Reddit mentions: The best teen foreign language study books

Recommended Textbooks
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Integrated Chinese - This is used in many university classes in the US. The companion CD is definitely recommended. The workbook wont be much use if you don't have someone to check your answers, as the company is pretty strict about not letting out the answer keys.

New Practical Chinese Reader - This is a great alternative to Integrated Chinese. There are also PDFs and mp3s of all materials floating around on the internet if you look.

Character Practice
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Skritter - Seriously awesome. It does have a monthly subscription though.

Oral Practice
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Pimsleur, Assimil, or the FSI course (free). I've only used Pimselur, but I've heard good things about the others. These are good for practicing your tones.

Online Resources
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Chinese-forums

nciku - A Chinese - English dictionary. You can draw out unknown characters, which can be much easier than going by radical like in other dictionaries.

You should also set up Windows (or whatever OS you use) to be able to type in Chinese (usually through pinyin).

Once you're good enough, you can find easy books called "Graded Chinese Readers" that often have a companion CD to help with pronunciation. They're pretty cheap as well if you import them from China.

Good luck, Mandarin is a difficult language, but it's also really fun. It might take a long time to see progress (I still can't read newspapers), but as long as you keep at it you'll probably be happy with your results.

Is someone wanting to get back into studying a language OK? =D If so, I'm looking to get back into studying Japanese after a bit of a break. I'm mainly interested because Japanese music is my big passion in life, and as such learning the language is pretty important for talking with fellow fans, learning lyrics, etc. I actually write a lot about it, and I have started interviewing Japanese music groups, so having a better grasp of the language would be AMAZING.

This book with this workbook would be a serious help to me.


Where to begin with songs? Here are a few current favorites of mine

And here's a Japanese pop singer trying (and failing) to learn English! So hey, keeping with the language learning theme.

I think it depends on your goals. I always recommend people study with goals firmly fixed in mind. How do you want to use Chinese in the future? The way you answer that question will profoundly effect how you should approach your study.

There are loads of good free resources out there. Amazon has plenty of good textbooks too.

I think "Le Petit Nicolas" (Sempé-Goscini) is pretty cool to start reading French (I'm French BTW). Easy to read, quite fun too :)

http://franceinfo.us/03_books/books/sempe_petitnicolas.pdf

https://www.amazon.com/Petit-Nicolas-French-Folio/dp/2070364232/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1474155609&sr=1-1&keywords=le+petit+nicolas

My advice for practising is to read the kind of stories you like, even manga or comics (BD) if you prefer (many of them are well written in French). Let me know if I can help on a specific book category to avoid too difficult books. For example, I love Jules Verne stories but it's way too difficult to start reading in French :)

There's also an Integrated Chinese series of textbooks. They're used in my college classes. I'm just a beginner too but they seem pretty solid. Link. There's also this. Not sure what the difference is in this version and the reviews aren't as good, but I found these books the best when I first started.

I would recommend this textbook and to get the workbook with it. We use it at my university but I think it is more than clear enough to be used as a self study aid. As you finish the book, move on to the next level and so on. It has dialogues, vocabulary, and grammar written in a clear, concise style.

Pretty sure it's Paso a Paso. I remember the picture and I'm fairly certain that's the book we used.

http://www.amazon.com/PASO-2000-STUDENT-EDITION-LEVEL/dp/0673589226/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407997322&sr=8-1&keywords=paso+a+paso

There are "graded readers" available in every language. For example, I am learning Italian so I bought some books from http://www.blackcat-cideb.com/108-italian-catalogue

They also have Spanish books. Then there are magazines like J'aime lire to encourage children to read.

Suivez La Piste: A Detective Thriller in French in 25 Short Episodes is probably the closest in concept.

I personally used Breaking the Spanish Barrier Level 1 a few years ago (now a senior) and it was great.
https://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Spanish-Barrier-Level-Beginner/dp/0971281726

I would recommend this one. Amazon ships to Europe, right?

> Cambridge Latin

Thanks! Is this what you used?

https://www.amazon.ca/North-American-Cambridge-Course-Students/dp/1107690633/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1495569099&sr=8-6&keywords=Cambridge+Latin

https://www.amazon.com/Avancemos-Level-1-MCDOUGAL-LITTEL/dp/061859406X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1498092948&sr=8-2&keywords=avancemos+level+1

This book was the one I learned from they have very useful online exercises if you have a valid online code in the book.

This is the notebook to go with it. that you can write in and do the exercises from the book.

https://www.amazon.com/Avancemos-Cuaderno-Practica-niveles-Student/dp/061876593X/ref=pd_sim_14_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=061876593X&pd_rd_r=JW2WX5E0YP17C2YDC78C&pd_rd_w=k4AJT&pd_rd_wg=tGf5c&psc=1&refRID=JW2WX5E0YP17C2YDC78C

Two anthologies: Prosa moderna del mundo hispánico and Prosa de la España moderna. Each selection has vocabulary notes in the margin. As a caveat, I haven't read either (the "Mundo Hispánico" volume has been warming my bookshelf for a while), but they are super-cheap as used books on Amazon and the selection looks decent for the volume I have. Its authors are Manual Zeno Gandía, Ana María Matute, Frank Rivera, Ignacio Aldecoa, Cristina Peri Rossi, Isabel Allende, Camilo José Cela, and Juan Rulfo.

Amazon has lot of French children's books:

Le Petit Prince (of course!)

Madeleine

Les Oeufs Verts au Jambon

Poisson Un Poisson Deux Poisson Rouge Poisson Bleu

Le Chat Au Chapeau (in English and French)

Horton Entend un Zou!

Je t'aimerai toujours

Le Petit Nicolas

Bonsoir Lune

La Chenille Qui Fait Des Trous

Max Et Le Maximonstres

L'Arbre Genereux

And Harry Potter A L'Ecole des Sorciers

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Workbooks are also on Amazon.

Dime?