Intermediate Chinese [Paperback]

Yong Ho (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0781809924 | ISBN-13: 978-0781809924 | Publication Date: January 2004

This language guide is a continuation of the author's popular Beginner's Chinese (078180566X, GBP12.50) presently in its third printing. Each lesson uses dialogues and new vocabulary to illustrate grammatical patterns of Mandarin Chinese. Topics covered include duration and time makers, progressive actions, punctuation, and the conditional. At the end of each chapter, exercises such as sentence completion, word matching, and translation test the reader's newly acquired knowledge. The book includes a glossary of vocabulary words as well as a separate glossary of words featured in 'Beginner's Chinese'.

Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: Hippocrene Books (January 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0781809924
• ISBN-13: 978-0781809924
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,594,915 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Concise and practical, February 17, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Intermediate Chinese (Paperback)

What really captivated me about this book is the simple explanations of some of the nuances of the Chinese language such as yao...le or kuai...le (about to...). Very important too are the examples on the various uses of 'le'. This is by no means exhaustive, but done in a non-complicated manner and besides, any help on the usage of 'le' is helpful as this is quite a hard concept to master in Chinese.

Each chapter starts off with some dialog (Chinese characters, pinyin, no English translations) and then a reading passage. Afterwards, new words and concepts are explained, where the finer points of the language are explained. Although there are no English translations alongside the initial text in the dialogs, I think this format is ok for an intermediate text as it gives the reader an opportunity to do some self evaluation. The translations are at the end of each chapter.

Here's another example of clarifying grammatical concepts. When I previously leared "ni putonghua shuo de hen hao (your Chinese is very good)" I never understood the grammatical construct of it. The author explains that it is a shortened form of "ni shuo putonghua shuode hen hao," explains the construct and explains why and how it is shortened. He cleared up in 5 minutes what I was confused about for months.

Alas, I have only read Chapter 1 and am now reading Chapter 2. I think I will enjoy this text and will also buy his "Beginner's Chinese" which is the prequel to this book.

One step closer to being liuli (fluent).

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Reader, May 1, 2005

By 

Cordes C. Towles "Cody" (Washington DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Intermediate Chinese (Paperback)

I started out studying Chinese using "Practical Chinese Reader I(Beijing Press)" and have even continued using the following book in the same series only to find that it is littered with either superfluous information about tea sets or buying a traditional "Mao" suit(as it is erroneously refered to by many outside China)or full of propoganda like the four great modernizations and how everything has been better since liberation. Some of the vocabulary is out of date, the grammer is written using a dictionary of the most obscure words that only a true linguist could understand, and the lessons are extremely boring or irrevlevent to modern life.

Intermediate Chinese, however, has been one of the most helpful books I have ever used, especailly with the above for mentioned series in comparisson. The grammer is well explained with numerous examples and excercises, and the vocabulary is much more up to date. But the most important aspect has to be the ease at which he uses vocabualry. The sentances in Unit 1 are fairly easy with basic structure in tact and progresses ever more towards the latter chapters. I have just finished the book and have begun to review all the chapters only to find how simple they are now that I have completed the book.The english translations of the texts have to be the most distinguishable feature of this book as it allows you to translate back to chinese and monitor your progress. This truly is a self study book, however it does require that you be familar with stroke order and pronunciation as it lacks both. (The Practical Chinese Reader Series however covers the stroke order, and the audio can be found with a simple google search.)

I would also recommend that you go to your local library and check out the Pimsleur Mandarin Chinese CD's to improve your listening and grammer. I am almost finished with the third set and have found that it has been a great asset to my learning. This language may seem hard at first but after a few months of constant study you will begin to see how easy it really can be- its just those tricky characters that make it so difficult.But even Chinese people have a hard time with them.