Intermediate Written Chinese: Read and Write Mandarin Chinese As the Chinese Do

This is an intermediate-level course in written Chinese that employs a revolutionary new method designed to have you quickly reading and writing simple, connected Chinese sentences.

The Basic Chinese and Intermediate Chinese books provide separate but integrated "tracks" to help you learn to speak, read, and write Chinese efficiently at your own pace. Some students and teachers wish to emphasize speaking ability first, whereas others wish to focus on learning to speak, read, and write Chinese at the same time.

Intermediate Written Chinese allows you the flexibility to learn the written language and the written Chinese at your own pace.

• Learn to use 336 high-frequency characters, and over 1,200 common words written with them.
• Together with the 288 characters and 700 words introduced in Basic Written Chinese, a total of 624 characters and more than 1,900 words are formally taught in this two-volume course.
• In addition, another 199 supplementary characters and over 700 supplementary words are introduced for extra learning, meaning that you will have encountered a grand total of 823 characters and over 2,600 words by the end of this course.
• Carefully designed to have you quickly reading and writing connected Chinese sentences.
• Each lesson introduces six new characters and a number of words written with them. By dividing the learning into small tasks, you attain a sense of accomplishment rather than getting bogged down.
• The structure and etymology of each new character is explained in detail to make the learning of characters easier, and similar characters are compared and contrasted.
• Some lessons include realia such as photographs of street signs, name cards, e-mail messages, and handwritten notes.
• Both simplified and traditional characters are taught throughout; you may choose to learn one or both.
• Features a variety of fonts in both typeset and handwritten styles, to prepare you to use Chinese in many different contexts--from reading signs and newspapers to computers and mobile phone texts.

The accompanying CD-ROM includes:

• Over 6 hours of audio by several native Mandarin speakers.
• Recordings of all reading selections.
• Recordings with the pronunciations of all new characters and words.
• Additional lessons and reading selections.

Available separately, Intermediate Written Chinese Practice Essentials is the companion workbook for Intermediate Written Chinese. This practical guide includes a broad range of drills and exercises designed to enhance your proficiency in reading and writing Chinese dramatically. While designed for use with the companion textbook, it can be used together with any Chinese textbook or teaching program to hone your Chinese reading and writing skills.

Cornelius C. Kubler, Stanfield Professor of Asian Studies at Williams College, received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in linguistics from Cornell University. He earned a second M.A. in Chinese literature from National Taiwan University.

From 1980-1991 he was employed at the Foreign Service Institute, U.S. Department of State, where he served as Language Training Supervisor in Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, and Mongolian; as Principal of the advanced Chinese field school in Taiwan; and as Chair of the Department of Asian and African Languages.

Since joining Williams College in 1991, he has chaired the former Department of Chinese and Asian Studies Program as well as the Department of Asian Studies, which he was instrumental in founding. He has also served as visiting professor at Eisenhower College, Portland State University, Middlebury College, National Taiwan Normal University, Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages.

Kubler, who is author or coauthor of 20 books and over 50 articles on Chinese language pedagogy and linguistics, frequently serves as reviewer or consultant for Chinese and Asian Studies programs in the U.S. and overseas. He has served as Chair of the Test Development Committee for the SAT Subject Test in Chinese and as a member of the Executive Committee of the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages of the Modern Language Association. He is currently serving as American Co-Director of The Johns Hopkins University-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies in Nanjing, China.