I've embarked on the next volume of our Chinese language texts, 成功之路 Road to Success. It's the fourth, so I've arrived at... 顺利篇 Elementary! It's a long march, this language: this series has 20 volumes!This level demands more than the volumes preparing for it. It dispenses with the training wheels of 拼音 pinyin - romanized pronunciation - in its texts and dialogues. (This series form the get-go offered no translations.) It demands interpretation of pictures (看图思考 Look and Think) and retellings of exchanges. Its listening exercises include lots of words and formulations not yet introduced. (There's a transcript at the end, but the point isn't to learn everything said but to glean what we need using what we already know, realize we can do that.) The series is designed for self-study as well as study in class with a teacher - we'll see how I do!
