Chinese Made Easier ?

[chinabush]

Anyone have experience with this text?  I see it used quite often by expats here in China, but rarely see it mentioned in forums like this, etc.  

 

It seems that the strong points are dialogues with subject matter / vocabulary that aids practical living in China, and an emphasis on grammar (easier to understand, for example, than NPCR)

 

I am looking to 'restart' my studies, considering different texts.. any comments appreciated!

[elina]

Take a look at this thread.

[Iso]

CME is pretty helpful if you are already in China - you will much more likely use CME's vocabulary in daily life than NPCR's. A good example is 卫生纸 mentioned in CME 1 and probably very useful in the rural areas of China ;-) On the other hand some of the vocabulary might be very outdated or is simply not used. I never heard somebody introducing himself by 免贵姓…… neither do I frequently visit the 邮局.

The grammar explanations are very well done and easy to understand, but the exercises are too dull. But the same could be said about NPCR's exercises (only referring to those in the text book).

 

If you plan to visit China soon you should stick to CME, but if you want to study it seriously and consider to got to university NPCR is the better choice.