So I have been meaning to rave a little bit about these well-illustrated Chinese-English Dictionaries that we have. We are learning Traditional Chinese rather than Simplified and getting quality resources is not as easy to come by. So I love sharing about the good stuff I find and even making free Traditional Chinese with pinyin resources to share. Read on for a quick overview and where to buy.
Everyday Chinese-English Picture Dictionary without the ABCLive! reading pen can be found at www.chinasprout.com and www.chinesebooksforchildren.com (currently offering free shipping due to the relaunch of their website). It offers simplified, traditional, pinyin, and zhuyin. I don’t know why they sell it without the reading pen, but that reading pen seems to offer a lot and can be found at www.books.com.tw as well. Fortunately, my YouDao Chinese-English dictionary PEN actually does the job of reading aloud quite perfectly (I scan on the simplified Chinese page though, to avoid the zhuyin in the scan on the traditional Chinese side). Click here to check out my review of the YouDao pen. Plus, the dictionary does come with an interactive DVD with audio read through and also offers a ton of learning activities. ABCLive is a company that specializes in bilingual educational resources. The instructions in the book and DVD are in English. The illustrated food section with Taiwanese night market street snacks has totally won me over. There are 2100 words in this dictionary and is perfect for kinder-elementary school and beginner/intermediate Chinese learners.
***Tip: If you have the C-PEN, you can purchase the audio file for this dictionary via glorias-bookstore.com/.***
寶寶的第一本圖畫字典 (Baby’s First Illustrated Dictionary) with MacPen reading pen can be found on www.books.com.tw. I had bought my copy on Amazon quite a while ago and seems they didn’t restock when they sold out. It is completely in Traditional Chinese. Many illustrations in the dictionary are also tappable. The audio of the reading pen is really quite pleasant. It comes with a pamphlet that is also tappable, with nursery rhymes and music. There are 500 words in this dictionary and is perfect for toddlers-preschool and beginner Chinese learners. Do note, however, that this is a dictionary primarily aimed at Chinese speakers learning English, so while all of the dictionary entries offer bilingual audio, when you tap the illustrations, their audio is only in English. For me, that was not an issue since my preschool and under kids are needing to build up their English vocabulary anyway. I love how the layout is simple and not busy and invites the younger ones to tap and learn freely.
Trilingual Texpats 