Far East Pinyin Chinese-English Dictionary
June 18th, 2006 by David Reid
Far East Pinyin Chinese-English Dictionary
The Far East Book Co, Taipei, 2001
ISBN: 9576124638
Cost:NT$450 at PageOne Bookstore, Taipei
One of the best things about this dictionary is its compact size. It is easy to handle and not too heavy or bulky so you can easily carry it round and refer to it. All the characters are arranged in alphabetical order according to Hanyu Pinyin. There is a Hanyu Pinyin index at the front of the book. It seems a little redundant, but it might be useful if you are not sure about the exact pronunciation of a character. There are also radical indexes and stroke number indexes at the back of the dictionary.
The format of the entries is very easy to read and particularly useful for someone who has a good knowledge of pinyin, but not characters. The entry for each character begins with the pinyin followed by the character in red type. There is then a definition or definitions of the character in English. Following this there is a list of words that begin with that character. The list is arranged with the word written in bold in pinyin first, followed by the character and a definition in English. The definitions given are clear and concise, but there are no example sentences and it does not state whether the word is noun, adjective, particle, etc.
There is an appendix with a table of countries and their capitals in pinyin. However, there is not always a corresponding entry in the dictionary so you cannot know the characters used for the name of the city or country. Another appendix contains a comparitive chart of Hanyu Pinyin and Zhuyin Fuhao (also called bo po mo fo).
Only traditional characters are used in the dictionary. When there is an alternate or simplified form of a character used in Taiwan this is noted in brackets. A table of simplified characters would make a useful addition to this dictionary.
On the back of the dictionary it says that, “Beijing dialect is used as the standard pronunciation. The pronunciation used in Taiwan is also provided if there is any difference.” However, in the text it is not really made clear where differences exist. Some characters have multiple pronunciations and these are noted, but the addition of some notation to clearly indicate differences in pronunciation between Taiwan and China is really needed.
Similarly the dictionary includes words from both Taiwan and China, but doesn’t make the origins clear. For example, jìchéngchē and chūzūchē are both defined as taxi. The former word is used in Taiwan and the latter in China. In Taiwan chūzūchē means hire car, but someone using the dictionary without this knowledge could easily be confused. Another example is tóngzhì. In the text it is defined as comrade. However, in Taiwan it is most commonly used to mean gay or homosexual.
Overall this dictionary is useful but it could be improved. In particular the differences in usage between Taiwan and China need to be made more clear. It is probably a good dictionary to carry around and use on the run, but it is not a definitive reference.
Review originally published on the author’s site, David on Formosa.
:
June 18th, 2006 at 10:34 pm
“Hire car”? You mean “rental car”? Who have you been hanging out with??
The younger generation in the PRC uses tóngzhì to mean homosexual as well.
June 19th, 2006 at 6:22 pm
In Australia the word hire car is used. I guess rental car is American English. I think in both cases the meaning is fairly clear.
As for tongzhi being used on the Mainland, I was aware of that. It shows that the dictionary could really be improved if it doesn’t show both meanings of a fairly common word like this.
June 19th, 2006 at 8:33 pm
One thing I really do like about this dictionary, though, is that it has Pinyin for Chinese-English entries. When I first came to Taiwan, I went to 12 different bookstores looking for a dictionary with any sort of pronunciation guide in its Chinese-English entries, and I couldn’t find any. Amazingly, I couldn’t even find one with zhuyin; they only had characters. Several bookstore clerks told me to just use one dictionary to go from English to Chinese, and then a character dictionary to figure out how to pronounce the characters I found in the entry from the first dictionary. I guess the publishers didn’t consider the fact that some people already know English and want to learn Chinese.
Eventually, I found the red Oxford dictionary at the Shida bookstore that had them, but it used simplified characters and mainland diction. When I finally did find the Far East Pinyin Chinese-English Dictionary, it made life much easier for me. I could finally look up a word like “screwdriver” or “can opener”, see how to pronounce in the dictionary, go to a store, and buy it. I think mine’s a newer edition, though; it has a mainland entry, a slash and then a Taiwanese entry for words such as “taxi” that have different translations on each side of the strait.
June 20th, 2006 at 9:52 am
I don’t think rental car is strictly American English because that is the term used in New Zealand. I interpreted ‘hire car’ as wanting to rent a car.
June 20th, 2006 at 9:51 pm
Is there any one such dictionary you would recommend above all others?
June 20th, 2006 at 10:43 pm
In Taiwan, I’d say go with the newer edition of this dictionary for E-C, and the Far East Chinese-English dictionary for C-E. If I were on the mainland, I’d go with the red Oxford bi-directional dictionary.
July 11th, 2006 at 8:34 am
I think you might have answered my question on this website. However, let me ask it anyway. I am studying Mandarin using Pimsleur. However, the speakers seem to change their pronunciation from CD to CD. It could be that my hearing has been effected from cruising along the east coast of N. Korea during the Korean conflict.
That ages me somewhat but I still enjoy learning. I need a dictionary that pronounces the word so I can see exactly the spelling and pronunciation. I guess this is what I need. Imagine where I am on the learning curve and please suggest what you think you would want. So far, I have struck out so I surely don’t know. If you still suggest Red Oxford bi-directional dictionary for the long haul, that is fine with me.
Thank
July 12th, 2006 at 8:25 pm
Bill, an even better choice would be the ABC Chinese Dictionary by De Francis. It arranges all the words in alphabetical order. The Far East Dictionary arranges words by character so sometimes finding a word can still take a little time if you don’t know the first character of the word. That said I still find the Far East Pinyin Dictionary and the Red Oxford Dictionary very useful.
July 17th, 2006 at 2:25 pm
The two dictionaries that I travel with are this FE Chinese-English dictionary and the red oxford one. The red oxford one can be found in the mainland for about 5 bucks.
July 18th, 2006 at 6:22 am
If you want to understand how all the characters are related to each other, then buy the book form of this website : http://www.zhongwen.com - I have it and it is really useful for seeing how you get from a radical to all the variations of it. I find it easier to learn this way. On Amazon, it’s http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0966075005/
July 22nd, 2006 at 8:37 am
Thanks for all of your suggestions. I’ll probably check them all out. Has anyone ever seen Shanghai on a clear day?I’ve thought about going to China to study Mandarin but I have allergies.
August 29th, 2006 at 4:11 pm
I’m from the US, and the term “hired car” when you go abroad means that you are hiring a driver along with their car. A rental car you would pick up and drive yourself.
I live in Beijing and unfortunately it is rare to have a clear, sunny day. Needless to say, many of us foreigners here bring plenty of Claritin and that seems to take care of the allergy problems. The air in Shanghai is much better and I haven’t had any issues with allergies there, but then again I haven’t lived there long term.
September 20th, 2007 at 6:30 pm
Hey! Thank you for the grat postings! I’ve just started studying chinese so have been on the search for good resources on this amazing - and rather difficult - language. Lately I’ve been using a great and free online resource. It belongs to Babylon.com and their content is for free. Here is it is: English-Chinese Dictionary