Colloquial Chinese: The Complete Course for Beginners

by Kan Qian

This major new course concentrates on the Mandarin Chinese currently used by educated native speakers throughout China and Taiwan. The course teaches both the romanised system and basic character use. Characters are broken down into their smallest parts in order to show their use in a systematic and graded manner.

Genres: Language, China, Nonfiction, Reference, Travel

330 pages, Paperback

First published October 5, 1995

About the author

Kan Qian is Lecturer in Chinese at the Open University. Before joining the Open University in January 2009, she taught Modern Chinese language in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels for 11 years. She is a linguist by training and her current research interest is on how various online tools enhance the learning experience, intercultural learning and mobile learning.

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Due to learning Mandarin Chinese I was required to buy this book in order to keep up with my studies. I would recommend it to anyone thinking about learning a language, not just Mandarin as there are other languages available by the same author and in the same format.
It is easy to follow and builds up your vocabulary and introduces you to 'characters' slowly.

[Keith Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good book. I bought this years ago and took my Mandarin studies further to HSK 5 now. I just picked this up again to have a look and in retrospect its a really well written, thoughtful text with lots of really good information and vocabulary. I was only think whether it was actually set a bit to high for an absolute beginner. Thoroughly recommend

[Dima · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well written, scrupulous but I'd wish for more frequent-use vocabulary to be introduced and more topics. After studying the book I reached about 600 words level but I would say only about 350-400 words would be useful in real life

[Linus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best beginners course for Mandarin Chinese I have come across!

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very concise and effective introductory textbook. Explanations of grammar were to the point and easy to understand, clearing up some questions I still held after doing Pimsleur language tapes. The dialogues as well were a good balance between speed/challenge and understandability.

However, the kindle edition in particular has numerous typographical errors, some are missing letters, some are words turned into gibberish. Also, the audio for the dialogues had, on multiple occasions, diverged from the script in the book (usually only a couple words here and there). But for the student who is watching with the utmost intensity on these dialogues and vocabulary lists, these types of errors are nigh unforgivable. They incite doubt in the student and cause problems with the progres of learning. So because of these issues, I will give this edition three stars instead of 4.

[Mina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, succinct information. One teacher uses it, one does not. Oof...

[George Marshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is a really good book, with lots of examples. I am going through it a second time more slowly...