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爬中文山

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CME series Completed - finally!

suMMit

Entry posted by suMMit in books

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A nice milestone tonight: Finally finished the 5 book series of Chinese Made Easier. I started Book 1 with a teacher 5 years ago, the book was recommended to me by the school as being good for someone living "in country" and wanting practical everyday language. The series definitely lived up to that reputation. There is lot's of crossover with HSK books, but CME has plenty of vocab that is very useful in everyday life, but outside the HSK material. The overall level feels similar, CME 5 feeling roughly like HSK 5, with a more practical bent. The book did an excellent job of slowly weening off pinyin and a particularly good with introducing Surnames and given names - new ones in every story, adding up to a lot over the course of 5 books.  There is no "小明“ or ”马克“. Lots of place names, jobs, household items, office, countryside, medical etc language. The author was kind enough to supply all of the pdfs and mp3s free of charge, as the book is out of print. I did book 1 to 4 straight through but took a year break while doing different resources before starting book 5. Altogether it's been about 5 years, all done with various tutors, so it feels like an accomplishment to finally have finished. Tonight, on the last unit of book 5, I couldn't help but noticing how much smoother I was than even Book 4, let alone Book 1. Thank you Martin Symonds for an excellent and fun Chinese learning series!

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**I have added a few more observations in the comments section below...

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suMMit
On 11/26/2023 at 8:11 PM, Luxi said:

very good and helpful review of the textbook series

I will add a few more more thoughts, as I have recieved a couple of PMs.

 

1. There is no question some of the books vocabulary is outdated (processing and enlarging photos, antenna, cassette, stereos)

2. In book 5 there is much vocabulary one would probably never need if not living in China (bamboo dustpan) and a lot of uncommon vocabulary (Venetian blinds, rubber washer, fluorescent light bulb).

3. The audio is pretty decent, sometimes sounds a bit overly dramatic. Love that it alternates between male and female. 

4. Book 5(my favorite) has no excersises of explanations, Just sketches that outline a story and then the text that goes with the sketches. The way I did it was to read the story before class, re-tell it in my own words to my teacher only by looking at the drawings, then she would ask me questions relating the story to my own life. This was may favorite book of the series.

5. Books 1 -4 have translation excersises that I likes.

6. I can't put my finger on it, but I felt like the grammar explanations and exercises in book 1-4 were not hat effective for me.

7. There are workbooks that accompany books 3 and 4 and they were very useful (again pdfs supplied by author).

8. The course has an excellent and comprehensive pronunciation book , not part of book one, but it's own book (maybe one of the best I've seen)

9. The author gives a lot of Language learning and motivational advice.

10. 4. Overall there is a very positive feel to the book, and you get the sense the authors put a lot of personal touch into it.

 

 

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