Beginner's Chinese (Beginner's (Foreign Language))

I am a 30-year old ABC (aka American-Born Chinese). As a result, I have grown up in and have adopted American culture as my own. In fact, I staunchly maintain that my native tongue and culture are English and American, respectively. My primary connections to recent immigrants from China and Taiwan are racial and genetic.While I have an decent grasp of the Taiwanese language which is that of my parents, I have barely any grasp of Mandarin Chinese except a word or two. At the urging of my Cantonese girlfriend, I have recently purchased this book to learn Mandarin which is the predominant dialect in Chinese society. I have found the book to be well-organized as it builds on the vocabulary and sentence patterns learned in earlier chapters. Exercises in each chapter provide ample opportunities to use your vocabulary in a variety of ways. The repetition really helps you get used to the vocabulary and structure. The Language Points in each chapter explain the rationale for the language's structure. Fortunately, structure in Chinese is usually simpler than that of English. Cultural Insights provide information about the people of China and show how language is used to show politeness and respect in certain situations.All that being said, you cannot learn a language simply by picking up a book. No book will ever get you to pronounce the words correctly or get you comfortable with the language. No fault of the book but I find pinyin, at times, to be counter-intuitive. To really excel at the language, you have to hear and listen to it. Fortunately, my girlfriend is a living, breathing language lab. I also suggest practicing a little bit each day otherwise you will rapidly slip back down the learning curve.

I am preparing to leave for PRC and am doing all that I can to prepare for my travels. Without a doubt, Yong Ho's "Beginning Chinese" is the finest introduction to Chinese that I have encountered. I am currently taking a Chinese course through a local university and find that Beginning Chinese is far more useful than the required text for the course as well as the numerous other books that I have purchased. "Beginning Chinese" is presented in a scholarly and easy to use format that includes cultural insights are not available In other fine language books. I am compiling a list of books that I plan to bring with me to China and Yong Ho's "Beginning Chinese" is at the top of my list. I can not imagine anyone not benefiting greatly from it.

As a high school interested in learning Chinese, I tried a variety of books to begin learning with. After buying three different instructional Chinese books (most which advocated learning Chinese in small, quick increments) I noticed that they did not focus at all on the grammar of the Chinese language, they simply taught common tourist phrases. This is not the case with Young Ho's "Beginner Chinese" book. This book focuses on forming sentences in Chinese from the get-go, and includes many explanations as to why things are done in Chinese. The book also includes a plethora of exercises to pracitce with, as well as an answer key for all them. Combine that with a glossary, and the reader is set to learn Chinese in no time. The only complaint I have is that the book doesn't really discuss the pronunciations of the Pinyin system; this however is a minor detail. Once again, I strongly recommend this book to be the starting block for all who are interested in actually learning Chinese, and not simply tourist phrases.

I am a teacher of English as a Seccond Language and a serious student of Mandarin Chinese. I have also taught English in Beijing.Yong Ho's Beginner's Chinese is a great book! It is a must read for students of mandarin. It will be of benefit not only to beginners, but to all levels.It is organized into ten chapters which give dialogues and vocabulary for basic compentencies such as: greetings, shopping, location, etc. This is nothing earth shaking, but what make the book special are the sections in each chapter on "language points" and "cultural insights."Yong Ho explains Chinese grammar with great clarity and simplicity. His cultural insights are very good and ring true from my experiences in China.

I am highly impressed with the content of this book. Basic Chinese grammar is explained, thoroughly. Numerous vocabulary words follow (with characters and pinjin),along with intensive exercises and practice:integrate into a book of eleven Chapters of a fine "mini-textbook." Various useful Chinese (Mandarin) phrases are listed, along with info on when and how they are used. In other words, such various content that I listed makes this book a textbook, a useful phrasebook, and a travel guide. Also,this book serves as an intensive and comrehensive introduction to a beginner of this language. Even though I am studying Mandarin at the Intermediate level, this book serves as an excellent review of various grammatical concepts of Mandarin, along with proper usage of verbs and characters. Note that the characters are Simplified Characters. Also, even though the two pronounciation systems:Wade Gilles and Pinjin are well explained, I suggest an audio CD or cassette program, for pronounciation. Otherwise, I consider this book a fine asset to my review of useful and imperative grammar and aspects of Mandarin Chinese. I hope that other students and native speakers will agree.