If you’re studying Mandarin Chinese in the United States, chances are very good that you’re using Integrated Chinese, an excellent three-book, two-year course written by Tao-chung Yao and Yuehua Liu. As you can see from the University of Hawaii’s list of “Participating Institutions“, many top institutions of higher learning are using Integrated Chinese (IC). I used it myself when I started learned Chinese in 1998 at the University of Florida.
Integrated Chinese has a home page maintained by the University of Hawaii, and a wide range of IC resources are already available on the web. So why this blog?
The simple answer is that we want to help. Over the past two years, ChinesePod has built up a ton of free online resources for learning Chinese. Still, most university students probably have their noses stuck in Integrated Chinese and don’t even realize the advantages of online learning. Sure, IC is a great textbook and it’s a great place to start. But ChinesePod will be using its online tools to specifically target IC content. You’ll be able to find all IC vocabulary in the ChinesePod Dictionary, download IC-focused PDF review sheets, get IC “Fix” audio review, and we can also recommend ChinesePod lessons which reinforce IC content and bring it to life in new situations.
At the same time, some ChinesePod users may appreciate a more fixed approach to our lessons. Those users may or may want to buy the IC textbook, but they can still take advantage of our free IC-centered content and lesson recommendations regardless.
Over the Fall 2007-Spring 2008 Academic year, ChinesePod will cover Integrated Chinese Level 1, Part 1 and Level 1, Part 2, following the textbook week by week. This allows university students to complement their studies real-time, or for non-university students to follow along at a university pace. Naturally, exchange of ideas is also the goal. Whether you’ve used IC or not, feel free to jump in on the discussion of each blog post!
-John Pasden
Hi John,
I am suprised to find Chinesepod is such an advocate of Integrated Chinese. The New Practical Chinese Reader is a much better textbook. There are several reasons for this. NPCR introduces the language at more gentle pace and the vocabulary is well chosen. The content of the book is more cohesive and the dialogs are more natural – containing sentences one is likely to encounter in conversation. Both books use hanyu pinyin and simplified characters, which is good. But the most important for the beginner is that the audio material is superior, being both clear and engaging. Another strong point is the homework and exercises which do a better job of reinforcing the vocabulary and grammar. The arrangement of characters and pinyin on alternating lines (in the first volume only) works better that putting it on alternating pages. Finally, the price of NPCR is significantly less: $20 for the book and $30 for the CDs. These are the reasons we have chosen this text for our school “Effective Chinese” located here in Portland Oregon.
Here is an online resource some students may be interested in. These are primitive, but useful, FREE materials that provide exercises and practice for Integrated Chinese, courtesy of UC Berkeley.
http://www.language.berkeley.edu/ic/gb/toc.html
Check it out.
Gee, I just now payed attention to this promotion. Although I don’t qualify for the special reduced rate, I think it’s great that Chinese Pod is trying to augment IC (since I’ve been using IC in private lessons!). I am particularly happy to see the efforts at mapping material from the text to related lessons on Chinese Pod, an activity that I’ve found a little tricky. I agree with the above poster that the IC books aren’t perfect, but the Chinese Pod materials will certainly combine with IC to make a very strong curriculum! The best of both worlds.
Thanks again,
–buzz
Wow! Wish I had something like this a year ago when I was starting my own self studies. At the time Chinese Pod provided the ultimate in convenience, but I found it very difficult to work with language exchange partners or tutors with strictly CPod at stay on task. Using a textbook makes weekly goals and benchmarks much easier to stick to. Finding appropriate CPod lessons to reinforce a given chapter was difficult at the time, but this is a good way to augment things. Very novel approach guys and a good way to keep the site’s content fresh.
The choice of books, I think, is a matter of personal learning styles. I started with the Kung Fu series used here at Rutgers, but, didn’t find it good. The supporting CDs were of horrible quality.
I moved onto NPCR, which, again, for me, just didn’t work.
Thus far I have found IC with all the supporting materials to work best with my learning style. I particularly like the very clear integration of the CDs with the materials. There is always an English intro to where precisely in the text you are. None of the others have this.
Zaijian
Thanks, John, for doing this blog. IC seems to be the best of the bad as far as Chinese textbooks go. I my (fairly limited) experience, there aren’t any really good Chinese textbooks out there. I much prefer the selection I had when I was learning French.
In the second book of part 1 the grammar sections get a bit confusing. I notice that this blog–and Chinesepod–focus on vocabulary instead of grammar. Will you pay attention to the grammar sections as you move through the book?