Review: An Elementary Course in Scientific Chinese

[lechuan]

Thanks to elina and Sinolingua's generous book-for-review giveaway, I was able to discover, and review, An Elementary Course in Scientific Chinese - Volume 1. In addition elina provided me limited previews of the other books in the series, so that I can give an overview of how they all fit together, and hopefully reduce potential confusion on which books to get. Note that this is a "preview" review. I have ordered the other books in the series, and will update this post, in the distant future, when I have completed the series.

 

Get this series if:

You can read a decent amount of Chinese characters, have an interest in technology and science, and/or plan to study in a technical/scientific field in Mandarin.

 

Avoid this series if:

You already know how to, or have no desire to, discuss chemistry, physics, biology, earth science, astronomy, mathematics, and engineering in Mandarin.

 

Target Audience

 

Sinolingua targets this series towards “Foreign students coming to China to study in the various fields of science and technology”.

 

Anyone who has a natural interest in science, mathematics, and technology, will likely find this series very engaging.

 

Prerequisites

 

You'll need to have gone through at least a first year Mandarin textbook (or equivalent). You will need to read Chinese characters, know basic grammar constructions, and have a basic vocabulary. Existing scientific vocabulary is not required, as the course focuses on teaching this.

 

Contents

 

This series is divided into two parts.

 

The two main books in the series are Listening and Speaking - Volume 1 & Listening and Speaking - Volume 2.

 

There are also three supplementary books, Reading Comprehension - Volume 1, Reading Comprehension - Volume 2, and Listening Comprehension (which cover both volume 1 and 2). These provide additional practice material for each chapter in the Listening and Speaking books.

 

Listening and Speaking contains:

• Text
• Vocabulary List (Characters/Pinyin/English)
• Grammar Points (English and Mandarin explanation)
• Grammar Exercises (Questions in English and Mandarin)
• MP3s of the Text and Vocab list (Mandarin only)

 

Reading Comprehension contains:

• (Shorter) Supplemental text
• Additional Vocabulary  (Characters/Pinyin/English)
• Questions to test comprehension of the text (Mandarin Only)
• Lessons on Chinese characters/word types and usage (English and Mandarin)

 

Listening Comprehension  contains:

• Supplemental text or Dialog
• Additional Vocabulary  (Characters/Pinyin/English)
• Questions to test comprehension of the text/vocabulary (Mandarin Only)
• MP3 disc (I did not review this, so can only assume it is the recording for the Text and Vocab list)

 

Format

 

Books are formatted nicely and clearly. Text fonts are in a regular book font, with the vocabulary lists in exercise in a Song-type font. Both of these fonts are very readable.

 

The only thing I have an issue with is the Vocabulary lists. Vocabulary lists are in shaded boxes, with a font color that matches the background color. In lower light levels, this makes them difficult to read, as the text blends in with the background. I recommend keeping the font black in the future.

 

Thoughts on Listening and Speaking, Volume 1 and 2

 

The focus of the Listening and Speaking books are mainly grammar and scientific vocabulary.

 

There are also occasional explanatory notes for the dialog that teach you “scientific grammar” ie. The Rules of Naming Chemical Elements in Chinese.

 

The texts themselves are very approachable. At first I was expecting these to be lifted from Scientific Journals (and thus very difficult), but they do indeed target their “elementary” audience and discuss these subjects in a simple way.

 

The grammar explanations are somewhat terse/technical, and assume an existing knowledge of grammatical terms (ie. Direction complement, adverb, pivotal constructions, etc). I would recommend having a supplemental grammar book to get further details before proceeding with the exercises.

 

The exercises in this book are all grammar focused, and unlike most classroom-focused textbooks, include sample answers in the book. The questions are designed to see if understand the grammatical points well.

 

The included MP3s are excellent recordings. The readers sound like news anchors, and have excellent diction. Pacing was great, neither fast nor slow. It’s great to have the recording to practice pronunciation, pacing, shadowing the text, etc.

 

Thoughts on Reading Comprehension, Volume 1 and 2

 

The reading comprehension books contain a supplemental text on the same subject. It also introduces additional vocab for that subject.

 

Unlike the main text, which focuses on grammar understanding, questions in this book are focused on how well you understand the text (comprehension). This provides a good opportunity to practice writing out answers (or explaining verbally to your tutor)

 

There also a number of useful lessons on how specific characters are combined to make different types of words.

 

I only wish that this book also came with an MP3 disc because I would like to mimicking/shadow, reading aloud, with these texts as well.

 

Thoughts on Listening Comprehension

 

The Listening comprehension book is very similar to the Reading Comprehension book. The main difference is that it comes with an MP3 recording. I assume one would want to listen to the text (instead of reading it), learn any new vocabulary and then see if they can answer the comprehension questions. You could really use this book in the same way as the reading comprehension book if you wanted to.

 

Note that there is only one listening comprehension book. It covers the material from both Volume 1 and Volume 2 of the other books.

 

Conclusion

 

I really like this series. After looking through the Listening and Speaking book and the previews of the other books in the series, I am ordering the other books and look forward to going through them.

 

It’s nice to see Sinolingua going beyond traditional textbook topics, and making this subject matter approachable to elementary students. I hope to see other specialized topics in the future.

 

Further details on this series can be found here.

[Silent]

Thanks for the extensive write up. I'm planning to order (part of) the series too. Based on your review I'm probably better off with listening & speaking volumes then the reading volume?

[lechuan]

Yes, the "listening and speaking" books are the main textbooks. Reading/Listening comprehension books are meant as supplements. The reading book is coming up in round 3 of the giveaway...

[rmpalpha]

Would this be suitable for a deaf person (I'm a chemist and my Chinese reading ability is probably intermediate)? I'm uneasy about the main text being "Listening and Speaking" books.

[lechuan]

All the audio material is also printed, so you wouldn't be missing any content if you didn't listen to the MP3s.

[lechuan]

Now that I've received book 2, here's a rough breakdown of how many chapters are devoted to each type of Science. Note that there's a bit of overlap in some, so I had to make a choice. More general articles about technology, I labelled as Technology. Lots of good coverage for Physics/Chemistry/Math, Moderate for Earth Science and Astronomy. Absolutely no biology.

 

Physics:    04 10 12 20 21 24 25 26 30 32 36 38 41 43 44 45 48 55 56 59 60

Chemistry:  01 03 05 13 14 19 22 33 51 53 58

Math:       08 09 11 15 40 49 50 52 57

Technology: 23 27 31 34 35 37 39 42 54

Earth:      02 06 16 28 29 46

Astronomy:  07 17 18 47

Biology:    N/A

 

Note: Chapters 1-30 in Book 1. 31-60 in Book 2.

[lechuan]

There's also Michael H's review, which delves into quality of the scientific content.

[Elizabeth_rb]

Mmmm, something Sir might be interested in should he get an engineering/tech job in the future that also requires his Mandarin skills.  Thanks!

[trisha2766]

So, only book 1 covers Life Sciences? 

[msittig]

> Lots of good coverage for Physics/Chemistry/Math, Moderate for Earth Science and Astronomy. Absolutely no biology.

 

Mirrors the gaokao.

[trisha2766]

Even book 1? That's too bad, that's what I would be most interested in.

[elina]

So, only book 1 covers Life Sciences?

 

There’s book 2 available, and there’re totally 5 books in this series:

http://www.studychineseculture.com/search.asp?keyword=An+Elementary+Course+in+Scientific+Chinese&thetype=bookname&submit1=SEARCH