My teacher offered to bring me some learning materials from China, can you guys help me choose?

[dr. Hannibal Lecter]

After many years of self-study, I finally got a chinese teacher in the form of Conficius Institute beginners course. I live in Croatia and not many chinese courses are happening here (read: none), so this is a pretty big deal for me as I finally got some feedback on my pronunciation and some actual practise in listening.

My teacher is going home in a short while, and she offered to bring me something back if I tell her in advance. The reason why this is a good thing is that shipping to Croatia often costs more than the thing you're ordering (I'm looking at you, damn dirty Amazon).

Now I'm trying to figure out what's the best choice here.. I am thinking books, of course, because that's something I can use on my own. However, I have no idea how to pick something from China I was thinking of picking something from Sinolingua, but the choices are many, and I'm not informed enough about them to make a decision. I don't even know if things there can be obtained easily in 荆州...

To give you some idea where I am: I estimate that I'm somewhere around ~500 familiar characters, and according to my own testing, I can probably pass HSK1 and HSK2 at any time, I'd probably have to study a bit for HSK3, but I'd get my ass handed to me in HSK4. Because I don't have any interaction in Chinese, my biggest problems are listening (I'm really horrible at understanding new audio, and it's even worse in person) and making my own sentences (simply not enough experience, or sufficient grammar knowledge to form anything but the most basic sentences). I'm slightly better at reading and writing, although I still have some issues when running into sentences with unfamiliar grammar structures and unknown phrases. So I guess I'm kind of stuck on an upper-beginner level?

If you guys can help me out in picking something good which is not easily obtainable outside China (graded readers, grammar books, or anything you think would be useful to get at my level), I'd be most grateful. Thanks!

[889]

My favorite companion learning Chinese was a good, collegiate-level Chinese-English dictionary, specifically the 汉英词典 "A Chinese-English Dictionary." Indeed, it's within arm's-reach at the moment.

 

But be very aware that buying specific books in China can be difficult, especially outside the largest cities, though even there often a problem as well. You don't want to send your friend on a wild hunt all over Beijing, etc. Whatever you do, just give your friend a broad suggestion or two, not specific requests as such. (Yes, books can often be bought on the web, but not always reliably and there may be timing considerations.)

 

Frankly, the polite way, in Chinese terms, to deal with this offer is to simply say no, that would be too heavy an imposition. Maybe if she asks again and then again, you can take up her third offer, but as I said, only with great consideration for the hassle that might be involved. Chinese friends will often go very far out of their way to meet what you thought was just a suggestion.

[kangrepublic]

Maybe something like Home With Kids or some Graded Reader / short story with audio might be good. The Home with Kids book is good but might be a bit of a stretch at your level. I got it for 100 yuan in Beijing. It breaks the first 4 episodes down into 2-4 minute chunks and then has grammar points and exercises.

 

Also the Chinese Breeze could be quite good for you. Could probably get a fair few of those and they would keep you happy for a while.

 

But yeah, 889 makes a good point. Make sure your teacher knows that you just want something like that and that you don't want her to spend time on searching for them if she can't find them. I wouldn't say don't take her up the offer though.

 

I prefer to be more digital these days though so I would look in that direction for more options. For instance there are many apps if you have a smart phone.

[onebir]

You could have a look at http://www.studychineseculture.com, which has an excellent range, to see what might be available. It's run by Ellen, who's very helpful & might be prepared to offer some quick pointers even if you're not buying from there.

[eion_padraig]

Even if Jingzhou doesn't have books in a bookstore, it's easy enough if your teacher has a Taobao account to get many of these delivered to her home. Depending on how long she is back, she could order it in advance and have it there when she returns.

 

I would agree with Kangrepublic about the Graded Reader series by Sinolingua. The Graded Chinese Reader 500 Words (orange color) and the Graded Chinese Reader 3 (blue color; 1000 words) both come with cd recording of the stories. These short stories (20 - 90 pages each in length) are in characters with pinyin below that you can block with a screen that each book comes with. Each one is 42 RMB.

 

Also, I'd say you might want to think about the level 2 and level 3 Chinese Breeze series; http://www.chinesebreeze.net. Those also come with cd recordings of the story. Each of those go for 16 RMB. The level 2 are probably right where you're at now, but the audio would probably be helpful. There are only 3 (4?) of the level 3 books out so far, but they'd be a bit too high for you at your level from your description. However, it would be something you could work on with a relatively small improvement.

 

I'm also a fan of FLTRP Graded Readers - Reading China. They start of with level 1 and go to level 5. Each level has a volume A and a second volume B. They also come with cd recordings of the stories. As the levels go up, the articles/stories get a bit longer and they give little quizzes and grammar explanations after each article. Those range from mid-30 RMB to mid-40 RMB. http://www.amazon.com/Marvellous-Chinese-Readers-Reading-English/dp/7560082343

 

All those are cheaper and easier to find within China. Also, they're small and lightweight as books go.

 

I haven't found the Chinese Grammar books that I've seen to be very helpful myself. I use Yip Po Ching and Don Rimmington's grammar books when I need detail. The online grammar wiki (https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/) works well for me, though there have been criticisms of the examples from native speakers on this website.

 

Good luck.

 

Eion

[dr. Hannibal Lecter]

Thanks guys! Lots of useful advice.

 

I was thinking of making a short list or graded readers so she can bring whatever she finds first (2x second level and 1x third level of chinese breeze perhaps?), and maybe including "Illustrated Account of Chinese Characters" by Guanghui Xie, although I'm not sure how useful it will be for me at this point.

 

I already have two Chinese Breeze books ("Can I dance with you?" and "Two Children Seeking The Joy Bridge"), so I might as well continue with them.

 

巴金 stories are very tempting, but I'm honestly a bit scared of trying to read them, I've found a few sample chapters on pinyin.info, and it looks like they are just beyond what I can read without relocating to a dictionary every 5 seconds :-&