 | Easy-peasy Chinese: Mandarin Chinese for Beginners (Book & CD) by Dk
Buy new: £5.83 / Used from: £2.00 A gentle intro to Chinese with clear explanations, teaches basic vocab and explains how the language and the writing system work, the cd is great too.
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 | Michel Thomas Method: Mandarin Chinese Introductory Course (Michel Thomas Series) by Harold Goodman
Buy new: £9.74 / Used from: £9.24 Your next step, getting the hang of pronunciation is the next challenge; the Michel Thomas method helps you master tones, this 2 disc intro is an ideal "taster" and good foundation for speech
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 | Michel Thomas Method: Mandarin Chinese Foundation Course (Michel Thomas Series) by Harold Goodman
Buy new: £43.49 / Used from: £82.44 The full course, builds vocab and confidence and works even better if you're working from a book with pinyin and tones marked as you'll be confident on pronunciation
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 | Simplified Character: The Quick and Easy Method to Learn the 100 Most Basic Chinese Characters (Tuttle Language Library)
Buy new: £10.86 / Used from: £3.49 Time to learn some characters, this book has boxes to write them in stroke by stroke for practice. The same characters pop up in most beginner course so its a good buy.
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 | Practical Chinese Reader: v. 1 by Tsun Liu
Buy used from: £2.72 (The original version) I love this book, old-fashioned learning with short conversations then exercises and drills to build up skills. There's no cd but Michel Thomas means I'm confident with tones.
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 | New Practical Chinese Reader: Textbook v. 1 by Liu Xun
Buy new: £14.45 / Used from: £12.04 The new version of the above, more books and a cd, haven't used it myself .
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 | Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar (Modern Grammars) by Claudia Ross
Buy new: £17.58 / Used from: £16.60 Indispensible if you want to go beyond basic conversation. Clear, easy to understand with many practical examples, all grammars should be this user-friendly.
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 | Chinese in a Flash: v. 1 (Tuttle Flash Cards) by Philip Yungkin Lee
Buy new: £13.58 / Used from: £11.98 Even if you don't usually like flashcards (I don't) these are ideal for getting the characters fixed in your head, 448 cards make this good value, learn a few at a time.
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 | Oxford Beginner's Chinese Dictionary
Buy new: £6.66 / Used from: £5.88 A good, basic dictionary, with lots of background explanation and guides for getting the correct word choice.
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 | Collins Easy Learning Mandarin Chinese Dictionary (Collins Easy Learning Dictionaries)
Buy new: £7.11 / Used from: £5.84 Another good dictionary, very user friendly with clear print, I'd buy the Oxford for preference but am happy to use both of these.
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 | Learn to Write Chinese Characters (Yale Language) by Johan Bjorksten
Buy new: £9.47 / Used from: £5.81 Not as immediately useful as the First 100 Characters book but ideal for those wanting to work harder at good writing skills
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 | Mandarin Picture Word Book by Ling Li
Buy new: £2.47 / Used from: £2.02 A fun little book with line drawings of everyday (Western) scenes and much vocab, with an index at the back.
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 | Chinese Through Poetry by Archie Barnes
Buy new: £16.60 / Used from: £30.61 For something beyond the usual "My name is.." learning, find out how Chinese verse forms work and how to interpret the succint yet beautiful language of Classical Chinese.
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 | Speaking of Chinese: A Cultural History of the Chinese Language by R Chang
Buy new: £9.99 / Used from: £3.51 Not a language book, but one about language and culture. Friendly style with some great information, covers writing, history, folklore. A must-read.
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 | Insight Guides China (Insight Guide China) by Tom (DRT) Le Bas
Buy new: £13.81 / Used from: £11.15 Learning the language is great, but what about the history and culture and daily life? This tourist guide has several chapters on geography, history etc plus lovely photos.
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 | China: A History by John Keay
Buy new: £15.00 / Used from: £6.98 Accessible overview of China's history, builds on the basics in the guidebook if you want to learn more.
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