Textbook recommendations for people starting Chinese

[roddy]

Would people agree with these:

1) If you are going to be in China less than 6 months or on holiday, get a phrasebook, with a tape if it has one.

2) If you plan to study long term get the New Practical Chinese Reader

3) If you plan to study long term, but haven't studied languages before or aren't confident about Chinese, start with Elizabeth Scurfield's Teach Yourself Chinese first, then move onto the NPCR

That, I think, is what I would say. Agree?

Roddy

[beirne]

1) If you are going to be in China less than 6 months or on holiday, get a phrasebook, with a tape if it has one.

I'd say this also depends on how much time you have to prepare and how much you want to know Chinese. I went to China for a two-week trip but had a couple of years to study ahead of time and I found being able to speak Chinese on my own helped a lot during the trip.

2) If you plan to study long term get the New Practical Chinese Reader

I'm using the original PCR and haven't seen the new one, but I would suggest using the Practical Chinese Grammar as well. It explains grammar a lot better than the PCR and perhaps better than the NPCR.

3) If you plan to study long term, but haven't studied languages before or aren't confident about Chinese, start with Elizabeth Scurfield's Teach Yourself Chinese first, then move onto the NPCR

This is the second book I used and it was pretty good. There is also a Teach Yourself Beginner's Chinese that may be even better for those new to learning a language.

[xuechengfeng]

I'd say Beginning Chinese by DeFrancis or Read Chinese 1-3 by Fang Yu & Chang is a good introduction to the characters, although DeFRancis may be a little outdated.

[madizi]

Yeah, DeFrancis is good for characters because they are written with calligraphy and are placed in big squares so one can clearly see every stroke or part of character.

[beirne]

This is a supplementary book, but the the DeFrancis book I liked the most was the Beginning Chinese Reader. The character frequencies were controlled so that you got good reinforcement as you read. The only problem for me was that he uses traditional characters, and I'm more interested in learning the simplified ones.

[barcelona]

This site has amassed quite a wealth of collective experience and knowledge, thank you for that.

I was working through a lot of threads during the last three days trying to get an idea how should i approach my study of chinese. For the time being i'm planning on self-study, and maybe later getting a private tutor or joining some really good program (i was told that the one in Seton Hall University NJ is very good but i don't know if they accept non-degree students).

I'm considering to use the following material:

For the language study:

Scurfield's Teach Yourself Chinese;

Integrated Chinese Level 1, the full set as offered by Cheng & Tsui;

Pimsleur Level I (Barnes & Noble has a good deal on it)

For fun and food for thought:

The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy;

Pictorial Chinese Sayings;

Swallowing Clouds;

Does it make any sense?