Need Advanced Book Suggestions

[jkhsu]

Reading the paper and understanding the news on TV are two different skills.

Good point. I've been augmenting my learning with watching Chinese drama and listening to podcasts in the car.

The problem is that when reading a newspaper you can take your time slowing going over everything, figuring out the occasional new word or grammar pattern, going back to re-read parts you didn't quite understand and so on.

So my assumption when I said to be able to read a newspaper is to be able to read it without much work and quickly. Obviously, if there are word patterns and words I didn't know, hearing it in the news wouldn't be much help.

[imron]

So my assumption when I said to be able to read a newspaper is to be able to read it without much work and quickly.

Once you get to this stage then yes, you shouldn't have much problem with TV news. My estimate is 5-10 years.

[jkhsu]

Once you get to this stage then yes, you shouldn't have much problem with TV news. My estimate is 5-10 years.

Do you mean 5-10 years from beginning to end?

[imron]

5-10 years to go from knowing nothing to being able to read a newspaper without much work and quickly, where quickly is defined as faster than the speed at which a newsreader speaks on TV.

Of course it also depends on how much effort you put in. Many people can learn for 5-10 years and still be far away from this point. I don't expect too many people could do it in less.

[jkhsu]

5-10 years to go from knowing nothing to being able to read a newspaper without much work and quickly,

I completely agree with you. And if it's closer to the 5 years, that person most likely would have to be in a Chinese speaking country for most of that time.

[knadolny]

Does any one have suggestions for advanced level books?

Sorry for the late reply. I haven't been on Chinese-Forums in a while. However, your post gives me a good opportunity to introduce some new advanced Chinese readers that I just finished this year.

The readers are set up with the goal to help students transition from textbook stories to native level texts. Using the works of Lu Xun, Hu Shi, Zhu Ziqing, etc. I have created a reader with extensive footnotes, author introductions, story introductions, pinyin, and audio files by two native speakers. Illustrations are also used throughout.

The books currently out are:

Capturing Chinese: Short Stories from Lu Xun’s Nahan

Capturing Chinese: Lu Xun’s The Real Story of Ah Q

Capturing Chinese: Lu Xun’s The New Year’s Sacrifice

Capturing Chinese Stories: Prose and Poems from Revolutionary Chinese Authors

I have some plans for future books as well so if you have feedback please let me know.

I have a sample chapter on my website so you can see what you think.

My Website: Capturing Chinese

Cheers,

Kevin

[jkhsu]

Looks pretty good. It would be good if you can provide some audio samples of the mp3 files for demo.

[imron]

Did you see the link on his page in the main navigation bar that says "Free Chinese Audio Files"?

There are samples of both the male and female readings towards the bottom of the page.

[knadolny]

jkhsu,

If you download our sample chapter from my homepage (requires an email address), then the sample pack comes with "A Small Incident" and accompanying audio files.

Thanks Imron for the link.

[jkhsu]

Thanks I didn't scroll down; instead I clicked on the link that required a password.