Four experienced teachers of beginning Chinese have developed this introductory textbook. A pilot edition has been tested widely in classrooms and refined over a period of years. Among its salient features are lessons that are lively, amusing, and relevant to everyday life: concentrated training of ear and tongue in the sound system of Chinese; extensive grammar notes, clearly presented, with attention to mistakes English-speakers are likely to make; a carefully sequenced character workbook embodying a new and effective approach to the learning of Chinese characters; and audiovisual...

Four experienced teachers of beginning Chinese have developed this introductory textbook. A pilot edition has been tested widely in classrooms and refined over a period of years. Among its salient features are lessons that are lively, amusing, and relevant to everyday life: concentrated training of ear and tongue in the sound system of Chinese; extensive grammar notes, clearly presented, with attention to mistakes English-speakers are likely to make; a carefully sequenced character workbook embodying a new and effective approach to the learning of Chinese characters; and audiovisual...

This revised and updated edition of the Chinese Primer--an introductory textbook in wide use for more than a decade--uses proven techniques to put beginning learners of Mandarin Chinese on the path toward true mastery. The goal of the book is internalization--to lead students to adopt Chinese as one of their own languages and not to regard it merely as an object of study and translation.

Features include:

• Use of hanyu pinyin romanization


• Rigorous foundation work in pronunciation, including tones and the other special phonemes that are crucial...