Chinese Breeze (汉语风） Graded Readers

[abcdefg]

Thanks for the replies. I am definitely a fan and I hope management gets the kinks worked out so the series can continue and flourish. Each year I have not only enjoyed them myself, but have introduced them to my Chinese language teachers. Not a single one was aware of the existence of the project. A modest marketing budget aimed at Chinese teachers as well as students might pay large returns.

[Mainkai]

I was able to purchase two of the books here in Sweden during a small expo at my University for students of Chinese. The two titles I have are "Two children seeking the joy bridge" and "Can I dance with you?". I have yet to try the audio CDs that were included, but otherwise I can vouch for the quality of these titles. The design (there are many black/white/red illustrations) is not stunning, but it does the job well. There is a very handy vocabulary section along with some exercises. Generally a very good product for those seeking viable reading material specifically intended for learning the language.

[wrbt]

They should charge more for these books. It seems that books fit a special niche that no one else has been able to effectively fill. In other words, they do not really have any competitors, which is why everyone continues to patiently wait for years for a new addition to the series.

I think the closest thing is the step-by-step series, which I've actually come to favor over China Breeze.

They are similar in small paperback with MP3 CD and delineated by level (although with Step at 500, 1000, 3000,5000 words) the biggest difference is Breeze is fiction whereas Step is articles and essays. Step also has pinyin on opposite page, which does save some time on lookups. Step is more expensive but also has far more content per book, the one I'm looking at now (1000 level) has 11 chapters ranging from 600 words to over 1500 words.

That said I'm looking forward to checking out the level 3 Breeze books, part of my frustration with those was probably a bit too basic for me. I did notice the one was out, will probably wait until a couple more then pick 'em up. I'm almost done with all eight of the 1000 level Steps so will need some new stuff.

[HedgePig]

Hope this isn't too much of a thread hijack or a repeat of what I have previously posted....

wrbt, if you are looking for further reading, have you looked at http://www.chinesest...m.com/index.php ? This site seems to be little known but it has a lot of reading material in both simplified and traditional characters, along with recordings and a vocabulary list. No pinyin but I cut and paste the readings anyway, so it's easy to look up those few characters which are new to me and not already covered by the vocabulary.

The readings are graded either at the Elementary or Intermediate level (although I think the differences are not very large.)

I'm not sure if the "step-by-step" series you refer to is the "实用汉语分级阅读丛书" published by the Beijing Language and Cultural University Press? If it is, I'd rate the

chinesestoriesplatform readings as somewhere around the 甲 and 乙 levels of thuis series. (I think the 级阅读书 levels are quite tough, i.e. the 500 "word" level for these is much more difficult than they 500 word level for China Breeze.)

[chaiknees]

The University of Iowa provides 900 short texts in 3 difficulty levels, including some exercises, most of them accompanied with audio:

http://collections.uiowa.edu/chinese/topic_beginning.html

[wrbt]

Hedge - no I hadn't seen that site, great stuff! I've bookmarked, thanks.

And yes BCLU 实用汉语分级阅读丛书 is the series I'm referring to. I've not checked out the 500 word level of it yet, been doing 1000 and am somewhat intimidated to order any from next level (3000 word) as that seems like a big jump. What happened to 2000?

Again, thanks for that site.

[laurenth]

Hello Chinese Breeze fans,

It seems that level 3 books are finally due to be published soon. According to chinasprout.com, the first book, called 第三只眼睛, should start shipping by mid-November 2011.

At the exact time when I'm finishing my last level 2 book! That series is a wonderful way of learning to read Chinese.

Enjoy!

Laurenth

[leosmith]

I'm in Beijing for a couple weeks. I have something like 10 of the lower level ones that I picked up last year. Can someone recommend a store that caries these, so that I can get the rest of them? I'm near 交通大學.

[laurenth]

Hello,

I bought some level 2 books in August at the big Wangfujing bookstore 王府井书店 - or was it at the Xinhua bookstore (Xidan metro station)? Anyway, I believe it shouldn't be too hard to find them, I'm pretty sure I saw them in several bookshops. I hope this helps.

Laurenth

[HedgePig]

Although I received 第三只眼睛 (the first of the level 3 books) from Amazon China / Joyo about a month ago, I haven't yet seen it in any of the Shanghai bookshops, so this specific one may not yet be widely available. Hope you have more luck in Beijing though.

[leosmith]

Thanks laurenth. Hedgepig, you are still the man. I went to a huge book store(city) last weekend and found 2 new books. Can someone tell me where I can get a list of all books that have been published so far, and tell me where I can order them in china? My gf tells me she’s found some of them online, but hasn’t come across a complete list. I looked at the list on amazon UK, and I think after the accident" is the only one I'm missing now. Got "the old painting" and "trouser snake" already.

[HedgePig]

Hello leosmith

You can order online from http://www.amazon.cn/

http://www.studychineseculture.com/

I'm not sure if their lists are complete but both have 14 books in teh series and I'm not aware of anything missing.

I haven't used www.studychineseculture.com but I've heard good reports on this forum. It's also easier to navigate as it's in English.

Regards

The Pig

[leosmith]

Thanks HedgePig. Yep, all I lack is After the Accident. Will try to pick it up this weekend, and if I can't find it, I'll ask the gf to order it.

[mnanon]

Are there any books with just 300 characters?

[laurenth]

Hi mnanon,

The level 1 series (6 books) is supposed to use just 300 "words". I suspect they mean "characters". Try them. They are cheap and starting to read is a very rewarding experience.

Regards

[Silent]

I suspect they mean "characters"

I suspect they really mean words. At this level that probably means more then 300 characters if I take the HSK numbers for comparison (HSK2 is 300 words, 349 characters). The book itself says 'base words' I don't know what they mean by that. I guess it doesn't really matter as it won't be an exact number, only an indication.

[querido]

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/17182-chinese-breeze-%e6%b1%89%e8%af%ad%e9%a3%8e%ef%bc%89-graded-readers/page__view__findpost__p__218342

[laurenth]

I stand corrected. It's amazing what can be done with just 300 words/349 characters

L.

[mnanon]

Larenth, thank you for the information. For some reason I wasn't notified about replies in this thread.

Cheers!

[mnanon]

I was looking for publishers with similar books, and found some books published by Macmillan, they are more advanced (too advanced for me) http://www.macmillanenglish.com/Course.aspx?id=52402

They are planning (were planning) to also release 500 word books.