Chinese Made Easy - Yamin Ma, Xinying Li

[Flickserve]

Disclaimer: No way associated financially with these books.

 

http://www.chinesemadeeasy.com/productslist.aspx?id=1004

 

 

The good thing is that there is a traditional chinese character version.

 

The audio files are also downloadable.

 

The books are used for IGCSE exams. Currently used in at least one international schools in HK for IGCSE

 

The topics are presented in a  less dry fashion compared to NCPR. That's probably a good thing if you have teenagers trying to learn Chinese.

 

Unfortunately, although the introduction states the series incorporates HSK vocabulary, it doesn't state which books are appropriate to which level of HSK. It seems that book 4 is around HSK 3 because I can read lot of the words in this textbook.

 

Currently in 3rd edition.

 

[DavyJonesLocker]

6 hours ago, Flickserve said:

 

Unfortunately, although the introduction states the series incorporates HSK vocabulary, it doesn't state which books are appropriate to which level of HSK. It seems that book 4 is around HSK 3 because I can read lot of the words in this textbook.

 

Thanks for the recommendation. 

Seems from here that it correspond more or less directly to hsk levels , I.e level 4 to HSK 4 but with books 6 and 7 to HSK 6.

 

Haven't used them but they look interesting

 

 

[Flickserve]

Ah, I didn't read that properly. Thanks for that. I just looked at the preface of the book.

[DavyJonesLocker]

2 hours ago, Flickserve said:

Ah, I didn't read that properly. Thanks for that. I just looked at the preface of the book.

 

Actually I think it's good to read a wide range of books even at the same HSK level. I find most books especially HSK 5 onwards include a LOT of extra words that don't appear in the syllabus nor the word list at the start of the chapter. So in effect they serve as a graded reader. I am reviewing Standard course Chinese HSK5 at the moment and every chapter includes 35 to 40 words however an extra 10 to 20 is sprinkled around each chapter . While I quite dislike this style in a teaching book it does allow you to build a wider set of vocabulary at a particular HSK level. 

[TheBigZaboon]

Bumping this topic for the use of the title, that is, the name of the company: Chinese made easy..., But with respect to materials for IBDP Chinese B, rather than IGCSE. The Chinese B material is a bit expensive, and has no glossaries or pinyin, except in the central textbooks, but there's lots of reasonably high-level 听力 material for people who can dispense with that kind of support, but still make use of the content. 

 

My problem is that the audio doesn't seem to be downloadable, although it can be used on-line. On-line use can make the cost prohibitive if you don't have a low-cost, high bandwidth internet provider.

 

If seems that if you buy the books directly from Chinese made easy, you get download privileges. But if you buy from another seller, like Amazon, you only get access to on-line use. IBDP Chinese B is a scheme that provides course material for international secondary schools to give them standards that will be recognized by colleges and universities internationally. I personally find the stuff very useful for high volume 听力 material that provides 3 to 4 minutes of content at a time, and lots of it. I crave volume, but don't need the support. And I enjoy the small amount of downtime when I don't know half a dozen words pertaining to something like cooking oil, and have to puzzle them out. 

 

But the lack of download privileges is galling, and very inconvenient in subway tunnels and massive concrete and steel buildings. Does anyone here know anything about audio access with this publisher?

 

Help would be greatly appreciated.

 

TBZ