Comments on: Book review: Far East Pinyin Chinese-English Dictionary http://blog.taiwan-guide.org/2006/05/book-review-far-east-pinyin-chinese-english-dictionary/ commentary on all things Taiwanese -- Taichung, Taiwan Mon, 26 Jul 2010 12:46:59 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: David on Formosa http://blog.taiwan-guide.org/2006/05/book-review-far-east-pinyin-chinese-english-dictionary/comment-page-1/#comment-1185 David on Formosa Tue, 05 Dec 2006 03:28:33 +0000 http://blog.taiwan-guide.org/2006/05/book-review-far-east-pinyin-chinese-english-dictionary/#comment-1185 [...] I earlier reviewed the Far East Pinyin Chinese-English Dictionary. The ABC Dictionary actually takes the organisation of Chinese words by pinyin a step further. Rather than just indexing characters by pinyin it indexes individual words by pinyin. ABC is actually a clever acronym meaning "Alphabetically Based Computerized". [...] [...] I earlier reviewed the Far East Pinyin Chinese-English Dictionary. The ABC Dictionary actually takes the organisation of Chinese words by pinyin a step further. Rather than just indexing characters by pinyin it indexes individual words by pinyin. ABC is actually a clever acronym meaning “Alphabetically Based Computerized”. [...]

]]> By: Chris http://blog.taiwan-guide.org/2006/05/book-review-far-east-pinyin-chinese-english-dictionary/comment-page-1/#comment-88 Chris Sat, 20 May 2006 12:41:00 +0000 http://blog.taiwan-guide.org/2006/05/book-review-far-east-pinyin-chinese-english-dictionary/#comment-88 Spaceman Check out A Prctical English-Chinese Pronouncing Dictionary by Janey Chen as it uses bomofo although some of the tone marks are in correct but it also uses Yale Pinyin Spaceman

Check out A Prctical English-Chinese Pronouncing Dictionary by Janey Chen as it uses bomofo although some of the tone marks are in correct but it also uses Yale Pinyin

]]> By: The Spaceman http://blog.taiwan-guide.org/2006/05/book-review-far-east-pinyin-chinese-english-dictionary/comment-page-1/#comment-87 The Spaceman Wed, 17 May 2006 14:11:00 +0000 http://blog.taiwan-guide.org/2006/05/book-review-far-east-pinyin-chinese-english-dictionary/#comment-87 I would step over my mother for a English to BePeMe dictionary. I would step over my mother for a English to BePeMe dictionary.

]]> By: jingyang http://blog.taiwan-guide.org/2006/05/book-review-far-east-pinyin-chinese-english-dictionary/comment-page-1/#comment-86 jingyang Wed, 17 May 2006 02:03:00 +0000 http://blog.taiwan-guide.org/2006/05/book-review-far-east-pinyin-chinese-english-dictionary/#comment-86 Actually, while the ABC may be more comprehensive in terms of its range of entries, I found it less easy to use. Because the words are in strict pinyin alphabetical order, you get such counter-intuitive things as jia mao then jian bi then jia wei. This simply confuses the hell out of me frankly. Add to this, the fact that one can often recognize enough of a clue to guess the sound, but not the correct tone, you have one hell of a lot of entries to go through. It doesn't help at all that there are no "head" character entries either, they are all small print. Also, because it ignores the tones, even if you know the pronunciation, you still don't know where the character maybe placed among ALL others with same pinyin but different tones. And in the case of Jian, it may even be placed in the middle of the "jia" entries. In addition, it means that ALL entries for a sound (NOTE: not a character) like "Jia" for example are effectively ordered by the beginning of the SECOND character in the word, it gets to be a huge problem when you are unsure of the second character, then you have to go through all the entries for all the characters using the sound "Jia". Basically to use the ABC most effectively, you have to either know the pronunciation of both characters, (in which case you probably have a good idea of their meaning anyway) or you have to look up BOTH characters in the stroke order or radical index first. Personally I much prefer the Times dictionary for ease of use. Unfortunately for those of us in Taiwan, it uses simplified characters. BTW, a very useful tool in the Lanbridge dictionary was a simple listing of all characters by pinyin and the page number of their entry so if you didn't know the tone you could still go straight to the relevant entries. Actually, while the ABC may be more comprehensive in terms of its range of entries, I found it less easy to use.

Because the words are in strict
pinyin alphabetical order, you get such counter-intuitive things as jia mao then jian bi then jia wei. This simply confuses the hell out of me frankly.

Add to this, the fact that one can often recognize enough of a clue to guess the sound, but not the correct tone, you have one hell of a lot of entries to go through. It doesn’t help at all that there are no “head” character entries either, they are all small print. Also, because it ignores the tones, even if you know the pronunciation, you still don’t know where the character maybe placed among ALL others with same pinyin but different tones. And in the case of Jian, it may even be placed in the middle of the “jia” entries. In addition, it means that ALL entries for a sound (NOTE: not a character) like “Jia” for example are effectively ordered by the beginning of the SECOND character in the word, it gets to be a huge problem when you are unsure of the second character, then you have to go through all the entries for all the characters using the sound “Jia”.

Basically to use the ABC most effectively, you have to either know the pronunciation of both characters, (in which case you probably have a good idea of their meaning anyway) or you have to look up BOTH characters in the stroke order or radical index first.
Personally I much prefer the Times dictionary for ease of use. Unfortunately for those of us in Taiwan, it uses simplified characters.
BTW, a very useful tool in the Lanbridge dictionary was a simple listing of all characters by pinyin and the page number of their entry so if you didn’t know the tone you could still go straight to the relevant entries.

]]> By: David http://blog.taiwan-guide.org/2006/05/book-review-far-east-pinyin-chinese-english-dictionary/comment-page-1/#comment-85 David Tue, 16 May 2006 11:19:00 +0000 http://blog.taiwan-guide.org/2006/05/book-review-far-east-pinyin-chinese-english-dictionary/#comment-85 Mark S, I think I will make that dictionary the next on my list to purchase. Even with the characters arranged in alphabetical order it still takes a bit of hunting around to find a <EM>word</EM> if you don't know the first <EM>character</EM>. The ABC Pinyin Dictionary allows you to find any word even quicker. Mark S, I think I will make that dictionary the next on my list to purchase. Even with the characters arranged in alphabetical order it still takes a bit of hunting around to find a word if you don’t know the first character. The ABC Pinyin Dictionary allows you to find any word even quicker.

]]> By: Mark S. http://blog.taiwan-guide.org/2006/05/book-review-far-east-pinyin-chinese-english-dictionary/comment-page-1/#comment-84 Mark S. Sun, 14 May 2006 02:52:00 +0000 http://blog.taiwan-guide.org/2006/05/book-review-far-east-pinyin-chinese-english-dictionary/#comment-84 <EM>All the <STRONG>characters</STRONG> are arranged in alphabetical order according to Hanyu Pinyin.</EM> (emphasis added) Sigh. Another <EM>character</EM> dictionary pretending to be a Pinyin dictionary just because it has Pinyin in it. When are more companies going to start following the lead of the excellent <a HREF="http://www.pinyin.info/readings/abc2.html" rel="nofollow"><EM>ABC</EM> dictionaries</A>, which are <a HREF="http://www.pinyin.info/readings/texts/abc2sample.gif" rel="nofollow">truly alphebetized</A> (see "buda" for an example)? All the characters are arranged in alphabetical order according to Hanyu Pinyin. (emphasis added)

Sigh. Another character dictionary pretending to be a Pinyin dictionary just because it has Pinyin in it. When are more companies going to start following the lead of the excellent ABC dictionaries, which are truly alphebetized (see “buda” for an example)?

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