A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers Kindle Edition

I found it highly readable. The strength of the writing kept pulling me to the end. Its a romance in a dark and bleak place. It has much humor and philosophical parts. The book within the book is a humorous tour of EU countries and provides a different view that most of the book portrays. It is about growth being inevitable, and it's also about attraction and building bridges with the unknown. It does not answer if we humans can complete these journeys.

Zhuang (who insists on going by just "Z", as she says Europeans struggle to pronounce her name properly) is a 23 year old Chinese girl whose parents send her to London to take English courses. They believe if Zhuang can master not only the English language but take in European culture & etiquette, she can come back to the village and help successfully grow the family business. Z is nervous yet excited to jump into her classes, but soon feels overwhelmed by it all. It doesn't help that her English instructor only seems to offer a modicum of help with Z's struggles. The teacher keeps noting that Z is mixing up her sentence structure in both speaking and written assignments, which confuses Z because, as she explains, in the Chinese language time and place are put before people while in English, the person is generally put before location. Also, Z humorously points out I'm backwards? Have you read this guy Shakespeare? His structure is all over the place! {I'm paraphrasing here}.While attending her classes, Z meets and falls in love with an Englishman. They pretty quickly decide to move in together, and it is after this new living arrangement that Z is surprised to learn her new lover is bisexual. She is not upset when she finds out, but over time starts to feel jealous, feeling that he'd probably wish to spend more time with his man than her. Not only is there a cultural divide between Z and her lover, but also quite the age gap -- him being about 20 years her senior.Z's lover suggests she take a European tour through surrounding countries, not only to see more of the world but for them to have a chance apart, maybe break her of her clinginess.This novel is inspired by Guo's own personal memories, when she once took a similar trip to the UK and journaled all her thoughts and experiences. She uses an interesting format to tell the story. It's sort of a blend of dictionary and journal. In her journal, Z explains that she writes down all the English words (and their definitions) that she doesn't understand and that are not being taught in her classes. There's a different word at the beginning of each chapter, and that word sort of foreshadows or hints at what is to come in that chapter. In the early chapters, Z has very broken English, so the writing is very jumbled up, which may turn off some readers but I urge you to stick with it. About forty pages in, the reader sees a significant improvement in Z's writing and by novel's end, you almost have to really look for the spelling or structure errors. I just thought this was a really cool way to really bring Z's story to life. There's a beauty and a poignancy to the way her English unfolds. Sometimes the simplicity of her sentences, the almost child-like way she expresses herself really hits right in the heart.I didn't really love the character of Z's lover. Sometimes he was nice to her and said pretty things to her, but as the story progressed, it seemed more and more like he was taking advantage of her naivety and the fact that his way of life was foreign to her.It just felt like he sometimes toyed with her, sometimes led her to believe there was a deeper bond between them than what actually was, and he just got more and more moody and intolerant of her. Kept wanting to say "Go get yourself something better, girl!" But people fall for who they fall for, whether anyone else likes it or not.Highly recommend trying this one if you are looking to branch into more culturally diverse reading. The writing is really stunning in its simplicity and much of what Z talks about lingered in my mind for quite awhile.Note To Sensitive Readers: There is some profanity here and there is some sexually explicit content, particularly when Z, in her curiosity about exploring London, comes upon a sex shop and a place to see peep shows on Charing Cross Rd.

book in great shape

Had to read and analyze for a collage class. Decent read. Story of a woman exploring cultural differences and her sexuality. More sexual than I expected lol. Quick read, nothing super special.

If you are from a Western country and wish to live in Mainland China, this book should be on your ‘must read’ list. After the last five years of living in Shanghai, I felt it as if it was a person guidebook into the culture and thoughts of the beautiful people of China. There are so many books about westerners who go to China and try to explain what it’s like, but this was an amazing portrayal of the opposite, where we learn about China by seeing England and Europe filtered through Zhuang’s eyes and life experience. I absolutely recommend it.

Zhung is a young Chinese girl who is sent to London for a year to learn English by her parents, factory owners, so that she can fit more easily into the new Chinese economy. She arrives with very little English, tossed into the ocean of new faces, words, meals, customs and cultures. Her most useful possession is her Chinese-English dictionary, which she uses incessantly as she tries to learn enough to maneuver through this foreign environment.Her days are taken by attendance at the English language school; her nights are lonely since she knows no one and has no idea where she might go. Finally, she discovers the cinema and starts going there at night. She meets a man there and moves in with him within a week or two of their meeting date. She lives with him for the next year, experiencing England through his eyes and how he perceives the world to work.Zhuang, or 'Z' as she comes to be known for convenience, finds the gap between how she has experienced the world and how her lover does to be extremely wide and difficult to bridge. To her, moving in with her lover means they are exclusive and that he will satisfy every need she has. To him, while he professes to love her, his need is for some space and time for him to pursue his relationships with his friends and even former lovers. Z has a difficult time understanding this. Their time together is marked by her attempts to get her lover to commit to only her, and to his withdrawal and anger at her attempts to restrict his life. Throughout the time, she learns more and more about the English language, but the English outlook on life continues to elude her.Xiao has created an interesting novel. Each segment is started with a word from the dictionary, the definition of that word in a formal sense, and then how Z experiences what that concept means in this foreign environment. The reader is allowed to watch her grow and learn and to see how her culture differs from the one she finds herself in. This book is recommended for readers of modern fiction and for those interested in how people relate to each other.

This book makes you laugh out loud, nod your head, cringe in pain and sigh in relief. It's a great, quick read as amusement the first time around and a deeper more thought-provoking read the second time around. I've bought an extra copy as a gift.

South Asian books are often a great revelation to the western reader . Often they are well written and offer something new and often poetic as is the case in this novel that is different from the usual fare.

Ein faszinierendes Buch.

Lovely short story. Very appreciated by a foreign student that also spent a long time alone in London and felt equally lonely 😔

It is a great read for someone like me who works with Chinese colleagues. I understand better their view of their view of the western world. Funny and sad at the same time.

Xiaolu Guo relata una historia de amor agridulce entre una joven china y un inglés de mediana edad. El idioma inglés y sus trampas dan los momentos más divertidos de la novela. Absolutamente recomendable en su versión en inglés.

Je l'ai acheté en français. J'ai tellement ri que je n'ai pas résisté à l'appel de l'original écrit en anglais (Hong-Kong). Je l'offre autour de moi. Plein d'humour "anglais".