4 comments about Pocket Vietnamese Dictionary: Vietnamese-English English-Vietnamese (Periplus Pocket Dictionaries).

1. This book is concised and to the point. It is a perfect dictionary for day-to-day conversation. I am a native speaker living in the United States for over 25 years. My Vietnamese is rusty and, therefore, having a hard time expressing my ideas in conversations. This book helped me because it has practical words that I can use right a way. This is a must have for everyone. Thank you! (I suggest to also get The Oxford Picture Dictionary: English-Vietnamese addition.)



2. Honestly, I can't speak more than a few words of Vietnamese--and I'm probably not doing that right! =P
   But my friend is Vietnamese, and she loved this book! She was born in America, so she doesn't speak Vietnamese fluently, but she's really close. And whenever she forgets something while talking to her parents or other family members, she goes straight to this book. =) And, although I don't speak Vietnamese, I own this book and try to talk to her using it. =S Once again, not very well. Haha. ^.^ But it is a very useful book!



3. I was fluent in Vietnamese 38 years ago during the war. I will return soon to tour Vietnam, and need a quick reference for all the vocabulary that I have forgotten since I was there 38 years ago. This dictionary is perfect for this. If one did not have a basic knowledge of Vietnamese, this book would be less useful. But with a basic understanding of how Vietnamese works, this book provides a great reference to words needed in every-day conversation.



4. This dictionary is at least something I can use to try and communicate with non-English speaking students. It is not perfect but has at least words that are close to what I usually need to say.

4 comments about Oxford Picture Dictionary: English/Vietnamese.

1. I like the 1998 edition which is clear and straight forward as a dictionary. The new edition has too much stuff going on each page. I teach Beginning Low level ESL and it is overwhelming for the students. They see the words, sentences, conversations, stories on one page. It is too much. From the old edition, I can introduce the vocabulary to the students and add the related materials accordingly. I will keep using the 1998 edition dictionary.



2. I'm very pleased with the new edition. First of all, not only up to date with vocab, the quality of the papers are good. Second, it has a whole lot more commonly used vocabulary nowaday relating to everyday life, school, computer, astronomy etc... Good buy indeed.



3. My program used the 1st edition of this text and found it quite useful for our adult-students, it is quite helpful for my Vietnamese students, who have no knowledge of the English language. Students compare the quoc ngu to the English but sometimes found it difficult to pronounce the words. Other than that, it contains a wide range of subject matters that are relevant to daily life.



4. The new edition of this book OPD is much too detailed and with a low ESL student it is entirely over her level. This book which was first published in 1998 is much better and I would give that book a 5 star rating.
   Example: A student does not need to know the 10 varieties of shoes.

3 comments about Thai (Lonely Planet Phrasebooks).

1. The book came in great condition but I was looking for something that was phonetic not actually wanting to "learn" the language but just use when travelling there. I ended up buying a much better phrase book



2. I bought this book as a present for a friend who frequently travel to Thailand. She absolutely loves this book, and says she has been trying to get something like this book for years



3. I spent a good amount of time looking through various bookstores before I left for Thailand the first time, trying to decide among the various phrasebooks that are available. This one is perfectly sized, logically arranged (for the most part), and has a very good selection of phrases (for the most part).
   
   The first time I went to Thailand, I was with a few other native English speakers. Among us, we had several different phrasebooks. I spent a little more time while there looking through the other phrasebooks (after experiencing Thailand for a few days) to see if maybe the others actually were better, because I wasn't getting anywhere with this one.
   
   Well, the others aren't better. They consistently were missing key words or phrases that I needed. In general, this one will have what you need. Basically, I think this is the best Thai phrasebook available right now, and you should definitely get it if you're going there. It's very useful in many situations, and certainly worth a good rating. I'm going to focus on what I see as the negatives, but keep in mind that no matter how many negative things I say about it, these are all only worth taking one star off of my rating.
   
   The biggest problem is strange choices on what to include and what not to include. Naturally, they can't include everything, but there are omissions in all sections of this book that seem strange to me. One example is in the section with phrases regarding occupations - it's designed so you can ask people about their occupation, and you can tell them yours. The problem is, they only give you a few things to choose from, and they're not broad - the options are civil servant, farmer, journalist, and teacher. Or, you can say you work in the fields of health, sales and marketing, or administration. Now, granted, you will find more options in the dictionary in the back, but that's a really rather bizarre selection, I think. I'm really not sure why they couldn't have included "student" in that list, for example - I'm guessing a significantly large percentage of people using this phrasebook as their only reference are going to be students. On the same page, they also give you how to say "What are you studying?" and "I'm studying..." (with only humanities, science, and Thai as the options...) but that, to me, doesn't seem like the right answer to the question "What is your occupation?"
   
   What I'm trying to describe is a systemic problem in this book, which is worse in other Thai phrasebooks. They give you the tantalizing beginnings of phrases, which you can theoretically use to substitute in the right word... but they don't make it easy to find that word. Another quick example: they give you "I'm from..." with the options Australia, Canada, and Singapore. Yep, that sure covers a really wide range of places that a lot of people who visit Thailand are from. England and the US should have been on that list instead of Canada and Singapore (not to slight those countries...) - instead, those from two of the largest sources of Thai tourists will be flipping to the dictionary in the back.
   
   Now, there are some neat phrases in here that you don't see in the other Thai phrasebooks (I mean mostly the fun stuff, not the basic practical stuff). The problem with these is that they're not basic phrases... if you say them to someone, they're going to reply with something that's probably complicated, and that doesn't really help you too much.
   
   Now, a couple of other things that caused me problems. First, the transliteration scheme - it's pretty good (and a *lot* better than some I've seen) but not perfect, and it will take a lot of work to actually pronounce this stuff correctly. Even if you follow all of their directions, try your best with the tones, etc., chances are you will still be pronouncing things incorrectly. I won't claim this can't be my fault at all, of course - maybe I'm just bad at it - but after saying things I was sure were correct yet still having Thai people not understand, after pointing to it in the book (everything is, thankfully, written in Thai script as well) they would pronounce it the right way and it would be *totally* different. So different, that I have no idea how they came up with the transliteration. I can't think of any specific examples, but it was a very common problem for me.
   
   Second, the dictionary in the back. This obviously can't include very much - it's a relatively small section in the back - but, again, it suffers from strange omissions and strange inclusions. The dictionary is not the purpose of the book, of course, so you can't expect it to be perfect. The Thai-English section is considerably smaller than the English-Thai section, and doesn't have a whole lot of useful stuff in it... a Thai friend had a lot of trouble trying to find words she wanted to use in here.
   
   Third, the language as used here is not how most people speak, and in some cases not how it's written either. I do not know the language very well, but after a while I could tell there are some pretty basic mistakes here. Especially if you leave Bangkok (I was in Chiang Mai most of the time), phrases and words in here will be *completely* different from how most Thais talk.
   
   Finally, the font used for Thai script. If you're not familiar with Thai script it probably looks perfectly normal, but it's actually kind of stylized. If you're trying to figure out specific characters from this book, sometimes you will have problems - there are some Thai characters that are very, very similar to each other, and the way they're represented in this book seems to make those small differences even smaller, rather than accentuating them and making them easy to see.
   
   Ultimately, I'll add, about half of the book will probably be useless to you. These are phrases that require decent understanding of the language to use (and to subsequently understand the replies you'll get), and you won't get that understanding from this book. And then there's the section on "sustainable travel", and other stuff like that... worthless unless you can understand the language fairly well, or if the person you're talking to speaks some English (in which case you're probably not going to say much in Thai). That's beside the fact that "sustainable travel" and eco-friendly is a pretty foreign concept to most Thais, and they'll have no idea what you're talking about even if you *do* pronounce it correctly...
   
   I recommend this for tourist travel, but if you become interested in any way with understanding the language better than just "getting by", you'll need something else almost immediately.

3 comments about Instant Thai: How to express 1,000 different ideas with just 100 key words and phrases! (Instant Phrasebook Series).

1. In conjunction with the Pimsleur Thai course I bought here, this is a great reminder and prompter when you get stuck on a word. Smart and simple. And worth every baht.



2. Handy little supplement book! We all know that it's easier to remember vocabulary when learned in context. This book takes some of the more widely used conversational words and enables the learner to see them in the context of a variety of sentences. This greatly enhances the learning potential.
   
   While this book is useful, keep in mind that it is only a supplement for learning and you will still need a Thai-English dictionary and other Thai learning materials. However, this is a valuable addition to my Thai language library.



3. Instant Thai is less of a phrasebook than a small instruction manual for learning 100 words and putting them together to make coherent sentences. I love learning a country's language prior to traveling there. Phrasebooks are good for memorizing but not good for understanding. This book gives you both. I found the pronounciation guide helpful, but would recommend some sort of listening guide if you intend to pronounce the Thai language correctly. Overall, this book was extremely helpful in communicating with the Thai people and allowed me to ask questions not covered by any simple phrasebook, e.g. for a request from my wife 'Your make-up is excellent. What is it?'

5 comments about Chinese Through Tone & Color (Chinese Edition).

1. I'm a real nut about reading reviews before I buy a product, but I've never written one before. I tried to write a very thorough review of this book, and I hope you find it helpful. The most important part is about the color methodology/strategy and is designated below by three asterisks.
   
   As school wound down in April I began researching the Chinese language and decided to begin studying it this summer. I purchased three books from Amazon: The First 100 Chinese Characters, Tuttle's Learning Chinese Characters, and Chinese Through Tone & Color.
   
   Of those three, The First 100 Chinese Characters and Chinese Through Tone & Color were almost immediately set to the side. (Interestingly, The First 100 Chinese Characters and Learning Chinese Characters share the same author.)
   
   From a production standpoint, this book is a beautiful little publication. The print quality is fantastic--the colors are bright, there's plenty of whitespace, and it's all done on high-quality paper. Two CDs are also included. I didn't use the first one (which is a regular audio CD), but I assume the content on the both are either the same or very close to the same. The second disc contains MP3 versions of the audio. The MP3s have images of the color-coded characters embedded in them that you will see in a program like iTunes and even on your iPod. I used those files for about a week while I was figuring out acquainting myself with tones. I've since found much more useful resources (such as pinyin charts with audio).
   
   For content, it does include a lot of basic phrases and words, which is great. The introduction also does a good job at explaining tones and a bit about the Chinese language (which is standard for any book that teaches the first 100, 400, or 800 characters).
   
   Before I get into the books approach (color-coding the tones) I want to point out some things that really limit the book and its usefulness to the learner.
   
   This book is designed for total beginners, yet it fails to introduce the beginner to the stroke order of the characters. I'm new to Chinese, but I've learned enough in the last few months to know that it's important to build the right habits early on with writing characters. Also, writing the characters is a key to remembering them.
   
   A second complaint is the layout from page to page. It's aesthetically beautiful, but not really that functional for learning. On one page you will have a single character take up almost the entire page, and on the next page there will be characters combined to form words presented in a very small typeface. The big characters feel too big to digest. The small characters intimidated me as a newbie. A stroke order chart could have easily been included on each of those character pages and made the book much more valuable to the beginner.
   
   Another grievance is that instead of simply including a character that is not covered in the book, Dummitt does this: zhangfu. Why not at least let the reader see the new characters and place the pinyin above/below as is done with other (yet unlearned) characters throughout the book?
   
   Oh, one more thing that bugs me. Instead of putting the diacritic marks above the pinyin (such as w and lái) on the definitions page, the diacritic marks are stuck up in their on little box on the upper right of each page. On the alternate pages that have words and example sentences the pinyin words are colored, but the marks are absent. Why not just put them on the pinyin like everyone else does and let the beginner get used to seeing them? It might even assist in reinforcing the color to tone connection.
   
   *** Okay, on to the colors. (Quick aside: I still have to say that I can't figure out how there are so many 5-star reviews on this book.) The color thing is cool aesthetically, but you're not likely to remember the tones of 3000 characters because you've seen and reviewed each one of them in one of five colors throughout your studies. I think that where Dummitt left this color approach will render it nearly useless in the long run (and if you're serious about learning Chinese, then you need to think about the long run). If you're just interested in learning a few characters and some words and short sentences, this book will likely do the trick. The color coding will probably even help during these 100 characters. But it won't be an effective long-term strategy.
   
   I believe the colors could have been taken further if Dummitt would have combined the colors with the definition of the character. For example, the character for the number "eight" is and has the first tone (b). In the book the first tone is represented by red. Well, think about eight red apples or something like that, and it may aid you down the road when you get past the first 30, 50, 80, 140, and 350 characters. (This strategy of visualizing things like this begins to cross over into the realm of how Learning Chinese Characters, which I HIGHLY recommend for long-term study).
   
   I wanted to make a couple remarks about the 1-star review by Dr. Howatt. First I wanted to point out that now this color scheme does extend beyond this book (but only in one source that I know of). I'm actually using the color scheme that Dummitt prescribes in this book in my Chinese studies. It turns out that in March MDBG (which created the CEDICT English-Chinese dictionary project) adopted the same color scheme, with the exception of using gray instead of black for the "neutral tone"). I use a spaced-repetition system (SRS--this is something very helpful for ingraining characters into your memory) called Anki which happens to have a plugin (called the pinyin toolkit) that's linked to the CEDICT dictionary and automatically colors the characters and pinyin placed in particular fields according to this color scheme (I know that was a long sentence, but oh well). I really like the added color to break up the monotony studying black text all the time.
   
   So, if you're really into this color thing, look up Anki and the pinyin toolkit for the long-term.
   
   Second, I don't think that Dummitt using some new, self-created romanization of Chinese as Dr. Howatt asserts. I'm pretty sure he's just using regular old pinyin (minus the diacritic marks).
   
   Third, I'm totally on board with Dr. Howatt wondering what's up with all these 5-star reviews. I would not recommend this book for any beginner (primarily because of the lack of stroke orders), much less consider it a worthwhile resource to have on my shelf. Some of these reviewers are heralding this as a "great advance in teaching Chinese" (Robert Perron) and possibly making "a major contribution to the second-language learning of Chinese" (Perry Link from Princeton). It's cool having colorful characters and pinyin, but it's not going to make learning Chinese that much more efficient. I can see some people reading colored characters and pinyin in Anki and matching the appropriate tones to them, but the pinyin will still have the diacritic marks anyway.
   
   So in closing...
   
   If you're serious about learning Chinese, but a different book. Tuttle's Learning Chinese Characters will give you 800 characters for a couple more dollars on Amazon, and the method (attaching stories and archetypes to characters and tones) will, with good study patterns, benefit you the most in the long run. And it will teach you how to write the characters! Don't become an illiterate foreigner!
   
   So back on the shelf it goes. I might grab it in a few months to look at some of the phrases and words in it when I'm at that point (I'm trying to get to over a thousand characters with pronunciations in the next couple months, then I'll start on words and sentences), but overall it's not that helpful to someone who's learning Chinese in the long-term.



2. I love the approach of this book. The author explains things well and does a good job teaching the common verbage along with the formal. I have only used the accompanying MP3s briefly, as I have other audio/video to use for pronounciation, so I cannot comment too much on the quality of them.



3. I began studying Chinese language a few weeks before I moved to Beijing, where I lived for 6 months. Along with this book, I also purchased a really great English/Chinese Chinese/English dictionary and a book teaching the pronunciations, meanings and stroke orders of 800 Chinese words. This seemed to be a good combination for me - this book's strength (that the others didn't do anywhere near as effectively) is teaching you to remember tones.
   
   I can't say that I became more than a 'beginner' after living in China and studying the language intermittently, but what I can say is that, having diligently studied maybe the first 3rd of this book, I can STILL remember the tones of most of the characters. THIS IS A REALLY BIG DEAL, SINCE ANY PERSON WHO HAS LEARNT EVEN A LITTLE CHINESE WILL TELL YOU, REMEMBERING TONES IS VERY DIFFICULT!
   
   If you are a visual learner (like me), you will find that this book fills a role that no other study book will. Even now I vividly see the word for "I" (wo) as a nice sky blue, which means it's pronounced as third tone. Clear as day I can remember the tones of words I studied in this book. I for one think that's impressive. It's hard enough just learning to SING Chinese, it certainly helps to remember which notes you're meant to be hitting!
   
   The only downside, the product advertisement stated:
   "Image-enhanced mp3s allow users to see and hear characters on a computer, or practice on the go with an iPod."
   
   I found the sounds worked fine on the ipod, but I could never see any pictures. I was a little disappointed because I thought the combination of listening and seeing the tone colour while practicing would have been really good reinforcement.



4. It's true this book is just a starting point, and those much past beginner level may not get as much from it as the starting student will, but that said, I still really enjoyed this book. I probably won't pick it up again now, as I'm a bit past the level where it was useful, but it did make it easy to tie characters and pronunciations and meanings together. I felt it was certainly a worthy addition to our study materials when we were still trying to get used to an alternate system of writing and meanings changing based on the tones. I also liked the way he mixed pinyin and actual mandarin characters in full sentences. I found it a useful technique that made it easier to remember characters.



5. I bought this book with high hopes, I thought it was a great idea to associate colour with the tone of a word.
   I also bought Michel Thomas Mandarin foundation at the same time.
   
   Therein lies the problem.
   
   Michel Thomas uses green for first tone, blue for second, red for third, black for fourth and nothing for neutral.
   
   I could not use both systems simultaneously, one of them had to go.
   
   I kept Michel and put this in the charity bin. Unfortunate.

5 comments about Tagalog-English/English-Tagalog Standard Dictionary: Pilipino-Inggles, Inggles-Pilipino Talahuluganang (Hippocrene Standard Dictionaries).

1. When I looked for an excellent dicionary to help along my study of the Tagalog language, I wondered about this particular book. I was thrilled when I received it and have used it constantly. It is INDISPENSABLE for anyone learning Tagalog. The definitions are clear and very helpful. The lists of most used words in the back of the book, as well as different Pilipino foods and songs and phrases was an added element. I am happy that I found Tagalog-English/English-Tagalog Standard Dictionary: Pilipino-Inggles, Inggles-Pilipino Talahuluganang (Hippocrene Standard Dictionaries)this dictionary and recommend it to anyone interested in this beautiful language.



2. While this dictionary was useful i was advised by loacal Manila residents that many of the tag words are out moded or not in use.



3. This is a pretty good dictionary most of the time. I am trying to learn conversational Tagalog and generally find more than half the words I look up. For complete novices like me, a book teaching the language is also requisite. Language oddities like prefixes, suffixes, and in-the-middle-of-the-word fixes make simple word lookup something of a treasure hunt without knowledge of basic language structure. For conversation, I would also recommend supplementing this dictionary with a book that is heavy on slang and colloquial usage. A plus for the dictionary is the organized list of related words, such as food types, professions, body parts, etc.



4. This book was quite useful and is very thorough. Not only does it have the translation, but it also talks about the culture. I would recommend this book to anyone who needs an extra resource to learn Tagalog.



5. I recently adopted an older child from the Philippines and having this book made it easier for him to understand English. Good comprehensive dictionary.

5 comments about Thai-English English-Thai Dictionary for Non-Thai Speakers, Revised Edition (Dictionary).

1. This dictionary is very easy to use, you can check a word in three different ways:
   
   1. English -> Thai
   2. Thai romanization (pronunciation) -> English
   3. Thai script-based -> English
   
   Regardless of how you use it each entry will show you: the script, the romanized pronunciation script, and the english meaning.
   
   Most advanced learners will probably find this book inadequate, it is mainly beginners and intermediate learners who'll gain most from this book. I hope Paiboon will make a more extensive dictionary one day, as there is a large demand for it.
   
   But let's not be spoiled, this is a quality product within most people's budget, and there are surprisingly few dictionaries for Thai as easily available as this one.
   For traveling this book is also very handy.



2. This dictionary has been very helpful. Especially useful is the section
   using Thai characters. This is missing in many other Thai-English
   dictionaries. The biggist problem is with the small font.



3. I went to Barnes and Nobles to check out all the Thai dictionary they had, and even asked them to order some more so I can see if the dictionary were adequate in terms of a variety of definition. The dictionaries were either incomplete and/or big and bulky. I then saw the reviews on this dictionary and decided to risk it an buy it. It is a perfect companion for those learning Thai. It isn't pocket size but it's small enough for traveling w/o taking up too much space. After checking out about 10 different dictionaries from various publishers (ex. Oxford) this dictionary is the top on the market right now. I recommend it.



4. This book is only barely useful "on the street." Thai is a very tonal based language and the same word can have vastly different meanings based on the tone of voice used and emphasis on different sylables.



5. Absolutely indispensable. The three different sections give you three different ways to untangle the Thai language. The middle section--where you can locate Thai words simply by their sound--is extremely helpful.

5 comments about The Oxford Picture Dictionary: English-Vietnamese Editon.

1. This is awesome for those who are rusty in Viet. It is not good for someone who needs to understand grammar, but is excellent for those who need to build vocabulary. I am using it to brush up on my Viet. It looks like this is a series so they should have it in other languages. It is definitely worth the twelve dollars and change. I bought this along with The Rough Guide to Vietnamese Dictionary Phrasebook 3 (Rough Guide Phrasebooks). Get it now!



2. The authors tried hard to present the materials in an easy to understand format. This book is all about Picture-word association for different settings (at the work place, at home,...etc). It is a "must have" for all. You'll enjoy learning new words and use them in converations, intelligently. I suggest also to get the Pocket Vietnamese Dictionary: Vietnamese-English and English-Vietnamese.



3. These books were purchased to be used in a church ESL language center. We have used them before. They are very useful working with ESL students. Not only have we used them with this language, but with other languages, too, according to the students being helped.



4. bought two to avoid shipping. look new and fast shipping. recommend to everyone.



5. This dictionary is well-organized with lots of pictures grouped into useful topics. Words are given in English and whatever other language for the edition you have purchased. Recommended.

4 comments about New Thai-English, English-Thai Compact Dictionary for English Speakers with Tones and Classifiers.

1. I just spent the last hour "playing" with my new "three-way" English-Thai, Thai-English, Thai sound-English dictionary from Paiboon publishing.... I say "playing" because this dictionary is not only better than its predecessor, but for a lover of the Thai language, it is just plain "fun!"
   
   First of all, this is the best Thai-English/English-Thai dictionary on the market, anywhere, bar none. I don't even want to waste time explaining why it is "better" than the would-be competition.... But I suppose a few words are necessary. The advantages of the earlier edition -still- have not been matched by any other dictionary... 1) Comprehensive yet compact, 2) The only dictionary that allows the critical "third-way" of looking up a word in Thai, by it's pronunciation in English 3) Utilizes the most accurate and user friendly pronunciation system in existence, and 4) Has lots of cool extras presented with a "real life" no b.s. approach, with no loss of the subtle complexity of the language at any turn.
   
   While Thai uses an alphabet, the word ordering in the dictionary is not immediately apparent... very frustrating... Benjawan and Chris (the two authors) explain a simple way -and- the "real" way to quickly look up words. Problem solved.
   
   Thai has multiple letters that sound like "P" or "S" or "F" or "T" or "K"... Maybe you have heard a word spoken and want to look it up, but you have no idea what "K" or "T" was used to actually start the word because you have not mastered "tone rules" enough to guess. If you don't think this is a problem, you have not tried to understand spoken Thai. This dictionary provides a whole section that lets you look up the word by the way it sounds IN ENGLISH. Then it directs you to the right Thai letter and definition. In an awesome improvement from the earlier edition, you are directed to the correct Thai word by page number in the Thai spelled section... eliminating the need to essentially re-print definitions in this section; a move which saves a large amount of space that the authors have used to fill with a much larger amount of entries than in the previous edition.
   
   Let's say that you read something in Thai, but of course it is written in some crazy font that does not remotely resemble the standard Thai letters you have assiduously struggled to learn.... No problem... the dictionary has a section that shows each Thai letter in a number of different fonts.... Much as the previous edition, but improved by depicting in one place, the name of the letter (written in Thai, phonetically and with the English translation of the letter's name), it's "class" (high, low or mid), along with the various fonts.. AND how the letter would sound at the beginning OR the end of a word (not always the same!)
   
   Maybe you are more than 20 years old and have something less than 20/15 vision or the mind reading ability of Thais to decipher the micrographic small print in which Thai normally appears... No problem. The authors have graciously increased the font size that allows your eyes to luxuriate in washing over the beautiful Thai script without placing the book under a microscope! I should note here that the physical dimensions of the book are somewhat larger than the previous edition, but it is still quite manageable enough for a cargo pocket and has the advantages of the larger script, more entries and more extras. The authors consciously have made efforts to be more efficient so that every extra page provides added value and not just added size.
   
   Oh... this is my favorite .... In Thai, most nouns have "classifiers" (in other languages also known as modifiers or quantifiers or measure words). We have but few examples of this in English, but in Thai they are the norm. So, for instance, you would not say that you had five children and leave it at that. You would say something like you have "child, five people" or "television three devices." These words like "people" or "devices" and when to use which are VERY annoying because while there is some predictability, what word you use with what noun is not obvious... most of the time in fact. It is like knowing that you have to say that you want two "slices" or "cuts" of pizza, but that you want two "pieces" of candy. How would you know how to say that in English if you did not already just "know it" as a native speaker? Well, it is 100X worse in Thai.... But the dictionary comes to the rescue by offering two advantages from the earlier edition and something I NEVER SEE in other dictionaries (except one, but done poorly). The Paiboon dictionary lists the appropriate classifier along with the entry of each noun if one exists for that noun... thank god! Secondly, to give you some idea that the classifiers are not all picked out of a hat, there is a small section in the back that lists major classifiers... not as a laundry list, but by explaining the different classifiers used within each kind of idea, such as classifiers often used with food, or in writing or in classifiers that have something to do with a shape of the object etc. A really ingenious descriptive technique.
   
   I can't believe it took this long to describe a critical aspect of the dictionary... the English pronunciation system. .... Of course it is best if you learn how to read Thai... but even then, there are more than a few exceptions to the rules and beyond that there are exceptions in the way a word is pronounced in everyday speech (versus the way it appears that it should be pronounced). The "Paiboon" system takes two minutes to learn and is vastly more accurate than any other, including the actual and dreaded "official system" which gives us words like Suvarnabhumi. Try to use -that- word and make it to the airport! In any case, the Paiboon system is used in all of the Paiboon published books and CDs on learning Thai... As those resources are also the absolutely best way to learn Thai, you might as well own a dictionary that uses the same pronunciation system.
   
   Above all, this is the only dictionary with a sense of humor. There is a section on vowels, consonants, tone and parts of the language that seems to empathize with your struggles instead of making it seem like understanding Thai is all simple and you are the only idiot not getting it all. It makes you feel like you have a friend helping you through...
   
   Look, if you already own the older version of this dictionary, keep it for street use until it falls apart, but BUY this new one... it is a quantum leap beyond an already fantastic product. If you own any other dictionary or none at all... THIS is the one to buy. You can buy something bigger, but you would be wasting your time and getting a monster book you won't want to use. Good luck and enjoy!



2. I was already a big fan of khun Benjawan's previous dictionary (I owned four copies to make sure I had one handy wherever I was). I purchased this new version as soon as I heard it was available.
   
   I had two small complaints about the previous version: first, sometimes words I was looking for was only in one section and not the other (only in the Thai-English but not English-Thai for example) which did cause some translation delays, and secondly it seemed like there were more than a small number of words that were omitted, which forced me to rely on my much heavier (but more thorough) Mary Haas dictionary. The good news is that these problems seem to have been taken care of in the new version; at least so far as I can tell having had it for a short period of time.
   
   I am also greatly looking forward to the Desktop Edition that is mentioned in this pocket version as becoming available in late 2009.



3. This new edition is a quantum leap forward. Very user-friendly, elegantly presented with crisp and clear fonts, thoughtful tools such as sidebars to find a letter quickly, and the most helpful inclusion of classifiers that go with the nouns. With many new benefits, it's still conveniently sized if you are inclined to study on those long bus rides.



4. I purchased this dictionary as soon as it was available from the publisher. This dictionary is a great improvement over the previous edition. The inclusion of classifiers and "word register (formality)" is of great utility to any serious student of Thai. The introduction is also vastly improved. It serves as a quick reference for the Thai language as well as a guide for using the dictionary. It is packed with useful information including a pronunciation guide, examples of Thai font variations, and classifier usage.
   
   As mentioned by other reviewers, the previous edition seemed to be lacking more than a few common words. During my most recent trip to Thailand, I kept this dictionary in my backpack at all times during the trip. I found its coverage of the vocabulary I encountered in "real life" nearly 100%.
   
   Like the old edition, the new edition includes the "Thai Sound" section makes it easy to find that word you heard on TV or overhead in a conversation.
   
   In summary, this edition is a must have upgrade over the old edition. Don't hesitate to purchase it.

5 comments about Thai for Beginners.

1. This book prepares the absolute beginner to the Thai language with the foundations to start speaking, reading, and to some extent, writing Thai. The topics covered include pronunciation rules and examples, basic greetings, introductory grammar rules for verbs and adjective, and vocabulary for tell time and body parts etc.
   
   I like the format of this book because each chapter is laid out with vocab, sample sentences and conversations based off the vocab, and quizzes to test your retention. It is ideal for classroom use or self study.
   
   I didn't give this book five stars because there really isn't 260 pages of solid material here. For example, the Read Aloud exercises I did not find useful whatsoever and the alphabet tracing exercises take up altogether too much space. I think it's debatable whether or not a student of this level should even worry about how to draw each symbol in the alphabet.
   
   All in all, this is a book that any beginner to intermediate student of the Thai language should have in their collection.



2. I've owned the Thai For Beginners book for several years, just purchased the CD to go with it. The book is excellent. The CD follows the book very well and is helpful with pronunciations. I only have two minor criticisms of the CD: When the conversations are read in Thai, it would be helpful if they were spoken a bit more slowly. Also, throughout the CD, you can hear a lot of background noise -- Music playing, traffic noise, even airplanes flying overhead! It would have sounded more professional if the CD had been recorded in a studio or soundproof room.



3. The book and companion CD are widely used to learn Thai language. In my opinion English speakers will learn faster and with better pronunciation using these materials and having a tutor as well.



4. This book/CD deserves five stars as a beginner's guide to learn the Thai language. The pronunciation is 'spot on'. I love learning a country's language before traveling there. However, like many people, I am quite busy. This language CD/teaching tool allowed me to download software to learn Thai on my computer. However, it would have been more helpful to learn during my commute, e.g. via lessons that can be accessed by an MP3 player or CD player. Even though this is a superior product for learning Thai when compared to others, for a tourist eager to quickly learn Thai, a product offering simple phrases and pronunciations for an iPod might be better.



5. This cd was only 20 bucks, and i'd have to say the best 20 bucks i've ever invested. Very easy and helpful unlike Rosetta stone. It actually teaches you stuff you need or want to know. Not like how Rosetta Stones teaches you "the boy is under the table" "the boy is sitting on the plane" thank you Rosetta stone!!! I would recommend this beginner thai cd to anyone