Colloquial Chinese
The Complete Course for Beginners
Qian Kan, Qian Kan
- 438 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Colloquial Chinese
The Complete Course for Beginners
Qian Kan, Qian Kan
About This Book
Colloquial Chinese: The Complete Course for Beginners has been carefully developed by a leading academic in Chinese language teaching and course design.
Based on feedback from learners and teachers who used its previous version, this new edition has been updated to reflect the language and cultural changes in China, such as online shopping and WeChat payment, and to provide a more integrated and step-by-step approach to making the learning of modern Mandarin Chinese more effective and enjoyable.
Combining a clear, practical and accessible style with a methodical and thorough treatment of the language, it equips learners with the essential knowledge and skills needed to communicate confidently and effectively in Chinese in a broad range of situations. No prior knowledge of the language is required.
Colloquial Chinese is exceptional; each unit presents a wealth of grammatical points that are reinforced with a wide range of exercises for regular practice. A full answer key, a grammar summary, bilingual glossaries and English translations of dialogues can be found at the back, as well as transcripts of listening practice exercises.
Key features include:
- A clear, user-friendly format designed to help learners progressively build up their speaking, listening, reading and writing skills
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- Jargon-free, succinct and clearly structured explanations of grammar
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- Step by step introduction of Chinese characters
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- An extensive range of focused and dynamic supportive exercises
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- A combination oflistening, reading and speaking activities with the support of transcripts at the back of the book
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- Realistic and entertaining dialogues covering a broad variety of narrative situations
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- Helpful cultural points explaining the customs and features of life in China
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- An overview of the Chinese language: its sounds, structure and Chinese characters
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Balanced, comprehensive and rewarding, Colloquial Chinese is an indispensable resource both for independent learners and students taking courses in Chinese as well as teachers of Chinese.
Audio material to accompany the course is available to download free in MP3 format from www.routledge.com/cw/colloquials. Recorded by native speakers, the audio material features the dialogues, new words and listening practice exercises from the book and will help develop your listening and speaking skills.
Frequently asked questions
Information
Unit 1
Hěn gāoxìng jiàndào nǐ 很高兴见到你
- say who you are
- greet people and respond to greetings
- ask, and respond to, some yes/no questions
- use some appropriate forms of address
- recognise your first head components and write your first Chinese characters
Vocabulary for Dialogue 1
nín | you [polite form, singular] |
nǐ | you [singular] |
shì | be [am, is, are] |
Shǐmìsī | Smith |
xiānsheng | Mr |
ma | [question word, see Note 6] |
gāoxìng | be pleased/be happy/be glad |
jiàndào | to meet |
yě | also/too |
jiào | to call/be called |
lǎo | old |
Dàwèi | David |
shì de | yes |
wǒ | I; me |
hǎo | good/well |
nǐ hǎo | how do you do?/hello [lit. “you well/good”] |
Wáng Lín | [personal name] |
hěn | very |
ba | [grammar word, see Note 9] |
hǎo ba/hǎo de | okay/all right |
qǐng | please |
huānyíng | to welcome |
lái | to come/to come to/to arrive |
Zhōngguó | China |
[Note: see Chinese–English glossary for characters of the above words.] |
Dialogue 1
Nǐ hǎo 你好! How do you do! (Audio 6)
WÁNG LÍN: | Nín shì Shǐmìsī xiānsheng ma? |
DAVID SMITH: | Shì de. Nín shì…? |
WÁNG LÍN: | Nǐ hǎo! Shǐmìsī xiānsheng. Wǒ shì Wáng Lín. |
DAVID SMITH: | Nǐ hǎo! Wáng xiānsheng. Hěn gāxìng jiàndào nǐ. |
WÁNG LÍN: | Wǒ yě hěn gāoxìng jiàndào nǐ. Qǐng jiào wǒ Lǎo Wáng ba. |