Your First 100 Words in Chinese [Paperback]

Jane Wightwick (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0844223972 | ISBN-13: 978-0844223971 | Publication Date: August 1, 1999 | Edition: 1

This book is designed to teach the beginner a basic vocabulary of 100 Chinese words—covering 8 everyday topics: around the home/ clothes/ around town (including transportation)/ countryside/ essentials/ opposities/ animals/ parts of the body.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

McGraw-Hill authors represent the leading experts in their fields and are dedicated to improving the lives, careers, and interests of readers worldwide

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (August 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0844223972
• ISBN-13: 978-0844223971
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,404,056 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jane Wightwick is an experienced language instructor, author, and respected developer of language learning materials.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent for very beginners, July 5, 2005

By 

briaryos "briaryos" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Your First 100 Words in Chinese (Paperback)

I liked this book because it was inexpensive and had provided flashcards at the back of the book. It helps with building comfortableness with hanzi, and can be used to build very basic levels of pronunciation.

The book, however, uses a unique romanization system (it's definitely not the Hanyu pinyin the PRC uses), and does not indicate what tone the words should be pronounced with. Its justification is that "Chinese will understand by context," but without teaching any grammar, I don't see how context can be established.

I'd say it's worth the $9, but you might also want to get a dictionary so you can learn the tones that go with it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A little funky romanization., April 17, 2002

By 

David Shamma "Ayman" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Your First 100 Words in Chinese (Paperback)

Sadly, I cannot give this book a nice review.

Jane Wightwick et al produce some excellent Arabic instruction books, but this simple chinese vocab book seems to have fallen through the cracks.

It does little to provide more than rote memerization of the characters, but really falls short on the romanization. Not only is pining not used or mentioned, the entire notion of Chinese being a tonal language isn't even mentioned! So you get words like "ya-ds" or "ger-bou" and thats all you get. Which is useless without tonal information.

It may be worth the low price to use the flash cards alone, but that's about all.

4.0 out of 5 stars A good start, October 19, 2002

By 

Dr. Lee D. Carlson (Baltimore, Maryland USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Your First 100 Words in Chinese (Paperback)

My seven year old son and I began learning Chinese together only three weeks ago, and we started with this book. It was a great help in that regard, and we got help with the pronunciation from on-line resources. The flash cards and the test at the end assisted both of us in trying to remember the Chinese words. I would definitely recommend this book to those who are beginning to learn Chinese but have chosen to teach themselves.