aafrophone Posted June 26, 2008 at 08:37 AM Report Share Posted June 26, 2008 at 08:37 AM I was given this book by a friend of mine (used of course) because she knew I was trying to teach myself Chinese (Mandarin). Its called Beginning Chinese Reader, Part I (http://tinyurl.com/5zpre3). I was wondering if any of you have heard of it or used it. Is it good, bad? So far I like it, I just wanted to know others' opinions. 謝謝. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sthubbar Posted June 26, 2008 at 09:08 AM Report Share Posted June 26, 2008 at 09:08 AM In my opinion, this is probably one of the best books ever written if you want to learn to read Chinese. Many years ago Mr. DeFrancis incorporporated the key's to learning which are: 1) Learn sentences 2) Use spaced repetition The caveat's are that these books use traditional characters. You should supplement this book with a true spaced repetition system. I would suggest inputting several sentences from each chapter into your SRS and use that to study. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aafrophone Posted June 26, 2008 at 06:30 PM Author Report Share Posted June 26, 2008 at 06:30 PM Personally I actually prefer traditional characters because I want to travel to Taiwan and do stuff there. Have you used the series? How far have you gone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russmeier Posted June 26, 2008 at 08:57 PM Report Share Posted June 26, 2008 at 08:57 PM I have finished the entire DeFrancis book. I highly recommend it. But, be aware that the copyright date is rather old and thus some of the colloquialisms and text are not quite as modern as the language spoken on the street. But, to learn to read traditional characters -- it's a sure bet! Russ Milwaukee, WI Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foodtarget Posted July 15, 2008 at 05:56 PM Report Share Posted July 15, 2008 at 05:56 PM I have finished the entire DeFrancis book. I highly recommend it. Did you finish the entire series or the first book? If anyone has finished the entire series (from beginning to advanced) I would love to hear your opinion of the series as a whole and how much you felt your reading improved after finishing the advanced reader (can you read newspapers? simple novels?). Also, I have already studied Chinese for a couple years and can read almost as well in traditional as I can in simplified, so should I skip the Beginning Reader books and go straight to Intermediate? Or would there still be some benefit in reading through the Beginning Readers? Thanks in advance for any input or suggestions ^_^ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russmeier Posted July 15, 2008 at 11:20 PM Report Share Posted July 15, 2008 at 11:20 PM Hi -- I finished the FIRST book! I'm still not to the stage of being able to read the advanced. Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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