HSK Standard Course 1 (Chinese and English Edition)

I was nervous purchasing this book due to the fact I didn't know exactly what I was getting. An inside view would have been nice, but LET ME TELL YOU, this book is amazing!!! I'm teaching myself Chinese and this book is making it SO MUCH EASIER. It comes with a CD with pronunciation and other exercises on it. The book itself has lots of pictures, pinyin, and characters written in a way that is easy to pick up. The chapters are short and simple, but the explanations (in Chinese and English) are really helpful and insightful. I would definitely recommend this for anyone looking for a good beginner text. Don't let the simplistic cover fool you; the interior more than makes up for it!

There are videos on Youtube that are based on this book. I find it very helpful in getting the pronunciations correct. You can practice in real time with them but I found they move pretty fast and it's hard repeat the phrases and keep up. I found using the book and the videos together is effective.

This book is extremely well organized. I will mention that if you don’t use the cd and rely on the mp3s online, you may not have access to the audio files for the class commands at the end of each lesson. I will update this review once I take the exam!Update: took and passed the HSKI with excellent scores. I highly recommend this book. It will definitely prepare you for the exam. I am currently using HSKII from the same series to prep for the exam. As an FYI, I studied over 3 months, revised for two, then took the exam. It’s entirely possible to study at a more accelerated rate but I am sticking to my plan of doing just 2 exams per year.

I had some experience with Chinese because I used Duolingo, but Duolingo doesn’t teach you a lot of the rules. This book is a good refresher for me and broke down different aspects of the language. I especially liked the audio files, but platform for the file wasn’t very user friendly. I had to navigate to each file which was annoying if you aren’t using a computer.

The book is well-organized and easy to use. It doesn't try to teach too much too fast. It gives new information in short sections about vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar points. It is best used under the guidance of a teacher, but it can be used for self-directed study because it includes a CD to illustrate pronunciation. You can get a companion workbook (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/7561937105/) that has exercises, quizzes, and writing practice for each lesson. And if you're really ambitious, "Experiencing Chinese - Living in China" (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00870QWTS/) provides a lot more vocabulary, dialogs, and explanations.

It's a great standardized course if you're learning Mandarin. There's lots of information on grammar in the book and plenty of pinyin to help you learn to pronounce the characters correctly. In the "Notes" sections, where the grammar is explained, they give examples in Chinese with no pinyin below it but it's all characters you've already learned and I found that I was reading Chinese right away! The CD that comes with it is great for listening to a native speaker and practicing pronunciation. Also, there are lots of independent online resources you can use with this course. I love it! 这本书很好！

As someone who can only say a few words in Mandarin, this book is awesome. It goes slowly and has great audio files to help you learn. I finally understand what the tones are and the markers make complete sentence to me! Now when I see pinyin I can actually pronounce it closer to what it should be! I am currently using this book in conjunction with a course on Udemy, and it's been invaluable. I will be purchasing the other books in this series as well so that I can continued to learn Mandarin and take the HSK someday.

Easy to follow and essential for HSK 1 study. Arrived way ahead of when it was supposed to