crappy lonelyplanet phrase book

I thought I'd podt this here for all to see as Loonelyplanet only have a machine to answer emails and never give a personal answer to anything... A forend of mine bought me the lonelyplanet Mandarin phrase book and to be honest after checking it out a bit I have come to the comclusion that it is riubbish. I soeak some mandarin and the translations in this booka re designed for peole to either talk their way out of a sticky situation with the police about drugs for personal use or picking up prostitutes...phrases like "what am I being charged with" is something you would never want to, or expect to have to say, and if you really want your face slapped trying reading the line which says "how about going to bed?" to some nice demure chinese girl... I offered to give them some proper translations, but no answer. there is one which the English says "I want to report an offence", but the chinese says "I want a security guard", clueless or what? anyway I have a few suggestions my not copy the monty python hungarian phrase book and have "my hovercraft is full of eels" and "I want to fondle your buttocks"

Welcome Barry! Nice to have you among us!

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<hr>teacher living in CHina<hr></blockquote>
I hope your English is more articulate and a bit more formally spoken & written in class unless you teach piercing tattoos instead.
Concerning the sentence "how about going to bed?", I must admit that it may give one the unpleasant feeling as you have, but I still think LP to be a well-known, well- reputed editorial as not to convey any sexual meaning to its users. I further think that this sentence can be used hundreds of times a day without inferring any sexual connotation . Each reader uses this sentence for his/her own needs and it may occur that some people make a bad use of it. What can the LP authors do about it ?
Prudence aside, if this sentence may be useful for two lovers, let it be !
Concerning the other sentences like "I want to report an offence" or "what am I being charged with" are really necessary in certain situations unless you haven't heard the English word THEFT or ROBBERY or you haven't been going out your cosy home to realize that such things happen on our planet (even since humans have become HOMO SAPIENS.)
To cheer you up a bit, I think your protest should be checked concerning the "how about going to bed?" though you don't sound to me too reliable.

Yes, the LP Mandarin prase book is crap, but not because of the "Let's go to bed" phrases.

It's crap because of the sugestions of pronounciation. I know it's really difficult/impossible to write in english how some other language should be pronounced.
But, for example, the verb to be, is suggested to be pronounced 'shir' !!! I would read 'shir' as 'Sir' (but with sh instead of s). When I went to China, I had this phrase book I tried to say a few things ... and noone could understood. Now I'm studying Chinese, and I know that in pinyin it is "shì" which sounds much more like "sh" than "shir" in English.

I think it would be much better, if LP Mandarin phrase book had 1 or 2 pages explaining the pinyin pronounciation rules, and then had pinyin instead of the "English pronounciation".
At the language section (at the end of the LP China guide), words are in pinyin.

So, if I go again to China, I'll try to buy a phrase book with pinyin instead of the useless "English pronounciation"

simmer down you lot.

The Mandarin phrase book is very good. Can be used universally if you8 POINT at the Hanzi instead of trying to say it.

The reason is that the book is written as putonghua, and mandarin when spoken outside of Beijing, has different accents.

Outside of Beijing i had difficulty with words like si and shi. (4 and 10) as in parts of China it is si and si.

and the phrases the OP quoted are situational and he is quoting them out of situation. He's just pushing a barrow.

and OP, you're English is crap, let alone your Chinese.

If you are dyslexic, like me, then use a spelling checker.

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<hr>and OP, you're English is crap<hr></blockquote>

Hee hee.

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<hr>The reason is that the book is written as putonghua, and mandarin when spoken outside of Beijing, has different accents.<hr></blockquote>

It may be, which is why the book drops in lots of r's in the romanized phrases; beyond that, what is more fundamentally irksome is that they're not written in Pinyin, rather LP's own version of the (romanized) language.

Sorry Mr. Mudd, I couldn't resist that little dig; just joshing.

Harrys Correct.. The phrasebook is good, but written for putonghua, which is technically the correct pronunciation..
If in the south substitute the "er" sound with "ian" for example, North / South = fangdi (er) / fangdi(an)

I used during my trip in China, and it was absolutely fine.

Version No. 4 used pinyun, which allowed for regional differences. It was in no. 5 that they went to the Beijing pronunciation, which didn't work for other parts of the country.

OK, it's true, apparently the latest edition of the book (6th, published 9/2006) reverts to Pinyin. In China though, it's the weird Lonely Planet phonetics, Beijing-speak 5th edition that's languishing on shelves in foreign language bookstores and I guess that's what the OP got hold of.

I noticed Berlitz has made a move into China as well and is dumping their phrasebooks and mini-courses in Xinhua bookstores...their Chinese phrasebook also uses a non-standard romanization.

I recommend the Rough Guide to Mandarin...easier to use, better phrases.

Buying the LP phrasebook was a waste of $$$ for me.

I had better luck combining the more useful sentences at the back of the LP China Guide with a Pinyin-English dictionary.

OK guys :) I have found the best book ever!! If you're planning on spending a decent amount of time in Beijing, the Immersion guide is awesome! They have it advertised on www.thatsbj.com. You can buy it from the bookworm in Beijing and it's entertaining, it has pinyin and hanzi and english (at it's best), cultural tips and pretty pictures to boot. It's got sections on looking for an apartment etc etc and lots of other useful tidbits. I agree the newer versions of the LP have been disappointing and not much help. I have an older version i used in 2002/2003 and I'm not letting it out of my sight. But.. this new immersion guide is also fabulous. Also check out www.chinesepod.com for a few MP3's to take with you.

Cheers.