Study Chinese Online From China

When is it right to go offline?

September 14, 2006 on 12:02 pm | In Studying |

OFFLINE - One of the challenges of modern life is taking stock of things when information becomes overload. There are some who rightly argue that we are forgetting about the basics. With that said, I took some time off recently and bought some hard-to-find online materials (yes I would’ve preferred all of these materials came with companion e-editions!) I’ll post further as I put the books into use. I think I have found the right books to get me over the intermediate-level plateau.

Developing Writing Skills in Chinese
Boping Yuan and Kan Qian, Routledge Press 2003, HK$398

I bought this book because it seems to present information on how to write more formal Chinese, it gives examples of how a written phrase would be written/said in colloqial Chinese. I see this as a nice bridge to improving my Chinese and especially in understanding more of the media around me.

Advanced Chinese, Intention, Strategy & Communication
Yanfang Tang and Qinghai Chen, Yale University Press 2005, HK$550

I bought this text because it has chapters with topics like “How to write a description”. It’s not just an ‘advanced story’ with another vocab list. It gives me the words, patterns and examples necessary to do more conceptial things with Chinese.

Making Out in Chinese
Ray Daniels, Tuttle Publishing 2003, HK$65

This text, well heck it’s just fun.

The Language Instinct
Steven Pinker, Perennial Classics 1994, US$15

This classic, reading it makes me re-think a lot of my study habits. It is easy to fall back into traditional learning approaches because they are so prevalent and ingrained in most learning materials. I have slipped. Reading the book has re-ignited my focus and I will go retool my study habits.