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Colloquial Chinese: The Complete Course for Beginners (Colloquial Series)

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Colloquial Chinese: The Complete Course for Beginners (Colloquial Series) [Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

Kan Qian (Author)

3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews) |

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	Amazon Price	New from	Used from
Paperback	$21.86	--	--
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Audio, CD, Audiobook, CD	$29.95	--	--
Audio, Cassette, Audiobook, May 6, 1996	--	--	--
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Book Description

ISBN-10: 0415113873 | ISBN-13: 978-0415113878 | Publication Date: May 6, 1996 | Edition: 2nd Revised edition

This revised and extended edition of the best-selling Colloquial Chinese is the ideal introduction to modern Mandarin Chinese.
Dialogues and vocabulary sections have been updated to include characters in addition to pinyin romanization. Along with an introduction to the art of writing Chinese characters, this revised edition also provides full English translations of all dialogues.

#outer_postBodyPS { display: none; } #psGradient { display: none; } #psPlaceHolder { display: none; } #psExpand { display: none; } This revised and extended edition of the best-selling Colloquial Chinese is the ideal introduction to modern Mandarin Chinese.
Dialogues and vocabulary sections have been updated to include characters in addition to pinyin romanization. Along with an introduction to the art of writing Chinese characters, this revised edition also provides full English translations of all dialogues.

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Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Chinese --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Kan Qian teaches in Oriental Studies at the University of Cambridge.

Product Details

Audio Cassette
Publisher: Routledge; 2nd Revised edition edition (May 6, 1996)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0415113873
ISBN-13: 978-0415113878
Product Dimensions: 5.7 x 4.3 x 0.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 3.8 ounces

Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #523,488 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1 in Books > Books on Cassette > Languages > Chinese
- #11 in Books > Books on Cassette > Children's Books > Languages
- #43 in Books > Books on Cassette > Nonfiction > General

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More About the Author

› Visit Amazon's Qian Kan Page

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Customer Reviews

12 Reviews

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

Average Customer Review

3.8 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not an improvement on the Tung and Pollard version, October 2, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Colloquial Chinese: The Complete Course for Beginners (Colloquial Series) (Paperback)

You may be wondering why Routledge have two books on their catalogue with the same title? The earlier work (1982) is by two of the staff at London's University's SOAS. The newer, by Ken Qian, seeks a less academic approach and is clearly targetted more at the unaccompanied beginner. While the publisher's decision to issue an easier and more 'popular' textbook is understandable the old Tung and Pollard version is being kept in print due to its popularity as a university text and the fact that the Chinese character texts are available separately. If you want to really learn Chinese to the level of being able to read newspapers and novels one day then you'd be better off with Tung and Pollard.

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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent for the traveller, January 9, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Colloquial Chinese: The Complete Course for Beginners (Colloquial Series) (Audio Cassette)

While this is not an academic text (as the reviewer from London - living in Beijing - notes), it is excellent for the independent traveller who might be going to Singapore, PRC, or ROC. Along with the tapes that accompany it, I found that 6 weeks of study prior to my trip to Taiwan gave me the basics for getting around solo. The course is a good balance of grammar notes and practical vocabulary. If I wanted to learn how to read Chinese newspapers, I'd certainly enroll in a language school and not try to learn the language all on my lonesome. I highly recommend any of the Routledge series books for Southeast Asian languages as well. These books and tapes are far superior to any others I have used for self-study in preparation for a trip.

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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not good for the Kindle, January 7, 2010

Patrick C. Tai (Cambridge, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

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This review is from: Colloquial Chinese Mandarin: The Complete Course for Beginners (Colloquial Series) (Kindle Edition)

Colloquial Chinese Mandarin: The Complete Course for Beginners
The Kindle version does not come with any audio CDs. As a result, I cannot learn the pronunciation of the Chinese words. The "text-to-voice" pronunciation is terrible.
So, do not buy this for the Kindle.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars This is an excellent book for learning Mandarin Chinese
Chinese, or any other tonal foreign language (Asian) is very hard to learn from a book

What sets this apart is the Audio CD that complements this book (Available... Read more

Published 5 months ago by Frank

5.0 out of 5 stars one of the most user-friendly books available for those starting out
It would be hard to imagine a beginning textbook which could set a novice learner of Mandarin more at ease. Read more

Published on January 14, 2010 by perekladach

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book i've ever had
I must admit the book's awesome. I had a couple of tomes before, but none of them was clearly so good. Definitely, it's really good to own the mp3 files. Read more

Published on June 13, 2009 by Alex

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent for the motivated self starter & beginner.
The CDs are a must, along with the book. Without which you are wasting your time IMHO. The dialogs I find are well thought out. Read more

Published on January 11, 2007 by JageBlage

4.0 out of 5 stars The Next Best Thing To Formal Lessons for Beginners!
I got the audio cassette version just before cds became ubiquitous in my country and also because the cd versions were not available at the time and given my vast experience with... Read more

Published on May 26, 2006 by Frederick Baptist

1.0 out of 5 stars not a book
Please be aware if you think you are buying both the book (as others indicate in their reviews) that you are only purchasing the audio CD

Published on January 12, 2006 by Adrienne J. Register

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent way to start
Colloquial Chinese by Kan Qian is exactly the resource I was seeking when I set out to learn Chinese. Read more

Published on June 11, 2005 by Joy the Reviewer

4.0 out of 5 stars fair or good for beginners like me.
The grammar is clear and enough for beginners like me. The sentences are simple enough. I like the quizz/question parts, they made your brain work. Read more

Published on November 23, 2004 by houston student

5.0 out of 5 stars Really good for the beginner.
I'm a complete beginner in chinese. This book with its accompanying Audio-CD's give's the beginner a good base in chinese llanguage. Read more

Published on April 17, 2001 by leprofgmm

› See all 12 customer reviews...

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Does this Kindle purchase come with audio files?	1	Jan 7, 2010

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