English-Chinese dictionary?

[mr.interested]

Hi All,

I've just started learning Chinese and I'm now going to buy an English-Chinese dictionary, and my two choices are:

• Oxford Beginner's Chinese Dictionary (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/019929853X/ref=ord_cart_shr?ie=UTF8&m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE)
  
• Oxford Chinese Desk Dictionary: English-Chinese Chinese-English (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0198005962/ref=ord_cart_shr?ie=UTF8&m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE)
  

The former is for beginners, but the later is much more bigger. The question is, does its content is as useful for beginners as the "Oxford Beginner's Chinese Dictionary"? Does it make any difference?

Best

[JenniferW]

I have a copy of what's called 'Oxford Concise English-Chinese Chinese-English Dictionary', 3rd edition bought a good few years ago. I now use online dictionaries as well, but this old Oxford one is still serving well. I'm sort of elementary / low intermediate level.

[Gharial]

Hi Mr.Interested. The Oxford Beginner's is as its title suggests a dictionary for beginners, by which I mean:

- it is specifically designed for English/foreign learners of Chinese (rather than for Chinese learners of English), and thus has full Pinyin to accompany its generous number of examples showing the mapping (or not, in the form of useful usage guidance notes!) of meaning between the two languages

- it has non-trivial amounts of supplementary information e.g. a grammar glossary, and two lists of nominal and verbal measure words

The obvious drawback however is that once you are getting to the intermediate stage of Chinese (e.g. after having completed something like a Teach Yourself course or two) and beginning to expand your vocabulary, read at all extensive texts etc then you will definitely need a bigger (C-E) dictionary. But make no mistake, the Beginner's dictionary will certainly help you master the essentials of basic spoken Mandarin (when used in conjunction with a good course that covers the grammar, patterns etc in sufficient depth).

By the way, you might like to consider getting the Oxford Chinese Minidictionary, as it is essentially the same contents-wise (with the exception of omitting one or two appendices/extras) as the Beginner's, but is much smaller and more portable (yet with still perfectly clear, crisp and legible font) and has a nice hardwearing plastic flexicover.

The larger Oxford bilingual that you're considering (and that is available in the form of the Concise edition that JenniferW mentions, which should be more or less the same contents-wise as the Desk, but appreciably less bulky, though note that the reduction in physical size may also make the characters less legible) has a pretty good C-E half (drawn from the Commercial Press's venerable Han-Ying Cidian) which supplies the traditional forms alongside the simplified - obviously a very useful feature to have, and which is sadly lacking in the currently available competing two-way (E-C/C-E) bilingual dictionaries available in the West (the above Oxford Beginner's/Minidictionary, the Collins [various titles/editions], and the Langenscheidt/Berlitz/Insight), but the main drawback here is that the needs of the English/foreign learner of Chinese were clearly not paramount in the design (or rather, translation): Pinyin is pretty much limited to entry words and phrases i.e. not supplied for actual examples, and it might sometimes be difficult for a beginner to Chinese to know exactly what is and isn't being defined in terms of even English to Chinese if and when the English itself is rather sparse (i.e. literally just the entry word, despite that often being polysemous in English at least).

A thread I started asking what pocket bilingual is best for beginners, and that mentions a few other possible and/or forthcoming dictionary choices (e.g. Tuttle's, and the ABC):

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/24510-pocket-two-way-e-cc-e-dictionaries-which-one-is-the-best/

Hope all this helps.