I hope to get this Chinese textbook for Christmas when I go to the states in January but I couldn't find it on the list list (haha).

It's called The Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar: A Practical Guide (Modern Grammars) by Claudia Ross.

How do lists get added? And maybe...some veteran list makers could do it for me (we)! Haha,

Thanks Skritterers!

Hi Dave,

We currently only add textbooks for the bigger institutional subscribers. We offer users an incentive of two months' subscription time for each textbook uploaded.

To make your own list, choose the "make a new list" option under the "user-made lists" section of the "vocab lists" page. If you make a complete list for a textbook, shoot me an email (evan@skritter.com) with a link to it, and I'll add it to the textbooks section as well as add credit to your account. Any users interested in adding original texts (novels, 论语, etc.) can also get this bonus.

Hi Dave,

Claudia Ross is an amazing teacher, and from the Amazon reviews it seems like this is great supplementary material for beginner and intermediate level students. You might want to consider getting the workbook that goes along with it to further solidify the grammar patterns that will be introduced in the book.

I guess I'm just a bit curious why you are thinking about a textbook like this rather that something that combines the four elements of language development (listening, speaking, reading, and writing)? It sounds like you are going the self study route with the help of co-workers and friends in China, so something like this might work well, but you might also want to consider a more traditional textbook as well, which will give you dialogues and word lists to help narrow your studies a bit. Either way, we look forward to hearing your impressions of this book.

Good luck on your studies!

Jake, given where I am in my studies and my learning style. I prefer the Ross grammar book to traditional textbooks. It's direct and to the point with its explanations and examples. Many textbooks seem to have a lot of fluff to make them 'engaging', when in fact their efforts do the complete opposite. (您好师傅。有苹果吗？ for example, is just silly)

Saying that, I showed the letter-writing section of Ross's book to a native speaker and they didn't recognise half the formal greetings in it. So it's not immune from the criticisms I gave of other textbooks. In general, though, I've found it illuminating as a learner who can read more than they can speak.

I prefer to study the textbook by adding example sentences to anki, so how it would work with skritter I don't know.

懒虫, thanks for the comment. Sounds like I will have to pick this book up when I get back to the states. One can never have too many reference books!

I totally agree that textbooks sometimes go too far with the fluff. Often they feel gravely out of touch with reality and actual needs of language learners. That being said, it all depends on the level and needs of the student I suppose.

I'm actually working on textbook creation with my graduate program right now and I feel your pain. I'm one of the English editors and I cringe at some of the content. It's even worse when they don't do anything to make it better, despite feedback.