Synopses & Reviews
Learning to read and write Chinese requires lots of practice. This unique practice guide can be used with any Chinese textbook or on its own to enhance your proficiency in reading and writing Mandarin Chinese.Intermediate Written Chinese Practice Essentials offers a wealth of carefully-designed exercises and activities to help you develop every aspect of your reading and writing ability:
- Character writing practice sheets, character identification and sentence punctuation exercises.
- Sictation, fill-in-the-blank and dialog completion exercises.
- Writing and reading activities based on train schedules, photographs, restaurant menus, street signs, name cards and many other commonly encountered texts.
- Translation and writing exercises—Answering questions, map reading, converting written style to spoken style.
The enclosed CD-ROM provides- Over 16 hours of native-speaker recordings for dictation practice
- Printable flash cards
- hundreds of additional pages of Chinese exercises and activities
Together with or after this book, you can use
Basic Spoken Chinese if you want to learn fluent spoken Mandarin.
About the Series: Respected Chinese language expert Dr. Cornelius Kubler, who has taught diplomats, business people and students, presents a learning system that uses separate but integrated "tracks" to help you efficiently master the basics of spoken and written Chinese. The materials in this series allow you to move from complete beginner level to basic fluency.
Review
"This is one of the best elementary Chinese textbooks, I believe, ever produced in the history of teaching Chinese as a second language … A great and unique work which will benefit students and teachers for many years to come." —Dr. Shengli Feng, Professor of Chinese Linguistics, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Review
"Outstanding for its carefully graduated presentation of material … and perhaps most important of all, its separation of the task of learning to speak the language from the very different processes of learning to read and write Chinese characters … The most exciting Chinese language textbook I have seen in many years." —Dr. James E. Dew, retired associate professor of Chinese, Univ. of Michigan; former Director of the Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies in Taipei
Review
"A breath of fresh air … Its dual track for spoken and written language finally gives American students a chance to develop oral proficiency without being slowed down by the character writing … An ideal textbook for any program that seeks to advance rapidly in spoken Chinese and to fully prepare the students for their encounter with China." —Dr. Jingqi Fu, Associate Professor of Chinese, St. Mary's College of Maryland
Review
"Contextualized so learners know not only what to say, but why, when, and with whom it is appropriate to use such language — thorough and clear — refreshing." —Dr. Matthew Christensen, Associate Professor of Chinese, Brigham Young University
Review
"Kubler's books distinguish themselves with natural, culturally-rooted dialogues, detailed notes (for both written and spoken language), generous practice activities and an amazing care for organization. These books will be valuable tools for both students and their teachers." —Prof. Eric Pelzl, Wisconsin Lutheran College
Review
"An ingenious introduction — Basic Spoken Chinese is the finest textbook for learning Modern Standard Mandarin that I have ever encountered." —Dr. Victor H. Mair, Professor of Chinese Language and Literature, University of Pennsylvania
Review
"The ideal material for any committed learner embarking on the journey of learning the Chinese language." —Dr. Jun Yang, Senior Lecturer in Chinese, University of Chicago
Review
"Revolutionary in its approach … The dream of having engaged and fully-prepared students in every class is an easily reachable reality for any program that adopts this series." —Professor Cecilia Chang, Chair, Department of Asian Studies, Williams College
Synopsis
Part of the widely-used and highly acclaimed Kubler series, The
Basic Chinese and
Intermediate Chinese books provide separate but integrated "tracks" to help you learn to read, write and speak Chinese efficiently, at your own pace. Some students and teachers wish to emphasize speaking ability first, whereas others want to focus on learning to read and write Chinese at the same time. These Chinese language study books allow you the flexibility to acquire the spoken language and the written language with the method that best fits your needs.
With the internationally-recognized Kubler system and accompanying CD-ROM, you will:
- Learn to use 288 high-frequency Chinese characters, and over 700 popular words written with them
- Find yourself quickly reading and writing sentences with the correct Chinese grammar
- Be taught both simplified and traditional characters; you may choose to learn one or both
- Recognize a variety of fonts in both typeset and handwritten styles, to prepare you to use Chinese in many different contexts-from reading signs and newspapers, to computers and mobile phone texts
- Listen to hours of native-speaker recordings on the enclosed CD-ROM, and have access to practice sheets and printable flashcards
Intermediate Written Chinese Practice Essentials stands out among Chinese books and textbooks for its dynamic study system and practical exercises, which will assist you in learning Chinese quickly and comfortably.
About the Author
andlt;bandgt;Cornelius C. Kublerandlt;/bandgt;, Stanfield Professor of Asian Studies at Williams College, received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in linguistics from Cornell University. He earned a second M.A. in Chinese literature from National Taiwan University.andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;From 1980-1991 he was employed at the Foreign Service Institute, U.S. Department of State, where he served as Language Training Supervisor in Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, and Mongolian; as Principal of the advanced Chinese field school in Taiwan; and as Chair of the Department of Asian and African Languages.andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;Since joining Williams College in 1991, he has chaired the former Department of Chinese and Asian Studies Program as well as the Department of Asian Studies, which he was instrumental in founding. He has also served as visiting professor at Eisenhower College, Portland State University, Middlebury College, National Taiwan Normal University, Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages.andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;Kubler, who is author or coauthor of 20 books and over 50 articles on Chinese language pedagogy and linguistics, frequently serves as reviewer or consultant for Chinese and Asian Studies programs in the U.S. and overseas. He has served as Chair of the Test Development Committee for the SAT Subject Test in Chinese and as member of the Executive Committee of the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages of the Modern Language Association. He is currently serving as American Co-Director of the Johns Hopkins University-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies in Nanjing, China.