Review of Common Chinese Patterns 330

[Ania]

This is a review for Common Chinese Patterns 330 (http://www.studychineseculture.com/book.asp?id=5389), a book which I was fortunate enough to receive as part of a free books giveaway on this forum (http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/44629-no-more-free-chinese-books-for-now)

 

I haven’t gone through the entire book yet, but I have covered enough to write a decent review that will hopefully be of some use to other learners.

 

As the name suggests, the book introduces some common patterns used in Chinese, words that always go together, but if you don’t know that particular patterns, you have no idea what the expression actually means.

 

The patterns in the book are arranged alphabetically according to the first character of the pattern and the chapter for each pattern contains the following sections:

 

1) Explanation – it tells you what the pattern means.

 

2) Examples – a few sentences that show you how the pattern is used. I found this section especially useful, because sometimes you think you know how to use a certain expression just by reading the explanation, but it’s not until you see it in context that you really start to understand when and how to use certain expressions. I liked the fact that the examples included sentences of different types, so that you can see how the expressions work in different contexts.

 

3) Dialogues – again a very useful section that lets you see how the patterns are used not only in sentences, but also in dialogues, which allows you to see the expressions as reactions to something that has been said earlier.

 

4) Exercises – contains exercises where you have to form your own sentences with a particular pattern to complete short conversations. For me it was very useful not just for practicing the newly learned patterns, but also in general. I found the dialogues very practical and helpful.

 

The first three sections are in Chinese and English, so every sentence in Chinese has an English translation. The exercises apart from the instructions are entirely in Chinese (simplified, just like the entire book).

 

All in all, I think the book is a great resource that helps you understand many of the patterns which you have to use in particular contexts and situation and it’s not always easy to use them correctly after just reading an explanation or 1 example. The book offers a lot more and it certainly helped me understand some of the language patterns better.

 

The only complaint I have is that I could have used exercises on multiple patterns, where you would have to choose which one to use. I think that would be even more helpful in understanding the patterns and learning how to apply them. But other than that I found the book extremely useful and I will definitely continue to use it and learn even more from it. 

[Iso]

For which learners is the book suitable? There seem to be some really easy patterns (还没……呢 - beginner level imho) and much more advanced expressions (……和……比起来) ...

[Ania]

Unfortunately with my current level of Chinese it's difficult for me to assess exactly how advanced some of those patterns are. For the purpose of writing this review I have covered only the expressions that I have encountered in my Chinese studies to date. From what I understand the book is not suited specifically for any particular level, but rather a compilation of the common patterns, some of which being easier and more common than others.

 

If you go to the following link, you can see a breakdown of the patterns by HSK level (taking into account the characters and not the patterns): http://www.hskhsk.com/2/post/2013/06/common-chinese-patterns-330-by-hsk-level.html

[Iso]

Thanks - good to see the whole pattern list online At least I can see how many patterns I don't know.

[Demonic_Duck]

If you go to the following link, you can see a breakdown of the patterns by HSK level (taking into account the characters and not the patterns): http://www.hskhsk.co...-hsk-level.html

First one in HSK1 is 爱～不～... I swear I've never learnt this, never come across this in daily life or in writing, and if I did come across it wouldn't know what it meant.

 

Does this mean I'm not yet at HSK1 level?

[Iso]

How should I say it... Yes, you didn't even reach HSK 1 

Well, kidding aside, I think you will understand the pattern from context when you see it (http://niubilicious.com/tag/common-sentence-patterns/). At least with my very limited skills I can understand the samples. But I have to admit that I haven't seen it before either.

[Demonic_Duck]

Sure, I understand it now I've looked it up. What I mean is, if I hadn't looked it up, and had seen it somewhere that the meaning wasn't made clear by context clues, I probably wouldn't have understood it.

[russmeier]

Ania,

Thanks for the review. Please tell us if the introduction of the pattern and explanations are in English and Chinese or just in Chinese. That makes a big difference to learners based on current skill level. Some advanced speakers and readers might be able to use an all Chinese book, but most beginning and intermediate learners could not.

Thanks

Russ

[Ania]

Russ, thank you for pointing out that I forgot to mention that important fact. I added the information to my review

 

The explanations, examples and dialogues are both in Chinese and English, but the exercises are in Chinese only (minus the instructions which are also Chinese-English). 

[russmeier]

Ania,

Thanks for clarifying the English-Chinese combinations. I just ordered one and look forward to reading it and working the exercises.

Russ

[大肚男]

 

First one in HSK1 is 爱～不～... I swear I've never learnt this, never come across this in daily life or in writing, and if I did come across it wouldn't know what it meant.

 

Does this mean I'm not yet at HSK1 level? 

 

The HSK classification is only based on what characters are in the pattern. For the 爱～不～ example, both 爱 and 不 are HSK 1 characters, so the pattern 爱～不～ is classified as HSK 1.

 

For the pattern 到时候～, 到 is an HSK2 character, and 时候 are HSK1 characters, so the pattern is classified as an HSK2 pattern.

 

 

[PBolchover]

I have found that this book is an excellent companion to "Road to Success: Upper Elementary".  The sentence patterns appear to be at the upper elementary / lower intermediate level.  (I.e students who are confident with "ba" sentences, -zhe, -le and -guo, and also complements, will start learning sentence patterns similar to this in their next level of study)

[Demonic_Duck]

The HSK classification is only based on what characters are in the pattern. For the 爱～不～ example, both 爱 and 不 are HSK 1 characters, so the pattern 爱～不～ is classified as HSK 1.

 

For the pattern 到时候～, 到 is an HSK2 character, and 时候 are HSK1 characters, so the pattern is classified as an HSK2 pattern.

 

Aaah, I see. That makes a lot more sense, then.

 

Also, in one of those marvelous moments of language learning serendipity that seem to happen implausibly frequently, I first noticed this structure in a native context just yesterday (爱信不信).

 

Edit: I also just realised my English reading comprehension sucks, I missed the part in Ania's post explaining this... d'oh!

[icebear]

Just chiming in that I'm a big fan of this book.

[quoji]

Went through a similar book (don't know the name) and a good chunk maybe 80% were useable stuff that you'd run into (although actually using all of them yourself doesn't really pan out just from reading about them I wouldn't say).  These types of books are more valuable to go through than most generic vocab lessons since the phrases aren't something you could figure out on your own with a dictionary. 

[Zeppa]

I'd just like to add how stupid that site linking the patterns to HSK levels is - except, as someone said, because it gives a complete list. I started looking at it and then realized you don't get any such patterns at all at HSK 1. Incidentally, they give 68 as 的话, which doesn't match my copy of the book.

There is not even any guarantee that the patterns selected as HSK 1 are easier or more common than those selected as higher levels.

Rubbish!

[querido]

He said "...HSK level (taking into account the characters and not the patterns)". 

[Zeppa]

Yes, I read what Ania wrote (had assumed she was a woman). But I still didn't really register it, because it seems so ridiculous. So I thought I'd emphasize it here.

 

Sorry if that annoyed you, but that's what the internet is like!

[ChTTay]

Better extremely late than never. Alina has done a good job of giving a general overview of the book
330 Common Chinese Patterns so I won't go into that too much.

The layout of the book is straightforward and easy to use. Each page is devoted to a specific structure
and this includes a basic definition, example sentences and dialogues as well as a few exercises.
I like the English definition given at the top of the page for easy reference.

There are plenty of examples to help you understand how the structure is used. They could perhaps
update or change the example sentences to make sure they're ones that a typical student of Chinese
would either use or hear in daily life. I found some didn't seem that useful. This could just be my
level of Chinese though.

The exercises are also useful in helping to understand how the structure is used. In an ideal world,
there would be more of these and a variety. However, as each common pattern is limited to a page there
just isn't enough room for more exercises. I think a small 'work book' to accompany the main book
could be a good addition. It could give even more examples, include gapfills, and maybe some longer
writing/essay style sections where you need to use multiple sentence patterns to answer.

There are a few sentence patterns in the book that are also in HSK exams. However, I wouldn't say that
this should be the main reason for using the book. Most of the patterns here seem more about day to
day life, speaking Chinese. I am using the text book 'developing chinese' [int 1 speaking] at the moment and it has
a number of structures that, per my tutor, are often used by Chinese people. My tutor also said that
any student that understands and uses these regularly is one that has really made the jump to a higher
level.

As it happens, a lot of the patterns and structures in this speaking textbook are also in 330. This is great for
me as it means I have additional explanations and examples to reference. I find the 'developing chinese'
textbook has better exercises but lacks explanation. The two together work really well. I have also noticed some of the patterns cropping up in daily life.

I don't currently use much native material as I'm only now slowly slowly getting back to studying
Chinese after a fairly long break (11-12 months). I'm hoping I start to hear these patterns in daily
life and perhaps on TV once I get to that point.

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone. It's well worth having this as a companion to your
regular speaking textbook.
 

Edit: I forgot to mention I was given the book in the same give-a-way as above.

[ChTTay]

Bump. Anyone made flashcards in anki for 330? 

 

I’m either looking to get some pre-made ones OR just advice on how to make them (a good layout in Anki which I’ve ever really used properly). 

 

Any help apprexiated