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Product Description
Product Description
Teaching Mandarin Chinese in a modern, structured and engaging way, Mastering Chinese is suitable for both classroom and 'teach yourself' learners at all levels. It has a friendly conversational style with useful emphasis on correct pronunciation using pinyin. Introducing fascinating script and essential grammar, the course helpfully uses the script with the pinyin in parallel throughout. With interesting cultural insights and lively illustrations, this is what you would expect from a modern Chinese language course but can't find! Mastering Chinese is also available as two CDs only and Paperback only.
Book Description
A modern, engaging, highly illustrated course in Mandarin Chinese teaching conversational skills, good pronunciation and the beginnings of reading and writing the Chinese script
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
I am a `mature' student learning Chinese at Bristol University's `Lifelong Learning' evening classes. Catherine Xiang has been my teacher for the past several years, so you may find my comments useful in deciding whether to purchase her new book, "Mastering Chinese" (published by Palgrave Macmillan). There are several self-study beginners' books, the best of the rest being Kan Qian's "Colloquial Chinese" (published 1995), which we used in my first beginners' class and where Catherine Xiang laid down a solid foundation for further study. This new book, as it says on the attractive box, is the complete course for beginners. Catherine takes care to emphasise correct pronunciation of the four tones and introduces Chinese characters right from the beginning. This thorough approach, together with the clear and well-judged phrasing of the accompanying CDs means that you, as the new student, will start reading and speaking understandable Chinese right from the start. Of course you are not expected to recognise the Chinese characters straight away so the romanised "pin yin" gives you a helping hand. The study topics include all the situations that you will encounter during a stay in China, ranging from the simple hello (ni hao) and goodbye (zai jian) to more complex issues of arranging hotel accommodation and phone calls. In addition you will also get a beginners insight to Chinese culture. And all that packaged in an attractive and well laid out book.
Does it work? Interesting question. Many people that you meet in China will want to practice their English. Judging by the beaming smiles and amusement of my Chinese hosts at my utterances, I know that the learning effort has been worthwhile. To speak another language, even simply, is being able to communicate.
Catherine Xiang's "Mastering Chinese" is a fresh, new approach to learning Chinese. The book is clearly focussed on you, as the student, and is paced appropriately - not too slow as to be boring and, certainly, not so fast as to put you off. And, having been one of Catherine Xiang's students for some time, I would also recommend the book as a beginner's level class book to teachers.
I'll add some further advice - even if you are already studying Chinese using another book, your confidence will be boosted enormously by adding this book and the CDs (essential) to your bookshelf. As Catherine Xiang says `yi kou qi chi bu cheng pangzi!' (You can't get fat by only eating one meal).
Mastering Chinese: The complete course for beginners (Master Languages) (Audio CDS)
Paul Chapman
Does it work? Interesting question. Many people that you meet in China will want to practice their English. Judging by the beaming smiles and amusement of my Chinese hosts at my utterances, I know that the learning effort has been worthwhile. To speak another language, even simply, is being able to communicate.
Catherine Xiang's "Mastering Chinese" is a fresh, new approach to learning Chinese. The book is clearly focussed on you, as the student, and is paced appropriately - not too slow as to be boring and, certainly, not so fast as to put you off. And, having been one of Catherine Xiang's students for some time, I would also recommend the book as a beginner's level class book to teachers.
I'll add some further advice - even if you are already studying Chinese using another book, your confidence will be boosted enormously by adding this book and the CDs (essential) to your bookshelf. As Catherine Xiang says `yi kou qi chi bu cheng pangzi!' (You can't get fat by only eating one meal).
Mastering Chinese: The complete course for beginners (Master Languages) (Audio CDS)
Paul Chapman
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
This is an exciting addition to the recent cluster of new publications in the filed of teaching Chinese as a foreign language. The author fully understands the needs and characters of learners of Chinese (mandarin) as a foreign language, especially adult learners in life-long learning contexts. Different from other courses books based on grammatical structures, this book focuses on developing learners communicative language skills. I shall highlight some gems from a view point as a (practicing) teacher of Chinese as a foreign language.
The book is skilfully designed and nicely-paced. The book consists of 12 thematic units (e.g. shopping, eating and drinking). Learners will find these themes highly useful in their daily lives and therefore boost their learning motivation. I particularly appreciate there is a revision unit every three units. This gives learners the opportunities to consolidate language skills and assess their learning progress.
Good design is also demonstrated by clear components and balanced learning tasks in each unit. Learners have ample opportunities to practise pronunciation, listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. The cultural information section in each unit will improve their cross-cultural understanding. The learning materials are authentic and learning tasks are meaningful. For example, various input materials are provided including poems, proverbs, and songs. Learners are supported to write birthday cards, or asking about hotel bookings.
Very excitingly, this book offers learners choices in terms of learning characters or pinyin only. This is particularly encouraging for adult learners. It is common for some learners to declare that they are only interested in oral communication and have no interests in Chinese characters. This may dismay many devoted teachers, but I think it is important to recognise the true needs of these real learners, and help them to achieve their targets. The book author recognised such needs, but also cleverly designed her book in a way that authentic vocabulary and structures can be learned by different types of learners. In other words, no matter characters or pinyin learners choose to learn, they would be able to communicate in simple real Chinese by the end of the book.
This book is user-friendly. Apart from its structure and themes, the language used in explaining grammar or pronunciation requirements is simple plain English. The author avoided using big terminology to frighten learners away. Pinyin is provided for vocabulary, dialogues, grammar patterns and answers to exercises. Key words and structures are highlighted for learners to prioritise their learning targets. The book is also highly illustrated by using photos and drawings. Common radicals are explained and stroke orders for key characters are illustrated step by step. This is very appealing for those learners who want to develop their character writing skills.
Overall, I think this is an excellent book for beginners and even pre-intermediate learners of Chinese.
The book is skilfully designed and nicely-paced. The book consists of 12 thematic units (e.g. shopping, eating and drinking). Learners will find these themes highly useful in their daily lives and therefore boost their learning motivation. I particularly appreciate there is a revision unit every three units. This gives learners the opportunities to consolidate language skills and assess their learning progress.
Good design is also demonstrated by clear components and balanced learning tasks in each unit. Learners have ample opportunities to practise pronunciation, listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. The cultural information section in each unit will improve their cross-cultural understanding. The learning materials are authentic and learning tasks are meaningful. For example, various input materials are provided including poems, proverbs, and songs. Learners are supported to write birthday cards, or asking about hotel bookings.
Very excitingly, this book offers learners choices in terms of learning characters or pinyin only. This is particularly encouraging for adult learners. It is common for some learners to declare that they are only interested in oral communication and have no interests in Chinese characters. This may dismay many devoted teachers, but I think it is important to recognise the true needs of these real learners, and help them to achieve their targets. The book author recognised such needs, but also cleverly designed her book in a way that authentic vocabulary and structures can be learned by different types of learners. In other words, no matter characters or pinyin learners choose to learn, they would be able to communicate in simple real Chinese by the end of the book.
This book is user-friendly. Apart from its structure and themes, the language used in explaining grammar or pronunciation requirements is simple plain English. The author avoided using big terminology to frighten learners away. Pinyin is provided for vocabulary, dialogues, grammar patterns and answers to exercises. Key words and structures are highlighted for learners to prioritise their learning targets. The book is also highly illustrated by using photos and drawings. Common radicals are explained and stroke orders for key characters are illustrated step by step. This is very appealing for those learners who want to develop their character writing skills.
Overall, I think this is an excellent book for beginners and even pre-intermediate learners of Chinese.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
(The title means "great"...)
Looking for this particular book, I was abit confused as to which came with the 2 CD's and which were just the book etc, but this one is the whole deal.
This has helped me so much with my short course in Chinese at uni.
The book guides you throughout, with English, Pinyin and Chinese characters, and youre given tasks to work through using the CD's. It is a great learning source for complete beginners, and even for those who may have known Mandarin before, but are now pretty rusty at it.
It sucessfully teaches you to learn to speak well and recognize and write the characters. I can say that using this book, I have gotten A+ in my exams so far! :D
Great book!
Looking for this particular book, I was abit confused as to which came with the 2 CD's and which were just the book etc, but this one is the whole deal.
This has helped me so much with my short course in Chinese at uni.
The book guides you throughout, with English, Pinyin and Chinese characters, and youre given tasks to work through using the CD's. It is a great learning source for complete beginners, and even for those who may have known Mandarin before, but are now pretty rusty at it.
It sucessfully teaches you to learn to speak well and recognize and write the characters. I can say that using this book, I have gotten A+ in my exams so far! :D
Great book!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
An Excellent Book for Beginners
Mandarin Chinese is a challenging language for beginners, particularly native English speakers. This book however provides an excellent foundation in Chinese language learning. Read more
Published 20 days ago by Mr. C. Cubitt
OK but not great, and particularly disappointing after reading...
I bought this book with two accompanying CDs after reading glowing reviews from others here, especially in comparison with reviews of other similarly-priced courses. Read more
Published 1 month ago by ruskee
An excellent book Chinese beginners
I have taught students of University of Bristol for five years. In these several years we used New practical Chinese, Teach yourself beginner's Chinese as the official books for... Read more
Published 9 months ago by J Yu
mastering chinese
I bought this book after reading other peoples review I should point out that if you a beginner dont look any further, it is very appropriate for foundation in chinese language ab... Read more
Published 13 months ago by ALI
great book
I have found this book to be both useful and engaging. It covers both pin yin and Chinese characters and the CD's are extremely useful for learning how to properly pronounce the... Read more
Published 14 months ago by jenny
A must have for all learning to speak Chinese
I found this book considerably more useful than a standard dictionary, and in comparison to other Mandarin teaching books it is indispensible. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Matthew Green
Well designed and beautifully packaged book covering all the basics
I've got a lot of teach yourself Chinese books as I immerse myself in the language, looking for the perfect one to take with me on train journeys and overnight stays for work. Read more
Published on 4 April 2010 by J. Baldwin
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