easy reading from taiwan suggestions

[mandarynski]

hello everyone,

i've been lurking around these boards for a few days now picking up lots of advice on learning mandarin.

i am a raw beginner, started last month and have lots of resources to keep me busy for awhile.

Something i'd love to do in the near future is reading books similar to the chinese breeze series.

i am based in london, uk and could not find them here.

can get the "lady in the painting with cd" which i think is more or less the same level.

my friend from taiwan is visiting me next month and she offered to bring me a few books.

could anyone recommend specific titles at this level and are there similar publications with cds available in taiwan?

if this is not easy perhaps a few comic book titles (like manga translated from japanese which you enjoy?)

would be very grateful for any advice you may offer.

thank you so much everyone for already providing so many useful tips and inspiration.

best regards

darek

[roddy]

Studychineseculture.com will, if you want, send you the Chinese Breeze books from Beijing - lots of people on here have used them, and they get consistently good reports for customer service.

[mandarynski]

Thank you, Roddy.

I'll definitely get the Chinese breeze books then.

I would still welcome other suggestions about what reading materials my friend can bring from Taiwan.

[chaxiu]

Well, if you want to learn traditional characters then certainly your friend could pick you up some textbooks or children's books etc. If you only want to learn simplified characters, I probably wouldn't worry about it.

websites for textbooks & dictionaries that are available at any of the larger book stores.

http://www.ccbc.com.tw/index_e.php

http://eng.fareast.com.tw/index1.php

Chaxiu

[mandarynski]

Thank you very much for your suggestions and the links in particular.

My friend is here now and she has brought me a very beautiful dictionary which I find very useful and a few books to practise writing.

I am now learning the simplified characters and reading a book for foreign learners using a limited number of characters and find it fun to use.

As I keep in touch with a large number of Taiwanese people in London, find a few Taiwanese authors quite interesting and the characters in their traditional form very nice to look at, I am sure I'll learn the traditional version at some point because I believe it is useful to at least recognise both forms even though one may not write both of them.

I am also planning to visit Taiwan in the near future.

Best wishes,

Darek

[renzhe]

Learn simplified characters, read a couple of real books written in simplified characters (real books, not easy things), and you'll find that learning to read traditional characters is not difficult.

Just don't overwhelm yourself too early. Get comfortable with reading first, then it's relatively easy to fill the gaps.

[flameproof]

Studychineseculture.com will, if you want, send you the Chinese Breeze books from Beijing

Even including the delivery cost to UK the price is usually cheaper then similar books in the West, considering the high cost of books in general there.

PS: If you have a china town nearby it's maybe worth check their book shops. Check also the kids section for primary kids reading materials.

Edited May 6, 2009 at 04:32 AM by flameproof

[chalimac]

You can buy at:

http://www.yesasia.com

Most of the books are in traditional. Shipping is free if you buy over a certain amount. They have tons of japanese manga translated into traditional so you can pick your poison I like this manga:

http://www.yesasia.com/global/kurosagi-delivery-service-of-corpse-vol-1/1004021162-0-0-0-en/info.html

Also, for textbooks in traditional the DeFrancis readers can't be beaten IMHO:

http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Chinese-Reader-Part-I/dp/0300020600/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241599946&sr=8-1

[mandarynski]

Wow!

Thank you guys for all your suggestions.

Renzhe, I appreciate your advice because I know it comes from personal experience ;)

Flameproof; what you say makes lots of sense also, I have found a few good books at Grant and Cutler in London and I am sure it works out cheaper to order some from China.

I have not had a chance to have a proper look in Chinatown - an excellent suggestion.

On someone's advice I have joined the Charing Cross library which houses a massive Chinese selection only to realise I forgot a proof of address on the day I managed to get there to collect my library card (an absent minded person that I am).

Chalimac, I like the website you mentioned and the DeFrancis readers have got a solid reputation, I believe.

Once my vocabulary increases do you guys have any recommendations as to the first "proper read".

巴金 seems to be popular and accessible; could you recommend anybody else who uses a more contemporary language?

Many thanks

and best wishes,

Darek

[renzhe]

You're unlikely to find much serious literature that's easier than 巴金 in language terms. But before tackling that, you should read a couple of bite-sized short stories. Anyway, I think that 巴金's 家 makes for a great first book for reasons I mentioned here.

You'll need to know about 5000 common words spanning 2000 characters to read this stuff, so to bridge the gap, I recommend comics. You could try this one, it's available online and it's quite funny.

[mandarynski]

Thank you, Renzhe.

It was your comments you link to which got me interested in Ba Jin in the first place.

Your advice is sensible like always and the commic looks like fun.

Best regards,

Darek