Mandarin Companion Level 2 is finished! Great Expectations released in two volumes.

[Rufus]

We've had a lot of people who have been waiting for a long time so I just wanted to let everyone know that we at Mandarin Companion have just finished the first two books of our Level 2 series released as Charles Dickens classic Great Expectations in two parts. Level 2 has been set at 450 characters and approx 600 words and is also a step up in grammar and sentence complexity. 

 

When we started adapting Great Expectations, we anticipated releasing it as just one book, however as we got deeper into the process, the sheer complexity and length of the story resulted in it being much much longer than we had anticipated. Even after dividing the book into two parts, each part is still over 30% longer than our level 1 books. Interesting enough, upon publications this is now the worlds longest graded reader novel in Chinese topping out at nearly 28,000 characters in length between the two books. 

 

You can check out Great Expectations Part 1 and Part 2 here. The ebook is available for pre-order and will be available on Christmas Day. The print books are also available now. 

 

And to answer some questions that are bound to come:

We do not yet have audio books for the series. We are planning to instead first focus time and resources on publishing a lot more books. Audio books will come but a bit further down the road. 

 

Yes, we will be releasing Great Expectations in traditional characters in a couple months. We will also be releasing print editions of the traditional versions this next year. 

 

Thanks for all the support many of you have offered over the last couple of years!

 

 

 

[ChTTay]

Will any print editions be available in China?

[Rufus]

Hi ChTTay, we've been casually looking for a distributor in China for some time. Thus far we have not been able to find anyone who is interested in enough and with whom we can work with to distribute them. As I am sure you are aware, distribution in China can be challenging due to the regulations and controls the government has over all media publications. Let us know if you might have any connections who can help!

[Mr John]

I've read all of your graded readers - with the exception of one, which I accidentally bought the traditional characters version of. Though repetitive, they really helped me to build some confidence in my reading ability. Looking forward to the next installment!

[putonghuastudentmark]

I look forward to reading. These books are tremendously helpful to improve reading speed and helped me progress from low HSK3 to high HSK4 in just a few months!  It's also the most fun approach to reading practice and I wished more books were available in ebook form which is very accessible for us outside of China. 

[Rufus]

I really appreciate you guys sharing your experiences! It always puts a smile in our faces when we hear about the great results our readers have gotten from reading in Chinese. I share these types of stories all the time with skeptical teachers everywhere. 

[lechuan]

Thanks! I have been waiting a long time for new Mandarin Companion books!

[stelingo]

Has anybody had any problems with this ebook? I live in the UK and bought part 1 on Christmas day and started reading it on the kindle app on my Samsung tablet without any problems. However after buying a new tablet on Saturday I found that the ebook kept causing the app to crash. I wrote to Mandarin Companion, who sent a prompt reply, saying they would look into it.

I called Amazon the next day, and it finally transpired that the first volume is now only available to US customers, although part 2 is available outside the US. Very strange.

I can no longer read the book on my old tablet, and to add to my frustration I have sent a further 2 emails to Mandarin Companion, which have gone unanswered.

[lechuan]

@stelingo Do you mean this one? Did you originally purchase it from amazon.com or amazon.co.uk?

[stelingo]

@lechuan. Yes that's the one. I purchased it on amazon.co.uk

[lechuan]

@stelingo Have you tried deleting it, then redownloading it?

[stelingo]

Yes. I even rang Amazon, they gave me a refund, they remov3d the book, then I bought it a second time and downloaded it. Still had the same problem.