Dictionary Reviews

I've bought this book for my wife's boss who is a young American man living in Tokyo for about 5 years. He thought this book was constructed outstandingly logically and felt very comfortable to learn Kanji very quickly. If you have any further recommendation please let me know.

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There's a lot of books on starting off learning Kanji but then it gets hard to take the next step without great pain!

This book takes that step.

If you have already mastered around 200 Kanji (maybe Grade1-2) then this book will take you further without assuming you are already a Kanji master.

The title makes the book sound abit more complex than it is. I study with it together with Ken Henshall's (Tuttle pub) "A Guide to Remebering Japanese Characters". The book has space next to the Kanji entry to include notes, in my case I enter a learning mnemnonic.

Not sure what I'll use to go on to the next stage in Kanji study, but this really has been a huge help.

Ecellent approach to the language where the Hawai'ian and English are separated. The movement through the laguage is very practical. Maika'i noo.

This is a first-rate book. I certainly recommend it as a good place to start for anyone interested in keeping this beautiful language alive (and it is also is a good point of departure for anyone interested in Polynesian languages in general.) Each lesson begins with a section of sentences that introduce new grammatical patterns as well as new vocabulary, and at the end of each lesson each pattern and each usage is explained very thoroughly. The lessons progress from each one to the next very smoothly. Many of the exercises and drills are clearly intended to be done in a classroom setting, but it isn't too difficult to adapt them to home use.

Lingua Latina is quite simply the greatest Latin text ever composed. It uses the "direct method" approach to teaching, starting with very simple vocabulary and grammar and then using what has been learned to "bootstrap" further learning: new words are defined by using words you already know, grammatical principles are taught by expanding grammar you've learned.

Oerberg is a genius. I've had students learning Latin from these books for 20 years. Every one reports that the way Lingua Latin teaches the language makes it possible for a motivated learner, studying on his or her own, to go from "ground zero" to a real reading knowledge of Latin in a relatively short period of time. And it's fun! You look forward to your daily Lingua Latina workout as a treat. The first volume starts out with incredibly simple Latin sentences ("Italia paeninsula est"), but by the end you're reading unadulterated Livy as though you'd been studying Latin for 10 years.

When you've gotten your books and started learning Latin and seen how exhilarating Lingua Latina makes the whole process, come back here and put up your own review. Vale!

This book taught me Latin, and it's really wonderful. Everything is explained in Latin, and all vowel length are marked. This book really makes you feel that Latin was a living language, with a lot of dialogues and short stories. I wish I had a book like this for every language that I want to learn!

We used this book in my literature class, and I should say that I am not a fan of literature classes, but this book was very surprising. It contains short stories, poems, and plays like any other text, but if offers a wide variety of topics for selection by the professor or the student based on personal preferences or educational objectives. For instance, when working with poetry, students may choose from a variety of poems from baseball to romance. It is all there! Another example would be the short stories in the text; they range from stories of military experience to Asian family traditions. It is not only a literature book, but also a book of culture and variety. It is so well rounded it should appeal to all types of personalities, likes, and dislikes.

I used this book for a college literature class. It is a great book covering short stories, plays, poems and more. This is one book I will not be selling back!

This is just a great deal! OXFORD Dictionaries have both British and American spellings, e.g., organise (or U.S. organize), and the "LITTLE" one also follows this pattern. It has a very good range of words (+51000 entries) well defined and presented in a short format -small and compact- protected with a hard cover that makes it easy to carry everywhere. I think it's one of the best you can purchase and it's well worthed its value.

This new well-defined dictionary is a great way to look up words, if you are a "gotta run" kind of person. You can easily slip it into your pocket and whip it right out and look up a word. I recommend this dictionary to any reader who is on the go.

For anyone who has any interest in London beyond the superficial, this book is a feast. Definitive scholarly articles about virtually any London topic one could imagine. 1060 pages, 6 1/2" x 9 1/2" (i.e., a LOT of words)in the softcover edition I have. Bought it in London in November, 1996, for 25 pounds

An excellent reference for anyone writing or reading about the history of London, The London Encyclopedia has enough detail to satisfy even the most nit-picky browser looking for an historical good time, and the serious researcher won't walk away unhappy, either. Yummy

As an expatriate Aussie searching for a guide to everyday Aussie slang to show my Canadian friends, I can say that this is by far the best one I've seen - and essential if you want to order a beer in Oz! Its section on Australian Aboriginal culture and languages is also excellent and informative for non-Aboriginal Australians as well as visitors - it was put together by a group of respected Australian linguists.

I'm an Aussie who was given this book as part of a going away present. I am living in America for a year. The night before I left my sister and I read to each other parts of this book. We were both in stiches, laughing at parts of our culture, colloquial expressions, and Aussie English which we normally don't give a second thought. This Phrasebook really gives a good insight to many of our 'ways' and explains what we are saying half the time. Is it necessary? Well I know if I speak in America the same way I speak at home no one can understand me! So yes, grab this book if you are heading to Australia, or are just interested in our lifestyle. The book also has a large and interesting section on Aboriginal culture and language. This is something many Australians living in the cities do not know much about. Other topics given a go are, food, wine, sports, and lots of other information about Australia and Aussies!

As usual, this is one the many wonderful phrase books published by Lonely Planet. The "Hebrew Phrasebook" gives the reader indept knowledge about the origins of the Hebrew language. With it's idioms and pronunciations, this phrasebook would be an excellent compliment to the Pimsleur Hebrew program. Unlike the media, this book reflects the positive side of Israel. I love the details about the different religious customs and festivals. The author also gives a detailed description of Israel's palatable produce and tasty traditional meals. There's a small section about the Israeli army and how to respond when approached by a soldier. Also, I find the medical emergency section to be very helpful. Many countries want you to think that they have a utopian atmosphere, in which sometimes is far from the truth. That's why it's very important to know how to ask for help when encountering dangerous situations and medical emergencies. For anyone traveling to Israel, this book is a treasure to have. It's very informative and fun to read.

This phrasebook is easily one of the best I have seen. It's small size will fit conveniently into a pocket, making it more useful than larger ones. Although it does not have a huge dictionary, it does have many common words and phrases. Since it does fit into a pocket, I found myself going to this book much more often than the larger dictionary that I had with me. It contains very useful sections on pronunciation and grammar as well as phrases arranged by topic. There is a dictionary in the back that is both English-to-Hebrew (with phonetic pronunciation!)as well as Hebrew-to-English. Both dictionaries contain the words in English, the phonetic pronunciation, and the Hebrew spelling. The English-to-Hebrew dictionary lists the English word, the Hebrew pronunciation, and then the Hebrew word. The Hebrew-to-English dictionary is designed for English speakers; the words are given by their pronunciation, then the English word, then the Hebrew spelling. There is also a good section that covers the correct wording based on gender. This guide is designed for english speakers, and unlike most of the Hebrew dictionaries out there, it does not require prior knowledge of the Hebrew aleph-bet. There are also interesting cultural anecdotes and tidbits sprinkled throughout the text as well as descriptions of all the important Jewish festivals and holidays.

This book gives the best bang for your buck; you can spend more money on a more extensive phrase book, but this one will get you through most situations.

A great deal for a unique little book. A must-have for PNG if you can find it. Recommended for both the traveler and the curious.

Lonely Planet's "Pidgin Phrasebook" may be the only show in town when it comes to a traveler's language tool for Oceania. In Spring 2000 my wife and I traveled to Papua New Guinea for a highland teachers conference. This book was our companion along with Lonely Planet's Papua New Guinea travel guide (highly recommended!)

This compact book (3.5 x 5.5 x 3/8's inches) is small enough for a shirt pocket, but packed with the language basics-- grammar etc. for 5 or 6 of the island creoles, and much more. Each section contains a mini-travel guide for culture, history, business, travel. It also include a few basic maps. The only drawback is the lack of any kind of dictionary.

Pidgin is the people's language of PNG. You will actually be able to get along fine without a phrase book since English is the language of tourism, education and business. However, if you want to get off into the highlands or another local area, this is a great resource to talk to the everyday folks. As with most countries, a little effort goes a long way in good will.

This is my first English-English dictionary and It is a lot better than my bilingual one. Very clear, simple and easy to understand. If your native language isn't English, you will need this dictionary .

The best point of this dictionary is easy definitions for a word. As written on the cover page of the dictionary,word definitions are limited to the 2000 most common English words,so it is really easy to understand the word exactly.

Example sentences are great for further usage after finding the word. It was quite a pleasure to find those example sentences in a newspaper, on TV, or in a fiction. I haven't seen such an appropriate example sentences for the word, which are the real ones from written texts, and real conversations.

I got a lot help in USAGE NOTE part in the dictionary. It is a part explaning differences between confusing words like 'every one' and 'everyone', 'dress'/'put on'/'wear', 'ability'/'skill'/'talent'/'knack',etc. It explains the usage of each word in particulal situation, and how to use it correctly. For example, it explains why you shoulden't say like "We have luck" in the use of the word "luck". 'luck' and 'lucky' is compared on that page, so we can learn the exact and real usage of it's meaning. Whenever I look up the dictionary, I read USAGE NOTE part related to the word and get real help. This part will be the best help to those who learn English.

I use this dictionary for every English study. It makes the reader happy ,for it makes the reader enjoy English studying. When I write an essay, labels like "formal" or "informal","approving" and "disapproving", "offensive" ,etc in front of a word helps me find the most effective word for my sentence making. There is also a special part for SPOKEN PHRASES - illustrating words or sentences commonly used in English conversations. This part is useful for understanding conversations on dramas, TV shows, or fictions.

With all these explanations, the book is not heavy but easy to care. Also it is really easy to find up the word because the design of the pages are simple and clear. Compared to other dictionary's tiny word size, it doesn't make the reader get tired from studying.

I strongly recommend this "Longman Dictionary of American English " to all the English learners and to the Enlish teachers for foreign students.

It might not be a perfect dictionary for advanced learners or for the ones who want to get to the heart of the English (for some hard words are missing), but for students who first begin to use English illustrated dictionary, I bet this can be a great help.

Tonight as I usually do, I'll read several pages of the dictionary and memorize some words before I go to bed. I thank to Longman for all the help I get from this reference.