page which reviewed such books, but I didn't find much, so I decided to write my own for the good of the Chinese-learning community. This is it! How I've Rated the Courses: I given each course a rating from 1 to 5 stars. The more stars the better. I value audio (cassettes, CDs, etc.) very highly, after all how can someone learn to speak properly if they never hear the language?! I like a sensible lesson ordering – starting with simple commonly-used speech in the first few lessons, then increasing in complexity as the lessons progress. I like courses without typing mistakes and books which perfectly match the audio. I like sensible Romanizations.
Speaking and ListeningCantonese:| Title - Author(s), Original publish date, (Version date), ISBN (Comments) | | Level | Rating | Good Points | Bad Points |
Functional Cantonese - Martha Lam & Stanley Po, 1988, ISBN 0 9588026 0 2, 1 0 (Cassettes) | | Basic. | **** | - Sensible lesson ordering.
- Good opening explanation of tones and pronunciation variations.
- Romanization used is that of Sidney Lau - the best one I've seen.
- Comes with around 1½ hours of audio. | - A few typos here and there. |
Everyday Cantonese - CUHK, 1985 (1993), ISBN 962-222-001-0 (Cassettes) | | Basic-Intermediate. | ****
| - Nice explanation of the course, tones, and pronunciation variations.
- Reasonable lesson ordering.
- Good topic coverage.
- Having the drills of each lesson on the audio is excellent!
- Comes with over 4½ hours of audio! | - The Yale System of Romanization is an abomination.
- Almost every page has a typo!
- Language usage is out-of-date in parts.
- Sometimes the words on the cassettes don't match the words in the book. |
Elementary Cantonese, Vol I and II - Sidney Lau, 1972 (1987), The Government Printer Hong Kong.
Intermediate Cantonese, Vol I and II - Sidney Lau, 1972 (1984), The Government Printer Hong Kong.
Advanced Cantonese, Vol I and II - Sidney Lau, 1975 (1987), The Government Printer Hong Kong.
A Practical Cantonese-English Dictionary - Sidney Lau, 1977, The Government Printer Hong Kong. | | Basic-Advanced. | ***½ | - Simply the best, most comprehensive Cantonese course ever written.
- The Romanization is logical, intuitive, and easily the best one I've seen.
- Extensive use of Chinese characters allows you to 'pick them up' without really trying. | - To my knowledge, no audio is available.
- Language usage is out-of-date in parts.
- A few typos here and there. |
Teach Yourself Cantonese, A Complete Course for Beginners - Hugh Baker & P. K. Ho, 1995 (Cassettes) / 2003 (CD's) | | Basic. | **½
(Review in progress) | - Comes with around 1½ hours of audio. | - The order of the lessons is a bit illogical.
- Language usage is out-of-date in parts.
- (1995 edition only) The Romanization used is even worse than Yale!
- (2003 edition only) The Yale System of Romanization is an abomination. |
Colloquial Cantonese - Keith S. T. Tong & Gregory James, 1994 (1995), ISBN 0-415-08204-8 (Cassettes) | | Basic. | **½ | - Tapes are decent - clearly spoken and well paced.
- Grammar explanations in the book are quite good.
- Comes with around 1¾ hours of audio. | - The order of the lessons is illogical - complex things such as counting and prices should not be in the first lesson. Lesson 1 'Shopping' should be moved to lesson 5.
- Excessive use of the word 'listen' on the tapes can drive you crazy!
- Would be much better if the dialogues had Chinese characters too.
- The Yale System of Romanization is an abomination.
- Sometimes the words on the cassettes don't match the words in the book.
- A few typos here and there. |
Elementary Cantonese Conversation - Jenny Lee & Shiu Chiu Yeung, 1989 (Cassettes) | | Basic. | * | - Tapes are Ok to listen to for someone with a bit of Cantonese knowledge. | - Bad structure and very primitive compared to all the other books. I don't think anyone could really learn to speak from this book. |
Language Learning Cantonese, Speak a Chinese Dialect CD ROM - Laser Publishing Group, 1997 (CD ROM) | | Basic. | * | N/A. | - Bad structure and very primitive interface. I don't think anyone could really learn to speak from this CD.
- Riddled with Romanization errors and pronunciation errors.
- Tedious click-to-speak interface gives you RSI in 5 minutes! |
Intermediate Cantonese, Themes for Listening and Speaking - Philip Yungkin Lee, 2001 (Oct), ISBN 962-279-202-2 (3 CDs) | | Intermediate. | Review in progress. | - Comes with over 3 hours of audio! | - Some words in the dialogues are not listed in the glossaries.
- The 'Tapescript' section should also (1) have the dialogues in Chinese characters, and (2) have English translations. Actually I'd merge the whole 'Tapescript' section into the 'Unit' sections themselves. Having to flick back and forth between the Units and Tapescript is tedious.
- Pronunciation variations such as ngoh/oh should not be written everywhere. It's too hard to read dialogs written that way, plus it has introduced many typos into the book. Only the most correct pronunciation should be given.
- The CD's are too quiet (or mine are faulty).
- The Yale System of Romanization is an abomination.
- The odd typo here and there. |
Wedding Bells - Yin-Ping Cream Lee & Shin Kataoka, 2001, ISBN 962- 279-203-0 (1 CD) | | Intermediate. | Not yet reviewed. | . | - The Yale System of Romanization is an abomination. |
Learning Cantonese Through Stories, The Story of Minami - Siu-lun Cedric Lee & Masumi Tanaka, 2002, ISBN 962-279-206-5 (1 CD) | | Intermediate. | Not yet reviewed. | . | - The Yale System of Romanization is an abomination. |
Cantonese and Mandarin:| Title - Author(s), Date(s), ISBN, etc. | | Level | Rating | Good Points | Bad Points |
A Practical English-Chinese Pronouncing Dictionary - Janey Chen, 1970 (1994), ISBN 0-8048-1877-0. | | Advanced. | *** | - Characters, and Mandarin and Cantonese pronunciation are given for over 15,000 English words - useful for students of Cantonese and Mandarin. | - The Yale System of Romanization is an abomination which is used for both Mandarin and Cantonese. A table of conversions to PinYin (Mandarin) and other Cantonese Romanizations is given though.
- The main dictionary, religious appendix, and military appendix should be combined. Such appendices are unnecessary and annoying. |
Mandarin:| Title - Author(s), Date(s), ISBN, etc. | | Level | Rating | Good Points | Bad Points |
Hanyu for Beginning Students - Peter Chang, Alyce Mackerras, Yu Hsiu-Ching, ???? (Cassettes)
Hanyu for Intermediate Students Stage 1 - Peter Chang, Alyce Mackerras, Yu Hsiu-Ching, 1993 (Cassettes)
Hanyu for Intermediate Students Stage 2 - Peter Chang, Alyce Mackerras, Yu Hsiu-Ching, ???? (Cassettes)
Hanyu for Intermediate Students Stage 3 - Peter Chang, Alyce Mackerras, Yu Hsiu-Ching, ???? (Cassettes)
Hanyu for Senior Students - Peter Chang, Alyce Mackerras, Yu Hsiu-Ching, ???? (Cassettes) | | Basic-Intermediate. | **** | - Uses the PinYin Romanization. | - A few typos here and there. |
Ultimate Mandarin Chinese, Basic-Intermediate - Living Language, 2000. (8 CDs) | | Basic-Intermediate. | ***½
(Review in progress) | - Comprehensive and professionally written.
- Comes with around 7½ hours of audio! | - Almost every page has a typo!
- Would be much better if the dialogues had Chinese characters too.
- Sometimes the words on the CD's don't match the words in the book.
- The CD's have clearly been recorded from tape since they contain annoying clicks, speed changes, and other tape-related artefacts.
- The abovementioned effects combined with the unnecessarily-fast and unclear speaking in some dialogs, makes the words very difficult to hear. |
Mao's Alphabet Version 1.0 CD ROM - Dark Horse Software Corp, 1996. (CD ROM) | | Basic. | * | - Calligraphy is big and nice.
- Cheap price. | - Only has full form characters even though it's a Mandarin language program.
- A few typos here and there.
- Clunky user interface. |
Reading and WritingCantonese (Full Form):- Elementary Cantonese, etc. - Sidney Lau, The Government Printer Hong Kong.
Mandarin (Full and Simplified Forms):| Title - Author(s), Date(s), ISBN, etc. | | Level | Rating | Good Points | Bad Points |
Reading & Writing Chinese - William McNaughton, 1979 (1991), ISBN 0- 8048-1584-6. | | Intermediate. | *** | - Over 1,000 characters are listed with their full-form stroke order (the simplified forms are also given when appropriate). | - No Cantonese pronunciation is given, only Mandarin.
- The Yale System of Romanization is used instead of Pin Yin. |
| Created: 30 Mar 1997 | This page was authored by Andrew White | Updated: 02 Apr 2008 |
| |
|