Mastering Chinese: The complete course for beginners (Master Languages) (Audio CDS)
By Catherine Hua Xiang
Product Description
This new course teaches Mandarin Chinese to a broad range of learners
in a modern, structured and engaging way. Its focus is on acquiring
basic conversational skills. It also introduces the fascinating script
and includes essential grammar, along with interesting cultural
insights. This is the complete pack including a book and 2 CDs.
Editorial Reviews
Review
'I've been using this book for about 4 months now, and I must say it is
definitely a good book to have especially for beginners like myself! I
found it very easy to comprehend, with English translations available
for new phrases. Mastering Chinese not only covers reading and writing
exercises, but also listening and speaking in the right tones - the CD
comes in particularly handy here. The book is very well-structured,
covering thoroughly the vital topics such as numbers, introducing
oneself, transportations, date/time etc - basically it covers everything
you need to know to survive on the streets of China! Its easy-to-grasp
approach to the language makes it highly attractive, while its
reasonably compact size makes it fit as a travel guide. Would definitely
recommend it.' - Kelly Chung, Amazon
'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! - Nustun, Amazon ....
Read more here
Customer Reviews
Mastering Chinese - a beginners review
By P A Chapman
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. ...Read more here
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