Any opinions on Zhōngguóhuà (1 + 2) Textbook? / quick review of Huìhuà Textbook (BLCUP) German

[Ruben von Zwack]

Hi all!

I was wondering if any of you had an opinion on this textbook:

Zhōngguóhuà (ISBN-10: 3905816113, ISBN-13: 978-3905816112)

It comes with a Zhōngguózì practice book but that seems to cover 200 characters only.

It seems it's a cooperation between the Commercial Press and the University of Zurich, Switzerland.

The idea that the lessons are sorted by topic seems somewhat appealing to me.

The few pictures of inside the books that I found online were not telling too much. So has anyone seen it "live" or even used it?

I'm at low intermediate and I am very happy with the resources that I have (Routledge's Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar + workbook, a few graded readers, the HSK outlines to know which vocab is a "must", a good wuxia series, and some Taiwanese friends who I can bug with questions) but I feel like I should use a textbook to learn more systematically.

I have been reading as much as I could on this sub forum and think I can cross out quite a few textbooks which are too voluminous or too costly, or need actual classes and a teacher.

My personal aim for the moment is just getting better in everyday communication for daily life and travel, not studying Chinese on a scholarly level.

Thanks for your opinions!

[hackinger]

Hi,

I do not know these books, but I assume that you have seen the example pages at chinabooks.ch?

http://www.chinabook...roducts_id=2977

I like huihua (Chinesische Konversation 301) 1 and 2:

German version (of course versions for English and other languages are available):

http://www.chinabook...he Konversation

Also available at amazon.de. Larger bookstores will have them too.

If that is too easy, or afterwards, on to Intermediate Spoken Chinese:

http://www.chinabooks.ch/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=561

Cheers

hackinger

[Ruben von Zwack]

Danke Hackinger!

Thanks for your suggestions - will look into them! But I can't open your links, did you paste them while you were logged in?

Yeah, exactly, the example pages on Chinabooks were the ones where I thought they don't give away so much.

[hackinger]

Links should work now ...

[Ruben von Zwack]

So I got the Huìhuà 301 上 and 下 textbook and CDs, and they were just what I was looking for - everyday communication, in a very structured manner.

The books are handy medium size and the print is not too fancy, but also not bad (as some Chinese textbooks can be, imo), nice smooth paper and all. There are some typos (not errors) in the German, as can be expected with a German book that was proof read in China, so I don't mind.

The speed of the audio is quite slow, but the quality is really good, so that will be excellent for a true beginner. I haven't really figured out how the track numbers correspond to the numbers in the textbook, but I am confident I will find out soon enough. (edit: they don't, lol, so renaming the mp3s is a bit of a drag)

You'll have to buy everything separately on Amazon, but when you order on chinabooks.ch, the CDs are included in the book price and it's really reasonable.

Bottom Line: Good value for your money!

[linguaholic]

Hi there

I am currently studyin Chinese at the University of Zurich and in the first year, we used those two textbooks you mentioned ( zhongguohua).

I personally think that both of them are ok. I am not crazy about them but I heard that they even received some awards. Moreover, I know one of the authors of those books in person.

For me, the blue blook to study the characters is pretty good. The other one is just "standard" in my opinion.

If you are looking for a good Grammar Book, then I can really recommend "Chinesische Grammatik für Deutsche". This is the best book for studying Chinese that I ever came across.

regards

马赛尔

ps: if you got any specific questions about the zhongguohua books, just ask me :=)

[Ruben von Zwack]

Hey, thanks for the reply !

Actually, in the meantime, I started working with the huìhuà textbooks + CDs that hackinger recommended above. But I do have a question about

Zhōngguóhuà - could I use the characters book independently of the textbook? Oh and of course, what is it you like about the character book? (I find there is a confusing gazillion of books on Chinese characters out there).

[linguaholic]

you are right, there are so many books out there to study Chinese Characters...I got all those zhongguohua books somewhere on my book shelf =) I will take them down in the next few days and then I will hopefully be able to tell you in more detail what I like(d) about it (especially speaking about the blue one for studying characters).

regards

Marcel