Summary

The Integrated Chinese textbook series is very colourful. The first ten pages of the first book put some emphasis on understanding and practicing pronunciation. Then, you dive into the lives of five friends living in America and their everyday experiences speaking Chinese. Each chapter contains two dialogues between the friends and focuses on a specific topic, such as family, hobbies, or school life. The authors have ensured that vocabulary words reflect modern student life, with lots of content relevant to modern-day communication, such as text messaging and communicating on websites. There are language notes that annotate the dialogues, and grammar points are highlighted and numbered to help you identify them once you reach the grammar section of the chapter. There are also sections for interactive language practice that will train your oral communication skills and additional vocabulary sections for keen learners. The textbook identifies lower frequency words so you can concentrate on more practical Chinese, and after every five lessons, you will review the functional expressions that Chinese speakers often use. If you want a textbook to guide your studies, Integrated Chinese is well-organized for beginners. However, it is quite expensive compared to another popular textbook, the New Practical Chinese Reader.