China’s development is changing with each passing day. In today’s increasingly globalized world, people around the world are full of curiosity about this ancient civilization. However, what is completely different from Western culture is that thousands of years of Chinese and Chinese characters have stumped many people. For a Chinese beginner, it is very necessary to choose a book suitable for learning basic Chinese.
Chinese is a beautiful and complex language, unlike English which consists of 26 letters. There are hundreds of thousands of Chinese characters in Chinese, and there are thousands of Chinese characters in daily use. Some Chinese characters will have multiple pronunciations, and one pronunciation also has many Chinese characters. If these Chinese characters can be learned and used flexibly, then learning Chinese will be a very easy and fun thing.
In this post, we have selected some books that are very suitable for beginners to get started with Chinese from the perspective of native Chinese speakers.
1.Reading and Writing Chinese
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《Reading and Writing Chinese》 | $9.99 | VIEW AT AMAZON |
This is a complete and easy–to–use guide for reading and writing Chinese characters.
Learning written Chinese is an essential part of mastering the Chinese language. Used as a standard by students and teachers learning to read Chinese and write Chinese for more than three decades, the bestselling Reading & Writing Chinese has been thoroughly revised and updated. Reading & Writing Chinese places at your fingertips the essential 1,725 Chinese characters’ current definitions, derivations, pronunciations, and examples of correct usage by utilizing cleverly condensed grids. This guide also focuses on Pinyin, which is the official system to transcribe Hanzi, Chinese characters, into Latin script, now universally used in mainland China and Singapore. Traditional characters (still used in Taiwan and Hong Kong) are also included, making this a complete reference.
Newly updated and revised, these characters are the ones officially prescribed by the Chinese government for the internationally recognized test of proficiency in Chinese, the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK). The student’s ability to read and write Chinese are reinforced throughout the text.
Key features of this newly-expanded edition include:
The 1,725 most frequently used characters in both Simplified and Traditional forms.
All 2,633 characters and 5,000+ compounds required for the HSK Exam.
Standard Hanyu Pinyin romanizations.
More mnemonic phrases and etymologies to help you remember the characters.
An extensive introduction, alphabetical index, and index according to stroke count and stroke order.
Completely updated/expanded English definitions.
Convenient quick-reference tables of radicals.
Updated and revised compounds, plus 25% more vocabulary now offered.
Codes to assist those who are preparing for the AP exam or the HSK exam.
2.Get Talking Chinese
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《Get Talking Chinese》 | $14.99 | VIEW AT AMAZON |
This compact guide provides a fun and easy way for kids to get a handle on all aspects of Mandarin Chinese—reading, writing, speaking, and listening—as well as a look at the fantastic culture of China.
– Includes a 60-minute pronunciation CD
– Easy-to-use format makes the process of learning Mandarin enjoyable
– Teaches readers how to identify and pronounce Chinese characters
– Culture pages reveal amazing facts about modern China
– Includes 200 characters that most books leave out
3.Learn Chinese
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《Learn Chinese》 | $5.21 | VIEW AT AMAZON |
If you want to learn Chinese fast and in a variety of fun ways that actually work then keep reading…
Most people don’t have a huge amount of extra time to spend learning a new language.
Could you be one of them?
You see, most people make the same mistakes when learning Chinese and this is causing their progress to stagnate. The problem is that they are only sticking to a single way of learning Chinese.
But now, you can maximize your chances of learning Chinese in less time compared to reading boring textbooks.
Introducing: Learn Chinese: A Comprehensive Guide to Learning Chinese for Beginners, Including Grammar, Short Stories and Popular Phrases.
This book includes 3 comprehensive Chinese manuscripts in 1 book:
Chinese: Learn Mandarin Chinese for Beginners: A Simple Guide That Will Help You on Your Language Learning Journey
Chinese Short Stories: 11 Simple Stories for Beginners Who Want to Learn Mandarin Chinese in Less Time While Also Having Fun
Chinese Phrase Book: Over 1000 Essential Mandarin Phrases You Don’t Want to Be Without on Your Trip to China.
4.Mandarin Chinese for Beginners
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《Mandarin Chinese for Beginners》 | $6.33 | VIEW AT AMAZON |
Chinese is a fascinating language that can seem impossibly difficult to learn at first, but is relatively easy if you focus on the spoken aspect. This revised edition contains new dialogues, cultural notes, IT and social media vocabulary, and new manga illustrations.
This book is designed for everyone who wants to learn to speak and understand colloquial Chinese—whether it is for business, pleasure, or travel to China. A lighthearted guide that brings Chinese to life in a down-to-earth fashion, Mandarin Chinese for Beginners makes language learning fun.
Real-life dialogues and situations help you to converse with confidence
Sentence pattern exercises and drills help to reinforce what you are learning
Native-speaker audio recordings enable you to pronounce Chinese vocabulary accurately
Interesting notes, idioms, sayings and poems introduce you to Chinese culture
Mandarin Chinese for Beginners contains lots of extra hints and tips drawn from the authors’ many years of experience in teaching the language to foreigners. Answer keys for the exercises are provided, and an “Extend Your Vocabulary” section in each chapter helps you to remember and understand more words that you’d think possible.
5.Get Talking Chinese Workbook
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《Get Talking Chinese Workbook》 | $9.99 | VIEW AT AMAZON |
A complete visual workbook for beginners learning Mandarin Chinese. A perfect companion to DK’s Get Talking Chinese, sections follow a logical progression, starting with everyday words — such as “hello,” “good-bye,” and “thank you” — and ending with the essential vocabulary needed when shopping, ordering in a restaurant, or visiting a museum. Get Talking Chinese Workbook is more than just talk, too: An introduction to writing Chinese characters identifies the 200 most useful characters for readers to see, learn to identify, and try writing for themselves. Children, adults, and students of any age will benefit from this easy workbook, featuring plenty of knowledge-reinforcing practice and tips.
6.The First 100 Chinese Characters
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《The First 100 Chinese Characters》 | $10.88 | VIEW AT AMAZON |
All beginning Chinese language learners struggle to memorize and learn to write Chinese characters. The First 100 Chinese Characters adopts a structural approach which helps students to quickly master the basic characters that are fundamental to this language. This character book is intended for beginning Chinese students. It presents characters that have been carefully selected for rapid and effective learning.
The English meanings, pronunciations in hanyu pinyin and alternate forms (if any) for each Chinese character are presented along with a stroke order guide and spaces for writing practice. Printed with gray guidelines, the stroke order guides are designed to be traced over to teach students the standard sequence of strokes used to write the character. Related compounds and phrases are given to assist in vocabulary building. Three indexes at the back allow the characters to be looked up by their English meanings, hanyu pinyin pronunciations, or radicals. Extra practice sheets are also provided.
This Chinese character book contains:
Step-by-step stroke order diagrams show you how to write each character.
Special boxes with grid lines help you practice writing them correctly.
Compounds and sample sentences provide easy vocabulary building.
Hanyu pinyin romanizations identify and help you pronounce every word.