Title: There's a lot better out there
Product review: Many of the other reviews have covered things well, so I won't add much beyond saying that this book seems to have been made entirely without the student's needs in mind. The grammar introduced is poorly explained, very technical, and often things you'll only use in very specific situations. Much of the vocabulary is obscure and useless in every day conversation. The layout is awful and the illustrations laughable. The only way this might be useful to you is if you are dead-set on learning traditional/simplified characters at the same time. The accompanying workbook, however, is pretty good as it incorporates interesting reading activities.I would recommend the New Practical Chinese Reader over this series combined with a good grammar book like Routledge's Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar. Don't waste your time on this one; I spent a full academic year working through this book in a fourth-year undergraduate class and feel like I hardly learned anything!
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