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HomeShop at BookSurgeEducationDistance Education & LearningAdventures in Mandarin Chinese Two Men and The Bear: Read & Understand the symbols of CHINESE culture through great stories (Volume 2) (English and Mandarin Chinese Edition) |
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6 of 6 found the following review helpful:
If you are interested in learning or sampling a bit of Mandarin Chinese you're going to LOVE this turorial! Jan 26, 2010
By D. Fowler
"Dragonfly77"
Perhaps you'd like to venture into learning another language, but don't want to spend a lot of money on a language course or lengthy books you may never use. If you want to simply "sample" a bit of Mandarin Chinese and get a glimpse into several aspects of learning another language perhaps this is a book you might care to consider. Hidden inside these pages is a wealth of information for the beginner. On the author's site one can download and print Chinese character practice sheets, an essential and much welcome aid to the person who tends to be more interested in learning to specifically write. The approach this author uses is to learn contextually through the tale, "Two Men and the Bear."
In the introductory pages, suggestions are made on how to formulate the characters, generalized "rules" of writing, there is a brief discussion about traditional and simplified Chinese, and Pinyin, the "Romanized system used to represent the pronunciation of Chinese characters." There are numerous audio files that can be downloaded where you can hear each tone used in this story and you can "listen to the pronunciation of Chinese, character by character, phrase by phrase, sentence by sentence" until you are able to read aloud the complete tale. The instruction of the written symbols is step-by-step and the visuals and hints that the author gives are very comprehensive. Note that I did not say the word "easy" because how well you succeed in this book depends on you, the reader.
This book is primarily written in simplified Chinese, but mention is made when the characters differ from the traditional. The author guides the reader by logically and visually outlining how to create each character or "word." For example an introductory sentence to the character "tree" asks, "How do we construct a character that means `tree' in Chinese? Let's look at a sketch of a tree first!" The author then gives a visual, a progression, features of the character, a numbered and detailed sketch of the written symbol (this is somewhat map-like on one level). A chart then shows the phrase "climb a tree" and "climb onto a tree" in English, traditional Chinese and simplified Chinese. In the back of the book there is the entire tale in each written form, a very comprehensive pronunciation reference.
When I first started working my way through this book, not so much to actually learn the symbols, but rather to understand which direction the author was taking, I was surprised at how well the author was able to instruct and convey just how the Chinese language is constructed. He urged at least three handwritten attempts for each stroke and/or character and a careful read convinced me that anyone who wanted to try his method would not only be successful but have a lot of fun. Fluency in Chinese will not be provided here, but the beginner will learn a lot and will be very satisfied with himself upon completion of this material. I had some questions for the author (his email is in the book). He was extremely gracious, answered my questions and even took the time to talk to me in a chat. It can't get any better than that. I'd say if you are interested in an introductory book about Mandarin Chinese and want to have some fun, this would be a great choice!
Book received courtesy of the author in exchange for an honest review.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
wonderful way to learn Nov 21, 2010
By MO
"mm"
What a nice book on intro Chinese! Very nicely done, I wish books on learning other languages in this way were available. Ditto to what the other reviewers say.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
An excellent introduction to written Chinese Apr 21, 2011
By PT Cruiser
"PT Cruiser"
This is the second volume in a three part series of books for learning to read Chinese. I finished the first one Adventures in Mandarin Chinese: The Fox and The Goat and was happy to learn that I could read a simple story in Chinese characters, something I never expected to be able to do. Now I can read two! Chinese has always seemed so exotic and difficult, but Sam Song has a method of teaching that makes learning seem easy. He starts out with simple drawings and shows how the drawing evolves into a Chinese character. Sometimes the connection to the original drawing is strong and sometimes it seems like kind of a stretch to connect it to the original, but because Mr. Song tells little stories that go along with many of the characters, I find myself remembering and that makes it easier to make the connection. He also shows drawings of each character as it is introduced, with a numbering system that tells you where to start and in what order to make the pen strokes. He shows both the traditional and simplified Chinese. His books make learning a language that's so different from English seem fun and easy.
Some of the simplified characters were easy to remember when I practiced writing them several times. Some are more involved and I think it would take a great deal of time for me to be able to write them without a reference in front of me. But the thing is, that these books make it possible to learn the words and even write them if you're willing to put in the time to practice. This book will not make you fluent in Mandarin Chinese but it will give you an understanding of some of the fundamentals and give you an idea of what the language is like and what is involved to learn it. It will give you a good start. After just a little time and review, I was able to read this short children's story, Two Men and The Bear in Chinese. Imagine that, me reading a Chinese story!
The next book in the series is Adventures in Mandarin Chinese, The Wind and The Sun: Read & Understand the symbols of Chinese culture through great stories (Volume 3) which I plan to read next. I think you could probably study these books in a different order since the first two started out with the basics and added more characters. But I found that I recognized some words from the first book and it seemed a little easier with the second since I had an idea of how the language works.
Mr. Song also provides audio files on his website that go along with this book, so if you're curious about how these words sound when spoken, you'll be able to hear them there. I concentrated mainly on the reading and writing since it's a lot to learn just that. But if you're curious, or if you plan on going further in your study of Mandarin Chinese, this is a great resource.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
More to Learn and Enjoy in Volume 2 May 09, 2009
By Grady Harp
In Sam Song's continuing series of ADVENTURES IN MANDARIN CHINESE Volume 2 much the same information in his Volume 1 applies, but the careful student reader notes a few changes. Song is very serious about guiding the reader through the 'mysteries' of learning Chinese characters, but he also seems bent on seducing the reader into the pleasures of finally recognizing words and phrases from the artful calligraphy that sustains Chinese characters.
This volume appeals more to the ability to pronounce each learned character to a greater degree than his previous volumes. There are also charts in this book to mark the readers progress in remembering the strokes that comprise the characters. This is again a very user-friendly method of learning some basic Chinese and with each new volume Song advances his technique of communication and his teaching skills. Grady Harp, May 09
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