Finding the Right Textbook

We will work with any language textbook that you've used in the past or are using in a current language class. If you don't have a textbook we will work with you to determine your goals and select a textbook that you can purchase directly from the web.

Textbooks provide a common source for both teacher and student and systematically expand the vocabulary and sentence structure so the student is always challenged and never overwhelmed.

We recommend textbooks that include both Chinese Pin-Yin and Chinese Characters because the visual imprint of the character often aids in memorizing the word-sounds. Also some students begin with the goal of only learning verbal Chinese and later start including characters in their studies.

There are two styles of Chinese characters: simplified characters that have been the standard of mainland China since the 1950's and traditional characters that are still used in Taiwan and Hong Kong. We focus on the simplified character set and recommend text books accordingly.