Chinese Breeze (汉语风） Graded Readers

[Ania]

@Ruben von Zwack, I really hope that I will be ready to join that thread soon! It sounds like a fun way to learn

 

@Elizabeth_rb, I personally wouldn't survive without my Kindle I love it in general, but I absolutely cannot imagine reading in Chinese without automatic word lookup, hehe

[Ruben von Zwack]

Ania - with soon, do you mean right now the 秘密花园 book is still uncomfortable for you, vocabulary- or grammar wise?

[Ania]

No, I just mean that it's a week until Christmas and I have tons of stuff to do So the only thing I'm uncomfortable with is the lack of time And as soon as Christmas is over and I have time to read in peace I will hopefully also have time to participate in the group read thread

[imron]

but I absolutely cannot imagine reading in Chinese without automatic word lookup, hehe

Be careful with automatic lookup.  It may actually be hindering your efforts to learn Chinese because it's so easy to look up you never end up learning the things you don't know.  What you end up with is thinking you are reading Chinese, when actually you are just reading a poor, word by word English translation.

[sburkle]

Are any of the audio files normally included with the book available for streaming or download anywhere? I bought the Kindle version of the book and don't even have a CD player anymore,  but I would like to listen to the audio if at all possible. 

[langxia]

Does anyone have info on when the next chinese Breeze books come out ? It seems that some level 3 book was in the making with even the title known but then nothing anymore ?

[elina]

They have not released new book of Chinese Breeze for a long time, today I asked the editor of the press, she said a new book of 750 words level planned to be published next month. We’ll upload its details to our site as soon as it’s available.

[Sarpedon]

I'm in the US, if I buy the complete series from the publisher on their website, how much is it?  They have a UK price/shipping option but I don't see any US info.

 

Would it be cheaper/more reliable to get the complete series on Amazon?

[langxia]

Thanks for the news Elina! I still hope that some more level 3 will come out as they are an easy read and that then the level 4 will come out faster

@Sarpedon : If the us prices are around 10 bucks for one then try to get them from china as over there they are much much cheaper than what they are on amazon...

[Sarpedon]

@langxia They are around $14 on Amazon, which includes the CD.  I could get the kindle version of some of the books for $4, but they don't have the complete series for Kindle.

 

I guess my main question is if I pay via PayPal and put in a US address, am I going to get the books or are they going to take my money and run. ;) 

 

If I don't buy from them directly, what are some options for buying from China and shipping to the states?  Could I search on Taobao or another similar site and find someone willing to ship them here?

[elina]

I guess my main question is if I pay via PayPal and put in a US address, am I going to get the books or are they going to take my money and run. ;)

We have the complete series of Chinese Breeze on our site:

http://www.studychineseculture.com/search.asp?keyword=Chinese+Breeze&thetype=bookname&submit1=SEARCH

We’re in Beijing China, ship worldwide, accept PayPal payment and happen to be the persons who don’t run away after taking the money

 

We run our business for years, and you could search studychineseculture.com on this forum to see the feedbacks to our site. One reminder: international shipping fee is expensive, so for customers who don’t need the books urgently, we recommend using surface mail (sea mail), which is cheap and safe, just slow.

[langxia]

@Sarpedon :

They cost around 15-16 kuai a book in China, at least that is the price I bought them for when I was there. So there should definitely be cheaper options to get them than amazon where one book is around 12-14 Dollars.

If you know someone travelling to China ask him if he can get them for you. If you know someone over there ask him if you can make him the money transfer for the books and the shipping fee.

There seems to be a company in China where you can send the stuff you bought on Taobao to them and they will ship it for you worldwide. The site is : http://en.dotdotbuy.com/

I haven't tried them myself yet, but my wife has tried them out once and was very happy with the service (But she is Chinese, so I really don't know how their service is if you only communicate with them in English)

[Sarpedon]

@elina Thanks!  I'll definitely take a look.  Very helpful.

 

@langxia  I have lots of friends back in China but I'm reluctant to ask them to do something like this for me when a service which is dedicated to this exists.  Thanks for the other link too!

[elina]

The latest book of Chinese Breeze was just released:
Chinese Breeze Graded Reader Series Level 3, 750 Word Level: Friends+CD
http://www.studychineseculture.com/book.asp?id=5614

I have finished reading it, interesting story.

[sburkle]

Elina: I'm wondering when any of the Level 3 books will be released as eBooks. I much prefer the Kindle editions available on Amazon but now that I'm looking for level 3 books it seems there's none to be found.

[elina]

I don’t know, and now the publisher was already on winter holidays, and will be back to work on March, I’ll ask them then and bring the answer here. Last time when we contacted, I remembered the publisher said the first book of Chinese Breeze Graded Reader Series Level 4 planned to be released soon.

[elina]

The speed of releasing new books is more slowly than their plan, today the publisher said two new books of level 4 will probably be out in December 2015, the names are: 红衬衫 and 好狗维克.

[langxia]

Any news on the level 4 books ?

[Slowlearner]

I'd like to know if there's any news on more Chinese Breeze books too, please.

 

I also came across another set of Chinese readers very like Chinese Breeze when I was in Beijing recently, and thought I'd let others know.

They are called "Rainbow Bridge Graded Readers" and are by sinolingua. These start at the 150-word level, and like CB, have levels planned up to about 2500-words. On the website there's currently 26 books, with about half at the Starter level

They are the same price as CB (15 RMB) but quite a bit shorter. I think they are also simplified versions of old chinese stories, so can seem a bit weird..

Comparisons with CB:

- completely in Hanzi with only a few "new" words foot-noted in pinyin and English. Unfortunately, unlike CB, the new words are only indicated once.

- has MP3 version, but only at one speed, and must be downloaded from the website. 

- has a few test questions at the back

 

Main plus (to me anyway) compared to CB: has an English version of the story as an appendix.

 

Just thought I'd share.

[roddy]

Welcome to the site, slowlearner. Hopefully we can speed you up.