Simplex Publications:What Character: Review



Read Reviews	Ping-gam Go	Order By Fax

Reviewer:

Reviewer

BarnesandNoble.com/ September 10, 2002

Excellent Dictionary for Quick Reference
I found this to be an excellent dictionary to use when I want to look up commonly used Chinese characters. This book will be appreciated for beginners who are learning to use a Chinese dictionary because it is a good introduction to the concept of Chinese radicals, which is how characters are commonly organized in most Chinese dictionaries. This book is organized by simple to more advanced radicals with a special section on the trickier radicals. Thus this book will be appreciated by people at the intermediate level (and above) like myself who needs further practice in recognizing radicals for more complex characters. Furthermore, this book will appeal to those who have gone half blind thumbing through thousand paged dictionaries in miniscule, size 4 font just to find the basic definition of a character. The characters in this book are printed in large type so that I can actually see the details of a character and discern the number of strokes. This book is very easy to flip through. The characters are organized by the English names of the Chinese radicals. This book covers over a thousand (maybe several thousand? I forget and I don't have the book with me) characters. This book is all that a beginner needs for a dictionary and is an excellent reference for people at the intermediate and advanced level who want to quickly look up a character. The book unfortunately only gives definitions for one character at a time. There are no definitions or examples for phrases or Chinese words comprised of two characters or more.

Reviewer:

Walter C. Sterling, Jr.
Hillsboro, N.H. 03244

November 3, 2000

Dear Mr. Ping-gam Go:
I wish to thank you again for your “What Character Is That?” book. It has made possible my continuing interest in learning Chinese languages. I am, therefore, extremely indebted to you.

Last February I noticed on the Internet that there were job opportunities for teaching English in China. However, most wanted contracts for one year or more. Also, they usually do not hire teachers over 45 years old (I am 63). Fortunately I was able to find a 4-month summer job in Zhuhai, the beautiful mainland city next to Aomen/Macau.

I taught English six days a week to young adults, ages 22 to 35, in the evenings 7:00 to 10:00 PM. My 100 students were divided into 5 different conversational levels. They used different textbooks, so I needed to study them during the daytime in preparation for next class.

Because of my busy schedule, I had very little time to learn Chinese. Zhuhai is a Special Economic Zone city of ½ million. Many of its inhabitants come from other places in China where they speak Putonghua. However, most people in Zhuhai speak Guangdonghua (in restaurants, supermarkets, taxis etc.). I did learn a little Cantonese but not as much as I wanted.

Everyone I met there was so friendly to me. The Chinese are so “social” and particularly enjoy eating together in groups. They also enjoy playing majeung, cards and other games. I was very happy to be able to live in China, even for such a short time. The variety and quality of food was unbelievable! So was their music. On my next trip I hope to visit Fukien/Fujian province. Some friends of mine have invited me to go to their home in Fuzhou.

I had a number of Mandarin and Cantonese dictionaries to use, but the one I relied most of the time was always your “What Character Is That”. Many of my friends could not speak or write English. So I asked them to write in Chinese characters. I then used your book to translate their words into English.

Now I receive Email from them and use your book to translate their messages. For me it is like the Rosetta Stone of Egypt that permitted archaeologists to finally read ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs! I owe my sincerest gratitude to you because my life has become so much more interesting and enjoyable learning Chinese language and culture.

My best wishes to you,

Walter C. Sterling, Jr.
Hillsboro, N.H. 03244