Title: Warning: No Pinyin
Product review: I've always been a fan of Lonely Planet Phrasebooks, and had planned to buy this book as well. But I discovered (just in time, fortunately) that this book substitutes a poorly thought out phonetic system for Pinyin, the standard method for transliterating Mandarin Chinese into the Roman alphabet. Thanks Lonely Planet - you've figured out a way to make learning the hardest language in the world even more confusing and difficult!So if you need a phrasebook for Mandarin, either buy the previous edition of this book or wait till the next edition, when hopefully the editors of Lonely Planet will replace this ill-informed author and rescue what had been, up to now, a really great series.
Would you say this review depicts the product in a flattering or unflattering light?
