Akao aka FailArtist Senior Member United States Joined 5336 days ago 315 posts - 347 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Toki Pona
| Message 1 of 8 10 May 2011 at 1:11am | IP Logged |
What are the best books to learn Mandarin Chinese? I'm not too interested in websites, I
like books because I focus much better without the internet.
I also prefer to spend less than 50 dollars
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Evilgoat Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4992 days ago 8 posts - 16 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin
| Message 2 of 8 15 May 2011 at 5:43pm | IP Logged |
Integrated Chinese is a highly regarded Chinese textbook. It's not cheap, but it's widely
used in university Chinese courses, so you may be able to find used copies online that
are more reasonably priced. Based on a quick look at Amazon, you might be able to get
both parts of level 1 used for about $50.
Also, even if you don't want to do sustained Chinese study online, I recommend that you
not limit yourself to texts. There are great audio resources for learning Mandarin
Chinese online, some which are free. Just download some podcasts, throw them on an mp3
player, then disengage from the computer.
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jasoninchina Senior Member China Joined 5231 days ago 221 posts - 306 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, Italian
| Message 3 of 8 16 May 2011 at 7:27am | IP Logged |
The only textbooks I have ever used (so this may not be the best advice) is blcu's series called 汉语教程 hanyu jiaocheng. There are six books and you can also purchase the accompaning cd's. I've also heard good things about the New Practice Chinese Reader also put out by blcu. The books themselves are rather cheap, but I'm not sure what shipping would be.
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translator2 Senior Member United States Joined 6919 days ago 848 posts - 1862 votes Speaks: English*
| Message 4 of 8 18 May 2011 at 1:32am | IP Logged |
Ok, with the understanding that your budget is $50.00:
I would recommend:
Chinese Pronunciation
The Chinese Language
Learning Chinese the Easy Way
Chinese Made Super Easy
Schaum's Outline of Chinese Grammar
Get Talking Chinese
and the book I am currently using:
Mandarin Chinese the Easy Way
Edited by translator2 on 18 May 2011 at 1:40am
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newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6379 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map
| Message 5 of 8 18 May 2011 at 5:00am | IP Logged |
If money is an issue, why don't you try the FSI course?
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Akao aka FailArtist Senior Member United States Joined 5336 days ago 315 posts - 347 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Toki Pona
| Message 6 of 8 19 May 2011 at 2:36am | IP Logged |
newyorkeric wrote:
If money is an issue, why don't you try the FSI course? |
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For chinese at least, the FSI course seems rather limited. The Spanish FSI is great
though.
However, I'd be willing to try it if you could give me some tips on how to use it.
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newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6379 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map
| Message 7 of 8 19 May 2011 at 4:46am | IP Logged |
I haven't used it. You can read the learning logs of at least 2 or 3 forum members who have used it to get an idea of how it works.
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newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6379 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map
| Message 8 of 8 19 May 2011 at 5:07am | IP Logged |
Off the top of my head I know aerozeplyn and irrationale have used FSI so you might want to check out their logs.
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