Can you recommend a good textbook?

RJ

January 02, 2009, 01:47 PM

I guess my favorite standard textbook would be Integrated Chinese (second edition) by Tao-Chung Yao and Yuehua liu etc. There  are two levels and two parts to level one. It comes in either simplified or traditional editions.

mark

January 02, 2009, 04:30 PM

I started my Chinese study with Ultimate Mandarin Chinese by Jennifer Humphreys.  I picked it because it was the only one in the bookstore that came with audio (tapes at the time).  I think being able to listen to the lessons is essential, especially since I didn't have a class or and instructor.  It was a bit weak on the written part of the language, though.  The writing of some characters is included in each lesson.  But the lesson dialogs are all in pinyin. This makes it a bit hard to get a good feel for the written language.  So, I transcribed the lessons into 汉字 and got a Chinese friend to help me correct the transcriptions.  With that augmentation, this book gave me a good start (got me to roughly CPOD Intermediate level).  The dialogs are a bit stogier than CPOD, but that wasn't important at the time, because I didn't know any Chinese at all when I started, and any start was a good one.

I must say that until I found CPOD I had difficulty finding materials to continue my self-study program.  The best I managed was a couple 成语故事 books that I found in China.  These were good because they had both pinyin and 汉字 and covered material that was more interesting than Chinese elementary school texts, which seem to switch to 汉字 only fairly early.  For the audio portion, I got native speakers to record the stories for me, but talk about stoggy usage! These books used language that is not quite the way people talk in everyday contexts. ( I don't have these books handy.  So, I cann't give title and auther. )

It wasn't until I found CPOD that I found a good source of Modern spoken Chinese that was appropriate for my study.

I think now, if CPOD god forbid went away, I could bridge the gap to using materials such as on-line newspapers, movies, yukou, etc.  However, my impression is that the textbooks that are readily available aren't adiquit to get there.

 

urbandweller

January 02, 2009, 04:39 PM

We used the New Practical Chinese Reader Volume 1 in my Mandarin 101 class. It was pretty good and taught me a lot of basic langauge and grammar. There is also a workbook and tapes that go along with it. I believe there is also volumes 2 & 3 which are more advanced. I still have it and use it for reference material. Many people start off this this OR the Integrated Chinese book that RJ reccommended above. You can easily pick these up on Amazon or at most chinese bookstores.

http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Chinese-Reader-Textbook-Vol/dp/7561910401

 

RJ

January 02, 2009, 04:59 PM

I also have one of the Chinese readers (I think there are 6). I am not crazy about this series but if you get the one that includes the dvd of the lesson dialogs they  are good for listening practice. Like having a bunch of "whats that story" videos on one disk.

sebire

January 02, 2009, 07:06 PM

But the stories are more random and less funny...

light487

January 02, 2009, 07:55 PM

I also have NPCR Textbook.. and I have found it to be very helpful so far. With the workbook though, you will definitely need the audio CD/DVD because a lot of the excercises require you to listen to them and answer the questions based on what you hear. I have the workbook as well but not the audio.. oh well.. May be I can find the audio to buy separate somewhere, haven't had any luck on Amazon yet.

I like how the textbook is formatted and gets progressively hard as it goes through it. I can cover up the pinyin with a piece of paper and drill myself on reading just the hanzi from the dialogue too. I've noticed that my reading comprehension, within the context of the lessons, has grown tremendously and so has my confidence in Chinese as well.

 

mayor_bombolini

January 02, 2009, 11:34 PM

Dear startmandarin,

I use the NPCR Series and find them useful (get the CD's...plus, I really like the DVD's).  I actually like the stories and you will definitely learn to read hanzi.  By book 3 there are some really well written cultural stories for reading comprehension. For example, 敬香茶， a story about 苏东坡，a famous Song Dynasty writer.

I've seen the Integrated Text Book as well.  While I don't use it, it looks very comprehensive and is more to the point than NPCR.  A couple of Chinese Teachers (both from Mainland China), that I know personally, prefer NPCR.

If you are an absolute beginner, I recommend "Colloquial Chinese" by Kan Qian.  You get a lot of useful language and basic grammar in one shot; in one little book.  Grammar is explained in plain English.  The problem with CC is the lessons are in pinyin only.

All of these resources have strengths and weaknesses.  I second much of what Mark says above. I use a lot of different books, dictionaries and software. CPOD is my favorite.

For learning to listen to Chinese and build listening comprehension, CPOD is the best resource I have found.

For learning to speak and pronounce, I recommend Pimsleur.  Once you get this under your belt, CPOD is the next step (for me anyway).

Software tools for learning to read Characters, I recommend, Wenlin or Clavis Sinica.

Software tools for learning to write: Wenlin, plus an oddball Chinese produced program I picked up a Fry's: Ultimate Chinese from Go2China (no relation to the textbook Mark mentions).  The software is a little dodgy but teaches all the HSK Characters and has automated stroke order.

Check out the free resources on-line.  For example, Zhongwen.com.  Go through all the Links.  There's some real useful stuff.  A lot of Colleges have their material on line.  For example, check out Berkeley's site.  Great stuff for free.

Best of luck,

Bill M.