Chinese Made Easier - Shaanxi Normal Univ Press WHERE TO BUY?

[wfujkramer]

I started on the chinese made easier books, and really like them. Now I need to buy the more advanced books and I cannot find them anywhere!

I bought the original books in Kunming. Now I live in Harbin. can't find them there.

I am frequently in Beijing and I went to the huge bookstore on Wangfujin AND the foreign language bookstore there - - neither place carries the books.

is it possible to find these books anywhere? I think they are superior to most of the standard chinese books we have to use in chinese universities.... obviously retailers don't seem to agree.

John

[roddy]

Where are you looking in Harbin. Apologies if you already know this, or if the place has moved, but when I was in Harbin there was a large bookstore at the north-west corner of the Heida campus - there was a strip of shops, including a supermarket, and the bookstore was on the second floor, above a sports equipment place. There was also a dvd / cd place in the basement. Anyway, at the time it was pretty much the only place in Harbin stocking Chinese learning material.

Roddy

[wfujkramer]

yes, it's not there. I'm just surprised I can't even find the book in beijing! I saw a post on this forum about the book so I know there must be at least one other person in the world that thinks this is really steps ahead of other textbooks... I can't believe it's so hard to find.

[roddy]

Have you got an ISBN number, even for the books you already have?

[elina]

Why not go directly to the Press Website to order by 邮购？

实用速成汉语（一）

http://www.snuph.com/tushu/bookdetail.asp?class=JC&id=JC228400

实用速成汉语（二）

http://www.snuph.com/tushu/bookdetail.asp?class=JC&id=JC228500

实用速成汉语（三）

http://www.snuph.com/tushu/bookdetail.asp?class=JC&id=JC228600

实用速成汉语（四）

http://www.snuph.com/tushu/bookdetail.asp?class=JC&id=JC228700

实用速成汉语（五）

http://www.snuph.com/tushu/bookdetail.asp?class=JC&id=JC228800

[roddy]

Ha ha, I was wondering if Elina would help out with this one. I don't recognise those books, and to be honest I've looked at the [pop=duìwài Hànyǔ / CSL]对外汉语[/pop] of most of the major bookshops in Beijing, so I'd guess they just aren't retailed here.

Roddy

[Martin Symonds]

This is the author of Chinese Made Easier here. I'm sorry you're having such problems trying to buy the books. In Harbin, try Heilongjiang University (Mandarin Department) as I know they have taught Chinese Made Easier there. Alternatively, go to the English Language bookstore and ask them to order it from the publishers in Xian.

See my website: www.chinesemadeeasier.com (opening page + China Curriculum) for a picture of the book.

If you still are having problems, please get back to me.

Martin

[Martin Symonds]

Me again. An alternative approach would be to go to Sinobook's website: www.sinobook.com.cn/b2c/scrp/book.cfm and enter the ISBN no. 7-5613-2360-3. You could order it from them.

Best of luck and thanks for your kind comments on the books.

Martin

[oulaian]

Hi Martin,

I was planning on moving to Kunming in February to start studying at Yunnan Normal University but have recently changed my plan and I will now go in September. I'm looking to get private lessons for the next six months hereand would like to acquire the Chinese made easier textbooks. I want to get a private tutor to teach me them.

I have been in chinese speaking countries for almost 3 years, have studied for about six months... can read and write about 300 characters, have good pronunciation and can speak rather naturally for what I know.

So first, how can i get these textbooks delivered to my door and second, could you please tell me what the layout is of each book? I want to know how long they will last me!

Thanks in advance!

Ryan

[wfujkramer]

My advice to you would be to start working your *ss off learning characters otherwise you are going to have a very serious problem when you get to Yunda (or any other chinese university). It sounds like you might be having the same problems that I did in the past where my spoken chinese was decent by I had never studied characters. As soon as I started a real chinese university I had to go from the intermediate class (where my oral chinese belonged) all the way back to the beginner class because everything was in hanzi.

So, to practice your spoken chinese, I would say get your hands on the 2nd and 3rd of the book series we're talking about in this thread. but you have to get your act together with characters (IF you really do wnat to go to a chinese university). If you only know 300 characters you are going to be really frustrated (like I was) when you find you can only be in class in the "Ni Hao" level. If you're not starting yunda until September you should easily be able to fix this problem so that you're in good shape by the time school starts. If you're lazy, just try to get just 1000 characters done before september, but you should be able to do much more than that if you take it seriously.

Alternatively, if you don't care about characters, just forget the idea of going to yunda, and hire a bunch of private teachers in Kunming or check out the school I want to, Kunming College of Eastern Language which kind of specializes on classes for english speakers (as opposed to koreans aka hanzi machines) and is a little more lax when it comes to character learning as opposed to oral.

john

[oulaian]

Thanks so much. Great first-hand advice. I REALLY appreciate your honesty!

The alternative you mentioned sounds like a way out, but I really do wanna take this seriously.

All I have to do now is get my hands on these textbooks......

I will let you know how I get on...

Hope we can stay in touch... use msn?

Ryan

[Martin Symonds]

Ryan,

Chinese Made Easier isn't available in Taiwan. Only in China and USA.

China: www.southcloud.com is the easiest way to purchase it.

USA: ChineseMall.com : http://www.chinesemall.com/noname188.html

More details on my website: www.chinesemadeeasier.com

Martin

[wfujkramer]

sure I'm wfujkramer@hotmail.com on msn.

There is nothing wrong with dropping characters as long as you don't want to go to a university. For some people, it makes more sense not to do characters.. it just depends what your goals are. A normal chinese university takes the approach that characters are more important than speaking. I really do want to be literate in chinese, but that is clearly taking it too far. whatever the reason you're in china, spoken in the most important thing in my opinion. Don't wind up like these kids I go to school with who get like an HSK 9 and can't even speak.

ANyway, if you don't have a good way to study characters already, just pick up any one of the crappy textbooks that most universities use (ie: anything by Bei Da / Peking university) and just go through the lessons, learning all the characters. If you can get through 2 or 3 books by the time you go to yunda you'll be in great shape.

And get someone from the US or China to send you Martin's books.

[Martin Symonds]

Ryan,

Give me a call: 2238 0600.

I can now get hold of Chinese Made Easier here.

Martin

[self-taught-mba]

For some people, it makes more sense not to do characters.. it just depends what your goals are. A normal chinese university takes the approach that characters are more important than speaking. I really do want to be literate in chinese, but that is clearly taking it too far. whatever the reason you're in china, spoken in the most important thing in my opinion. Don't wind up like these kids I go to school with who get like an HSK 9 and can't even speak.

Bro, I love you man! Where were you last week on this post?: http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/7074-my-rant-problems-with-the-chinese-teaching-system

I coulda used your help. Totally, agree depends on goals. Great example btw. Mind if I steal it when I have time to catch up on my postings?

[terryswift]

my compliments as well on that textbook series. i also use them, and really appreciate the grammar explanations - so much better than the textbooks we have to wrestle with in class. i have the series, and often use them to make sense out of the lesson i am working on in our class' texts. the size of the book/print also makes it easier on the eyes! i wonder if any universities are using them?

my only complaint is that they have a teachers section which makes the book quite bulky and heavy, i.e. an uncomfortably heavy backpack addition for cycling to class! i think it would have been better for there to have been a seperate teachers addition.

terry

[wfujkramer]

I just went to two more large book stores in beijing and can almost decisively conclude that there is not one copy of this textbook in all of beijing.

I also tried to order the book from Sino books and they said something to the effect of oh sorry, we can't deliver it. you will have to send the money to us first " I said: "Fine" They said "oh, uh, umm........... well. then we will have to check that its in stock. So why don't you call back next week or something" and when I called back they said the same thing.

Martin, I can buy drugs or cultural relics from the yuan dynasty easier than I can buy the best textbook in China, what is going on here? can you come to beijing and with about 50 copies and sell them out of the back of a van or something? Give me a date and I'll have the foreigners lined up and waiting.

[elina]

I have never contacted with “Sino books”, do not know anything about it. But I did contact and buy these books from Shaanxi Normal University Press for our overseas customers. Why don’t you buy books there? They do not deliver books to abroad, but you’re in China mainland, they can mail these books to you after your payment reaches to their account.

Just now I visited their website: http://www.snuph.com/, and found it changed: people must at first register on the web, and then can search a book, which makes the 5 links of my NO. 5 post in this thread unavailable. After registration, you can easily find the 5 books of实用速成汉语 / Chinese Made Easier.

[Martin Symonds]

I guess I must apologize that Chinese Made Easier is so hard to buy! Actually, 5000 copies of both Books 1 & 2 have already been sold in China, so somebody must be getting hold of them somehow!!

However, let me suggest you buy them from Southcloud Business Consulting in Kunming. You can use English to order them and they should be able to mail the books promptly. Get the address and phone number from their website: www.southcloud.com

Thanks, once again, for your kind comments (and persistence!). I am in the middle of revising them right now; the revised edition should be out late this year.

Martin

P.S. Terry: the reason I chose to put the teacher's handbook in the textbook was for the convenience of the teacher. I know China well enough and if it wasn't actually in the textbook itself, 90% of teachers would never get hold of it.

[wfujkramer]

Thanks Elina, I will try that link. I will get a hold of the books somehow.

The reason I have not tried that in the past was because, if I remember correctly, the publisher information from the first two textbooks contains only an email address link to the publisher, which I tried but did not receive a reply (in english or chinese). so I will give the website a shot.