Free Chinese Textbooks! No catch!

[ipsi()]

Doh! Thanks for that.

[roddy]

Have edited the post to clarify - the reviews will be posted on here, and I think Elina may also be posting them on Studychineseculture.com.

[Shadowdh]

You know I was just thinking the other week that the only thing that could make this site better would be free books... now that is just some freaky stuff, you dont even wait for the suggestion PM but use ESP instead... *que twilight zone music*...

[elina]

I have just sent PM to Xtenhome, Stephanhodges, Simonlaing, Batmarj, Mirgcire, who have not PM me yet, to ask their detailed addresses for mailing the packages.

From this Tuesday to Wednesday, we will begin to arrange shipping and delivery for the following people, if they have no change towards the orders sent to them by emails:

CDN_in_bj, ShadowDH, Realmayo, Atitarev, Scoobyqueen, Ipsi(), Mamba9

Luobot and Newyorkeric need to wait for some time, as mentioned on our site and in my emails sent to them, since Chinese Made Easier (1) (second edition ) (with 2 MP3) is out of stock：

Please note:

At present, we only have several copies of this book in stock. After they are sold out, we will buy the book according to the order, i.e. after our customers order these books to us and the payment reaches our account, then we will begin to buy them from the publisher in Xi’an City, which will need some time for the books getting to Beijing City. So the future coming books are ready for shipment within 10 working days, which is different from our normal time limit: within 4 working days.

Last week, we have mail-ordered the books from the publisher in Xi’an City, normally they will get to Beijing this Tuesday or Wednesday, but since there’s some aftershock of the earthquake, which might affect the transportation speed. Hope people there are all well and peaceful. As soon as the books arrive in Beijing, we will send the packages to Luobot and Newyorkeric at once.

[mirgcire]

Hi Elina,

Yesterday, we received a review on our site, I think it’s helpful:

It was I that posted the review. It is nice to hear you say that it was "helpful". It is certainly my honest opinion. I regret that it will probably not generate a lot of traffic on your site.

In fact I would like to change some of the sentences to be clearer and a little less negative. If we simply submit a review a second time, will you replace the original with the new one?

[elina]

I regret that it will probably not generate a lot of traffic on your site.

No need to regret. I do think your review is helpful, and I like people to be honest and frank.

In fact I would like to change some of the sentences to be clearer and a little less negative. If we simply submit a review a second time, will you replace the original with the new one?

Thanks for that. If you want to change, just re-submit, and we will cancel the first one.

[Larry Murray]

What a great idea. I am a struggling student in Beijing and can use all the help I can get.

(1) China Panorama-Approaching Chinese (1)

(2) Chinese Made Easier (1) (second edition ) (with 2 MP3)

(3) Boya Chinese-Elementary Start (Volume 1) (with 3CDs)

I would be most grateful to receive any or all of these.

Sincerely,

Larry Murray

[atitarev]

Elina, Roddy,

Your work is great.

I am very thankful.

I will help to promote a little on some Russian language websites, related to Chinese learning.

[roddy]

Just don't promise them free books

[atitarev]

No, I won't, I know it's over. I advertised this site before but with less info.

[walshki]

Well,

I don't know if this is doable for you guys but I'd be mad for those books. I've done some reviews before for a newspaper and I'll be heading to China soon so I could test out my new skills. I'm quite a novice as regards chinese. The only problem is that I'm in Ireland

If you do get some books in and fancy sending them all the way here, I'm interested in:

-New Approaches to Learning Chinese: Rapid Literacy in Chinese

-Gems of the Chinese Language Through the Ages

-Wit and Humor: An Easy Chinese Reading Series

I'd take anything that's going really though, as long as it's simple enough and I'd love to write a review. I'm just dying to learn chinese.

All the best,

Kilian

[Shadowdh]

Hi there, just to let you know my books arrived and I am very happy, as a bonus I also got a deck of Chinese phonetic cards. I will get cracking and post my review soon.

Roddy, is there any particular format you want the review in? (I remember there used to be a particular format when I was at school) or do you want it just basically "I have these books and this is what I think of them" type of thing... cheers again for this awesome chance. Take care

D

[roddy]

To be honest I haven't given it a great deal of thought - but you study Chinese, you buy Chinese textbooks - what would you want to know? Anyone else got any ideas? John Sinosplice has some reviews up of Chinese textbooks, including some write-ups I'd done for here originally. That might give you some ideas.

I'm also quite open to the idea of it being posted over a period of time - say a 'first impressions', 'in use' and 'having finished' progression. That way we get something up a bit quicker, and if you get bored halfway through and give up, we've still got something

Anyway, congratulations on being the first one to get your free book!

[Shadowdh]

Cool Roddy... and cheers, well pleased with the Chinese Breeze reader so far... had a quick glance at it and its pretty good, but I will leave more for the reviews... good idea re the first glance/half way through and woohoo finished style... more later... oh and before I dash off to post yet more stuff home (why oh why do I buy all those things that seem so darn important) separate thread or on the end of this one?

[roddy]

Separate thread I think for each book. Title it as

Textbook Review: Name of book

or something like that. Good luck at the post office . . .

[cdn_in_bj]

I got my book today too! It's thicker than I expected so it looks like I have my work cut out for me, but I'm looking forward to it.

[roddy]

Excellent, I'm glad there were a couple of people in Beijing - should be at least a week or so before the other folk in China get theirs and who knows for the overseas SAL people. Not sure if anyone upgraded to airmail though. Even SAL wasn't an option for some people, so their books might be on a slow boat from China . . .

[roddy]

Oh, and another idea for reviews - comparison with any similar products you've used would be useful. Some people have also obtained two similar books as part of this giveaway - ie two readers, or two business books, etc.

[Scoobyqueen]

For my review, I am going to be using a template of points that I plan to cover. I wonder if it useful that reviewers use the same or similar points when reviewing. Here is the preliminary list that I shall be working from for the book I am reviewing. More additions welcome:

Target group

Target group met (as promised by authors?)

Level (also compared to authors's view)

Grammatical explanations good? All points covered?

Vocab up-to-date/anything missing?

Texts interesting/too long/too short

New word lists adecuate?

Suitable for self-study?

Too many/few colloquial expressions

Comparison with other books

Pace of learning:

Progress from lesson to lesson and at the end of the book

Time required to prepare for each lesson and reviewing past learning

Glossary lising useful

[imron]

I think a first impressions part, followed later by a review would also be useful.