Elementary Mandarin Chinese Textbook: The Complete Language Course for Beginning Learners (with Companion Audio)

Elementary Mandarin Chinese Textbook is a new beginner Mandarin Chinese course which enables you to quickly learn the basics of the language. The 24 lessons in this book are meant to be used in 3 hours per week of class instruction over one academic year. Students will need another 2-3 hours of outside practice and review for every hour of class time, using the materials in the accompanying Elementary Mandarin Chinese Workbook.

These books can also be used by self-study learners due to the extensive explanations and free supplementary materials available -- including online audio and video recordings and flash cards.

The entire course can be completed in 25 to 35 weeks and teaches you the basic skills of speaking, reading and writing Mandarin Chinese at a conversational level. Each lesson starts with a dialogue and includes a list of new and supplementary Chinese vocabulary along with questions and grammar notes about the dialogue, a reading section and extensive exercises (that are in the Workbook).

Elementary Mandarin Chinese Textbook offers the following significant advantages over other similar textbooks:

• Common, everyday Chinese dialogues are used--complete with vocabulary lists and questions and storylines based on actual everyday experiences in China
• Chinese grammar is explained in simple, non-technical terms with useful notes and tips given
• Reading exercises are provided for all new words and phrases in each lesson
• Free online audio recordings by native speakers from different regions of China help you not only acquire correct pronunciation, but also to understand Chinese speakers who have different accents
• Illustrations and supplementary video clips add authenticity to the materials in the book
• A Chinese-English dictionary, downloadable flash cards and supplementary exercises are all provided

Both Chinese characters and Pinyin Romanized forms are given throughout the book (except for the reading exercises), so this book can be used by students who wish to focus on learning the spoken language, as well as those who are learning to read and write the Chinese characters simultaneously.

This textbook should be used in conjunction with Elementary Mandarin Chinese Workbook and the included audio files, which can be downloaded free directly from the Tuttle website.

Cornelius C. Kubler, Ph.D is Stanfield Professor of Asian Studies at Williams College, where he teaches Chinese and for many years chaired the Department of Asian Studies. He was formerly Chinese Language Training Supervisor and Chair of the Department of Asian and African Languages at the Foreign Service Institute, U.S. Department of State, where he trained American diplomats in Chinese and other languages, and he served for six years as Principal of the American Institute in Taiwan Chinese Language & Area Studies School. Kubler, who has directed intensive Chinese language training programs in the U.S., mainland China, and Taiwan, has been active in Chinese language test development and has authored or coauthored over 13 books and 50 articles on Chinese language pedagogy and linguistics.