This brief guide contains a comparison of Yale and Pinyin romanizations and a comparison of Pinyin and Wade-Giles romanizations.

"DeFrancis's book is first rate. It entertains. It teaches. It demystifies. It counteracts popular ignorance as well as sophisticated (cocktail party) ignorance. Who could ask for anything more? There is no other book like it. ... It is one of a kind, a first, and I would not only buy it but I would recommend it to friends and colleagues, many of whom are visiting China now and are adding 'two-week-expert' ignorance to the two kinds that existed before. This is a book for everyone." --Joshua A. Fishman, research professor of social sciences, Yeshiva University, New York "Professor De Francis has produced a work of great effectiveness that should appeal to a wide-ranging audience. It is at once instructive and entertaining. While being delighted by the flair of his novel approach, the reader will also be led to ponder on some of the most fundamental problems concerning the relations between written languages and spoken languages. Specifically, he will be served a variety of information on the languages of East Asia, not as dry pedantic facts, but as appealing tidbits that whet the intellectual appetite. The expert will find much to reflect on in this book, for Professor DeFrancis takes nothing for granted." --William S.Y. Wang, professor of linguistics, University of California at Berkeley

This is a pocket sized Mandarin Chinese Dictionary Intended for use by tourists, students, and business people travelling to China Pocket Chinese Dictionary is an essential tool for communicating in Mandarin. It features all the essential Mandarin Chinese vocabulary appropriate for beginning to intermediate students. It's handy pocket format and user-friendly, two color layout will make any future trip to China much easier. All entries are written in the Romanized form (hanyu pinyin) as well as Chinese characters (hanzi) so that in the case of difficulties the book can simply be shown to the person the user is trying to communicate with. This dictionary includes the following key features: Over 15,000 words and expressions in the Mandarin Chinese language Fully updated with recent vocabulary and commonly used Chinese slang Clear, user friendly layout with headwords in blue English, Romanized script (hanyu pinyin), and Chinese characters (hanzi) for every entry Other books from this bestselling series you might enjoy include: Pocket Japanese Dictionary, Pocket Korean Dictionary, and Pocket Vietnamese Dictionary