Not Another Textbook ;-)

[hongputaojiu]

Hi guys,

Here is my situation. I am not living in China at the moment. I have taken a job in another country from where I am now, which has given me a shipping allowance to move my belongings. As I have left some things in China I am getting them shipped over too. While that is happening, I thought I may as well buy some resources from taobao and get them shipped to my friend's place, as I will be able to ship them for free overseas to my new place.

Can anyone recommend a few good non-textbooky resources for an upper elementary student? I saw on the forum 汉语风 was recommended by a lot of people, and was wondering if any dvd series or kids tv/books/comics might be particulary good that others have used before?

Other than taobao, can anyone recommend any other good resource

thanks for your time and advice 红葡萄酒

[renzhe]

DVDs with TV shows, for hours of practice. It will save you the downloading, and if you check the Chinese Television subforum, you'll find some recommendations too. It's never too early to start.

Other than that, you might want to get your buddy to simply pick up a few comics for you. You could go for kids' stuff (Doraemon, for example) or teenager stuff ( like 乱马), and you can get them off Taobao as well. They tend to be easier than books and reading is always good. I read about 7,500 pages of 乱马 (ridiculous, I know) and it was very entertaining. Doraemon is very easy, 乱马 will take some patience and a dictionary at your level, but you'll have to push yourself sooner or later.

People are happy with Chinese Breeze, but you might also consider getting a proper book delivered. They are dirt cheap -- I got Lu Xun's complete works for like 3 Euro -- and who knows what your level will be in one year. Some simpler Wuxia novels, like Gu Long, might be within your reach soon, and less heavy than the classics.

[roddy]

Amazon.cn might be worth a look - you may be able to do one big order rather than lots of little ones.

Graphic novels - saw Stephen King's Dark Tower in Chinese the other day, that's got to appeal to someone. There are loads of DVD / VCD instructional videos on say, calligraphy, yoga, martial arts, musical instruments. Audio books (有声读物）perhaps. Kids readers with pinyin above the characters. Computer games. A Chinese language guide book to whatever country you're moving to.