Resources written in Traditional Chinese

[Pokarface]

I'm learning Traditional characters.

Do you have any recommendations you've actually used and tell me why you liked or didn't like them?

All my Chinese books are written in simplified. Only my Tuttle flashcards features both, simplified and traditional, which is a plus.

I'll need more material to learn/read Traditional characters. I already have Pleco's full version as well which I use to look at the stroke order and sentence structures.

 

Please do not start a war over traditional vs. simplified. This always tends to happen.

[TheBigZaboon]

Your profile location under your avatar indicates you are in the USA. If that is the case, you should have no problems finding study materials in either simplified or traditional. In fact many textbook series, apart from those offering separate volumes with characters in one or the other, print identical text and explanations, with simplified on one page, and traditional on the facing page.

In the US, rising numbers of immigrants and academics from the mainland cannot match the tenacity and influence of Taiwan-originated Tiger Mothers in the textbook and testing industry related to the Chinese Advanced Placement (AP) test segment of the SATs. This affords you access to traditional characters and a lot of very, very good, very 'old fashioned' Chinese culture materials (by which I mean a less 'secular' presentation than that available in mainland textbooks).

Let me know the level and type of textbook you are interested in, and I will try to point you in the right direction.

TBZ

[Pokarface]

Thanks for your quick reply @TheBigZaboon. 

 

I want to learn 1,000 traditional characters and start reading\texting ASAP. I don't mind if writing takes longer, but I'll still practice by writing sentences (handwritten sentences since this makes learning more memorable to me) 

I can probably speak at HSK 3 but can't write much.

Note: I'm not planning to take a test. I just learn for fun. I've heard that with 1,000 characters and recognizing a LOT of combinations, I'll be able to read around ~86% to 90% of written content, so this is a big motivator to get me interested in the written language.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES8hCCJ2V1s  << This is my current spoken level. I see you are in Tokyo, so you can access youtube =-)

 

Yes, I'm in the U.S. I can buy a lot of resources, but which ones are ideal?

I've seen these in the U.S, Integrated Chinese, Colloquial Chinese (Traditional version), Reading\Writing Chinese Traditional Character Edition, Practical Chinese Reader.

 

If you know of any book/cds being used in Taiwanese universities to teach foreigners, please let me know. I can simply order them and wait a couple of weeks for them.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Integrated-Chinese-Traditional-Character-Workbook/dp/0887277330/

 

http://www.amazon.com/Character-Text-Colloquial-Chinese-English/dp/0950857203/  (I have the pinyin version of this book already)

 

http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Writing-Chinese-Traditional-Comprehensive/dp/0804832064/  A Taiwanese friend let me borrow this one.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Chinese-Reader-Book-Traditional/dp/0887272290/  ( I have the New Practical Chinese Reader but I won't use it since it's written in simplified)

 

I've seen graded readers with 300 characters, so I was planning on using them (except that I don't know 300 characters yet)

[Shelley]

This is the New Practical Chinese Reader Traditional characters http://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Practical-Chinese-Reader-Vol/dp/7561919352

 

I have found quite a lot of my study materials although aimed at simplified also shows the traditional characters.

 

You might be interseted in a new little app I have discovered called Hello Chinese - Learn Chinese it is availble for android and iOS, and offers simplified or traditional. i did a little review in my blog http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/blog/108/entry-605-my-learning-materials-and-resources/

and the app developer is a forum member.

[Hofmann]

This used to work pretty well but now it doesn't necessarily.

[Flickserve]

I used that very old book, Beginning Chinese Reader I and II by DeFrancis. I have lost them now It gives 400 words in the first volume to bring you up to 65-70% and then the next 400 words gets you to 75% (if my memory serves me correctly).

I am a bit doubtful of knowing 1000 words getting you to 90% but it is all about what material you get on your wechat.

[TheBigZaboon]

Pokarface,

If you are hovering around the HSK 3 level, I would probably recommend getting the traditional character text for the Tung and Pollard book you already have, and as it starts from the beginning, working through that until you reach a level matching your current abilities. The advantages, to me at least, are several. You learn to read in context instead of simply trying to memorize isolated characters from a list. And that book has a very good reputation on this forum, although it seems to be mainland, post revolutionary in it's example sentences and dialogues. That should present no problems, as you are merely trying to catch up in traditional characters with your current level in simplified. It has the added advantage of being cheap, and being available second-hand.

I haven't seen the app Shelley recommended, but I am going to take a look at it this week. I like the idea of having a portable learning tool on my phone or a tablet.

If you have suddenly fallen in love with Taiwan (as opposed to Xian, for example), then for the future, to choose study materials, I recommend you go to university bookstores and actually get your hands on intermediate level books published in the US or Taiwan to judge the levels for yourself.

I am a fan of stuff published by Cheng & Tsui like Crossing Paths and Shifting Tides, but these are being supplanted by newer stuff, and may be hard to find in traditional. But anything by this publisher is good. Just confirm beforehand that you are getting either a traditional character version, or a dual character version.

Chaoyue (ISBN 9780231145299) is another intermediate book with a Taiwan flavor to it. It has both simplified and traditional in the texts, examples and explanations, as well as a workbook with additional listening materials.

David and Helen in China is well respected, but the traditional and simplified versions are separate, so make sure you are getting the one you want.

Actual Taiwan-published books have been reviewed elsewhere on this forum, and although it seems to be the prevailing wisdom that there are only two available, the Audio-visual Chinese series and the Far East Everyday series, that is not the case. There are a number of excellent series that cover the whole spectrum from beginner to advanced, but they are hard to find, and expensive to import from Taiwan, so I am not going to go into them.

The one exception, and it is available from Amazon, is a nifty little cultural reader that is obviously the result of influence from Taiwanese Tiger Mothers in the US. It is called Far East Chinese Culture Enrichment Activities for Reading and Writing (ISBN 9789576129544 for the traditional version). It is obviously a labor of love for parents desperate for a way to try to instill a knowledge of Chinese culture as practiced in Taiwan and other parts of the Chinese diaspora in their children. I think it's probably appropriate after you finish or get at least partway through the Tung and Pollard character text. I think you will like it.

Finally, as mentioned by flickserve, we come to the Defrancis series of texts and readers. For me, at least, this is the gold standard for all-in-one-place learning of Chinese in traditional characters. It is old alright, but not in any way that makes any serious difference for your study of Chinese. It is SRS before there was SRS. The characters are introduced and systematically repeated and recombined to give you an excellent basic vocabulary in Chinese. Both new reprints and second-hand versions are available to meet your budget, and all the recordings are available for free on iTunes.

I'm going to stop here, as I have already worn out my welcome. My wife is off in Hong Kong for a few days, so I can sit and peck out this mind-meld on my tablet in peace. But I have got stuff to do. If you have any questions, I will try to help, but I think you've got enough here to keep you busy for a while.

TBZ

PS edit:

David and Helen is actually set in Taiwan, although I don't think that really makes any difference. However, I overlooked Taiwan Today published by Cheng & Tsui. It is excellent, and contains both simplified and traditional for everything. Just make sure you get the 3rd edition if you choose this one. There is still an older Taiwanese edition floating around, especially in Taiwan, but it may not have both character styles and full recordings.

[Shelley]

@TheBigZaboon be careful when you go looking for the the app there are several with a similar name. To make it easy here's a link to their website. http://www.hellochinese.cc/

 

Hope you enjoy it.

[pross]

``David & Helen in China`` is set both in Taipei and Beijing. The author claims it is suitable for students who have already completed Colloquial Chinese, which is mainly why I chose it. I only have the simplified version, can't commend on the traditional character version.

[stapler]

I am a fan of stuff published by Cheng & Tsui like Crossing Paths and Shifting Tides, but these are being supplanted by newer stuff, and may be hard to find in traditional. But anything by this publisher is good. Just confirm beforehand that you are getting either a traditional character version, or a dual character version.

 

Those are both great books. I'm curious about what you think has 'supplanted' (better than?) them?

[TheBigZaboon]

@stapler,

By supplanted, I certainly don't mean better than, but I mean they (C&T) are promoting other, newer, products. They're a business, so you can't blame them for that. But as stocks of these texts run low, I don't think they'll pay to have more copies reprinted.

There was a mainland Chinese version printed a few years ago that differed only in that it had a slightly more attractive layout and a copy of the listening comprehension exercise (with only the text in Chinese, but no vocabulary) at the end of each chapter. But, because the US version of the audio was obviously recorded by the teachers, the Chinese publishers were unsatisfied, and recorded their own audio. It had the usual Chinese format of one huge track per chapter, rather than the eight or so tracks the US version had. That nullified a significant advantage of the us version.

You may be able to find the Chinese version of the text (simplified only), but the CDs (sold separately, rather than bound into the book) are out of print. As for a traditional character version of the US texts, I think there was one, but I don't think you're gonna find it anywhere now.

Personally, I think this two volume combo is an excellent intermediate course, but C&T has chosen to make newer editions of Beyond the Basics (2nd) and Taiwan Today (3rd), and not update these two.

Lots of other very, very good texts, like Chinese Odyssey, were also allowed to fall by the wayside, although this was due more to a software incompatibility problem between Microsoft XP and later versions like Vista, than to any fault of the textbook series. But business needs meant the publishers couldn't (or weren't willing to) afford the cost of new programming.

Anyway, sorry my initial meaning was unclear.

[stapler]

Ah that's a shame!

[Pokarface]

Hi. Guys. Sorry for not replying earlier. I'm on vacations visiting family. Will read thoroughly once I head back home and propose myself to finally learn Chinese,lol

[Pokarface]

I went ahead and ordered Colloquial Chinese, New Practical Chinese Reader, and DeFrancis since the other ones recommended are aimed to intermediate students. (Dat moment when your hobbies are more interesting than your career, LOL  )

 

My strategy is to read a couple of lessons for each book and continue on the ones that suit my learning style =-D

 

I downloaded HelloChinese. I'm speed-running through the first lessons since they are too easy (they use very common characters that I accidentally learned by text-messaging with natives quite often). 

I gotta see how far I can get on the App to see my level.

[oceancalligraphy]

A bit late, but CCBC Publishing is from Taiwan and publishes the textbooks used in most of the language schools in Taiwan. They have an Amazon storefront. I have not used the books, but there are plenty of discussions on the forums about them.

[Pokarface]

@Yst you are not late at all. Chinese takes a lifetime to master. I'll take a look at them once I'm able to crush the beginner level books I just purchased. Thank you