Anyone got/used/interested in Tiantian Zhongwen readers?

[Elizabeth_rb]

Hi!

 

Does anyone have any knowledge of/interest in the 天天中文 graded reader series?  (I noticed geiko had the 4 volumes published so far on their shelfies....)  There are about 20 very short stories of 200-300 characters in each book and they seem to be a cross between a reader and a textbook, from what little I can gather from the Amazon details.

 

There were originally meant to be 4 levels, but they seem to have ditched plans for the highest one (rats!).  However, some of the others look good.  I'm quite keen to get a look at the violet level ones, using 2000 items of Chinese vocab and no pinyin.  Seems that the turquoise level pair have pinyin above the characters and they use 1000 lexical items.

 

Any comments, anyone?  Anyone be interested in a sort of 'group read' of one of the violet level volumes?

[Guest LittleDreamer]

For wich level are they?

I'd like to see them if they'd be for HSK2-3 no more.

[Silent]

I think they are （almost) identical to the 中文天天读  series. These do exist in 5 levels，2 volumes per level and come with CD. I've 5 volumes (2b -4b). (maybe 6 as I'm not sure or I misplaced volume 2a or that I didn't buy it as the stories used to be on http://www.slow-chinese.com/) The level 5 books seem rare, that is, when I just checked I saw the 5b volume for the first time and the 5a volume I've not yet seen.

 

On first use I felt that level 2 books (1000 vocabulary), were easier then level 2 chinese breeze (500 words). Personally I feel the stories are very short, specially at the higher levels, too short. Positives, every story has a couple of language points and most stories try to give some cultural insights.

[Elizabeth_rb]

Sorry Little Dreamer, they don't come with an HSK level on them!   Personally, I'd like one for level 5, but that's not too likely....

 

As I mentioned above, one set is 1000 word level and the next is 2000 word knowledge.  There are two more coming out later this year at 500, but they're not due out for a bit.  Sadly, they seem to have cancelled the 3000 word set.

[Geiko]

Hi Elizabeth! I do have the four volumes of 天天中文, and also some of the 中文天天读, and like Silent said, they are almost identical. For example, "Teahouses in China" (purple) corresponds to "Let's get married on August 8th" (level 3A). The stories are almost the same (the former has 20, the latter 25), and the differences between both books' stories are minimal, maybe different titles. Had I known it before, I would have bought only the 中文天天读 books, because they have some more stories, and deffinitely more levels (levels 4 and 5 have 3500 and 5000 words respectively). 

 

I'm attaching some photos, so that you can compare both books (中文天天读 on the left, 天天中文 on the right).

 

That being said, if you want to organize a "group read", I'll be glad to join!

[Elizabeth_rb]

You're on, Geiko!  I've ordered both the violet level ones (I've never come across the other series, but will keep my eyes open for them later on - upper levels.)  My books should come this week.

[Elizabeth_rb]

So, my books have come.  How do I organise a group read?  Even if there's only the two of us doing it, it's still worthwhile - study buddy idea, sort of!

 

Anyone who wants to join in could use either the old of the new 'versions' of the readers, as long as we look at the same texts.

 

What next, please?  This is new turf for me, but I'm eager to start!

[MRB]

Hi,

 

I am ready to go too!

 

Martin

PS. Can we please share the book?

[li3wei1]

I've just ordered the two violet ones myself, will join in when I get them.

[Elizabeth_rb]

OK, great.  So that's four of us so far.

 

How would we organise it?  How many stories per week, say?  They don't take long to do, so 3 or 4 may be possible?

 

What say you??  Help me out here, I've never done this sort of thing before!