First Thousand Words in Chinese: 1

I love the picture scenes in this book and then the individual pictures of each item which I find makes it easier to remember and fun for children as it groups all the words together, e.g. all the things you find in a bathroom in the bathroom scene. At first I thought there should have been the English translation with each word but I can see the benefits of just the pinyin and character as you are drawn to read them and not just the English, and instead have to use the dictionary at the back if its not wholly clear what the exact word is. Also I initially wondered where all the "easy words" were but you will find numbers colours etc at the end. It is a good fun supplementary book to aid learning mandarin words. Almost like a fun picture dictionary.

Just a great book for beginners

good delivery - good resource for our language and culture collection.

I bought this to replace another which I gave to a friend. Excellent book - uses Chinese characters (hanzi) and pinyin, with a brief Chinese-English dictionary at the back. Also there is a brief introduction to speaking Chinese, and link to a website where all the words are spoken (although I haven't tried that yet). And young children can look for the duck, apparently there's one on every page. It uses the so-called "simplified" Chinese characters which are mainly used in mainland China, not the traditional characters used in Taiwan & Hong Kong. Just a minor concern: the book came in a cardboard envelope which was not properly sealed. However, thankfully no damage had been done, everything seems to be intact.

I like it! The words are categorised into visual places you would expect to find those words ie picture of Bathroom: tooth brush, bath etc which make remembering easier. The 1000 words are printed in pinyin and Chinese characters with pronounciation explanation at the back. The words are which you would come across in normal life so makes the words usable instantly. The hidden duck on each page makes it fun for kids, too.

I bought this for my stepson, who is starting to learn Mandarin at school. He has found it a great help having the words and the visuals together to aid his understanding. Within an hour he was walking around the house and naming objects; he was very pleased.

The text is very small

Lots of detailed pictures to keep children occupied for hours. The format makes it very amenable to teach young children a language imho. I've bought a number of books but this is by far the best, in terms of value for money and in terms of the number of words etc. Highly recommended.

Very cute and useful!

Facile pour apprentissage

This a charmingly illustrated, and surprisingly good, book for anyone of any age who’s looking to learn some basic Mandarin Chinese. A good refresher for those who’ve studied long in the past (like me!). Good quality book; I bought both the hardback & the paperback versions. No internal differences; just the covers.

This was a gift to my nephew. It's a good way for him to learn some Chinese words. Plenty of illustrations to keep him interested.

The people at Usborne know how to do it.