Silent Posted June 19, 2011 at 04:08 PM Report Share Posted June 19, 2011 at 04:08 PM I'm looking for some graded reading. I come across classifications based on number of words/characters and A/B codes with a number (1-5) in front that not always logical matches with the word count. Does anybody know how A/B codes, wordcount and HSK levels compare? Is there somewhere an overview of graded readers sorted to level? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Posted June 20, 2011 at 11:44 PM Author Report Share Posted June 20, 2011 at 11:44 PM No-one with intelligent words about the subject? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imron Posted June 21, 2011 at 12:20 AM Report Share Posted June 21, 2011 at 12:20 AM Have you seen the Chinese Breeze series? That's the one that seems to pop up most frequently when people talk about graded readings here. I have no idea how it relates to A/B codes and other things though. I think they were created off word frequency lists. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Posted June 21, 2011 at 05:50 AM Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2011 at 05:50 AM Yes, I've seen the Chinese Breeze series. Actually a few weeks back I ordered some of them. Me being a cheapo I took the cheapest shipping rate not thinking about the 6 to 12 week wait involved:( Now I fear they will be at the easy end of the spectrum when they arrive as I made a fair bit of progress lately. So now I'm looking for something a little more 'advanced'. For now I see FLTRP Graded Readers with different ratings e.g. 2A and 2B, but identical wordcounts. I've read somewhere that Graded Chinese Reader 3 (1000 words) is perceived harder than Graded Chinese Reader 1 (2000 words). Then I've found the travel in China series (1000 words), but at first glance the sample page I saw did not look that easy. So I'm looking for a bit of light on the levels of difficulty, an objective comparison. Also other alternatives and (dis)advantages may be handy to know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HedgePig Posted June 21, 2011 at 11:53 AM Report Share Posted June 21, 2011 at 11:53 AM Silent, have you looked at www.chinesestoriesplatform.com/index.php? I really like this site for many reasons - the readings are bit longer than what is usually aimed at this level (they are usually around 800 to 1200 characters, split into 2 or 3 posts) - there are also a lot of articles there - it has a detailed vocabulary list which is divided into (old style) HSK levels - there is pinyin and audio available (although the audio is not great quality and I seldom use it myself) - it's free! The site has articles aimed at the "elementary" and "intermediate" level. Even the elementary level is well above Chinese Breeze Level 2 but it may be worth looking at. It assumes you know HSK (old style) Level 1 vocab and introduces new vocab, mainly from HSK level 2 but also from level 3, 4 as well as a few words not in the HSK. If you only know HSK 1, this won't be easy reading. But if you know most of HSK 1 and 2, I think you'll find the elementary level not too difficult. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Posted June 22, 2011 at 05:05 AM Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2011 at 05:05 AM I've seen the site before, but had forgotten about it. So thanks for reminding me. It's indeed very hard for me. I studied nearly all of the Old HSK basic characters. I'm happy if I know half of them well enough to be of real use in a reading excercise. The rest I 'know' only with a right context. By the time the Chinese Breeze books arrive I should be able to read the 300 word books comfortable and the 500 word ones shouldn't be too hard either by that time. By that time this site may be a good alternative. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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