Book picks similar to
Practice Makes Perfect Basic Chinese by Feng-Hsi Liu


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Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar: A Practical Guide


Claudia Ross - 2006
    No prior knowledge of grammatical terminology is assumed and a glossary of grammatical terms is provided. Featuring related exercises and activities, this Grammar is accompanied by the Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar Workbook.

Niubi!: The Real Chinese You Were Never Taught in School


Eveline Chao - 2009
    So whether you?re planning a trip to Beijing, flirting with an online acquaintance from Shanghai, or just want to start a fight in Chinatown--Niubi! will ensure that nothing you say is lost in translation.

Spoken English in Dialogues: 833 common English sentences used by native speakers in everyday life situations


Julia Deniskina - 2016
    The book presents a lot of valuable phrases and sentences you will never think of unless you come across them. It contains plenty of common sentences used by native English speakers in everyday life. The book covers topics such as meeting new people and making small talk, dating and visiting friends, emergency situations and doctor’s appointments, car and flat rental, staying in hotels and traveling by air, shopping and bargaining.

A Billion Voices: China's Search for a Common Language


David Moser - 2016
    Since the turn of the century linguists and politicians have been on a mission to create a common language for China. From the radical intellectuals of the May Fourth Movement, to leaders such as Chiang Kai-shek, and Mao Zedong, all fought to push the boundaries of language reform. Now, internet users take the Chinese language in new and unpredictable directions. David Moser tells the remarkable story of China’s language unification agenda and its controversial relationship with modern politics, challenging our ideas of what it means to speak Chinese.

Gum Moon: A Novel of San Francisco Chinatown


Jeffrey L Staley - 2018
    A sympathetic prostitute befriends Chun, but two years later, at the height of a plague quarantine, Chun is thrust into a bewildering new world. A young Methodist woman rescues her and places her in a Home for abused and trafficked girls. The Home is destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire, but Chun (aka "Maud") survives. In an attempt to raise funds to rebuild the Home, Maud and a group of seven other Chinese children embark on a six-month cross-country singing tour. Performing for President Theodore Roosevelt in the White House is the highlight of the journey, but when the matron of the Home suffers a breakdown, thirteen year-old Maud must find within herself the strength and resolve to lead the band of children home. The novel is based on events in the life of the author's wife's grandmother.

China Survival Guide: How to Avoid Travel Troubles and Mortifying Mishaps


Larry Herzberg - 2008
    Readers will learn essential skills like how to haggle, exchange currencies, cross the street, decipher menus, say useful phrases in Chinese, and more. The guide comes complete with survival tips on etiquette, a map, and resource lists. Don’t leave home for China without it!Veteran travelers Qin and Larry Herzberg are Chinese language and culture professors at Calvin College in Michigan.

Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde: In Aid of the Royal Theatrical Fund


Oscar WildeGeoffrey Palmer - 2010
    Additional narrators include Geoffrey Palmer O.B.E., Sir Donald Sinden, and Elaine Stritch. Music: 'Reverie De Sebastian' by Steve Davies.

Cold Nights


Ba Jin - 1947
    He is best known for the influential trilogy Family, Spring, and Autumn. Cold Nights, twice adapted into films (Cantonese in 1955 and Mandarin in 1984), grapples with the emotional entanglement of Chinese intellectuals with the Japanese invasion of China as background. It has been widely hailed by critics as another masterpiece by Pa Chin. This bilingual edition contains a new critical introduction by Paul G. Pickowicz, professor of history and Chinese studies at the University of California, San Diego.

A Brief History of China: Dynasty, Revolution and Transformation: From the Middle Kingdom to the People's Republic


Jonathan Clements - 2019
    For millennia, China was the largest and richest nation on earth. Two centuries ago, however, its economy sank into a depression from which it had not fully recovered—until now. China's modern resurgence as the world's largest nation in terms of population and its second-largest economy—where 800 million people have been lifted out of poverty in the space of a few decades—is the greatest untold story of the 21st century.A Brief History of China tells of the development of a rich and complex civilization where the use of paper, writing, money and gunpowder were widespread in ancient times and where silk, ceramics, tea, metal implements and other products were produced and exported around the globe. It examines the special conditions that allowed a single culture to unify an entire continent spanning 10 billion square kilometers under the rule of a single man—and the unbelievably rich artistic, literary and architectural heritage that Chinese culture has bequeathed to the world. Equally fascinating is the story of China's decline in the 19th and early 20th century—as Europeans and Americans took center stage—and its modern resurgence as an economic powerhouse in recent years. In his retelling of a Chinese history stretching back 5,000 years, author and China-expert Jonathan Clements focuses on the human stories which led to the powerful transformations in Chinese society—from the unification of China under its first emperor, Qinshi Huangdi, and the writings of the great Chinese philosophers Confucius and Laozi, to the Mongol invasion under Genghis Khan and the consolidation of Communist rule under Mao Zedong. Clements even brings readers through to the present day, outlining China's economic renaissance under Deng Xiaoping and Xi Jinping. What really separates this book from its counterparts is the focus on women, and modern themes such as diversity and climate change. Chinese history is typically told through the stories of its most famous men, but Clements' telling gives women equal time and research—which introduces readers of this book to equally important, but less commonly-known facts and historical figures.Often seen in the West in black or white terms—as either a savage dystopia or a fantastical paradise—China is revealed in the book as an exceptional yet troubled nation that nevertheless warrants its self-description as the Middle Kingdom.

Dreaming in Chinese: Mandarin Lessons in Life, Love, And Language


Deborah Fallows - 2010
    But nothing prepared her for the surprises of learning Mandarin, China's most common language, or the intensity of living in Shanghai and Beijing. Over time, she realized that her struggles and triumphs in studying the language of her adopted home provided small clues to deciphering the behavior and habits of its people,and its culture's conundrums. As her skill with Mandarin increased, bits of the language—a word, a phrase, an oddity of grammar—became windows into understanding romance, humor, protocol, relationships, and the overflowing humanity of modern China. Fallows learned, for example, that the abrupt, blunt way of speaking that Chinese people sometimes use isn't rudeness, but is, in fact, a way to acknowledge and honor the closeness between two friends. She learned that English speakers' trouble with hearing or saying tones—the variations in inflection that can change a word's meaning—is matched by Chinese speakers' inability not to hear tones, or to even take a guess at understanding what might have been meant when foreigners misuse them. In sharing what she discovered about Mandarin, and how those discoveries helped her understand a culture that had at first seemed impenetrable, Deborah Fallows's Dreaming in Chinese opens up China to Westerners more completely, perhaps, than it has ever been before.

Paper Son: One Man's Story


Tung Pok Chin - 2000
    Although scholars have pieced together their history, first-person accounts are rare and fragmented; many of the so-called "Paper Sons" lived out their lives in silent fear of discovery. Chin's story speaks for the many Chinese who worked in urban laundries and restaurants, but it also introduces an unusually articulate man's perspective on becoming a Chinese American.Chin's story begins in the early 1930s, when he followed the example of his father and countless other Chinese who bought documents that falsely identified them as children of Chinese Americans. Arriving in Boston and later moving to New York City, he worked and lived in laundries. Chin was determined to fit into American life and dedicated himself to learning English. But he also became an active member of key organizations -- a church, the Chinese Hand Laundrymen's Alliance, and the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association -- that anchored him in the community. A self-reflective and expressive man, Chin wrote poetry commenting on life in China and the hardships of being an immigrant in the United States. His work was regularly published in the China Daily News and brought him to the attention of the FBI, then intent on ferreting out communists and illegal immigrants. His vigorous narrative speaks to the day-to-day anxieties of living as a Paper Son as well as the more universal immigrant experiences of raising a family in modest circumstances and bridging cultures.Historian K. Scott Wong introduces Chin's memoir, discussing thelimitations on immigration from China and what is known about Exclusion-era Chinese American communities. Set in historical context, Tung Pok Chin's unique story offers an engaging account of a twentieth-century Paper Son.

Jack Ma: A Biography of the Alibaba Billionaire


Ryan Gardner - 2017
     He is one of China's richest men, as well as one of the wealthiest people in Asia. He has become a global icon in business and entrepreneurship, one of the world's most influential businessmen, and a philanthropist known for expounding his philosophy of business. Ma is one of the world's most powerful people, and has been a global inspirer and role model to many, he also gave numerous lectures, enlightenments and advices throughout his life career.

The Dragon's Tail


Adam Williams - 2007
    Previous novels by Williams include 'The Palace of Heavenly Pleasure' and 'The Emperor's Bones'.

IELTS Band 9 Grammar Secrets


Cambridge IELTS Consultants - 2014
     We show you how to develop your grammar and vocabulary into more formal, precise and advanced English. We will explain how to organise your sentences, your paragraphs and your entire essay in a way that will impress English-speaking college tutors and examiners. Above all, we give you the methods to quickly change your writing from normal, day-to-day English into Band 9 Academic English. Packed with examples, models and guidelines to follow, these methods have been used with great success by our students for IELTS and University preparation. Start getting the results you need - and write the Academic way. ABOUT THE AUTHORS: Cambridge IELTS Consultants are a team of IELTS trainers and past examiners based in Cambridge, United Kingdom. They have many years experience of preparing students for IELTS at University level, assessing the speaking tests and developing course books to guide candidates through the Cambridge IELTS process. They really are the experts!

Talk English: How To Learn From The Success To Speak English Like A Native, A Step-By-Step Guide To Learn Spoken English


Ken Xiao - 2015
    Follow The Effortless Step-By-Step Instructions In The Book To Completely Get Rid Of Your Accent and speak English like a native! How to speak English fluently? Learn from the success to perfect your English pronunciation, your tone, your flow, your expression, and everything you need to speak English naturally just like a native speaker would to make you speak English like a native speaker. So that instead of saying "how learn English" --> you would naturally say "how to learn English." What Level Of English Fluency Will You Achieve: Short Answer: Native. How to speak English like a native? Effortlessly Follow The Step-By-Step Instructions In The Book To Achieve The Highest Level Of Fluency, Making You Speak English Like A Native Speaker. The Author Is A Successful English Learner: This Book Is Written By An English Learner Who Successfully Learned To Speak English Like A Native Speaker. While Knowing Only Little English, The Author Started To Learn English Fluency At The Age Of 20 And Successfully Turned His Broken English Into Fluent English In Just 6 Months. "English spoken" It's actually "Spoken English." In The Continuing Effortless Practices, He Then Perfected His Fluency, Making Him Speak English Like A Native. "How speak English?" Well, it's "How to speak English?" You'll naturally speak it in the right way after following the step-by-step instructions in the book. Likewise, "English grammer," "Grammar English." it's actually "English grammar." Use For English And Any Other Language: The Author Founded The Myfluentenglish Formula Which He Used To Perfect His Speaking In English. Using The Same Formula, The Author Also Perfected His Speaking In Two Other Languages. This Formula Is Designed To Make You Speak English Like A Native. The Formula Is Also Designed To Make You Speak Any Other Language Like A Native. Just Follow The Step-By-Step Instructions In The Book. The best way to speak English. It's OK to type "The best way to speak Englosh." One out of 100 people would type Englosh instead of English. Learn English tenses, English verbs, grammar, vocabulary, fluency and everything you need to speak English like a native naturally by following the instructions in Talk English! What Comes With It: Talk English - How To Learn From The Success To Speak English Like A Native, A Step-By-Step Guide To Learn Spoken English + Bonus 1: Let's Get Started - 3 Strategies To Start Speaking English Immediately + Bonus 2: Let's Talk - How To Start A Conversation In English + Bonus 3: Vocabulary Built Solid - 6 Ways To Build A Rock Solid Vocabulary + Bonus 4: Free Lifetime Access To Native Study Materials. What readers are saying: THIS is the book every English learner NEEDS to read. Crystal F. Canada After 2 weeks, the change is significant. Most importantly I think like a native speaker starting building a little bit in my subconsciousness. Dexuan L. China How I can speak English so fast without accent? With your tips I can do it. I will recommend to my friends with broken English because I think your book is very helpful for me and other people like me to learn speak fluent English. Thank you so much! Farah A. Iran The book provides the readers a workable way on how to get to speak fluent English. It's simple, straightforward, and most important of all, its focused and not too way long to cost the readers too much time. Joanne L.