The Oxford Chinese Dictionary was released in 2010 by Oxford University Press and is the largest single volume English-Chinese, Chinese-English dictionary in the world. For some students of Mandarin, this may seem like a treasure trove of words and phrases (over 300,000) to learn, but others may be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of words found in this new dictionary.
The dictionary contains small boxes explaining Chinese cultural concepts, which can sometimes be as important as learning the words. At over 2,000 words, this book isn’t well-suited for packing in your backpack and hauling to class, but for home use, you may enjoy using it to learn a few words and phrases on your own.
The decision on whether this dictionary is for you may depend on how you view your Chinese studies.
The bottom line- if you enjoy exploring words and phrases, think language learning should be approached with curiosity and fun or want to learn not just the words in your textbook, but words that people actually use, then the Oxford Chinese Dictionary could be right for you.
If you are struggling with your Mandarin classes and like to keep things straightforward, or tend to get easily overwhelmed or distracted when studying, you may want to stick to smaller Chinese dictionaries for now.
