Essential Mandarin Chinese Grammar - Vivian Ling

[Guest realmayo]

As a fully paid-up member of the cult of Vivian Ling, I've been using this newish (2020) book to try to force myself to speak better Chinese. There are lots of 'advanced' grammar patterns which might be HSK4/5/6 (say) which I understand without any effort but never use in normal speech, even though native speakers do all the time.

 

And that is what Essential Mandarin Chinese Grammar is designed for. The introduction:

 

Quote

This book is designed for learners who are motivated to boost their skills beyond the current level, perhaps even up to a professional or university graduate level. For such motivated learners, this book aims to make the study of Chinese grammar efficient and interesting. It provides a systematic overview of the grammar with a special focus on issues and pitfalls that affect English speakers.

 

Introduction continues:

Spoiler

     Do not blame yourself if you feel your current grasp of Chinese grammar is weak. The current trend in teaching foreign languages has shifted away from the old-school grammatical orientation to a modern communicative approach. Both methods have their pluses and minuses, and the ideal approach actually combines the two. The advantages of the communicative orientation are clear in the early learning stages; however, its disadvantages begin to emerge at the intermediate level. The opposite is true of the grammatical structure approach.

 

    Students who have learned Chinese mainly by following the communicative approach often find themselves acquiring more sophisticated vocabulary at the intermediate level, while lacking the grammatical frameworks to hang it on. Some may actually be able to use their newly-acquired vocabulary, but lack self-confidence and feel as though they are “winging it.” Some may choose to simply to stay within their “safety zone,” using only the tried-and-true can’t-go-wrong sentence patterns they already know, while avoiding the more complicated patterns that make one’s language lively and articulate. This book aims to remove this bottleneck, and to provide you with the grammatical apparatus to continue building your proficiency in Chinese beyond the beginner level.

 

    Learning a foreign language is a two-pronged “fact-act” endeavor. Knowing the “facts” of the language is essential, but putting that knowledge into action is the real key to building communication skills. This book provides both the “facts”—in the form of grammatical explanations—as well as the materials for practicing the “act,” in the form of copious usage examples and exercises with answer keys. Explanations of grammar points are unavoidably abstract or technical, but the examples that follow the explanations make them concrete and clear. The answer keys are intentionally located immediately after the exercises to provide quick feedback.

 

Everything explained in the book comes with multiple examples, and all have good clear audio (downloadable for free on publisher Tuttle's website).

 

The chapters in first half of the book deal with lots and lots of Basic Grammatical Features, an example below:

 

Spoiler

 

 

The second half, which I'm finding particularly useful, is Chinese Sentence Constructions You Should Know. There are 250+ constructions, which I already know but rarely or never actually use. I'm slowly using the audio to try to internalise the example sentences and hopefully use the structures in normal everyday speech. Examples:
 

Spoiler

 

 

Unless I messed up my search on here, I haven't seen this book mentioned on the forums - or anywhere else. Not only are the contents great, but the huge number of example sentences and their accompanying audio might mean this book hits the spot for others too?

 

Comes in paperback and digital editions.

Link: https://www.tuttlepublishing.com/china/essential-mandarin-chinese-grammar

Free audio download: https://www.tuttlepublishing.com/essential-mandarin-chinese-grammar

[OneEye]

On 9/15/2024 at 2:06 PM, realmayo said:

As a fully paid-up member of the cult of Vivian Ling

 

Preach, brother.

[Tomsima]

Completely missed this, thanks for sharing. I actually introduced Vivian Ling's 'Chinese Stories for Language Learners' for our final years last academic year and they really liked it, a traditional 'reader' like when I rote learnt Sanskrit many years ago, but with good activities to break things up a bit. This grammar seems to take a similar approach, excellent.

[Guest realmayo]

On 9/15/2024 at 5:06 PM, Tomsima said:

I actually introduced Vivian Ling's 'Chinese Stories for Language Learners' for our final years last academic year

 

There's a new book from her in what appears to be a similar vein to 'Chinese Stories...", called Chinese Folktales for Language Learners.

https://www.tuttlepublishing.com/china/chinese-folktales-for-language-learners-9780804857284

 

 

 

On 9/15/2024 at 3:49 PM, OneEye said:

Preach, brother.

 

Brief interview with here here! https://www.tuttlepublishing.com/blog/womens-history-month-interview-with-author-vivian-ling/

[TheWayfarer]

It's a good grammar that covers a lot of ground. It's thorough, but practical rather than just academic. Also, I really like how it's divided into two parts, with the second part's chapters devoted entirely to 结构词. My only qualm with it is that many of the example sentences are quite off-putting. Some of them are very biased, even chauvinistic. Such charged statements were an entirely unnecessary choice. Still, apart from that, it's a good resource, especially when used with the free audio.

[Zeppa]

It's an excellent grammar and usage book, but where did I read about it if not here?