Most Helpful Customer Reviews
122 of 124 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Should be a required ancillary to your main learning medium, April 17, 2005
This review is from: Schaum's Outline of Chinese Grammar (Paperback)
It took four years for the best grammar accompaniment to appear. That's when I started learning Mandarin. Like many of you who are satisfied with Pimsleur, you still needed more. I sat through classes in a university, used various software packages, and read books all contributing in different (and needed ways). The grammar problem though is recurring. I still have problems with guo/le that even in a classroom are not totally resolved. The Yip/Rimmington et al. grammar books just didn't resonate with my learning style: too formal, too detailed, too structured, and only in simplified (not to mention how much vocab you needed to understand well the examples).
Ross' treatment in the Schaum book is great. Lots and lots of examples (pinyin, simplified/traditional, English) with slight variations in usage illustrated. As has been pointed out in other reviews, having at least a year of study already improves its value. Actually there were distinctions made between some words I didn't know needed distinctions, such as zai/shi. Excellent treatment of other situations like the various unlike-English section on positional words (inside, outside, above, below, etc.). Another aspect is the exhaustive nature of some groupings or lists, for example, all the variations on these positional words and the possible combinations. Another example would be numbers/money/percentages etc. Almost more than you want.
This has been very helpful to me as a reference grammar that is excellent. In some cases, it would be helpful to have more descriptive text: like most Schaum's, text is terse. Also, time expressions, duration, etc. would be nice to be in a single place. Most are there, but you need to look for them.
It's inexpensive and worth the investment.
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60 of 62 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent resource!, December 23, 2004
This review is from: Schaum's Outline of Chinese Grammar (Paperback)
I had worked my way through all three of Pimsleur's Mandarin Comprehensive CD sets (each excellent its own right) and was looking for something to answer a few lingering questions. (Pimsleur is fantastic on giving you great pronunciation and practical speaking skills but often leaves you wanting to know a little more of the WHY behind the grammar.) This book was the perfect solution. It summarizes the core grammar accurately and succinctly and is very easy to work through once you've completed a course like Pimsleur. I also ordered a $50 reference grammar of Chinese from Routledge and found it almost useless in comparison. Just a really nice book that does exactly what it sets out to.
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43 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Even my tutor thinks it's great, May 4, 2005
This review is from: Schaum's Outline of Chinese Grammar (Paperback)
I am preparing for an oral exam in Chinese. I'm using the on-line version of Rosetta Stone, which is good for listening. I'm using both of the Schaum's books for additional material, a contemporary Chinese reader ("Shifting Tides" with CD) with a tutor.
According to my tutor, one of the most important differences between someone who can just manage in China, and someone who is conversant, is their grammar. She believes good grammar can cover lack of vocabulary in an oral exam.
Schaum's covers the topics very thoroughly, with useful exercises to cement the topic. Each chapter covers a different part of speech -- nouns, verbs, adverbs, etc. Each chapter starts with the basics and progresses into details. They have examples of good usage and bad usage (accompanied by yucky faces). On the downside, grammar is explained in linguistic terms, e.g. aspectual suffixes, which I am not very familiar with. The examples make clear the meanings.
This book is thorough. I've studied Chinese off and on for many years, and have used many different texts. So the grammar I have learned is spotty. This is a comprehensive study. My tutor (who teaches at the university) has mentioned that it covers topics rarely covered in other textbooks.
I like that the text is written in traditional, simplified characters as well as in pinyin, with an English translation. Studying for an oral exam, I have less interest in knowing characters, so I've been looking for pinyin texts.
This book is not for beginning Chinese students. There is far more vocabulary than a beginning Chinese student would know. I routinely add words from the book to my vocabulary flash cards --such as zhuang(4) guan(1) de Da(4) Xia(2) gu(3) -- magnificient Grand Canyon.
I consider this one of the best purchases I've made for studying.
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