In a very brief interval between eating holiday cake and having holiday cookies, I managed to tidy up my bookshelves so they can face the New Year. Some books have been banished to the garage. Others, having been in holding patterns in various and sundry places, are finally getting shelf space. As the years go by and this cycle repeats itself, a diminishing number of books remain on the shelves without getting moved or removed.<\/p>\n
As for the coming New Year, I know several people who are facing it with a resolve to study Mandarin. Hey, I seem to say that every year this decade. And why not? I\u2019m not aiming for novelty on this point. I\u2019m just aiming for practicality. And, in the CNMI and elsewhere, you\u2019ll agree that Mandarin is one very practical language. <\/p>\n
But that doesn\u2019t mean that all the books about Mandarin are particularly practical. For those who are going to be buying some books, maybe for themselves, or maybe as Santa, I figured I\u2019d mention two reference books that I\u2019ve found essential. This pair of veterans has survived every purge of my bookshelf. <\/p>\n
One such veteran is the Oxford Beginner\u2019s Chinese Dictionary (Oxford University Press, 498 pages, $15.95). This is more than just a dictionary; it also incorporates some \u201cexplainers\u201d that cover key elements of the language. It\u2019s also worth noting that the font size and layout are easy on the eyes, and that\u2019s no small matter when you\u2019re dealing with Chinese dictionaries.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know, nor do I care, how many words are in the dictionary. It\u2019s not intended to have a vast inventory of words; there are plenty of other dictionaries that can do that. After all, sometimes a vast inventory is what we need. But I\u2019ve found out the hard way that Chinese seems to have 30 ways of saying the same thing, or almost the same thing. As a result, when I want to say something, picking from a vast array of choices means I wind up using words that are probably the Chinese equivalents of \u201cbetroth\u201d and \u201cwherefore,\u201d or, well, something like that. This isn\u2019t street-level fare, and it\u2019s not fare I have any business serving with my Tarzan level of speaking. <\/p>\n
None of these awkward terms came from the Oxford Beginner\u2019s Chinese Dictionary. So when I\u2019m fishing for a word to use, I have redoubled my resolve to use this dictionary as my first resource. If I can\u2019t find what I need, I\u2019ll list a few possible candidates from other sources, but I\u2019ll ask a native speaker for help before putting any such words on active duty. My days of mining random dictionaries for vocabulary are over; I thought I was being a scholar but I was just being a doofus.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not suggesting that books that build vocabulary aren\u2019t useful. To the contrary, many of them are quite useful. Still, the Oxford Beginner\u2019s Chinese Dictionary has proven to be a reliable companion.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll now mention another veteran that has served me well. This is a skinny little book titled Basic Patterns of Chinese Grammar (Stone Bridge Press, 127 pages, $12.95), written by Qin Xue Herzberg and Larry Herzberg. <\/p>\n
This is a simple, plain-language guide to basic grammar. It doesn\u2019t have any academic mumbo-jumbo. It doesn\u2019t have anything that\u2019s not important, either. Everything in the book is practical. It\u2019s an ingenious exercise in distilling a big, foggy subject (Chinese grammar!) into the fewest possible essential tidbits. If you like grammar, you\u2019ll like this book; if you hate grammar, you\u2019ll love this book. <\/p>\n
Of course, just like the Oxford Beginner\u2019s Chinese Dictionary, Basic Patterns of Chinese Grammar is not an exhaustive reference. It\u2019s for students to get some momentum going. After that point, there are plenty of heavy, ponderous, and complex references awaiting the ambitious. But Mandarin is a difficult language, so just getting to \u201cthat point\u201d takes a measure of ambition to begin with.<\/p>\n
Some of my pals are watching more and more Chinese customers coming their way, and they\u2019re also seeing more and more opportunities lost as they grapple with language barriers. On this note, I think that the notion of achieving \u201cfluency\u201d is a false standard to argue about. One thing I noticed in the tourism industry is that having even a meager 300-word ability in a customer\u2019s language can make the critical difference in cementing good relations. I\u2019ve seen this make the difference between getting a job or not getting a job. I\u2019ve seen this make the difference between getting investors and not getting investors. If you\u2019re at the leading edge of an evolving market, little things can make a big difference.<\/p>\n
Well, such is yet another take on Mandarin resources. Now if you\u2019ll excuse me, having just finished my holiday cookies, it\u2019s time for me to follow up with some dessert.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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