Recommended reader for learners 注音故事乐园

[atitarev]

Recommended reading for learners. Well, it seems Chinese kids use them to improve their reading.

I am using books in 注音故事乐园 (Zhùyīn gùshi lèyuán) series. They all have a phonetic guide in Pinyin (although it has 注音, it's not Zhuyin Fuhao).

I am reading 格列佛游记 - Gélièfó yóujì (Gulliver's travel notes), the book is quite good.

http://www.amazon.cn/mn/detailApp?qid=1201822126&ref=SR&sr=1-1&uid=168-0452920-3981808&prodid=zjbk185111

There is no English translation but looking up words is easy because the Pinyin is there. Besides, who doesn't know Gulliver? They use a lot of interesting 成语.

It's in my daily commute bag - my Pocket PC with a bunch of Chinese/Japanese dictionaries plus this book or a Japanese manga. Luckily , the road to work is quite long now.

I know, some people would say, don't read books with Pinyin but because the books have both, I find it very efficient to learn Hanzi this way with a pencil in the hand. I use PenPower to look up words too, so I get not just to read but also to write Hanzi.

I made a word list at the beginning (quite intensive), which I stopped doing, so it may help you to get started. It's a breakthrough in reading in Chinese, IMHO.

Example vocab:

斯威夫特 Sīwēifūtè name Swift

来缪尔[來繆爾] Láimiào'ěr name Lemuel

格列佛 Gélièfó name Gulliver

远渡[遠-] yuǎndù* v. cross a broad expanse of water

重洋 ²chóngyáng n. seas and oceans

周游列国[---國] zhōuyóu lièguó v.o. tour the various states

希奇古怪 xīqígǔguài f.e. strange; rare

风暴[風-] fēngbào n. windstorm; tempest

[imcgraw]

I am a BIG fan of reading Chinese with the aid of a pen-input dictionary. I'm not sure what the skill level of Gulliver's Travels is, but I think one can start with this method easily after just a year of learning Chinese at a University. I started out with 哆啦A夢 while back. It was awesome because 1) Very entertaining 2) Pictures to go along with the words 3) Short stories (so you get a real sense of accomplishment) 4) No shortage of content (45 books worth). I didn't really need the pinyin in the book once I found a decent handwriting recognition dictionary. In any case... authentic content is FAR more entertaining than stuff you get in a traditional text book. I'd love to hear all sorts of suggestions for authentic reading at various levels... actually there is probably already a thread on here related to it.

[atitarev]

Yes, you're right. You can probably start this book after about a year at Uni (full-time). I am a part-time learner, so it took me much longer to get there (+ I am learning other languages). There are some difficult word combinations occasionally but overall it's not difficult.

Yes, you can read without Pinyin if you have a handwriting input but it gives an extra help to go through the text faster, learn and review new characters. Well, it's my first successful attempt to go through a larger monolingual text, I thought I should share. Previously, apart from textbooks, I read short stories, which also had an English translation.

As there are probably, many Doraemon related books, which one do you read?

[tooironic]

Hey that looks really cool.

I've been sticking to Garfield and Harry Potter lately lol but I might check it out when I got the time.

hey your location says Melbourne! me too!

have you checked out the CHINA BOOKS store on Swanston street? that place is heaven

[imcgraw]

For Doraemon, I think that there's a set of 45 books that are the basic series. There are spin offs about baseball, etc, but I'd start with any of the 45 books since they are what most China's (if not all of Asia's) youth read when they were young. If I read them on the subway I invariably get comments such as "I read that when I was a kid" from people around my age. It's slightly embarassing until you realize how impressed they are that you can actually read it.

You can start with any of the 45 books because there is only a very very loose thread of a story through the whole thing. After about 3 or 4 short stories you get the idea. They are incredibly inventive. I'm actually surprised they haven't taken off in the US in some form, but maybe it loses something in translation... into English. They're originally Japanese, of course, and if I were studying that or any other Asian languages they would undoubtedly be my "text books." I read one or two short stories every day on my ride to work.

[atitarev]

Hey that looks really cool.

I've been sticking to Garfield and Harry Potter lately lol but I might check it out when I got the time.

hey your location says Melbourne! me too!

have you checked out the CHINA BOOKS store on Swanston street? that place is heaven

I know, that's where I got it from, mate! Ask them for any books from 注音故事乐园 .

BTW, I am planning to start reading Harry Potter pretty soon. My Chinese electronic and paper book versions don't match , will have to decide, which one to use, I don't want to read both.

[OneEye]

I've been sticking to Garfield

Ha! I'm reading Garfield too! 加菲猫：精华版。Book 5. I found it for $4 at a local used bookstore.

[tooironic]

Garfield is the shiz! Easy, but fun! Love it. Plus it's easy to get your hands on the original English too if you need it.