Customer Reviews

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

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

 

 

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.

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.

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.

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. As soon as someone finishes this book, he will be able to understand basic written and spoken chinese and move conveniently around china as a tourist or even bussiness traveler (the book's text are based on business traveling). It is good for those who wish to have a basic knowledge of the language. Then they can move on a more academic book.

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 tons of tapes over the years, I knew it was only a matter of time before the oxide layer would fall off and the sound quality would slowly but slowly degrade. I hence got a techie friend to immediately burn the tapes onto cds for me; he managed to squeeze everything onto 2 discs.

Why this long intro? I just wanted to explain why this product got 4 instead of 5 stars from me and I'd recommend getting the cd version immediately unless you absolutely have to listen to cassettes. The sound quality of cassettes is limited and you'll have to put up with the irritating hissing sounds that we in this modern day and age have become totally unaccustomed to.

That aside, this is a very good resource for beginners who cannot afford the time and expense of personal tutoring or attending formal classes; this is by no means a substitute for these but may well be the next best thing. The book is very comprehensive and explains what's probably the hardest part to grasp of the language which is mastering the 4 basic tones. Once you can get these down pat and the relatively simple grammar rules, the rest is all about adding to your vocabulary.

Of course if you want to go further than this spoken, beginners' course, you'll need to look for more advanced courses that teach the other headache of writing and reading the characters! As they say, the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step and so this is a worthy first step indeed. Just try and get the cd version instead of this cassette version.

It would be hard to imagine a beginning textbook which could set a novice learner of Mandarin more at ease. From the sections on pronunciation that start out this book, on to the carefully crafted dialogues and well-explained grammar, a student will never feel overwhelmed by the aspects of Chinese that are unfamiliar to a non-native speaker (nearly all of them, in other words). Unlike many other books in the Routledge Colloquial series, almost nothing is used in the lessons that is not clearly elucidated right then and there- Even in early lessons, where the occasional resultative compound ('kanshangqu', which idiomatically means 'it seems') there are no lurking surprises or unsolved mysteries left to plague the student in future lessons. Vocabulary is very useful and everyday, basic principles of writing Chinese characters are demonstrated very clearly (although handwritten examples would have been nice as well as printed forms) and best of all, there is a Book 2 to go on to- and by the time a student finishes this first volume, they should be able to go on to it with a great deal of confidence and anticipation.

Colloquial Chinese by Kan Qian is exactly the resource I was seeking when I set out to learn Chinese. Vocabulary and points of grammar and usage are introduced in dialogues followed by clear explanatory notes. The dialogues are realistic and varied, starting with an appropriately slow and stilted first meeting at the airport and moving on to flirting, shopping and catching up with old friends. The notes give just enough information so that you can be comfortable with the material at hand, with further complications introduced gradually. Listening/reading exercises offer more practice and enhance the feeling of success. A psychological boost is provided by the fact that several dialogues feature Chinese natives chatting with people from English-speaking countries: if "Amy" and "David" can speak good Chinese, so can I! Pinyin (mainland China's official and logical romanization system) and Chinese characters are both used, with optional exercises in character writing. The CDs or tapes are essential for anyone learning on their own.

Cautions: There is little supplemental vocabulary, and the simplicity of the notes is frustrating for one with a deeper interest in the language; but these drawbacks are easily compensated by eventually taking on a more scholarly text. English translations are in colloquial British; for instance, as an American I was glad that my Chinese friend pointed out that the word translated as "smart" referred to attractiveness rather than intelligence before I had a chance to embarrass myself by giving the wrong compliment. There are a few typos: however picturesque the names of Chinese foods may be, I doubt that there's one called "Aunts Climbing a Tree," which makes me alert for errors in pinyin spelling that are harder to catch. In the set I bought, which included both CDs and cassettes, the recording quality on the cassettes is atrocious. And, as a San Francisco native I just have to note: Jiujinshan de xiatian bu hen re. Jiujinshan de xiatian feichang leng! By Chapter 6 you'll know what I mean. And you'll very likely enjoy the learning along the way.

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.1-I wish they had both simplified and traditional characters like Tung's books, but I know that's impossible. 2-the CD sound was hissing and not digital-like.3- It seems that the chinese speakers in the CD had been away from the mainland many many years so their accent were not quite beijing's.

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. The introduction to writing is actually what got me started with Hanzi and I recommend . One of the commentators talks about the translation into colloquial English which is correct. Also the teaching of sounds is not a bad best guess for the standard English speaker. But note if you are not a standard English speaker don't waste too much time, look else where (ideally with a native speaker, or some technicla white paper on tongue postions relative to pallete etc). Like another commentator said "Aunts Climbing a Tree" (Chaper 9) made me focus on other possible errors - But of course I am not Chinese so I wouldn't really know. Please post if you find any.

Gets 4 stars because of lack of some explainations and the odd error. But definately one of the best products out there to start with. You really wont be making a mistake using this. Which isn't bad since it was first written in 1995 !

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 Separately)
The CD is titled the same and can probably be found here on Amazon