My review of Chinese Grammar Wiki BOOK: Elementary Edition

For the past couple of years I’ve been studying from “Integrated Chinese” published by Cheng & Tsui.   This textbook is pretty much the standard textbook in most U.S. universities and many high schools.   I’ve benefited tremendously from Integrated Chinese.

However, sometimes I think the grammar explanations are not as straight-forward as I’d like them to be.  When this is the case, I immediately turn to Allset Learning’s Chinese Grammar Wiki. This resource is simply indispensable!

Allset Learning was founded by John Pasden, who is well known in Chinese learning circles for his blog Sinosplice and he used to host podcasts at ChinesePod.   Allset Learning is located in Shanghai and its business is to help foreigners learn Chinese.  Oh yes, John is also one of the co-founders of Mandarin Companion.  I’ll write about Mandarin Companion graded readers in a future post.

One of several tools Allset Learning developed was the Chinese Grammar Wiki.  At the time of this writing there are six levels on their website:

• A1 – HSK1 – basic grammar for the beginning Chinese student.
• A2 – HSK2 – still basic, for the student who has had roughly one semester of Chinese.
• B1 – HSK3 – grammar points at this level are for intermediate students with about one year of college level Chinese.
• B2 – HSK4 – this upper intermediate level is for students with two years of formal study under their belt.
• C1 – HSK5 – this advanced level is for students with three years of formal study and is under development and expanding at this writing.
• C2 – HSK6 – at the time of this post, this level has not yet launched.

The ChineseGrammar Wiki provides clear explanations, plenty of examples, and the grammar points cross reference various textbooks, including Integrated Chinese Level 1 and Level 2.  If I’m not mistaken, an intermediate level Chinese Grammar Wiki Book is in the works.

After the A1 and A2 grammar points were in a solid form, the decision was made to publish the
Chinese Grammar Wiki BOOK: Elementary Edition which is in both paperback and Kindle format.

If you don’t want the detail of the Elementary Edition, there’s a Chinese Grammar Wiki BOOK: Just the Basics, which covers 26 basic grammar points.

Why get the book when it is online?  Well, I’ve found that when it comes to learning Chinese, I like to mark up my books as I pick up points during the learning process.  Hard to make annotations on the computer. Yet,  I opted for the Kindle format so I can have a Chinese grammar reference where ever I go.

For the student who is serious about learning Chinese, this book is a must buy!