On: 'They say Chinese is difficult - European languages are more difficult'

[est]

> something about ticks (you know, the blood-sucking insect)

蜱

It's indeed a rare word.

[CWuestefeld → est]

She got that far, but how do you pronounce it in Mandarin? How about in Shanghainese?

[kroger → CWuestefeld]

For Mandarin I like this dictionary:

http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=worddict&...

[est → CWuestefeld]

use this

http://cn.voicedic.com/

the last option is for Shanghaiese