By Vivienne Zhang

Author Vivienne Zhang is a native Chinese speaker fluent in English who has been translating, interpreting and teaching for many years. She has tried, tested and perfected various lessons and techniques that apply well to Chinese studies. These modern techniques are now published in a series of four books. Each book teaches the reader both Pinyin and Hanzi (Chinese characters). One of the unique features in these books is the literal translation into English of common Chinese expressions and vocabulary. For example, you can often see the annotation “lit.” with the grammar points in BOOK 1, showing the direct translation of the Chinese text. This technique reinforces an understanding of sentence structure and grammar which has proven to be instrumental in helping the students and readers to retain the Chinese that they have already learned. Other Chinese language books do not use this approach.