the killer mandarin textbook?

[xentropic]

I have studied Japanese for about 2 years, 6months back in the states and now a year and a half here in Japan. The books for sale and used in schools in the US are absolutely abysmal compared to the books I have found here in Japan. Among students here there are like 3 killer books for learning Japanese that are just a godsend for beginner/intermediate students.

I have started studying mandarin now for about a month, and am for now just listening to the pimsleur series. I am curious to know from people who have studied mandarin for a while in and/or out of china, if any such books are famously known amoung students and what they might be. My favorite killer japanese book is a really thick dictionary of japanese grammar. It has at least like 20 example sentances of usage for each grammar, and is amazing for vocabulary, reading practice, and of course grammar. I would really like to find the same in mandarin with hanzi and pinyin. If anyone knows of this please let me know.

[kudra]

list of text books

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/8091-texts-used-in-us-university-programs

don't know if one is a killer you are looking for.

Do you think it is fair to compare your experience with texts while in Japan and while not in Japan? Surely some texts will work better in one environment than in another. Specifically, could you really use that killer text when you were not in Japan and not immersed? I'm just wondering.

My experience was that I had great texts and instruction when in the States, and the instruction and texts was not as good when I went to Taiwan. Granted this was in the 80's, and not at Taida or Shida.

[gato]

"Integrated Chinese" and "New Practical Chinese Reader" seem to be the best choice for those who are looking for a more academic approach. http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/8420-new-practical-chinese-reader-vs-integrated-chinese&highlight=integrated+chinese

Pimsleur, from what I know of it, seem a poor choice because it teaches you only 500 words in 100 hours of listening time.

See http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/105-private-chinese-schools-in-beijing39&highlight=pimsleur

I think if you spend 100 hours with either "Integrated Chinese" and "New Practical Chinese Reader," you would learn a lot more.

[nipponman]

It has at least like 20 example sentances of usage for each grammar, and is amazing for vocabulary, reading practice, and of course grammar. I would really like to find the same in mandarin with hanzi and pinyin. If anyone knows of this please let me know.

And what, may I ask, is the name of this book? ISBN maybe? This sounds like something I should cop immediately.

[xentropic]

yea i could have definately used it before i came. japanese doesnt have the pronunciation woes that chinese has so its alot easier to accumulate vocab even from the start i imagine. the explanations on the grammar in this book are amazing and theres so many examples in there my vocab went way up just from reading the example sentances, which is the main reason i like it.

There are 2 books A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar and the sequel A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar

I have heard chinese grammar isnt that complicated or that much in number so maybe a book like this isnt necessary. I tend to tolerate the typical example dialog vocab flow of most text books, but i would really just like 1001 example sentances written with hanzi and pinyin underneath. I think anyone after just studying the beginner grammar book could eaaaaaaaasily pass the JLPT3 japanese test.

[nipponman]

Aight thanks.