“Susan you mafan”, my new, very easy Chinese reader is now available on Amazon.com. Yes, this time in both Traditional and Simplified character editions!
Like most TPRS-style readers, this is not Shakespeare or Lu Xun. What it does do is tell a reasonably coherent story, with a number of unexpected plot twists, using a minimum number of Chinese characters. There are only 29 characters in the first chapter (which is about 700 characters long in all) and 207 unique Chinese characters in the whole book, which is nearly 10,000 words long. Each page has Chinese characters on the front and Pinyin on the reverse, so you can easily check the pronunciation of a character without having Pinyin in your face. (I know that even after 30 years working with Chinese, if there is Pinyin on a page, my eyes are drawn to it before Chinese characters.) There is a full glossary in the back of the book, listing words and phrases as they are used in the text, arranged in alphabetical order by Pinyin.
The style is repetitious, not elegant. But the hope is that this is an actual book that can be started by someone who has had a couple of weeks of Chinese study. Each chapter adds a few more words and repeats them within the context of the story, so the reader gets lots of practice in recognizing those characters. This is meant to be a teaching tool that hopefully has enough of a story line behind it to keep people reading through to the end. (And if anyone has a better ending, I’m all ears.) :aiyo:
The Pinyin is not intended as a vehicle for reading, but rather as a convenient means (right there, but out of sight, on the back of the page) to locate the meaning of characters. It’s not capitalized to look like prose. The word spacing is intended to help beginning studnets of Chinese figure out where words start and end (there are spaces in the character text as well.)
[quote=“ironlady”][quote=“Muzha Man”]
Btw, no Kindle version. :neutral:[/quote]
I know. I applied, but Amazon said no Chinese books. Which makes zero sense, but there it is.[/quote]
I’d also imagine that getting the formatting right in a Kindle edition would be tricky. There isn’t a PDF version available somewhere, is there? (A PDF would be great on my computer or iPad, but useless on a Kindle.)
Amazon ships to Taiwan, right?
I won’t be able to get to Taiwan this fall (still crying about that one…) so I’m kind of limited in terms of placing the book. Plus, it’s not likely to make the best-seller list anyway.
I ordered from Amazon on October 12 and received my copy today. I’m looking forward to reading it but I’m disappointed that I have to turn the page to read the pinyin. Other than that it looks good, and hopefully, I won’t be too dependent on using the pinyin.
Shipping cost more than the book itself but the total price was still under $19 so I think it’s worth it.
Yeah, sorry about that (bwahahahaha!) but it’s for your own good. Even after 30 years doing Chinese stuff, my eyes will read Pinyin before characters if they’re on the same page. The idea is to provide a quick and easy reference, but one that’s out of sight.
I enjoyed it very much and I’m reading it for the second time. This time much faster.
It’s exactly the kind of material that I need to accelerate my Chinese. The use of Chinese, with pinyin reference and pinyin to English glossary is the perfect combination for independent learners.
Yeah, sorry about that (bwahahahaha!) but it’s for your own good. Even after 30 years doing Chinese stuff, my eyes will read Pinyin before characters if they’re on the same page. The idea is to provide a quick and easy reference, but one that’s out of sight.[/quote]
Yes, I agree with this. the point of having the pinyin is not to make it easy for us to read - it is just so we can check. If it is too easy to ‘check’ we won’t learn the characters. I prefer books that don’t have the pinyin right there next to or under the characters, so thanks.
Yeah, sorry about that (bwahahahaha!) but it’s for your own good. Even after 30 years doing Chinese stuff, my eyes will read Pinyin before characters if they’re on the same page. The idea is to provide a quick and easy reference, but one that’s out of sight.[/quote]
Yes, I agree with this. the point of having the pinyin is not to make it easy for us to read - it is just so we can check. If it is too easy to ‘check’ we won’t learn the characters. I prefer books that don’t have the pinyin right there next to or under the characters, so thanks.[/quote]
I never suggested the pinyin should be next to or under the character, but on the opposite page, not the reverse side of the page. If on the opposite page, you can use your finger to maintain your place on the page while referencing the opposite page.
The way it is now, you have to flip the page, find the place on the pinyin page, then flip back over and find your place again.
Fortunately for me, the book was i + 1 so I didn’t have to flip too much, but if it were i + 99, I would be
很煩惱
。
[quote=“Charlie Phillips”]Fortunately for me, the book was i + 1 so I didn’t have to flip too much, but if it were i + 99, I would be
很煩惱
。 [/quote]
Glad to hear it’s i+1 – that was the aim. You are obviously using your new words, too.
The characters and the corresponding Pinyin should be on approximately the same location on the pages, though it’s really not feasible to make them come out exactly the same.
If you found enough people wanted them here in Taiwan, maybe we could save on shipping and have a bunch sent together? Is that an option? I need to get mine soon!
:bravo:
Even after 30 years doing Chinese stuff, my eyes will read Pinyin before characters if they’re on the same page. The idea is to provide a quick and easy reference, but one that’s out of sight.
