Chinese for Beginners: Learning Conversational Chinese (Fully Romanized and Free Online Audio) Paperback – June 11, 2019

This book is an Excellent source for learning useful Chinese.My background: I have been to China 3 times in the past 12 months. I am not traveling for business, but rather for vacation or personal reasons. I am married to a woman from China, and she can speak fluent Mandarin as well as read it.My Mandarin self study is not extremely disciplined. I still study the lessons from this book, while also being sure to fully utilize the included audio portion to help make my pronunciation more accurate. In my experience tones and the pronunciation of words are hard to grasp for beginners without first hearing an example from a native speaker. That's why the included audio feature is important and better than other books/courses that don't also provide any audio tools.I like the organization of the book and how it is broken down into sections for each chapter which helps me practice in segments and at my own pace. Each chapter has a purpose as well like: introducing yourself, asking directions, business phrases and company related topics, how to interact in a restaurant, saying thank you, apologizing...In my experience I noticed that if I repeat each of the lessons a few times in a row before moving on it's easier to absorb. I simply will do a lesson until I feel I have committed about 70% to memory, again because it helps me feel that I retain it better. This is also better if you go a few days between lessons. I don't recommend rushing through each lesson quickly or doing more than one or two lessons in a day, that won't work for someone like me.After a few trips to China I am definitely still a beginner but I don't feel as helpless as I thought I would thanks to making the effort to learn from this book. I have ventured around completely on my own, without my wife, on numerous occasions and I got by just fine. Sure there were several times street vendors or merchants probably were asking me to buy something and I just said no thank you, as I walked by but I had no idea what they were asking me to buy. That will probably get better with practice and experience. Be forewarned that obvious (non-Asian) foreigners are asked to buy everything, be sure to learn how to say "no thanks".From my limited experience Chinese people almost entirely expect you to know absolutely zero mandarin, so when you can speak some mandarin and also manage to be polite as you do it you go from being just another foreigner to someone that is respectful of the local culture and you will get along much better with the locals.Overall; I have learned from this book, I have also learned by asking my wife hundreds of questions, and I have learned Mandarin in the car from lessons via Audible. Among many other useful things that I can say now I will mention that I can: introduce myself, ask where a place is, ask how much things cost, tell them I will be late and that I am sorry, order food and get leftovers in a To-go box...and many more. As for beyond that, I can sometimes understand or guess the subject of some of the simpler details (time or day) of what my wife is discussing with her parents in a full speed Mandarin conversation. I can pick out a word or two from each sentence and make a guess and I am usually correct but not always.Use this book if you want to travel to China. It has a great section that applies specifically to business travelers and the book is a useful for leisure travelers as well. I recommend Chinese for Beginners by Yi Ren, she is a very good teacher and this book will help you prepare for your travels.

I agree 100% with Paul Ramsey's review of, "Chinese for Beginners: Mastering Conversational Chinese." I took one of Yi Ren's classes offered at the library. I had always wondered why people said learning Chinese was so difficult. Now I understand that it partly has to do with the five possible different tones used to pronounce a single word that is spelled one way. The Chinese use symbols above the Roman letters, to indicate which of the five tones, or inflections of voice, to use to differentiate the possible meaning of a particular word. For example, the Chinese word, yu, depending on how it is pronounced, means either fish, rain, jade, or to become silted up. If that sounds difficult, consider this ... some of the characteristics of the English language can be challenging, as well. In the English language, a word spelled and pronounced one way can have multiple meanings. The word blue, can mean a color, or a melancholy way of feeling. Additionally, an English word can be pronounced the same way, spelled differently, and have different meanings. For example: hear and here. So there! :)Some of the sounds required of our voices while speaking the Chinese language, are not sounds we use when speaking the English language. At first, it feels challenging and odd to make the sounds required. With practice, though, it feels great to become proficient and master this skill. The big smiles on the students' faces reflect their sense of pride and accomplishment at rising to such an enriching challenge.I really appreciate the audio CD included with the very reasonably priced workbook. I found it invaluable to be able to follow the lessons in the book with the CD, while studying at home. And now, I have the CD and book forever, so that I can refresh my skills anytime I want. I have listened to the CD in my car and on my laptop. My 2 year-old grand daughter has listened to it with me. She now correctly says, "Thank you," and "Hello," in Chinese. And ... she caught on faster than I did!The Chinese culture, so ancient and rich, is to be admired. I loved reading the brief passages sprinkled throughout the book that give insight into the Chinese way of life. They add inspiration and intrigue, encouraging us to want to master the language on a higher level ... and perhaps, one day, even to visit China, and speak this remarkable language with the Chinese people themselves.If you ever have the chance to take Yi Ren's class ... as a beginner, I can honestly say it was very informative and enjoyable. Practice is essential - and this workbook and CD are at-home helpful companions for sharpening your skills for beginning conversational Chinese.

I have the e-book format and downloaded the audio to my tablet as well. Having the audio is very helpful in learning correct pronunciation and intonation. The only reason I didn't give the book 5 stars is that the audio would be so much easier to use if it were clickable directly from the text like I have occasionally seen in e-books. The instructions given in the text for downloading audio are a little outdated, but I was able to figure it out from the website. Otherwise, the format of the text is good, introducing words and dialog in small chunks. The choice of vocabulary seems pretty consistent with what I see in other beginning texts. Both pinyin and characters are presented together. It would be possible to go through the whole book without learning any characters if you only want to concentrate on spoken Chinese, but I find for myself, becoming familiar with the characters enriches the learning experience. There is a presentation on Chinese culture and a simple poem in Chinese also for each chapter, both of which are interesting additions to the book. Overall, I would recommend this book as a beginner text.