Review: A Highly Useful Tool for Learning Chinese Quickly
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 12, 2012
Chinese is a challenging language to learn, especially for those who have never used a language other than English in their daily lives. Many people find it daunting when they look at Chinese characters and could not figure out where to start. For these reasons, Ben and Gina Shaffer's `101 Chinese Flash Cards' is something that could make you say, "Why didn't I think of that?"This book is actually a useful collection of flash cards to aid in your learning of the Chinese language. The flash cards present exactly 101 Chinese nouns that are apparently the most common words used in daily life. From the simplest words to the most complicated (still, "complicated" in the context of daily usage), each flash card shows the Chinese word as it is spelled in Chinese characters, its transliteration, and its English equivalent.Basically, the book works on the realization that it is much easier to learn a new language if the teaching is not only done orally, but also visually. On a further note, however, `101 Chinese Flash Cards' can be a great complement to any other Chinese learning tutorial, like Pimsleur, because at least, you get to see the picture that corresponds to the word.And as if that's not enough, if you're using an Amazon Kindle Fire or any tablet or PC with audio capability, then you can hear the words as they are pronounced by a native Chinese speaker.At the very least, this book enables you to learn a few useful words in Chinese as fast as possible. Pick up a copy of this book and you'll be delighted to be able to say a few Chinese words correctly in a few hours. My only gripe is that there are only about a hundred words--imagine how much more you can learn with hundreds more. I hope the ebook's creators produce a series of these Chinese learning books in the future for a more comprehensive way of learning this increasingly important language.