Basic Spoken Chinese by
This is a beginning-level course in spoken Chinese that employs a revolutionary new method designed to have you quickly speaking and comprehending Mandarin Chinese. Along with its sister book Basic Written Chinese and their accompanying workbooks, Basic Spoken Chinese offers a complete introductory course to the Chinese language. As a native English speaker, working hard to learn Chinese is not enough; you have to work smart to learn this very different language efficiently. An accompanying MP3 audio CD and a separate DVD with video software reinforce the material introduced in the book. No matter why you've chosen to learn Chinese--for business, travel, cultural studies or another goal--the Basic Chinese approach of two separate but integrated tracks in spoken and written Chinese will help you learn this language most efficiently and successfully. Detailed explanations in English of Chinese pronunciation, grammar, usage, culture, society, and recommended learning approaches. A digital Instructor's Guide is available electronically. A written Character Transcript (Simplified and Traditional) is available electronically. The MP3 audio CD and software CDs feature: 40 videos with dozens of native speakers filmed on location in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia. 6 hours of native-speaker audio, including all of the book's conversations. Build up sections, new words, and pronunciation exercises. Available separately, Basic Spoken Chinese Practice Essentials is the companion workbook for Basic Spoken Chinese. This practical guide includes a broad range of drills and exercises designed to enhance your proficiency in speaking and comprehending dramatically. While intended for use with the companion textbook, it can be used together with any Chinese textbook or teaching program to hone your Chinese language skills.
Kingdom of Characters by
A New York Times Notable Book of 2022 What does it take to reinvent a language? After a meteoric rise, China today is one of the world's most powerful nations. Just a century ago, it was a crumbling empire with literacy reserved for the elite few, as the world underwent a massive technological transformation that threatened to leave them behind. In Kingdom of Characters, Jing Tsu argues that China's most daunting challenge was a linguistic one: the century-long fight to make the formidable Chinese language accessible to the modern world of global trade and digital technology. Kingdom of Characters follows the bold innovators who reinvented the Chinese language, among them an exiled reformer who risked a death sentence to advocate for Mandarin as a national language, a Chinese-Muslim poet who laid the groundwork for Chairman Mao's phonetic writing system, and a computer engineer who devised input codes for Chinese characters on the lid of a teacup from the floor of a jail cell. Without their advances, China might never have become the dominating force we know today. With larger-than-life characters and an unexpected perspective on the major events of China's tumultuous twentieth century, Tsu reveals how language is both a technology to be perfected and a subtle, yet potent, power to be exercised and expanded.
Learn Mandarin Chinese for Beginners by
✓ Have you ever had an urge to learn Mandarin but have been put off by other people saying it looks too difficult? Trust me, it is not as difficult as other people say it is. We agree that learning Mandarin can be seen as quite a daunting experience, but that is why books like this one exist. As soon as you know what to expect, as well as some rules regarding how to read and write Mandarin as a beginner, you will be well on your way to mastering the language. What's great about "Learn Mandarin Chinese for Beginners" is that it comes with a composite workbook that you can use to really hone your Mandarin skills. With this book, we will be explaining everything about Mandarin to you. This will include some history and help you understand your personal learning style. This will ensure that you will perfect Mandarin in the quickest amount of time possible! You will find yourself understanding the four different Mandarin tones, the different ways to master pinyin, as well as even learning some personal life lessons along the way. We have tailored this book to be unique for each student and not by using a one-size-fits-all approach. It does not matter why you are learning Mandarin. As long as you have the passion and dedication to put time aside every single day and commit to learning the language, we will have you conversing with native Mandarin speakers in no time at all. This book is your best guide! By picking it up, you have taken the very first step in learning Mandarin, and we are so excited to be on this unique, fun, and exciting journey with you. ★★★
Mandarin Chinese-English Bilingual Visual Dictionary by
Learning Mandarin Chinese has never been this easy. This trusty travel companion features comprehensive definitions and colorful images of daily life, helping you appreciate the nuances of the language and master pronunciation. Keep the Mandarin Chinese-English Bilingual Dictionary by your side as you shop, eat, socialize, travel, and work. With more than 10,000 fully illustrated terms arranged by theme and an easy-to-use audio app guiding you, learning and retaining key terms is simple. Inside you'll discover key nouns, verbs, and phrases, and a detailed index for instant reference. Simplified Chinese characters, along with clear instructions for accurate pronunciation in the Pinyin accent, help you further enhance your Mandarin reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. From names of dishes and seasons of the year to parts of the body and furniture around the house, find everything at your fingertips with this practical and stimulating dictionary. The Mandarin Chinese-English Bilingual Dictionary has been updated to include modern technology and contemporary ways of life and reflects the changes the language has undergone. Whether traveling for business or for pleasure, remember to pack this comprehensive yet accessible bilingual dictionary.
Mandarin Chinese Characters Made Easy by
This highly-visual book introduces an effective new method for learning Chinese characters using visual stimuli and pictographs. Learning the necessary characters used to write even simple Chinese sentences can be a long and arduous process. Chinese Characters Made Easy makes the learning process fun and easy by presenting the 1,000 most common characters using a new mnemonic approach that associates each character with a memorable visual and verbal clue--making memorization easy. The character for "person", for example, is superimposed over a sketch of a man representing "a person standing on two legs"—drawing the reader's attention to the distinctive shape of the character and associating the drawing with the character's meaning. The Chinese characters are presented in groups or clusters all sharing common elements and meanings, for context and ease of identification. These groups of characters all share common root symbols known as radicals or relate to a particular theme or topic such as colors, numbers, animals, or body parts. Pronunciations, meanings and vocabulary compounds are provided for each character in the group. A free audio CD delivers native-speaker pronunciations for all the characters and their associated vocabulary. Key features of Chinese Characters Made Easy include: Audio recordings of native-speaker pronunciations for all the characters An introduction to the history and structure of the Chinese writing system 1,000 characters and over 3,000 words for beginning learners of Chinese This Chinese character book's visual approach is a powerful learning tool. It can be used by students and is entertaining and useful to general readers who are curious about how the Chinese writing system works and how it developed. All disc content is alternatively accessible on tuttlepublishing.com/downloadable-content.
Oxford Chinese Dictionary by
By far the largest and most up-to-date single-volume English-Chinese and Chinese-English dictionary available and endorsed by academics worldwide, the Oxford Chinese Dictionary has been designed both for English speakers learning Mandarin Chinese and Mandarin Chinese speakers learning English. It has been produced using the latest lexicographic methods and the unique dictionary resources of Oxford University Press in Oxford and Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press in Beijing, together with an international body of expert advisors. The Oxford Chinese Dictionary contains over 300,000 words and phrases and 370,000 translations, including tens of thousands of example phrases illustrating key points of construction and usage. There are over 300 cultural notes giving essential information about many aspects of life and culture in the Chinese- and English-speaking worlds. Extensive supplementary material and over 50 pages of lexical and usage notes contain helpful extra information about Chinese and English. The organization and layout have been designed for maximum clarity and accessibility. All Chinese headwords are given in Simplified Chinese characters, and headwords and compounds are shown with Pinyin transcriptions. All the English headwords are also shown with phonetics, so that the learner of English can pronounce each one correctly. 12 months' access to Oxford's online dictionary service - Oxford Language Dictionaries Online* - is included with this book. The site is regularly updated with the latest new words and meanings from Oxford's language research programme, the Oxford Languages Tracker.
