Reading & Writing Chinese.

http://www.4shared.com/office/xKj1vZIb/William_McNaughton_-_Reading_a.html

This is a revised third edition of Tuttle's Reading & Writing Chinese.

This new edition focuses on the internationally recognized test of proficiency in Chinese, the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK). All 800 characters prescribed for Level A are covered here, and the 1400+ Levels B and C characters are covered concisely.

All of the prescribed vocabulary for Levels A-C of the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi is included among the example compounds. 

Knowledge of the 2,200+ characters and 5,253+ vocabulary items covered will equip students to take the test at either the Basic or the Elementary-Intermediate standard.

 Success in the top band of the Basic standard is sufficient to enter college in China.

A Practical Chinese Grammar for Foreigners 外国人实用汉语语法 (bilingual Chinese-English, revised edition)

http://www.4shared.com/office/JdDMVfpO/Li_D_Cheng_M_-_A_Practical_Chi.html

Practical Chinese Grammar for Foreigners was first published in 1988 and has been reprinted for many times and has achieved widespread influence. This book is the revised edition which makes important and valuable modification to the original edition based on the suggestions and comments of the teachers and students.

This book gives concise, detailed and explicit explanations of the grammar points. In the aspect of content, besides introducing the most basic and practical grammatical rules, it also has more practical chapters such as “How to make comparisons” and “How to emphasize”. In the aspect of style, each chapter has a part entitled “Attention should be paid to…” which deals with a particular issue. Detailed and practical tables and sample sentences including the erroneous sentences for contrast are provided.

All explanations are provided with English translation. Each chapter is supplemented with exercises. This book can both be used as a grammar textbook for Chinese learners and grammar handbook for daily reference.

Say It Right in Chinese - your guide to right pronunciation in Chinese!

http://www.4shared.com/rar/lQ0hoI3V/Clyde_Peters_-_Say_it_right_in.html

Based on the revolutionary Easily Pronounced Language Systems approach, Say It Right in Chinese makes mastering correct Chinese pronunciation simple. With Say It Right you'll learn how to use hundreds of Chinese words and phrases in everyday conversation.

This amazing guide gives you easy-to-read vowel symbols that, when combined with consonants, make pronunciation easy.

With Say It Right in Chinese you will:

* Learn more than 500 essential Chinese words and phrases.

* Easily create sentences using "Phrasemakers".

* Get a quick reference to more than 500 word pronunciations in the Say It Right travel dictionary.

A very nice guide for travelers to China!

http://www.4shared.com/office/rrfQSgq3/Mandarin_Chinese_Visual_Phrase.html

This book provides all the key words and phrases you are likely to need in everyday situations. It is grouped into themes, and key phrases are broken down into short sections, to help you build a wide variety of sentences. A lot of the vocabulary is illustrated to make it easy to remember, and “You may hear” boxes feature questions that you are likely to hear. 

At the back of the book there is a menu guide, listing about 300 food terms, and a 2,000-word dictionary. Numbers and the most useful phrases are listed on the inside covers for quick reference.

*Note that tones (for correct pronunciation) are not included in "pinyin" (the latin transcription) of the words. It's a practical guide for travelers and beginners.

Some of the BEST books to start learning Chinese the right way!

(the list will be updating continuously) 

*all the files are free to download

1. New Approaches to Learning Chinese - The Most Common Chinese Radicals edited by Zhang Pengpeng.

This is an innovative new text using a modular approach to learning beginning Chinese. The three book set may be used as part of a comprehensive course, or as individual books that teach a specific aspect of the language. It is suggested that Intensive Spoken Chinese and Most Common Chinese Radicals be taught first, and then go on to Rapid Literacy in Chinese.

http://www.4shared.com/office/G4R6si6q/TheMostCommonChineseRadicals.html

2. The funniest handbook to learn Chinese: Chinese Phrases for Dummies by Wendy Abraham

http://www.4shared.com/office/D3P7BAkZ/Chinese_Phrases_for_Dummies__I.html

3. Chinese flashcards: front side - the character; back side - the translation; one of the quickest ways to learn Chinese words

http://www.4shared.com/office/2uvIF-d0/314573.html

*Note: this is Volume 1; V.2-4 will be posted later.

4. One of the greatest series of books from Beginners to Advanced users.

Boya Chinese is compiled by a group of experienced teachers who teach Chinese as second language. It is divided into four levels: elementary, pre-intermediate, intermediate and advanced. There are altogether 9 books in the set which suits the four-year college study or any short-term and long-term classes. The elementary level is in two volumes of 50 lessons for beginners and covers about 1,000 words. Finishing it will ensure the students to reach level 3 of HSK (International Exam of Chinese for foreigners).

*will be available soon

All about Chinese radicals:

Very useful links

These links/online dictionaries will help you better understand the important meaning and the evolution of Chinese characters! 

1. http://chinese-characters.org/radical/
2. http://www.archchinese.com/arch_chinese_radicals.html
3. http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=radicals
4. http://www.prebabel.info/bab002.htm

Radicals: Intro

The radical (Chinese: 部首) is an essential element of the Chinese dictionary. The list of Chinese radicals is a rough equivalent of a Chinese "alphabet". Every Chinese character is classified under a radical and characters with the same radical are sorted by the number of strokes (Simplified Chinese: 画; Traditional Chinese: 畫) used in writing them. The number of strokes varies between 1 and 17. Characters belonging to a particular radical are in turn listed on the basis of the number of additional strokes. Note that the number of strokes is not always clear to the untrained eye.

There have been several systems of radicals in use at various times during the history of the Chinese language. The following describes the Unicode system of radicals, which is based on the traditional 214 radicals of the Kangxi dictionary. The main difference between the Unicode and the Kangxi radicals is that the Unicode system has been extended to classify both simplified and traditional Chinese characters, as well as characters which are used only in Japanese or Korean.

Strokes: The strokes order matters!

Drawing Chinese characters: 

Step 2

Drawing Chinese characters: 

Step 2

Drawing Chinese characters: 

Step 1

Writing Chinese Characters

The 4 most ancient words which are simultaneously radicals (so they can be parts of other characters).

*Note that character and radical are not the same things, a character has a meaning, a radical, though usually doesn't (except the ancient and the simplest ones). 

人[rén]

1. noun - human being
我是人。
[Wǒ shì rén]
I'm human.
2. noun -  person
军人
[jūnrén]
soldier
3. noun -  everybody
这个孩子人见人爱。
[Zhège háizǐ rénjiànrén'ài.]
Everyone who sees this child likes him.
5. noun [pl] - other people 
我们要真诚待人。
[Wǒmen yào zhēnchéng dàirén.]
We must treat other people with honesty.

火[huǒ]

1. noun - fire
2. noun - ammunition
3. noun - internal heat
4. noun - rage
5. verb - be in a rage
6. adjective - flaming red
7. adjective - prosperous
8. adverb - urgently

木[mù]

1. noun - tree
2. noun - wood
3. adjective - numb
天太冷，我的脚都冻木了。
[Tiān tài lěng，wǒ de jiǎo dōu dòngmùle.]
It's freezing, my feet are numb with cold.
4. adjective - stupid

日[rì]

1.    noun - sun 
日出 [rìchū]
sunrise
日落 [rìluò]
sunset
2. noun - daytime
他们日夜不停地赶路。
[Tāmen rìyè bùtíng de gǎnlù.]
They travelled onwards, not stopping during the day or at night. 
3. noun - day (synonym of 天)
明日[míngrì]
tomorrow
4. noun - [pl] days
  往日 [wǎngrì]
      the past
5. noun - day   
生日 [shēngrì]
      birthday
6. noun - Japan from 日本 [rìběn]
日货 [rì huò]
Japanese goods

First steps

As a famous Chinese saying:

“千里之行, 始于足下” - A journey of a thousand miles starts from the very first step.

Chinese is a language spoken by 1.3 billion people worldwide.

If you are interested in learning Chinese, it can be intimidating and challenging. But learning Chinese can also be rewarding, and knowing it can have benefits for your career, and help to improve your travels to Asia.

If you decide to learn the Chinese language, there a number of ways you can go about doing so.

If:

1). You are a college student, you can study Mandarin Chinese and earn a degree in it. Earning a college degree in Chinese will provide you with a solid knowledge of formal, or Mandarin, Chinese. You will also be proficient in reading and writing the alphabet, which is a standard alphabet throughout the Chinese-speaking world.

2). If you are established in your career, and find it necessary to learn Chinese for business dealings and /or business-associated travel, you can enroll in an accelerated Chinese language course online, or by purchasing audiotapes that teach quick techniques, which will help you to rapidly learn how to speak basic Mandarin Chinese. Learning to speak Chinese this way is convenient if you need to learn it before an important business trip. There are several learning centers that provide accelerated online programs in Chinese, and many lesson on tape available for purchase.

3). If you are a student majoring or minoring in Chinese, or if you are a tourist with a desire to travel to Asia, an ideal way to learn the Chinese language is through participation in an immersion program. By doing this, you will not only learn how to speak Chinese, but you will learn about and experience Chinese culture. By studying Chinese in a city like Beijing, where the language is natively spoken, you will become part of the life and culture, and you will find learning to speak the Chinese language is much easier than you thought. Since it is a total immersion into the Chinese world, you will learn all conversational and idiomatic styles of the language. You will interact everyday with people who are native speakers of Chinese, and who can’t or won’t speak English with you. You will be taken on guided tours of the famous landmarks, as well as the everyday places. You will grow to understand and recognize the value of the ancient Chinese culture: the history, the art, the architecture, the food, and the people. You will attend courses in which you will learn the complex Chinese alphabet, how to read it, and how to write it as well. Learning the Chinese language by attending an immersion program is an ideal way to go.

This blog will help you learn Chinese language & culture in a most efficient, reliable, helpful and exciting way!

Welcome to new blog about Chinese language & China!

Welcome! 欢迎！

Do you want to learn Chinese?

Are you travelling to China?

Or maybe you are already a Chinese learner and you want to improve your knowledge?

If either of this is about you - you are just in right place!