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Mandarin - reading | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| britt Newbie Slovakia Joined 6191 days ago 6 posts - 5 votes Speaks: Czech* Studies: Mandarin | Message 1 of 5 21 January 2014 at 8:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hello :)
I'm learning Mandarin for a few years and now I would like to focus more on reading. I'm somewhere in the B1 level and within 5 months I would like to improve reading on level B2 - if possible. Textbooks that I use are not very useful for reading study I would say. Does anyone have any tips and ideas on how to effectively study reading? Thank you very much. Marek 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| pfn123 Senior Member Australia Joined 5074 days ago 171 posts - 291 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 2 of 5 22 January 2014 at 9:10am | IP Logged | ||
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Hi Britt. Reading is a good way to increase your vocabulary, especially if you already have a foundation in the grammar and structure of Mandarin, and especially if used with an SRS.
A series of readers I've found very helpful is the Graded Chinese Reader series published by Sinolingua. There are six books in all (but they are not all available on Amazon yet). The first two were popular enough that they published a third book that's a bit easier. Now they have renamed the old titles and included three more books, making a total of six books. The new titles are: Graded Chinese Reader 500 Words Graded Chinese Reader 1,000 Words Graded Chinese Reader 1,500 Words Graded Chinese Reader 2,000 Words Graded Chinese Reader 2,500 Words Graded Chinese Reader 3,000 Words Each book consists of original Chinese short stories by well-known writers, adapted for the reading level of the book. Each book includes glosses of harder words, notes about the stories and the writers, and MP3 recordings. You may also want to check out the Chinese Breeze series, published by the Peking University Press. They won't take you to as high a level as the Graded Chinese Reader series from Sinolingua, but they make a nice supplement. They come in different levels and include MP3 recordings as well. Good luck with your reading :D Edited by pfn123 on 22 January 2014 at 9:16am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| lorinth Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4265 days ago 443 posts - 581 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Latin Studies: Mandarin, Finnish | Message 3 of 5 22 January 2014 at 9:23am | IP Logged | ||
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I like literature and I don't like textbooks, so this is what I have found most useful and interesting in my case, in that order (more or less):
- Chinese Breeze graded reader series, levels I, II, III. Note that level III did not exist when I used that series. It's very very good because the stories are entertaining (well, level I can be a bit boring because there are so few characters, but they are good anyway and it's an extremely rewarding experience to read your first longish story in Chinese), there have accompanying mp3s, read both slowly and extremely slowly, and there's no pinyin (which is a bonus, not a problem). - New Mandarin Companion Graded Reader. It did not exist at the time, but I've heard only good things about that series. - Graded Chinese Reader (Sinolingua). There are four books using respectively 500, 1000, 2000 and 3000 words. The stories are simplified versions of contemporary authors' short stories. Beware, the order of publication does not go from most simple to most complicated, you should read in this order: Graded Chinese Reader 4 (500 words), 3 (1000 words), 1 (2000 words), 2 (3000 words). I've read somewhere that there's a 1500 word level one now. They have accompanying CDs too. - The simplified versions of Ba Jin's 家 春 and 秋, plus the simplified version of Qian Zhongshu's 围城. They also have mp3s. They are also published by Sinolingua. - Possibly another period where you read Chinese comics, full versions of books and stories you've already read in Graded Chinese Reader, Chinese translations of books you've read in another language, etc. - After that, you should be able to delve into "real" literature, starting with authors who have a more simple style/vocabulary, like 余华, or with short stories. Enjoy! 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| pfn123 Senior Member Australia Joined 5074 days ago 171 posts - 291 votes Speaks: English* | Message 4 of 5 22 January 2014 at 9:43am | IP Logged | ||
As I said in my post, they have updated this series. There are now six books in the series, at 500-word increments. The pinyin can be a bit annoying, but a good series all in all. Edited by pfn123 on 22 January 2014 at 9:43am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| britt Newbie Slovakia Joined 6191 days ago 6 posts - 5 votes Speaks: Czech* Studies: Mandarin | Message 5 of 5 26 January 2014 at 11:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you pnf123 and lorinth! :)
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