Textbooks for Learning Mandarin Chinese

The quality of mandarin Chinese textbooks on the mainland is still quite poor, though in the past few years more books of better quality have popped up. The conversations produced and texts chosen/written in the books often frustrate me. They are dull, uninteresting and stiff, among other things. The grammer explanations are usually overloaded and too much.

I take notice that mandarin Chinese textbooks produced outside of Chinese are of better quality and can better meet the needs of international students. Go to www.amazon.com and search for mandarin Chinese textbooks and you will find loads of information there. Look out for the reviews - they are very helpful. Students who have used the books make comments, providing very useful tips on which books are good, which not.

It is obvious why the textbooks produced outside of China are of better quality. The authors are usually linguists who have lived overseas for a long time, and they teach Chinese to international students in universities/colleges. As a result, they know the learning needs of international students and can author the book in a way that suits their needs.

“Teach Yourself Chinese Complete Course” by Liz Scurfield, “Basic Chinese” and “Intermediate Chinese” by Yip Po-Ching and others, “Beginner’s Chinese” by Yong He, “Schaum’s Outline of Chinese Grammer”, etc. have gained good reviews.

Hong Kong publishers also have Mandarin Chinese textbooks on offer. Peggy Wang’s “100 Putonghua Situations” is my favourite, good for learninng spoken Chinese and beginners. I am afraid books like this you cannot find over amazon. Try this big publisher in Hong Kong www.cp1897.com and you can search in English.