Taiwan Today (2nd Edition) [Paperback]

Shou-Hsin Teng (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0887273424 | ISBN-13: 978-0887273421 | Publication Date: August 1, 1999 | Edition: #rd

This intermediate level Chinese textbook brings to life for the classroom the customs, traditions, and manners of present-day Taiwan. Interactive student participation is encouraged through a variety of activities, from role-playing techniques to puzzles to discussion topics. Students using the book should have a proficiency level equivalent to the second semester of the second year in college. Taiwan Today is also appropriate for heritage learners and accelerated high school programs. This revised edition includes photographs of life in Taiwan and expanded indices, including those by pinyin, bopomofo, and stroke count. Each of the twelve lessons introduces 45-50 new words (vocabulary lists include traditional and simplified characters and pinyin as well as the English definition). Lessons start with texts in simplified and traditional characters on facing pages. Topics are from contemporary Taiwan, and include Exercise in the Park, Visiting a Night Market, Marriage and Match-Makers, Religions and Folk Beliefs, and The Excitement of Festivals. English translations and pinyin do not appear in the readings. General exercises (presented in both simplified and traditional characters) include vocabulary practice, composition, and supplementary activities. Audio cassettes are sold separately.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Chinese --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Cheng & Tsui; #rd edition (August 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0887273424
• ISBN-13: 978-0887273421
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,703,008 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #47 in Books > Travel > Asia > Taiwan

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fairly good, April 21, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Taiwan Today (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

This pricey textbook is designed for the student who is in the fourth semester of college level Chinese. The book contains 12 chapters that present various aspects of Taiwan's culture (recreational activities, religion, the status of women, the environment, and so fourth), but do not expect for a detailed chapter that explains these aspects of Taiwan's culture because the chapters are only one page long, and by no means do they go into the cultural aspects in detail (the supplementary materials will provide further details, but they are often newspaper clippings that are beyond the reading level of the students). Each chapter introduced between 50-60 vocabulary words, but the student will often find that during the sample sentences that illustrate the grammar, many new words are used (but not fully defined in English); thus each chapter more less contain 70-80 new words.

What I like about Taiwan Today is that it has both traditional and simplified characters (but the newspaper clippings in the supplementary materials are always in traditional characters), and that it gives fairly good grammatical explanations. However, the thing that is really annoying about the book is that it does not use a system of vocabulary repetition. Thus, the student often find that s/he learns a new word in one chapter and never see that word being used again throughout the whole book. Furthermore, the sample sentences illustrating the grammatical points often do not use the words that the chapter introduces; instead they often employ the use of words that would require the student to consult a dictionary. Overall, the book is not excellent, but it is pretty good in that it give fairly good grammatical explanations and introduces good vocabulary (although the words are not always the most practical; keep in mind that this is not a book that teaches you conversational Chinese).

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and useful book for intermediate language study., September 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Taiwan Today: An Intermediate Course (CD-ROM)

This book presents modern Chinese language material as used in Taiwan. It helped me to have broader and more useful conversations with people which were very beneficial to field studies. The vocabulary is more current than most intermediate Chinese language materials and ensures the student is able to easily participate in most daily conversations with people of almost all education levels in Taiwan.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Teaches very relevent words for use in society today., January 5, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Taiwan Today (Paperback)

This book usually is intended for students who have already studied a year of chinese. However it is a bit more advanced than that, but should not pose too much of a problem. The vocabulary and text are much more interesting than texts from first year Chinese courses, and the material is much more relevent to the educated populace of China and Taiwan.