視聽華語一
Practical Audio-Visual Chinese 1
November 24th, 2005 by Mark
How could a review of Chinese textbooks start with anything else? For better or worse, Practical Audio-Visual Chinese (視聽華語) is the de facto standard Chinese textbook in Taiwan. Shida (師範大學) uses it. 文化大學 uses it. Taida (臺灣大學) uses it. Nearly every major Mandarin language school on the island uses this book. Unless you study at TLI, there is a very strong chance that you’ll encounter this book. Perhaps the best feature of this book is that almost every experienced Mandarin as a foreign language instructor on the island is familiar with it. Not only that, but quite a few intermediate materials have been specifically designed for students who have studied through the first two books of this series.
The question everybody emails me is this: is Practical Audio-Visual Chinese okay? The answer is yes. It’s “okay”. There’s nothing exceptionally good about this book, but it doesn’t have any glaring flaws either. It includes both zhuyin (注音) and standard 拼音. It has supporting CDs, VCDs, and a workbook. This book takes a very methodical approach. Each lesson starts with a reading or dialogue, followed by vocabulary words, and grammar explanations, each with example sentences. The explanations are clear, and there are no glaring errors.
However, there are a few drawbacks. Even though the book was written in 1994, sometimes it seems like it was written in 1954. The accents of the speakers on the accompanying CDs and VCDs are decidedly mainland. While the CDs are useful for review, the workbook doesn’t take advantage of them. There are absolutely no listening comprehension exercises. Also, there are a few grammar constructions taught in the book that many Taiwanese people don’t understand, such as the double 了 construction. Even worse, is the use of 讓 and 叫 as passive markers. For example, “我讓你給弄糊塗了.” Most Taiwanese people under the age of about 50 will say that construction is flat out wrong. In truth, it is standard Mandarin, but it’s Mandarin that simply isn’t used here anymore. While this book isn’t quite ideal, it will get the job done, and many, many people have used it as a stepping stone to the next level.
Pros:
- Comprehensive introduction to Mandarin Grammar
- Well supported by CDs, VCDs, and workbook
- Supports both Pinyin and Zhuyin
- Widely used
Cons:
- No simplified characters
- Outdated usage
- Not particularly interesting
- No listening excercises in the workbook
- Fragile cover
Rating: 3/5
Level: Absolute Beginner
November 26th, 2005 at 4:31 pm
Excited to see these reviews. What other texts exist? Someone at forumosa.com waxed eloquent about the wonderful materials from Beijing Language and Cultural University Press. PRC books can be found in ROC at an exchange rate of 4.5 or so at some specialized bookstores. I have here A Course in Contemporary Chinese ISBN 7-5619-0595-5 and 7-5619-0662-5, 38 and 41 RMB respectively. There are also the Taiwan Language Institute texts avaiable only to their students. Looking forward to more reviews.
November 26th, 2005 at 4:37 pm
Its not really a textbook but I really liked Mandarin Chinese A Functional Reference Grammar, Li and Thompson, The Crane Publishing Co. There is an English edition and a Chinese edition. I think its the only book I own with no ISBN number in it, but I found, 0520066103. I wonder what they use in Hong Kong to teach Chinese? It oughta be in traditional chinese.
November 26th, 2005 at 4:46 pm
Flashcards for Practical AV Chinese 1:
http://www.jjesse.com/index_files/chinese%20flashcards.htm
November 27th, 2005 at 4:20 am
These comments are really informational, everyone.
My next review will be on the first book of the Far East Everyday Chinese series, which is the second most commonly used Mandarin textbook used in Taiwan. It’s the primary text of National Sun Yat-sen University, as well as several schools in Gaoxiong. It’s also used by some classes at both Shida and Taida.
I’ve heard good things about the BCLU press in the last couple of years. I can’t really review any of their materials, though, since I don’t have any experience with them. If anyone would like to write a review for any Chinese learning materials, just write it up and send it to doubtingtoshuo.blogspot.com, with a picture and your rating.
November 27th, 2005 at 10:54 am
I assume that this is only appropriate for someone who hasn’t studied Chinese. I have about a year under my belt in the U.S.
I prob. shouldn’t use this book.
Is this book a one year course?
November 28th, 2005 at 4:42 am
The Practical Audio-Visual Chinese series was designed by Shida’s language school. Shida uses this book for classes of five to ten students, who attend two hours of class per day. It usually takes them six months to finish the book. Many other language schools use the book under similar circumstances.
Practical Audio-Visual Chinese was used by several U.S. universities in the 90’s, but it’s not too common now since it uses only traditional characters (with simplified ones appearing only in the appendix). Depending on where you studied, you probably covered about the same amount of material in one year if you met for class an hour a day M-F.
March 15th, 2007 at 2:33 am
[...] didn’t waste money all evening, I also purchased a copy of Practical Audio-Visual Chinese I to compliment the textbook I used while studying in the [...]
December 4th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
[...] between this book and the previous book series I used [Practical Audio-Visual Chinese 1 and 2 (實用視聽華語)] is that the articles which open each chapter are written in both Simplified Chinese [left] and [...]