Customer Reviews

Practical Audio-Visual Chinese Level 1: Textbook

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I've studied Chinese for three years now. I have tried out several different textbooks,including the Integrated Chinese series that seem to be so popular. However, of the texts I've used,I think the Practical Audio Visual Chinese series is best for beginners. First of all, unlike Integrated Chinese books, these books give example sentences for all of the vocabulary introduced. I think this is essential for those just starting out, since the translation you are given for a word sometimes aren't enough to show you how it should be used. Just because they give you a certain English word as the definition for a certain Chinese word, doesn't mean that it can be used in all the same situations as the English word would be.

Second, I feel like the vocabulary introduced in this book is just as described--"practical". If you are looking for a book that will teach you very useful vocabulary that people actually use, then look no further. The Integrated Chinese books are nice, and do teach useful vocabulary, but they also teach some vocabulary that would be used more often in writing than speaking. The only way you will find this out is if you try using some of them when talking to a native speaker and they tell you nobody really says that in conversation.

I'm at Taiwan Normal University right now using this textbook to learn Chinese and I think it is an excellent text. It has a few flaws; some laughable/incorrect English translations and a few curious character choices, but overall I'm finding it to be a well paced and well designed text. As the other reviewer said, the workbook is useful, too. I find that I don't really get the lessons until I've worked through the workbook examples. Unfortunately, I'm not sure you can get the workbook through Amazon (though I didn't try very hard to find it).

You could probably use this text successfully with even an inexperienced Chinese teacher, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it as a text to use without an instructor or native speaker to guide you.

Great textbook! Highly recommended, especially if you want Pinyin. Very thorough, good vocabulary, dialogs, narratives, wide range of grammar coverage with exercises. I've tried a number of textbooks with Pinyin, and this is easily the best I've seen.