In a previous post we mentioned that we spend most of our time at language school learning Chinese Mandarin. We've been working through a series of textbooks called 'Chinese Made Easier'. There are five books in the series consisting of seventy chapters in total. On average, each chapter takes about eight class hours to complete (plus some preparation and review time).
Here's a chapter from one of the textbooks:
Each chapter starts with a story or
dialogue on a particular topic which we
have to read though (notice that we're
still learning how to buy food!)...
...then there's a vocabulary list of about thirty new
words relating to that chapter to learn...
words relating to that chapter to learn...
...new grammar rules and sentence pattern exercises...
...questions about the story/dialogue and
translation exercises...
translation exercises...
...and eight traditional Chinese
characters to memorise (and write -
if we want to!)
After we've completed this series of textbooks we will have only covered the basics - there are plenty more textbooks lined up on our bookshelf, ready and waiting!
And of course, aside from working our way through the textbooks, we also spend time putting theory into practise!
