Comments on: Integrated Chinese (Levels 1, 2)

By: Rachel

Rachel — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 23:07:23 +0000

Hi Prince,
We have used Integrated Chinese in our language school for 10 years, yet, woefully, I am not a fan. I prefer “The Practical Chinese Reader”, but alas most teachers in the New York City area are used to IC and prefer that because of familiarity. I agree, too much is covered in each chapter leaving little time for retention or repetition. In general I think the thematic approach to learning Mandarin (e.g. “Shopping”, “Talking About the Weather”, etc.) to be linguistic foot binding. That approach can work with cognate laden languages (for us that is, such as Spanish or French), but forces the Mandarin student into a linguistic pretzel having to learn vocabulary and grammar they may not be ready for. I am writing a textbook using what I call the “Mandarin Building Blocks Approach”. The idea is to start with the most logical and simple components of the language and build up from there. There are no themes to the chapters; instead one builds on top of the other adding new words that logically build on learned morphemes and grammar that moves from simple to the more complex. One thing great about Mandarin is that, although difficult at first to learn, it is in the end a consummately logical language. Thanks for your review… have you seen “Active Chinese”, that’s what we are now using.

By: Frank

Frank — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:54:43 +0000

Thank you Prince for that wonderful and in-depth review. I couldn´t agree with you more on the lack of emphasis on pronunciation and tones. I studied with this text book at the University of Southern California for 1.5 years and when I arrived to China, these tones that we covered on day one (and only day one) suddenly became important. Imagine that!

Now that I´m in China, tones are everything. I think that had this serious, my teachers, and program put more emphasis on the importance of tones, students in my program would have been much better at speaking.

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 09:29:54 +0000

Let’s have a big round of applause—-for Doree!

By: Rose

Rose — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 01:51:05 +0000

I would have to disagree with you. I originally didn’t use this book but I switched to it and I think it is incredible. I can understand where your coming from. But you cannot expect a book, print on a page, to allow someone to completely be able to speak the tones because that requires native teachers. And I can also see how you don’t like how the lessons are kind of long and such but I am doing pretty much a lesson a week and I think that, yes, it can be challenging but if you really want to learn Chinese then it’ll do fine.

By: Doree

Doree — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 15:16:44 +0000

I’ve been doing a lesson a week with Integrated Chinese, and am now on Lesson 14. Let me say that compared to the Linguaphone (UK) Mandarin course, this course is like living in Heaven! (Please everyone: don’t even consider Linguaphone for one second! I’ll send a review on request.) I use ithe Integrated Chinese Textbook with a private instructor, who constantly criticizes it, but I find it helpful. I use the character and exercise workbooks, as well as the audio CDs. My teacher and I converse extensively at our lessons, and after I transcribe each lesson, I end up with 50-60 added expressions and phrases a week. I practice frequently with native speakers (in the Washington DC area) and the language is quickly “coming in to focus.” I have to admit that I speak 4 other languages fluently, so I know how to study, AND I am an ESL teacher. I find the set-up and content of Integrated Chinese to be just fine—for me!

By: Steven Grimm

Steven Grimm — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 00:22:44 +0000

It’s worth noting that there’s a second (2005) edition. It seems to address at least a few of the criticisms, though not all of them; the structure of the lessons is still the same, but the presentation is a bit better than what’s described in this review.

By: LillianF

LillianF — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 02:53:14 +0000

I’ve been taking Chinese classes at NYU for more than a year now and this is the textbook series that we use. I have to say that the book alone would not be a good way to learn much, but as a “reference” it’s not bad. It provides some structure for the class. Of course, I’m not that far along in my Chinese studies. I love listening to ChinesePod, but I also like the familiar pattern of the textbook.

By: Melrose

Melrose — Sun, 14 May 2006 07:37:28 +0000

By the way,
have you ever tried Far East Practical Everyday Chinese?
It looks like a very practical and fun textbook!!

By: Melrose

Melrose — Sun, 14 May 2006 07:30:26 +0000

does Integrated Chinese make some change after this review published?

Can you also recommend some good Chinese textbooks to me?

Thank you very much