Review of "The Big Book of Spoken Chinese"

[Base7]

Hereby a review of "The Big Book of Spoken Chinese", Sinolingua, 2012.

 

This review was written as part of the book giveaway by ChineseForums and Sinolingua (see this topic)

 

Short review:

This is a very useful book containing spoken Mandarin expressions for everyday situations. The expressions are arranged around situations such as Travelling, Sentiment and Feelings, and Employment and Work. For each topic, there are 'Useful expressions', 'Conversations' and a vocabulary list. There is no text, but helpful notes appear in the text explaining cultural details.
The amount of structuring differs a bit between chapters, and sometimes Conversations use different phrases than in the Expressions. Nonetheless, the book contains a wealth of information for everyday spoken Mandarin that seems natural enough. Useful mostly for intermediate learners, but beginners can use it as well.

Detailed review:

This is a very useful book containing spoken Mandarin expressions for everyday situations. The expressions are arranged around situations such as Travelling, Sentiment and Feelings, and Employment and Work. In total there are 26 such situations, plus four appendices with numerals, dates and times, fractions, and common measure words. There is no text in the book, but notes sometimes appear in the text, containing helpful explanations. For example to explain how Chinese people often greet each other using specific context-related phrases ('Have you eaten?' 'I have arrived!') rather than set phrases such as 'Hello'.

Each chapter/topic contains several subtopics, typically around four. Each subtopic consists of a list of 'Useful expressions' (sometimes further subdivided according to context) followed by one or more 'Conversations' in which the use of the expressions is illustrated. Each chapter ends with a vocabulary list. Expressions, conversations and vocabulary are given in simplified characters, Pinyin and English translation.

The number of useful expressions varies quite a bit per topic, but this makes sense, since some topics are broader than others (e.g. 'Housing' versus 'Greetings'). In general, there is enough material in each chapter to allow a reader to learn set phrases and combine the expressions into new phrases.

I would see two main uses for this book. One is to have on hand when in China, to look up words or expressions for a particular situation you (will) have at hand. The other is to use the vocabulary lists to learn useful words, with appropriate context from the expressions.

A few critical notes: the structure of the book is not always consistent. Sometimes the subtopics are further divided into subsubtopics (e.g. Chapter 6: Transportation, subtopic 4: Driving, subsubtopic 1: Asking for directions). Sometimes vocabulary lists appear at the end of a subtopic, sometimes only at the end of the chapter. The same is true for the example conversations. This seems to happen for longer chapters.
Secondly, the 'Conversations' sometimes use different expressions than those introduced in 'Useful Expressions'. For example, in chapter 4: Housing, the useful expression give dingjin as 'deposit', but in the conversation, yajin is used. Both may be fine, but it seems inconsistent not to use the expressions and dictionary items presented before.

In conclusion, I think this is a useful book, mostly for intermediate learners, but beginners can use it as well. The weak points are minor, and the book list many handy phrases for a variety of situations. I think it will be quite helpful for learners struggling with the question: 'How do you say this in normal Chinese?'

List of topics appearing in the book:

1.  Greetings
2.  Personal Information
3.  Social Etiquette
4.  Housing
5.  Housework
6.  Transportation
7.  Eating
8.  Shopping
9.  At the Bank
10. At the Post Office
11. At the Hairdresser's and Beauty Parlor
12. At the Tailor's
14. Repairs
15. Climate and Weather
16. Sentiments and Feelings
17. Making Phone Calls
18. Making Appointments
19. Chinese Language and Culture Study
20. Employment and Work
21. Computer and the Internet
22. Travelling
23. Entertainment, Sports and Leisure Activities
24. Medical Care
25. Chinese Festivals and Customs
26. Environmental Protection

[TheBigZaboon]

I agree and second all aspects of this review: a timely review and a useful book. 

 

However I feel that there is one glaring omission in the review (and in the book). The omission in the review is not pointing out that here are NO audio files accompanying this book. There are a wealth of useful sentences (and I mean a lot, this book is huge) that could be learned easier with audio. I think any potential purchaser should know this when contemplating a purchase.

 

Just my 2 kuai. Sorry.

[tysond]

I have this book.  I really like it.

 

I found when I was beginner, it was a bit tough as the sheer number of variations and topics meant lots of vocabulary was required.

You'd need to intensively study and learn the vocab for each section.  So I studied a few sections for a while, and flipped through the rest.  

Lack of audio meant I didn't invest too much time in the book. 

 

But now (roughly HSK4-ish) it's much more suitable since most of the words/characters are known and it's more about combining them and seeing how to make useful sentences.

[Base7]

Since the information page on the book does not list or suggest that audio is part of the book, I did not think to mention it (perhaps I am oldfashioned in not automatically expecting a book to have audio).

 

I would not call it a glaring omission, I do not think the book suffers from it. As tysond mentions, the book is most usable for intermediate learners who already know how words are pronounced and want to learn more about how correct, natural sounding sentences should be made for everyday situations.

 

Nevertheless, it is good to be aware of the fact that there is no accompanying audio, so thanks for pointing it out!

[TheBigZaboon]

I didn't mean to diss your review, it's just that, for a language like Chinese, pronunciation is so difficult for speakers of non-tonal languages, that I feel all Chinese instructional materials should be accompanied by audio. And, in general, they are.

 

This is just a pet peeve of mine. Even where audio is provided, I generally don't feel it's adequate.

 

Again, good review. Frankly, it is better, more complete, more relevant, than many of the reviews I've seen in this thread so far.

[Base7]

No worries, I did not take it as criticism, just wanted to explain Again, I think it is good to be aware of the lack of audio, so it is a welcome addition!