Pocket Oxford Chinese Dictionary

The dictionary is fine but the CD ROM, at the time of writing, cannot be loaded onto a PC that has Windows Vista, therefore it is for many obsolete. The OUP website indicates that the problem can be fixed by emailing customer services but that the solution is unsupported and so it is not suitable for everyone.

Whilst the printed dictionary is moderately useful and acceptable as a normal reference dictionary, the Talking Chinese Dictionary is comparatively useless [For example, typing in to the disc search engine some of the English words that appear in the printed dictionary returns zero results for a Chinese equivalent from the disc]. I would not recommend buying these before you invest in a learning program like Wenlin, which is far more useful and also provides audio for hearing how the words sound in Mandarin.

I've been learning Chinese for nearly 3 years and this is best dictionary i've come across. It's really easy to use; the Chinese section is listed alphabetically in pinyin then in order of tone. The English section is good too, although in the english section when it gives sample phrases & expressions they only appear in characters, not pinyin. This is a pain too if a word has lots of Chinese translations as you have no idea which one to use with the comments and examples being in characters only. Still it's been massively helpful to me and i would recommend it to anyone wanting to get to grips with Mandarin.

In order to sort out the confusion that seems to have arisen, I would like to raise the following points.
As "ycheng96" rightly states, when people refer to the "Chinese" language they are almost always talking about Mandarin, by far the most common. Cantonese is only spoken in the Guangzhou region and by some Chinese communities outside of China. Also, Pin Yin is a romanised form of Chinese allowing westerners to pronounce the characters more easily.

However, this dictionary is an aid to learning the language, not a means by itself. In this respect it is excellent, especially with the CD-ROM which helps greatly with oral practice. If one is seeking to learn Mandarin from scratch, I would recommend either "Chinese in Steps" by George X Zhang, or possibly "Chinese for Everyone" by Joanna F K Atkinson, both of which are available on this site. They are excellent for beginners and, coupled with this dictionary, are the best way to start to learn the (very difficult) Mandarin language.
Good luck!

For those who do not know, when people refer to Chinese Language, they generally mean Chinese Mandarin, the main language used in China. That is the main distinction between Chinese and Cantonese (as used in Hong Kong and some parts of South-East China). I have the 2nd edition of the dictionary and it is strange for "kilikadrums" to say it is only for Chinese. For a start, what do you expect from a dictionary? To fully utilise it, you must learn the system of "pinyin" which I believe was developed for foreigners who wanted to learn Chinese/Mandarin (though I have never gone out of my way to find out), and in doing so you will understand that this is simply just a dictionary like any other. Learning a language is very difficult and I believe the previous reviewer may just not have got what he/she expected. At this moment in time I am considering purchasing this set (Dictionary + CD) mainly for the CD to help with pronounciation, as i have the dictionary already as I said earlier.