Details for this torrent 


Chinese Without Tears (LW Publishing)
Type:
Other > E-books
Files:
1
Size:
1.94 MB

Texted language(s):
English
Tag(s):
Chinese Chinese Characters Mandarin Learning Chinese Education
Quality:
+0 / -1 (-1)

Uploaded:
Jun 28, 2010
By:
lwpublishing



This is the book for those of us who are daunted by learning the characters and the spoken language simultaneously. It’s a fun and easy to digest way for those who use at least some Chinese daily, and it’s a way to start understanding the culture more.

The structure of Chinese Without Tears and exercises were designed by foreigners for foreigners, which therefore prevents becoming bored by rote exercises. This is more like the Pimsleur approach. It uses different exercise methods to actually make the material stick. It’s so effective that within minutes of learning the first series of symbols, useful for daily application, the implementation is instant. It may sound funny but another way to use the knowledge gleaned through this book is in those cases when the dialect isn’t discernible. For instance, during those times of ultimate communication gap, simply write out your characters, like the Chinese often do, et voila! You’ve bridged the gap!

As you progress through the book you’ll start to recognize characters through photo and written exercises, write complete sentences and even short stories, and then apply the characters to their pin yin equivalents. There are 10 lessons. Each covers a particular aspect of the Chinese language: sound, history, simplification, dialects, etc. The exercises grow from creating sentences to translating and writing a short story from Chinese to English, all with the characters learned in the lessons. 

The author, Brian Stewart, spent more than 50 years studying and practicing the Chinese language in China and over Southeast Asia. While teaching others he realized that the Western mind does not learn or retain material well through rote repetition, so he devised a series of exercises that stimulate different learning styles. The end result is that the book works.

A companion set is also available. It contains a CD to hear the sounds in a Chinese accent and easily portable flashcards for quick practice and reference. 
Order the book and/or its companion online for USD19.90 at http://www.lwpublishing.com or ask for it at bookstores.

This torrent is the teaser for Chinese Without Tears. For more information, please visit LWP's website at http://www.lwpublishing.com

Comments

This torrent looked very promising, however this is not the book itself. It is a low-resolution "teaser" (as I noticed later), which also has comments stuck in it to describe the features of the book. At least we get to see a decent preview before buying, lol.

Learning characters before pronunciation is opposite of every other system I've seen so far, but since characters are the most intimidating part of the language (second only to the tonal pronunciation), perhaps an introduction to only the characters would make some learners feel more comfortable.
On second thought, does it seem productive to know the meanings of characters but not their pronunciation? I think nearly everyone thinks something when read, they may as well be thinking the correct pronunciation.