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6. Is SPEAK E-Z CHINESE the only book that teaches Chinese using phonetic English? |
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8. What's the deal with the "free downloadable audio version" you provide? |
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14. What can you tell me about your instructional methodology?
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Exiled by nefarious means (Okay, in truth, it's a self-imposed banishment) to the Goat Horn Hutong district of Qingdao, the Cathay Cafe is under the joint proprietorship of authors Zhao Fang and Timothy Green; we're the underground force propagating phonetics over Pinyin in our book entitled SPEAK E-Z CHINESE In Phonetic English. We're the metaphorical hitching post and point of rendezvous for the wayfarer in China . As authors and innkeepers, we'll be serving you a generous amount of helpful travel information, as well as our revolutionary Chinese language instruction in phonetic English. |
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2. Who are you guys? |
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| From our "About The Authors" page of SPEAK E-Z CHINESE: | ||||||
Timothy Green has been an educator since the word was invented. Besides dabbling in art, he is the author of two children's books and two young adult novels. When Tim isn't teaching, painting, or writing, he can be found working on his Chinese in phonetic English, or practicing not smoking.
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Besides interpreting and translating for international schools and companies, Zhao Fang (fondly know as Sam by her friends) has spent countless hours teaching English to Chinese and Koreans, and Chinese to Americans, Canadians and English. Confusing? Not for her. When Sam isn't teaching, she can be found at her computer or playing a mean hand of badminton (that's yiew maow chiew in phonetic English).
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3. What's the big deal about Speak E-Z Chinese? |
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The big deal for us, as the authors of SPEAK E-Z CHINESE, was to create a language book that met our 3 major goals, which were to: |
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| After two years of labor and love, we feel we've succeeded. | ||||||
4. What makes learning Mandarin so easy with your system? |
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SPEAK E-Z CHINESE In Phonetic English simply eliminates many of the complications of learning Mandarin. This book translates the Chinese language into user-friendly words and phrases that can be read and then pronounced in straightforward phonetic English. The beginning student of Chinese no longer needs to decipher the old fashioned, ineffective Wade-Giles Chinese-to-English system, or trudge through the current, but just as difficult Pinyin romanization method, in order to speak Chinese. As a native English reader and speaker, you can sound out the words and phrases in exactly the same way you learned to pronounce your vocabulary in grade school. It's that E-Z!
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A Very Brief History of the Romanization of Chinese |
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Mandarin, called Putonghua, "the common language," is the official language of China . It uses four tones: level, rising, falling, and high-rising, to distinguish words or syllables with the same consonants and vowels but with different meanings. As you know, the written Chinese language consists of a plethora of symbols and characters that are completely foreign and abstract to the westerner.
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The Wade-Giles romanization system was originally devised to simplify Chinese characters for the western world. Initiated by British scholar Sir Thomas Francis Wade, and later modified by Professor Herbert Allen Giles in 1912, the system became the preferred Chinese transliteration method among academians. Through the use of this method, English speakers were able to systematically and consistently butcher the Chinese language through mispronunciations for over a half a century! Why did the Wade-Giles translation fail so miserably? Unless an individual had been taught how the system worked, inevitably, words were mispronounced. |
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Several other attempts were made in the 1920s and '30s to integrate a Latin alphabet for Chinese, but there was little success. Finally, the Pinyin romanization method officially replaced the Wade-Giles system in 1958. China 's acceptance of Pinyin signified the government's commitment to promote a national, standardized Putonghua for both westerners and the country's minorities. Pinyin is now extensively used throughout China . |
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As native English speakers quickly discover while studying Mandarin, many of the vowels and consonants written in Pinyin are pronounced similar to their English counterparts, and many are not. Thus, the native English speaker (trained since primary school days to sound words out phonetically) must first learn the Pinyin system before being able to read and enunciate clearly in Chinese. |
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But good news! With SPEAK E-Z CHINESE, you can by-pass Pinyin and concentrate immediately on reading and speaking Chinese with the already familiar phonetic system. Here is an example: |
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You see, with phonetic English you can already pronounce a word correctly in Chinese! For the serious student of Mandarin, we do advise you to learn the Pinyin system. But for the traveler who is looking for a quick and easy guide to help you communicate effectively while visiting China , the phonetic system is obviously the most helpful! |
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6. Is SPEAK E-Z CHINESE the only book that teaches Chinese using phonetic English? |
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No. There are a few other Chinese phrasebooks using phonetic English, but we've perfected the system! As the authors, we've combined over 30 years of experience and training as English and Chinese teachers to create the most effective and simple to master techniques for learning Chinese using English phonetics. Plus, only SPEAK E-Z CHINESE provides its readers with its FREE downloadable audio version to accompany the phonetic instruction. In this way, the beginning student is also equipped with the proper tones for each word, spoken by native Chinese speakers. |
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But that's not all! SPEAK E-Z CHINESE In Phonetic English also provides the text in all 4 formats: English, phonetic English, Pinyin, and Chinese characters. You're now able to view them all in one visually clean format! This way, for example, IF, for some reason, your Chinese taxi driver has trouble understanding a specific phrase you've spoken, you can simply show it to him in Chinese characters … INSTANT COMMUNICATION. We've covered all the bases for you! |
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And finally, only SPEAK E-Z CHINESE provides the traveler with the means to communicate in fresh, contemporary Mandarin! We've eliminated the dry, textbook-style conversations and concentrated on providing the reader with practical phrases that incorporates humorous slang along with the appropriate expletive, or even an ancient Chinese idiom for that perfect moment!
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As authors and educators, our philosophy is to make learning simple and fun. With SPEAK E-Z CHINESE, we promise you that you'll be speaking Mandarin clearly and effectively within minutes. Impossible? Boo shir boo kuh nung duh! (Not impossible!)
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7. How or Where do I purchase SPEAK E-Z CHINESE? |
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SPEAK E-Z CHINESE In Phonetic English is available for $11.95 USD wherever books are sold in the U.S. British and Canadian retailers include Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, B. Daltons, Chapters, Borders and most independent book sellers. Wholesalers include Ingram, Baker and Taylor, Whitaker (UK) and Thorpe-Bowker (AU). In addition, the e-book version of SPEAK E-Z can be downloaded here for only $6.00.
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8. What's the deal with the "free downloadable audio version" you provide at the Cathay Cafe? |
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Although our book translates Chinese words and phrases into phonetic English, we understand the importance of hearing the correct tones with pronunciations spoken by native Chinese. In SPEAK E-Z CHINESE, we promised our readers the audio version of the book at no extra cost! We fulfill our commitment at this website.
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9. What Chinese lessons are offered free at this site? |
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Our free lessons, needless to say, are excerpts from our book: SPEAK E-Z CHINESE In Phonetic English. For your convenience, simply click on any of the chapters beneath "Look, Listen and Speak" on our homepage, and, you can begin learning Mandarin right now!
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Our downloadable course takes you step-by-step through all 15 Chapters of our book: SPEAK E-Z CHINESE In Phonetic English.
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Our revolutionary lessons use interactive audio files throughout! |
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Each lesson is carefully designed with the most vital words and phrases you'll need to know, as well as some fun, contemporary expressions, the occasional expletive (for those certain moments), and even popular Chinese idioms. We also provide quality sound files. You'll be conversing in clear Mandarin immediately!
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With the SPEAK E-Z CHINESE course, you will save time, money and frustration. You are now able to by-pass the complicated Pinyin romanization of Chinese and learn Mandarin with words and phrases translated into easy to read and speak phonetic English. This saves you the time of having to first practice and memorize Pinyin – the common way of learning Chinese. Dropping this step alone will save you months of learning!
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As a professional educator, with over 25 years of teaching experience in public schools in the U.S. and international schools in China, my years as an English teacher and curriculum designer have been linked with Zhao Fang's 6 years of experience teaching Chinese to English speakers visiting China.
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Our goal was to create the easiest possible way for a native English speaker to learn Mandarin. We both agreed from the very beginning that we needed to approach the learning process in the most simplified, easy to read and understand format: the way we all learned English back in primary school – with phonetics! Next, our combined years of experience has taught us that students learn best (fastest and most burned into the memory) when the learning process is fun and meaningful. Here again, we must give ourselves an A+. As with everything in life, a fair share of humor and down-to-earth realism goes a long way in making learning fun. As professionals, we insisted on quality recordings and well written lessons. But, we also insisted that lessons were not dry and boring! You'll see!
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Ten Reasons for Taking the SPEAK E-Z CHINESE Course: |
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Our entire course with audio files is less than half the price of other language courses – only $69.95 USD!
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We offer you a 100% risk-free guarantee: If for any reason you are dissatisfied with our course, we will return your money! We're that confident in the quality and value you'll get!
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13. What else do you have? |
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The Cathay Cafe serves generous helpings of Information regarding travel to and within China, including links to many other informative sites, we also provide you with dessert: click our CoolStuff and you'll find art and video clips of China seen from the unique window of the Cathay Cafe, or sign up for our free newsletter Freshly Brewed, for more entertaining and enlightening information for the way farer in China.
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14. What can you tell me about your instructional methodology? |
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1. Phonics is the branch of language study that deals with specific speech sounds, their production and combination, and their written symbols, or phonograms, (what we commonly refer to as letters). Linguists classify these sounds into a number of abstract categories called phonics, which are a family of closely related speech sounds regarded as a single sound and represented in phonetic transcription with specific, learned symbols (again, referring to letters). An example would be the family sounds of r in bring, red and round. Any difference between such sounds are due to the modifying influence of the adjacent sounds. Phonemes are the building blocks of early reading. As children, we were all taught how to decode written language – breaking them into parts that make each sound. There's an entire study of this broad subject, and plenty of written by men and women far more knowledgeable on the subject than myself, the likes of Priscilla Griffith, Marilyn Jager Adams, Theodore Harris and many others.
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2. My point on this topic is that the English alphabet is a sound/symbol system, not a pictographic one like Chinese. At an early age, we were all programmed to break words into syllables and then into individual speech sounds (phonemes). We have been taught a specific system that is very difficult to by-pass in later years. It's not impossible to re-wire our inner programming; it simply takes a lot of time and specific effort. When China adopted the Pinyin alphabet as the romanization of their traditionally pictographic alphabet, they were unintentionally requiring native English learners to associate their Pinyin phonemes with their own unique sounds… Can you see where the wires cross here? What this means is that the native English reader/speaker must unlearn English phonetics in favor of relearning phonics based on Chinese Pinyin. In other words, native English speakers normally need to spend months unlearning one system (programmed into us since early childhood) to relearn another.
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3. In addition, Pinyin is based on a system that English readers find extremely confusing because some of the phonemes are phonetically pronounced similar to those used in English, and others are not! With SPEAK E-Z CHINESE In Phonetic English, you can simply by-pass the complex Pinyin system with user-friendly words, phrases and sentences in phonetic English. And in addition to simplifying the learning process, we hope we've made both the book and the downloadable lessons fun and practical. Let us know what you think!
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T. Green |
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Author of SPEAK E-Z CHINESE |
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Money: As the authors of SPEAK E-Z CHINESE, Zhao Fang and I have deliberately set up an online course for learning to speak Chinese that is priced lower than anything on the market. You can check this out easily by simply surfing the net… we're absolutely sure our course is not only competitive with other online courses, but easier, more fun, and cheaper. Sorry if this sounds like shameless advertising, but it's simply the truth! 