Basic Spoken Chinese Practice Essentials

You don't need characters to speak Chinese! In fact, for English speakers, learning the characters is an inefficient process and slows down your progress in learning to speak and listen to Chinese. Respected Chinese language expert Dr. Cornelius Kubler, who has taught diplomats, business people and students, presents a system that works for you. Use separate but integrated "tracks" to help you efficiently master spoken and written Chinese.Basic Spoken Chineseprovides success at a first year university level of fluency. Since Chinese takes a lot of practice, turn toPractice Essentialsfor a wealth of care fully designed activities to help solidify every aspect of your spoken Chinese skills: Vocab and Grammar summaries Role Play & Listening exercises Transformation & Response practice Translation exercises A CD-ROM contains over 11 hours of audio, as well as printable PDF files of hundreds of additional practice pages and exercises.

Cornelius C. Kubler is Stanfield Professor of Asian Studies at Williams College, where he teaches Chinese and for many years chaired the Department of Asian Studies. He was formerly Chinese Language Training Supervisor and Chair of the Department of Asian and African Languages at the Foreign Service Institute, U.S. Department of State, where he trained American diplomats in Chinese and other languages, and he served for six years as Principal of the American Institute in Taiwan Chinese Language & Area Studies School. Kubler, who has directed intensive Chinese language training programs in the U.S., mainland China, and Taiwan, has been active in Chinese language test development and has authored or co-authored nine books and over 50 articles on Chinese language pedagogy and linguistics.