Modern Chinese (Cassette Edition): A Basic Course (Dover Little Activity Books) (Paperback)

by Peking University (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Designed for students, business executives, travelers, and those in need of a working knowledge of Mandarin Chinese, this clearly presented basic course provides a firm grounding in Chinese grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and written characters. Book and 3 cassettes.

Product Details

• Paperback: 249 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications; Pap/Cas edition (July 1, 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486999106
• ISBN-13: 978-0486999104
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,585,308 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best material I've found by far for English speakers like me, January 20, 1998

By	[e-mail] "alex_colias" (California, USA) - See all my reviews

Being almost fluent in Spanish (self-taught), I was used to finding good material fairly easily. But with Chinese, it's another story. Why is this so much better than the other stuff out there? First, it recognizes the basic fact that speakers of non-tonal languages will have their biggest problems with the tones, in both the ears & vocal chords. All other materials I have ever seen flatly refuse to cop to this essential problem! They'll start out with the "repeat after the native speaker" routine with full phrases, but without slowly training your ears & throat, it's stupidity. This method systematically breaks it all down into logical components, then slowly builds it up. After so much frustration before, I feel so good about it all now. It made me feel like the first time I read "The Elements of Style" - clear, straightened out, refreshed. Secondly, it integrates the reading and writing of Chinese effortlessly. It's absolutely painless, and adds somethings really practical (for using dictionaries, etc.) and kind of fun. And I myself find it hard to write legibly in English, so it's got to be really simple. The only thing I've found you might want to keep in mind, is to not be put off by their technical descriptions of the basic sounds at the start. Most books cheat a little bit on this stuff (i.e. "sounds like...") and these people don't mess with that. But with the tape it's a no-brainer. And if you feel more comfortable at the start, any little booklet ought to have a more "Englishized" description of the Pinyin romanization.

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good text, but a little too old, February 8, 2000

By	K. Okada (Walnut Creek, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought this book because many reviewers here gave highest rates. But since this book was written in 1971, they use some obsolete words (for example, Chinese people don't usually call each other "tongzhi" any more), and some Chinese characters shown in this book have been further simplified ever since, so you need to unlearn and relearn some stuff if you really want to learn "modern Chinese".

Also, some grammatical topics which should be covered in a basic course such as comparison are not covered. Overall, this is a good text for beginners, but you will need to supplement it with a more comprehensive and up-to-date text before going on to intermediate level.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best product out there if you are a serious begginer, May 1, 1999

By A Customer

If you are just beginning and truly want to speak it correctly, then you have to get this book and tape series. I used this course for one week and then went to a tutor who was blown away by my pronunciation. You won't find a better product out there if you want correct pronunciation. It could use work on teaching how to write the characters, but otherwise it is great for the beginner.