Hi,
I work as a Chinese tutor for three students. Two of them are just beginners and one of the three, I think, is proprably at the intermediate level.
Can you guys recommend some books to me so that I can use them to teach these three students Chinese character, grammar, pinyin, and writing???
Being a native Chinese speaker, I don’t know which way is better to teach them.
thanks
Well, I like the Shi Da series, or other wise known as “Audio Visual Chinese”. Some people don’t seem to like this series much so maybe you should get over to the bookstore (I got mine at Caves Books) and check them out for yourself. The beginner book (or Book 1), as do the second and third in the series, has a main book that has conversations and basic sentence structures as well as grammatical exercises. It is accompanied by a second (exercise) book which teaches you how to write each character along with the stroke order and radical and various exercises.
Like I said, I’ve found them to be very useful, but other may not agree. Best listen to what everyone has to say and then go and check out the relevant materials yourself and see what will suit your style and the needs of your students best.
Best of luck.
Usmaster,
Most of the posters on this forum are studying or working in Taiwan. The books most of them would probably be familar with would use traditional Chinese characters, and be more suited to Taiwan. Are you after traditional characters, simplified, or doesn’t matter?
thanks for your replies,
I actually wanted my girlfriend to buy some books in China and send them to me. You know, the books in the US is pretty expensive. Also, I tend to buy some books published from BLCU (Beijing Language and Culture University) where the HSK test is designed.
I am most familiary with simplified Chinese characters, so I am probably looking at the simplified Chinese textbooks.
Anyone studying in mainland China can recommend some good textbooks to me???
Appreciate your replies.
I’m a beginner. I’ve noticed that everyone has various opinions on which book/system/pinyin is better.
One thing I’d recommend is to have a thorough think(and research) about it then choose something reputable and go with it for the duration.
When I first decided I was going to learn, I bought a few different books and struggled to get going on one track. I’m using the Shi Da books now under formal tuition and I think they are good - but as I mentioned I’m just a beginner. 
In Oz we used a book that was being used in mainland china. I don’t recall the name right now, but I did see it at my university. I will see if I can find out the name, but don’t hold your breath. it also had tapes with it.
There is also a Chinese reader around that I have heard is pretty good.
Why not check out on amazon.
I personally really like “Integrated Chinese”
amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de … ce&s=books
(my affiliate link)
If you are teaching the students yourself then this will be a really good text to plan lessons from.
Read the reviews.
puiwaihin:
Thank you for your info. I found that book is a traditional character edition, is there a simplified character editon? 
because I am especially good at simplified characters.
[quote=“puiwaihin”]I personally really like “Integrated Chinese”
amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de … ce&s=books
(my affiliate link)
If you are teaching the students yourself then this will be a really good text to plan lessons from.
Read the reviews.[/quote]
I can’t recommend any to get, but I can recommend one series to avoid like the plague - “Practical Chinese Reader.” That series is so bad that calling it bad is actually a compliment.
anyone have recommendations for intermediate level Chinese. for someone with a level where you can almost read a newspaper slowly, with 5-10% vocabulary that you don’t know. for someone who’s gone beyond the basics, has the grammar down, can listen pretty well, but just can’t make that hump into fluency.
Contemporary Chinese Fiction: Four Short Stories
I love it. It’s just short stories with a vocabulary list in the back. But the list was just perfect for me.
amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de … ce&s=books
(my affiliate link)
mmm… I think that is the one I was thinking of. Never used it myself though.
Tetsuo is usually on the ball, so I would take his word here.
BTW JB I love the Avatar. Big Trouble in Little China? Gets the Kiss and tries to be really cool with lipstick on. 
The only thing I remember from the movie 10 + years later.
Oh, come on. We all loved teaching “Practically Chinese Reader.” After all, the language it contained was practically Chinese! 
I used to enjoy writing the weekly reading comp passage though, since I had “Gubo” fall into a stupid misadventure each time, and “Palanka” had to somehow extricate him from it. I wish I could find them now.
Oh, come on. We all loved teaching “Practically Chinese Reader.” After all, the language it contained was practically Chinese!
I used to enjoy writing the weekly reading comp passage though, since I had “Gubo” fall into a stupid misadventure each time, and “Palanka” had to somehow extricate him from it. I wish I could find them now.[/quote]
Now you’re bringing back memories…
Stop it.
Hi Tetsuo,
I'd love to hear your reasons for this opinion. I've been using these books for exactly two years now and am now near the end of the third volume, so you can imagine how it felt to read the above! To be honest, I'm not entirely satisfied with them myself but the alternatives available here have all seemed worse.
Whether after two years with them I am an advertisement for the books or an example of why to avoid them; whether I have the Chinese I do have because of or in spite of them, and whether I would have learned more with any other book, are questions I cannot of course answer myself.
I'd be very interested in hearing what books you've used.
Thanks a lot!
I used them for a full three years, in my degree back in NZ. They’re tolerable as a basic foundation, but they leave a lot to be desired. The grammar explanations in them are horrible, bordering on unintelligible on occasions; there are far too many little propaganda pieces so blatant even my teachers pointed them out and said “Just ignore this”; they totally ignore a number of very useful pieces of the language; and they’re so amazingly out of date it blows my mind.
With a good teacher, the shittiness of the books can be minimized though, and like I said, they can serve as a decent foundation. But trust me, once you get into the real world of Chinese as she is used, the failings of the books become clear as crystal. I was like you before - kind of thought “well, these books were a bit dumb and could’ve been better,” but I’ve since come to realize that with a better series of books I could’ve been a lot further along after three years.
BTW, when you say “available here”, where is “here”?
I second the vote for “Integrated Chinese.” The first two books (Level 1, Books 1 & 2) come in either simplified or traditional character sets. The 3rd book, Level 2, integrates both character sets. From what I’ve seen, this series is being used in most university Chinese language programmes in the States. It’s very similar to the format used by Shi-Da’s “Practical Audio-Visual Chinese” series.
I also second avoiding Practical Chinese Reader. I used it for my first 1.5 years. It’s very outdated, and I found most of it to be unuseful. Sometimes, in my dreams (nightmares), I hear conversations between Gubo and Palanka. 