Free Chinese Textbooks! No catch!

4. ** Or better yet: ANYTHING you think might be appropriate for intermediate-mid to advanced low native english speaking learners of Chinese.

Our company’s staffs are all Chinese people, I’m afraid that we cannot give really helpful advices about the books from a foreigner’s perspective. What we can do is to try our best to make the introduction on the books on our site more detailed, so that it will give enough reference to our customers when ordering. If you check my posts, you could find I seldom recommend books, but most of the time I provide the relevant information, I fear to misguide others.

By the way, if you want to know a certain book’ info, for example, if it is published or not, how many other products (including books and accompanied CD/VCD/DVD etc.) there’re in the same series, how much it is, and so on, I’m sure we’ll not make you disappointed, so far as the book is printed in mainland China. Sometimes, our customers want to purchase some books that are not on our web, we can always add them to our site with their original prices, if they are not out-of-print.

If anything YOU or OTHER Chinese learners think might be appropriate for intermediate-mid to advanced low native english speaking learners of Chinese, please make an advice, we might add them to the free books’ list, this time, OR next time, I’m not sure now, it depends.

Do you have an actual storefront? or is this business strictly mail-order? I would like to peruse your other materials if I can get to your store.

I’m afraid we have not an actual storefront, currently we only accept mail-order.

I wrote a quick review on the web-site as well.

Thanks for that.

Ok, a few issues that I've noticed / have been raised:

I'd originally asked for lists of three books, in order of preference. However, I figure we might as well ignore that - if you want to list more, or say 'I'd like A, B and C, but if that's not possible I'd like E, F and G' then go ahead. However please do indicate which ones you want most, and only list ones you think you will actually use and be able to review. Edit your list if you want (please don't repost it though, that'll confuse me)

In the case of textbook series, where there is more than one book, we're only listing the first book. If there is a higher-level book you'd like, feel free to specify that. However we're probably going to prefer the lower-level books, as that's where the demand is.

Offers of help with postage - thanks, appreciated. However at the moment I think it might just complicate things financially. But subsidized, rather than entirely free, books are certainly a possibility for the future.

Location: Please include your location in the post, even if it is in your username or profile.

I’m afraid we don’t know what is appropriate for intermediate-mid to advanced low native english speaking learners of Chinese, please see the No. 13 post here:

Elina, I have 3 of great books "Everyday Chinese" (每日汉语) by Zhong Qin (钟梫), they are out of print, unfortunately.

They have 5 things:

1. Chinese text in Hanzi.

2. Hanyu Pinyin for the whole text.

3. English translation.

4. Detailed vocabulary.

5. Audio (was on tapes).

These items are always sought by learners of Mandarin, beginners to intermediate but it's always hard to get all of these in one. Just bilingual (Chiinese-English on facing pages) or fully pinyinised (Hanzi + Pinyin) books are also helpful. Taiwanese books (in standard Mandarin) with Zhuyin Fuhao and English translation are also very useful.

Another product may fit your above 5 requests:

Talk Chinese Series: Leisure Talk (with Mp3)

脱口说汉语：休闲口语（附Mp3）

But we’re not sure if this series are good or not, because they were added to our site not very long time, not many people bought them yet. We ourselves cannot judge if their teaching method/editing thought are scientific and appropriate, from Chinese people’s perspective.

I am fully up for doing this and also think its a great idea... the books I would be interested in are as follows...

Common Knowledge About Chinese Culture (Chinese-English)

中国文化常识(中英对照)

Interesting Chinese Reading New Edition+2CD

新编趣味汉语阅读（附2CD）

Chinese Breeze Graded Reader Series: Wrong, wrong, wrong! + MP3

汉语风中文分级系列读物：错，错，错！（附MP3）

The Besieged City (Abridged) (book + MP3)

围城(简写本+MP3)

Ok the first three would be my first choice with the last being a back up (although truth be told they all look pretty good. I would also like to suggest that lower intermediate and intermediate books be considered as there seems to be a large amount of beginners stuff around and lots of advanced but for those of us stuck in the limbo of the lower int/intermediate its harder to find stuff... (although I have been having some luck lately by sitting in various book shops for a few hours at a time and going through each and every book they have... time consuming to say the least)...

I am in Wuhan at the moment but will be in Beijing from this Sunday, so if I get selected I could get the books sent to my hostel (they know me there pretty well so will be happy to pass them on) or I could pick them up, failing that I will be in the UK from the following Friday and then I will be sending a shedload of business Elina's way. I am so glad she has this up and running much smoother now, the site looks good...

I am interested in several of the books. I'm sort of a "low" intermediate level student, I think. Higher in listening than in reading. Hopefully the review should be in English, not Chinese!

In preference order:

1) Wit and Humor: An Easy Chinese Reading Series: A Simple But Difficult Problem (with CD) 简易汉语趣味阅读－简单的难题（含光盘）

2) Chinese Near-synonyms (English Annotation) 汉语学习手边册丛书—汉语近义词学习手册（汉英对照）

3) Graded Chinese Reader 1: Selected, Abridged Chinese Contemporary Short Stories+MP3 汉语分级阅读 1(附MP3)

4) Chinese Breeze Graded Reader Series: Wrong, wrong, wrong! + MP3

汉语风中文分级系列读物：错，错，错！（附MP3）

5) Interesting Chinese Reading New Edition+2CD 新编趣味汉语阅读（附2CD）

There are probably many more books that could be reviewed, etc. I have several good ones to recommend, but they are all back at my former apartment, since I haven't finished moving yet... Won't get them for another week or so.

Hi Roddy and Elina

Chinese Near-synonyms (English Annotation)

汉语学习手边册丛书—汉语近义词学习手册（汉英对照）

I am an upper intermediate student and this is something that I run into every so often. The other books don't seem so challenging. This one could be used in my tutor class I have twice a week.

The book I am using in my class is "A course in Chinese Coloquial Idioms" 汉语口语习惯用语叫程", by beijing language and culture university press. (it has a lot of attitude in the the dialogues which is why I like it. The Exercises are quite good as are the phrases . The only issue some beginner students may struggle with is the texts don't have pinyin or english. The idioms and phrases have english and pinyin as well as example sentences and an explaination of the meaning.

Your site also has A key to Chinese speech and writing , it breaks down the characters and explains the logic while grouping the characters to make for efficient learning. I will write a review on your site for it later.

I am going on vacation in 2 weeks, so the review would probably come in July. Interested in doing this though.

I work and live in Nanjing.

Thanks,

Simon:)

Dear Elina,

Dear Roddy,

I would like to offer to review:

New Practical Chinese Reader Textbook (1)

新实用汉语课本（第一册）课本

I regularly review English academic papers and have reviewed one other Chinese for beginner's book. Publisher, title and author available on request.

As an intermediate learner having had previous experience using other beginner's books and tools (available on request), I feel I am in a good position to be able to judge objectively any book that is targetted at this level. My academic background in languages and linguistics has included a range of teaching methodologies which may be helpful for this project.

I would be happy to support your project in evaluating this book.

I am currently based between the UK/Germany.

I live in New Zealand, so postage shouldn't be as bad as it would be to, say, America.

I'd like

1) Basic Business Chinese (BBC) (with 3CDs)

2) Common Knowledge About Chinese Culture

3) Gems of the Chinese Language Through the Ages–100 Pearls of Chinese Wisdom (Chinese-English)

4) Wit and Humor: An Easy Chinese Reading Series: A Simple But Difficult Problem (with CD)

I think the Business one is probably going to be the most useful, as I have an ok knowledge of Chinese, but I know very few business terms, and I think that could be quite useful. I guess that's why many people want it?

As to number four, is that entirely in Chinese? That'd be really good for my Chinese I suspect, but I'm not sure if I'm up to it.

I'm not too fussed on the order. That's about what I'd like, but meh. I'd be happy reviewing any of them, really.

If we find that they're too far above our level, I assume that's good to know as well, right? Wouldn't be a very long review, I guess, but it's still very helpful to other people, provided we mention what our Chinese level is.

I have no previous experience writing any form of review, for what its worth.

I'm also willing to pimp any books I get to my classmates .

Also, Elina, that's your website right? The page of book details should have "Contents" instead of "Catalog" - I got quite confused the first time I saw that. Books usually contain a Table of Contents at the beginning, and most (all?) people are going to expect to see the list of chapters being called Contents, rather than Catalog. Just a small point.

Ok, as we had quite a strong reponse I've put a preliminary list of what's going to who together earlier than I planned to, and I'm asked elina to price it so we can see where we are on budget. What I've tried to do is concentrate on books where there's a certain amount of interest so we can get two people reviewing - to get a range of views - so books that only one person was interested in have been eliminated.

At the moment all but a couple of people will be getting something they asked for. However I'm not going to actually confirm anything yet. We're sending more stuff than I might have originally planned to overseas, so changes may yet be made . . .

More requests are welcome - you never know . . .

I'm interested in reviewing the following three books in the order as listed. For the record, my country of residence is Japan.

1) Advanced Business Chinese: Social Gatherings, Office Work, Day-To-Day Operations

商务汉语提高：应酬篇、办公篇、业务篇

2) Basic Business Chinese (BBC) (with 3CDs)

BBC初级实用商务汉语（附3CD）

3) Business Chinese Conversation One: Elementary (2007 Revised Edition)+CD

经贸初级汉语口语上册（2007年修订本）（附光盘）

Seems this new book is revised from this book, which was popular and is sold out.

My company is doing business in China (Kunshan, near Shanghai) and I'm interested in trying out one of these texts and seeing how well it works in my language context.

I'm curious as to how useful either of these books are without the accompanying videos:

China Panorama-Approaching Chinese

中国全景—初级汉语

Communicate in Chinese

交际汉语1（英语）

...but that may be a question for another time.

Can't promise any reviews at the moment.

The page of book details should have "Contents" instead of "Catalog"

I'm curious as to how useful either of these books are without the accompanying videos:

Several books in the free books’ list have accompanying CD/CD-ROM/DVD, which need to be bought separately, which we did not input them in the list. The reasons:

1. if we do so, it will add more extra cost of this free-book-presentation-copy activity, especially for overseas users.

2. since none of our customers complains the quality of the relevant CD/CD-ROM/DVD in the free books’ list, so we think it’s not necessary to review the multimedia products. I think the main aim of this activity is to review the books, the result could be positive or not, it does not matter, just be frank. Because it could give reference and guide for others when choosing.

Yesterday, we received a review on our site, I think it’s helpful:

Communicate in Chinese (1) (English)

This a book based on a TV series staring Dashan, possibly the most famous Canadian in China. It has lessons which consist of situational dialogs, some common phrases and culture notes. But it does not seem to explain the language much nor provide practice exercises. For some reason, each page features a color picture of the same vase. Through out the book there are lots of pictures of ancient Chinese artifacts here and no explanations about their significance. Also all the photos illustrating the situational dialogs look pretty strange because they are stop-action TV shots. I really dislike the text format, which consists of alternating lines of pinyin and hanzi. It would be much better if the pinyin was all in one place and the hanzi in another because when it is mixed together I don't get any practice reading hanzi. This is because my eyes involuntarily lock onto the pinyin even though I am trying to read the hanzi.

I am not too keen on the video that the book is based on either. It seems to be mostly Dashan, strolling back and forth across the stage tossing out tidbits of Chinese. I prefer having audio material that I can listen to in the car or in my office. That is more useful than being forced to sit down in front of the TV.

The book does have a lot of useful information, but the way it is scattered about makes it very easy to forget.

Ok, can the following people send a private message to Elina, who will then tell you which books you are getting and how they're being sent. Give her your name and address, and an email address for further communication.

Xtenhome, Stephanhodges, Simonlaing, Batmarj, CDN_in_bj, ShadowDH (hopefully we'll be quick enough to get you stuff to your hotel in BJ), Realmayo, Mirgcire, Luobot, Newyorkeric, Atitarev, Scoobyqueen, Ipsi(), Mamba9,

Offer is good for . . .say one week, until 5pm Beijing time, Friday May 30. If addresses etc haven't been confirmed by then, we'll assume you've lost interest and give your books to someone else. Or just keep them.

Basically everyone is getting at least one book they asked for, except for the guy who never posted before - sorry, but someone had to miss out,and you were were the obvious choice Elina will inform you which actual books.

Stuff within China is being sent out 平邮 - ie you'll need to collect at the post office, or if you are lucky it may come to your door. International packages are going SAL, except for a couple of people where that isn't an option - you'll have to wait for it come off the ship.

When talking to Elina you can, if you wish, upgrade to a faster sending method, or add further books to your order - the additional cost of that you will obviously need to sort out separately.

Hope that makes sense, let me know if you have any queries.

Hi Mr. Roddy, is the offer still valid, I noticed this thread only recently. I am from Singapore and I am interested in the following books.

1) Chinese Made Easier (1) (second edition ) (with 2 MP3)

2) Wit and Humor: An Easy Chinese Reading Series: A Simple But Difficult Problem (with CD)

3) Graded Chinese Reader 1: Selected, Abridged Chinese Contemporary Short stories+MP3

I am an upper beginner level learner and I can probably recognize 1400 characters. I have been using Rapid Literacy series by Zhang Pengpeng and now I want to improve my spoken Chinese. I have read good reviews about Chinese Made Easier but couldn't get hold of the book in Singapore. I am also interested in the book Wit and Humour as I have read favourable reviews from members like Flameproof etc.....

I would very much like to review these books, if there is still any need:

1) 汉语风中文分级系列读物：错，错，错！（附MP3）

2) 交际汉语1（英语）

3) 汉语会话301句（上）（第三版英汉注释）

I've been living in Yinchuan for about 9 months, and have worked here as an English teacher. I've studied Chinese for the same length of time, and have managed to become semi-conversational by now.I will stay in Yinchuan for another week, but then it's off, first to Norway, then USA.

At the moment if your name isn't on the list above, don't expect to be getting any books. However, there will hopefully be some kind of longer term arrangement, in one form or another, and so expressions of interest, or comments on how something like this might run, are welcome. No need to choose any specific books though, except as a purely academic exercise.

Thanks for your interest, it's been good to see the response (should have thought of this earlier, giving away free stuff . . . )

How soon do you want the reviews once we've received the free product(s)? And should we post them directly to Elina's website, or PM them, or what?

Also, I agree - free stuff is always a good idea!

How soon do you want the reviews once we've received the free product(s)?

Reply:

How long have I got to write the review? As long as you need' date=' I guess. I'm not going to chase you for it, I'm just going to hope you do it. Obviously you'll need to spend a bit of time working with the book, and depending on postage method it may be a while before you even get it.

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And should we post them directly to Elina's website, or PM them, or what?

To the Big Brother Roddy’s 地盘 , ie. to this forum.