The World leader in self study language coursesthe day-by-day method ZES Chinese with Ease Volume One by Philippe Kantor adapted for English-speakers by Clare Perkins Illustrated by J.-L. Goussé YASS iNNiL Published in India under licence by GOYAL SaaB —— goyal@goyalsaab.com www.assimil.comVASS INS Method This special low-price edition is for sale in India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Myanmar and Maldives only. Bound books, lavishly illustrated, containing lessons and exercises recorded on cassettes and CDs www.assimil.com “With Ease” series For travelling Arabic with Ease Dutch from the Word Go! Armenian with Ease* French from the Word Go! Chinese with Ease vol. 1 German from the Word Go! Chinese with Ease vol. 2 Writing Chinese with Ease Advanced language skills Dutch with Ease Using French German with Ease Using Spanish Hungarian with Ease Italian with Ease “Business” Japanese with Ease vol. 1 Business French Japanese with Ease vol. 2 Writing Japanese with Ease For children New French with Ease Sing your way to French! Spanish with Ease ISBN 81-8307-045-0 © ASSIMIL 2005 For the original edition © 2006 GOYAL Publishers & Distributors. Pvt. Ltd. for the Indian edition all right reserved www.goyalsaab.com Printed in India by Gopsons Papers Ltd., Noida FOREWORD HOW TO LEARN TO SPEAK CHINESE WITH EASE You will gradually learn to speak Chinese, without too much difficulty by reading and listening to the lessons for half an hour each day, and by repeating each sentence several times, one after another. First things first: before beginning a new lesson, take a deep breath and relax, during the First Wave your main task will be to listen and repeat, do a few exercises and become acquainted with Chinese. 1) As an option, you can start by reading and listening to the previous dialogue to keep in mind the new words and structures learned the day before. . 2) Then, if you have the recordings at home —which we recommend as they are a great help to get familiar with Chinese sounds- listen to the dialogue of the day. 3) Listen again and repeat each sentence: a blank is left on the recordings between each sentence of the thirteen first lessons. 4) Compare the pinyin transcription to the Chinese characters, on the left-hand page; then look at the right-hand page. A current English translation gives you the meaning of what you have heard or read and a literal translation, in italics, helps you not only to identify the meaning of each Chinese character, but also to understand the structure of each Chinese sentence. 5) In the dialogue, you will find numbers that refer to footnotes. They provide you with grammar and vocabulary explanations, or with remarks on cultural aspects of China. Read them carefully, but don’t learn them by heart. All in good time! 6) Once you feel at ease with the new dialogue, move on to the exercises. They will help you consolidate what you have learned so far. 7) Now relax, you have earned it! ° iii