Whom Do You Like More? (Chinese Breeze 300-word Level) with CD Paperback – December 31, 2008

I recommend this book to anybody going through the HSK 3 coursework. There won’t be much new content or vocabulary for HSK 4, but may be useful to refresh your knowledge of the grammar structures you learn in HSK 3.No spoilers, but even though the story was predictable, I found myself rooting for 方新 and really hoping that things worked out for him.I expected a teen story about a love triangle, but this wasn’t that. Thankfully.

POSITIVESNo grammatical errorsDense with varying grammar structuresThere are some pretty cute picturesThe accompanying audio is EXCELLENTLoved the questions in the back of the bookAlso enjoyed the exercise to correct the summary (Fantastic!)NEGATIVESLinear storyOne dimensional charactersDoes not offer a traditional character versionRepetitive - does not reinforce new words in a refreshing wayOnly introduces 50 new wordsThe actual story is only 45 pages longSome vocabulary is defined in a strange way[Xiangdao is defined as "bethink of" which is archaic and atypicalAlso what does this definition even mean? --> "How can one be capable of anything for making money?"It's so ambiguous.]SPOILERS & why I did not enjoy the bookThe story was extremely boring and out of touch. The main character was a complete weakling to me. Why can't this man just take care of himself. Am I supposed to believe that he's so consumed by his passion he can't even cook? (I program computers, java, c++, c, work full time, and I'm self-sufficient enough to make my own food) Also why was the lack of cooking even mentioned as a reason for the divorce? It sounds like he only married the first girl for convenience simply because she wasn't from Beijing and it shut his family up. The marriage didn't sound believable right from the start.What bothered me the most was that the relationship with the other girl wasn't built well.. She brought him food and the only thing they talked about was his work. It mentions that they went out to eat but it doesn't say anything they talked about or connected over. I also felt like he took advantage of her in the beginning by taking her BIRTHDAY computer. [He didn't even say happy birthday.. :-( ] The reasons they got married were also loosely held like she made him food, she promoted his brand, she called him to talk about his software. I get it. He wants her because she's supportive of his career. There was nothing there that showed they had any substantial moments together. She was more like a coworker than a potential marriage partner to me.I tried to keep an open mind and I went through each page expecting the story would get better. Reading this book became a chore and I had to read it out loud to force myself through. I've read many graded readers so I know they have a limited supply of vocabulary and grammar structures but compared to them this one was so boring.. so so so boring.I think if they had added 5 more pages they could have developed the relationship between the main character and Xiao Yue into one that was believable, where they bonded and created memories together.

It was a good book, a great narrative considering the vocabulary limit. Some of the plot was a little bit forced.

It has met my expectations. I recommend it to those who study Chinese and want do become fluient in reading Chinese.Antonio Carlos

This product arrived on time and as described. I am very happy with my purchase. I look forward to additional orders

Excellent condition. CD works fine.

Beijing, summer of 1988. Fang Xin and Xie Hong are recently married, and preparing for a bright new future. Unfortunately, their views of that future are rather divergent. She (Xie) sees it in America, and goes off there to study, telling her husband to hurry up and pass the TOEFL, so he can follow too. But he (Fang) sees the future in computers, and in particular in the software he's been developing on the side (apparently something like a Chinese-language Microsoft Office). English studies get left behind, as he spends night after night hacking away, trying to get that version 1.0 done and out. Fortunately, there's this Beijing girl named Xiaoyue, who helps him out and makes sure he gets something to eat now and then ...This is my favorite of the 300-character Chinese Breeze books. Somehow the authors (Jinhai Wen in particular) manage to tell a full, natural-sounding story with realistic characters - the couple drifting apart, the greedy boss, the nice girl who suddenly turns cold - even within the limited vocabulary. As the above hints indicate, the story will have some rough spots (one of the new vocabulary words is lihun, "divorce"), but it's all handled in a thoughtful way. There aren't really any cardboard heroes or villains, not even the greedy, conniving boss, believe it or not.Like all the Chinese Breeze books, this has brief reading comprehension quizzes at the end, and is accompanied by a CD with two readings of the book, one at normal (fast) conversational pace, and one slower. Note that the CD is an MP3 CD, not an ordinary audio CD.This book is the first in a subseries within the Chinese Breeze books, called "Tales of Zhongguancun." (Zhongguancun is a technology development hub in northwest Beijing, called "China's Silicon Valley.") The next book is  Secrets of a Computer Company (Chinese Breeze 500-word Level) with CD .

This review is fairly lengthy, and I may have missed a few ideas. I recommend reading the section headers, so you're just reading about what you have enquiries about._________My experience as a Chinese learner:I've been studying Chinese for about a year. I've had three weeks of classes in Shanghai, and about 1.5 semesters in university as a credited optional module. I have several Chinese friends, and a Chinese girlfriend, who will help me understand anything I have a problem with.I've been trying to write using the Chinese characters since classes started, and have learnt quite a few of them (though I forgot many over the Christmas break, despite being in Hong Kong and Taiwan!).I haven't done much Chinese in my free time, asides from watching the first season of the (subtitled) TV Show ＂爸爸去哪儿＂ - recommended!Partially my lack of studying on my own outside of classes and homework is because I didn't know of any materials that could be interesting at my level of comprehension / number of characters known. I have to say, this book was a great start!_________Who is this book for?:The book helpfully recommends you read the blurb - if you can get the gist of it (no pinyin!), the book should be at an appropriate level for you.Good for lone students, or teachers with a class! It would be fantastic for a teacher of Chinese to have the entire collection for students to borrow.Judging by the first few pages of "错错错", by the same publishing group, the Level 1 books seem to be of similar difficulty, and contain different "specialist vocabulary"._________My impressions of this book:+ No pinyin is provided, apart from when a few new words are defined at the bottom of a page. This is very helpful to get you reading authentic material, and I think reading this aloud has improved my pronunciation and confidence with speaking as I've been using the basic sounds I'm familiar with much more frequently!+ Pages have wide margins - so you can note down characters, pinyin, and translations there. Very handy!+ Every fifth lines are numbered, so you can follow along in class / find a passage to help a friend out quite quickly. Good teaching material!+ There's also an audio CD, which I didn't check out yet. I read that it has both normal and slowly-spoken audio tracks, so it seems very helpful in theory._________Is this book interesting?The plot isn't riveting, but using simple language a lucid story is told about a man who seeks out his passion of creating software in the Chinese language, and finds a woman who wants to help him work towards this - whilst his wife is in America! I enjoyed it, and there was never a chapter that made me think "This is boring.". The main reason I didn't go through the book at full speed was that I enjoyed experiencing with my girlfriend, us checking each other's pronunciation and understanding as we progresed.I definitely recommend it, and do not regret reading it one bit. Finishing my first book in Chinese, and being able to translate many of the complex nuances without much difficult, was a fantastic experience that I was happy to share._________My personal recommendations:+ iOS/Android dictionary app "Pleco" - you can draw characters, or if you pay for an optional module (that may be free elsewhere) you can use the camera to translate lone characters, or sets of characters that make a phrase. 太方便了 ！(Give it a shot here, perhaps!)+ Paper books: Collins dictionary. Whilst I haven't used this much due to the ease of use, range of explanations, and close examination of radicals provided by Pleco, it can be helpful - especially if you don't have a smartphone!+ PC program: Pablo. Fully free, and you can draw. However, you can't take photos - I definitely prefer Pleco over this. I spent so long trying to get Pleco on my computer, in fact!_________I hope my review helped you! If it did, please leave me a "Yes!" - and if it didn't, leave a comment and let me know what I missed, or ask me a question.Best of luck in studying Chinese!

The trouble with learning most languages is that you tend to focus on lists of vocabulary and "tourist" situations like ordering food, asking directions and talking about the weather. Not only is this boring, it means what you learn tends not to stick because it's not "real".I've been quite surprised at how few Chinese courses include lengthy bits of text to read and this book is a great supplement.It uses the first 300 characters that most people learn. If you've done a beginners course you probably know around 100 so should be able to read about 1/3 of this - don't let that put you off. With that, plus the fact there is a story unfolding here, you'll soon be able to grasp the meaning and that means you'll begin to learn new words.I laughed with my Chinese friends that this book would not only teach me Chinese, but how to two-time in Chinese too! But that aside, having a story like this really helps the learning.It's amazing, apart from anything else, how complex a tale you can weave with just a few hundred characters.The CD that accompanies the book is really useful. You can read along with the book, or just play it in the background or without the text to get used to hearing Chinese being spoken.One word of warning. For some reason my Mac won't recognise MP3 discs (I suspect the issue is the disc, not the format). The solution was to create an image of the disc using Toast (you could use Disk Utility which is on all Macs), then load that and drag the tracks into iTunes.Note the book doesn't have pinyin accompanying the characters. All due respect to the other reviewer who found that a problem, but at some point you have to let go of pinyin. If you don't have the motivation or the time, don't bother trying to learn Chinese as it is written and spoken. Listen to the CD while you read and you will improve your understanding. It might not be perfect but it will be good enough to grasp the meaning and the satisfaction that comes from this is great - I felt so proud just being able to understand the blurb on the back!I'm ordering others in the series now...

All languages need repetition to help you improve. The problem with Mandarin is that you have to learn a large number of characters in order to make sense of the written script. This is challenging for English speakers who manage with 26 letters of the alphabet! This book very cleverly keeps recycling (in a natural way) key characters and so you get plenty of practice. Recognition of Chinese characters needs lots and lots of practice ~ there is no substitute. The accompanying audio CD is delivered at a very friendly speed and the key thing is that you have enough time to recognize the sound of a new character/word and then check it in your dictionary using the Pinyin equivalent. To benefit from the story you should be at pre-GCSE or A2 level. I would say however that it is one of the best helps I have come across to help me improve my Chinese because of the repetition. Most text books never provide enough practice and the texts are too short or contain too many new words. Here the vocabulary is repeated again and again which helps retention and understanding! Can't wait to start the next story in the series. A good old fashioned soap opera drama makes you want to keep reading. Keep trying and it gets easier and easier :>)

This is the second book I purchased from this series, and it's great! Obviously, it has its limitations due to the low level - for example, phrases and even whole sentences are often repeated word for word rather than paraphrased - but for the purpose of learning a language, I see this as an advantage. You end up memorising vocabulary nearly effortlessly! What I really like is that there is no Pinyin, so it's less distracting and it really motivates you to work out the meaning of characters from context. By the way, I am currently preparing for HSK3, and still find occasional phrases challenging (but I read another book from this series, the one about missing children, at HSK2 level, and just about made it - it took me much longer to finish though). Another advantage is the large margin, and then the CD comes with two speeds - normal and slow pace. I really couldn't recommend this series more, it gives you such an immense sense of accomplishment, which spurs you on to keep learning the language.... 加油！

Il libro è scritto in cinese con annotazioni in inglese, purtroppo è necessario conoscere anche quest'ultima lingua ma non penso sia un problema, considerando che tipicamente se si vuole imparare una lingua ardua come il Cinese, quantomeno si abbia una conoscenza discreta della lingua Inglese (molto più semplice).Assieme al libricino (formato tascabile), viene fornito anche un CD-ROM con il testo cinese letto a velocità lenta e normale (per come la vedo io, "normale" = veloce... ma è una caratteristica della lingua mandarina).