Publisher's Synopsis
Author Vivienne Zhang is a native Chinese speaker fluent in English who has been translating, interpreting and teaching for many years. She has tried, tested and perfected various lessons and techniques that apply well to Chinese studies. These modern techniques are now published in a series of four books.
Each book teaches the reader both Pinyin and Hanzi (Chinese characters). One of the unique features in these books is the literal translation into English of common Chinese expressions and vocabulary. For example, you can often see the annotation "lit." with the daily life topic sentences in BOOK 4, showing the direct translation of the Chinese text. This technique reinforces an understanding of sentence structure and grammar which has proven to be instrumental in helping the students and readers to retain the Chinese that they have already learned. Other Chinese language books do not use this approach.
BOOK 4 provides useful, high frequency language and examples heard everyday on the streets of China. Part 1 gives the reader a solid basis for understanding Chinese in additional and varied day-to-day situations, such as booking tickets, travelling around China, renting apartments, sports, dating, and many more.
Like BOOK 1, 2, 3 in this series, one of the unique features of this book is also the literal translation into English of common Chinese expressions and vocabulary. You can study the daily life topics in Part 1 in any order. Chinese facts and cultural information are also touched upon in Part 2 to give a better understanding of the Chinese people. Thus, Part 1 and Part 2, together with all the extra vocabulary and information in the appendix can provide a good reference resource.
NOTE: After you have learnt Pinyin (initials, finals and tones) in Part 1 of BOOK 1, you are ready to continue studying any books within the Modern Chinese series...BOOK 1, 2, 3 and 4.
