Foreign-market Books

The ELEMENTARY CHINESE READERS were originally published by Foreign Languages Press in 1980. In spite of the name, it is an introduction not only to the Chinese writing system, but also to Chinese grammar in general. The twenty-six chapters of the first volume will take the student from just saying "Hello, how are you?" to talking about his sightseeing activities as a tourist in China.

Technically the book has everything one needs for autodidactic learning. Each chapter presents new vocabulary and then gives a series of rigorous drills to ensure the information sinks into the student's head. There are also casettes available for the text, which mean that one is not depend on the abstract phonetic descriptions of Chinese sounds in the book. However, if you are planning to teach yourself Chinese from scratch, there are much friendlier books available, such as TEACH YOURSELF CHINESE or Routledge's COLLOQUIAL CHINESE. The ELEMENTARY CHINESE READERS are really meant for classroom use where instruction is given by a native speaker. Indeed, each grammatical point is accompanied by a Chinese explanation in Chinese characters, so that the instructor, who might not necessarily speak English, can make their alongside the students.

There is a class of students for which the grammar will be useful outside of the classroom. If you already know the basics of Chinese grammar and can read pinyin, this book can help you learn your first couple of hundred characters. All new vocabulary is given in pinyin and Chinese characters, and at the end of the chapter the stroke order of each character is given in a very clear manner. And though simplified forms are used, traditional characters are occasionally given too.

But I wouldn't recommend necessarily this book for learning to read Chinese. There's another book called PRACTICAL CHINESE READER, published by Commercial Press in 1986 that follows the very same format as the ELEMENTARY CHINESE READERS. It seems like a knockoff or imitation, but it is in my opinion rather more engaging, and its dialogues involve a story over several chapters that keep the reader's attention. It's also considerably larger, 551 pages as opposed to the 294 pages of the book I'm reviewing.

So, bottom line: if you just want to start learning characters and have some grounding in the Chinese language, the ELEMENTARY CHINESE READERS are useful. However, if you can find the PRACTICAL CHINESE READER instead, it might be a more economical and interesting purchase.

A very good guideline for performance managers

This book is good when you're already prepared for the TOEFL iBT and you need a material to final review. For this purpose, it's really great.

This book is a must for those seeking to diversify their portfolios. Mitchell Postner has shown the pros and cons of investing in emerging markets, such as the high currency and political risk and the high rewards that come in investing in companies that are poised to grow at a rate faster than what one would expect in North American markets.

I disliked the hero! He was too arrogant & controlling. I didn't find his actions to be loving; the author (who is a good writer, I generally enjoy her work) didn't soften him up sufficiently. I think the heroine should have been angrier with him at times (especially, when it's revealed the hero's been her landlord all the time, and he canceled of her lease -- all to control her movements!!) instead of meekly accepting all his power plays. Not a keeper.

This book makes some interesting points and is well written. I feel that the authors are too optimistic about the affects of globalization on the world economy. Issues like disparity in income and ravaging affects on the middle class are not given the attention they should. I would also have liked to see more opinions on what world governments could do to alleviate the sweeping changes the world markets are making. Still, the book is worth reading for anyone interested in the affects of globalization.

Michel Strogoff is one of Jules Verne's classic adventure novels. It is not a terribly difficult or sophiticated book; like Journey to the Center of the Earth, it is what one might call a "Young Adult" (YA) book. There is a revolt of the Tartars, cutting off the forces of the Grand Duke, brother of the Tsar, in Irkutsk. Michel Strogoff, Tsar's Courier, has a messsage to carry to the Grand Duke. Along the way, Michel meets a young woman, who accompanies him on his adventure. We meet Michel's mother, villainous Tartars and a traitorous Russian, and some other interesting characters. Verne gives us a travelogue of Siberia in the mid-1800s as our characters travel by rail, by steamboat, by carriage, by foot, and by raft.

For those who are learning French, or polishing up their skills in that language, Michel Strogoff is excellent practice: interesting and not too complex.

The dictionary is well put-together and covers a lot of info(pronunciation, grammar, recipes) as well as just the translations. I could case less if the authors follow whichever Spanish Academy's alphabet arrangement. What turns me off about this book, however, is the shoddy quality of the printing, which would make it hard to read in low-light and isn't pleasant to read in any light. I have the 2004 ed, maybe they fixed the more recent editions.

The authors know India from border to border and certainly are able to convey their confidence in writing about this complex country. The book is really aimed at small and medium-size businesses looking to learn more about the country and its customs with an eye to doing business there. They begin with a brief history which is quite superficial, unfortunately.

From there, they go region by region, highlighting specific industries, government programs and companies. There is great optimism about the economic future of India and it seems well founded. But their cheerleading of Ranbaxy pharmaceuticals seems misplaced given that the company has been under investigation by the FDA for years. One wonders what other problems they have glossed over.

As a guide for individual investors, the book is virtually useless. There are only a handful of Indian companies that have ADRs and the authors do mention them. They don't discuss at all the closed-end and open mutual funds that invest in India. Most of the companies they mention that are listed on one of the Indian exchanges can't easily be bought by American investors. Nevertheless, this is not the focus of the book and they should not be criticized for the book they did not write. All in all, this is a useful introduction for the reader who wants to know more about the business climate in India.

The first work book which concentrates on teaching some fundamentals of spanish is too compact and quick with its teaching. It needs to elaborate some more and make it where the material is easier to grasp and for some, relearn. But with this book you can get a basic understanding for the material it covers, just not as good of one as you would think. The second book, which has some more exercises and then some oral listening parts is fair. The written exercises pretty much follow along with the first book and the example given, so they aren't too hard to follow. But the oral exercises are almost impossible to understand. The speakers use what I call "slurred spanish" which is when someone speaks it so fast that the words begin to run together. So unless you are farther advanced in spanish and can really pick up what people are saying, even if it is extremely fast, I would stay away from this book.