Lacking material :o

[xyz123abc]

Thanks for allowing me into the forum. I supposed all was said and done, but I hope it is not, because after all that has been said I still lack material

OK, I want to learn chinese. I live in Nicaragua, I can't go to a class (140KM from the nearest chinese center) I started with the brute force method: picked the Far east 3000 Character book (the only one which did arrive by mail >.>) and supposed I was going to learn them all by heart. Two weeks later I know like 50 characters >.> bugger.

I would really like to know if there are any good simple text books with images that i can start reading, the more the better. When I started learning english twenty years ago it was by reading RPG games I need to learn some hundred characters, but just the meaning and the sound isn't enough to anchor the characters to my mind, as I am 20 years older than when I didn't know english at all ^.^

I have TRIED rosetta stone software, lesson one. It doesn't look like it introduces any translation, or that it presents the information in any structured way. It is just images, sound and association.

I read the first post in this thread:

Best of Chinese Study Tools, Studying Chinese Online and Off

and some of the resources here:

Textbooks for learning Chinese

Everything I stumbled upon was physical (bought and shipped by mail) or things I already have (dictionary, pleco)

In short: I am looking for free/bought ebooks with images, simple enough for a first timer to pick a dictionary and slowly wriggle its way one page a day. Or a good e-text book with lots of content and pictures! I have been searching that for the last three days and the closest match is breeze books, which are physical, and maybe dont have images

TYVM. I eagerly await your reply!

[jbradfor]

Sounds like what you want are young kids picture books. I'm not aware of any, but I'm sure they much exist. Anyone?

[renzhe]

High quality textbooks are probably the only thing that you simply can't find online. Perhaps there are some pirated ones, but I really don't know. I haven't found a good substitute for that. The best free thing out there are the FSI books and tapes -- just google them, they are completely free and legal to download.

I understand that it might be tricky to get things shipped to Nicaragua from major online shops, but if it's an option, I do recommend spending some money on a good paper textbook. That's the only thing where it's not a good idea to save money, IMHO.

Many other things can be found online, and there are threads about them: Chinese TV series, comic books, cartoons, podcasts, flashcard software, etc. There is really loads of material out there, but no free high-quality textbooks. The comics are a good idea, IMHO, if you have the patience to fight your way through them with a dictionary and a grammar book.

[Silent]

In short: I am looking for free/bought ebooks with images, simple enough for a first timer to pick a dictionary and slowly wriggle its way one page a day. Or a good e-text book with lots of content and pictures! I have been searching that for the last three days and the closest match is breeze books, which are physical, and maybe dont have images

Don't know what the purpose of the pictures is. There is plenty of simple reading material online. To find it can be hard hard without chinese search skills. Though it has few picture a place to start may be here. Chinese Breeze has a fair number of pictures as has 中文天天读, those are however physical and start from about 300 words。Both series come with audio cd's. Some of the 中文天天读 texts may also be found at slowchinese.com. Alternatively you might choose to use some podcast sites/online courses with transscripts. Considering the level where you are now that may be a good choice for more graded material. If the pictures are really important to you you might go for comics. see here.

The problem is that as a real beginner all material is too hard unless you pick a real beginners study book.

[sl234]

for chinese lessons, I have had good luck using Integrated chinese series.. there are mp3 and lot of free web resources like siidedecks.

I use www.italki.com and have a teacher for about $9.00/hour US via skype. Just another suggestion.

You can find used texts on amazon and ebay.

[xyz123abc]

Hmmm. So that's the deal :o

I am broken hearted about the textbook >.> And still no picture books so far ^.^ Only the comics left

The importance of pictures is that it gives me yet another piece of information to relate the character and sound to. In my head, more information fixes better than lots of tiny pieces do. Images + story line would be extremely desirable. Rosetta Stone has pictures, but the thing doesn't follow any story line and the small portion I tried didn't have grammar, either. I'll have to borrow that laptop and examine the course for some hours...

"The problem is that as a real beginner all material is too hard unless you pick a real beginners study book."

This might prove true

I am about to check FSI. TYVM

[xyz123abc]

http://www.yes-chine...=20110725133804

This looks interesting. The reloading times are not optimal, a delay of a few of seconds for each action, but it is better than nothing, and seems free Will check soon®

Still working on bruteforce method character learning, no textbook :S

EDIT:

NOT FREE :/

[roddy]

Six months later - how are you getting on?

[xyz123abc]

Hi, mr. roddy, tyvm for asking!

I am still alive; I think I am getting on at least

About learning chinese, it went terribly wrong. I did find some pirated pavc (practical audiovisual chinese) textbooks (1 through 5), it was a pain, but it was my ONLY choice. I have to say that compared to french and english textbooks I have used, I find PAVC lacking in many aspects. For one, it is practically monochromatic. Then, the examples MIGHT be clear, but hard to remember. It looks like a thirty year old textbook.

I ordered three chinese breeze texts, one of which did arrive. It is rather short and very poorly illustrated. On the bright side, the vocabulary is not extensive, which makes it easier to read.

The best content I found (comparatively) was some online trial of flash courses for six year olds. The problem is that since it is designed for kids, the progression is very slow. Even the flash animations progress slowly :/ For the most part, it could be seen as vocabulary only.

As mentioned, brute force method was a complete failure. Rossetta stone, likewise.

In the end I was following PAVC some days, learning words and expressions from far east 3000 others, listening others, and writing characters everyday (about five hundred to one thousand character iterations everyday) That for about eight weeks, with minimal results.

Four months after completely abandoning active learning, I know very few actual characters and meanings, and no expressions. I "think" I could have done better with a structured course. Chinese, for me, is too complex as to attempt with unrelated material.

If/when I find a better approach, I will try again