Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Curly-Haired Company: Mandarin Companion Graded Readers Level 1

This Review is in regards to this book as a Mandarin learning tool.I've been studying Mandarin for 10 years. Pimsleur, Rosetta Stone, group lessons, online community college, private tutor while I lived and worked in China for 2 years. I can travel fairly easily in the city where I lived and communicate to varying extents. But 80% of the time I speak incorrectly, we end up understanding but... good for a foreigner but not great. My vocabulary is good but sentence structure, listening and fluid reading skills were lacking.Somehow I saw Mandarin Companion and bought Sherlock Holmes for Kindle with 2 of their competitors titles This was the most useful to me of the 3. The story adaptation flows well and the featured characters are linked to definition and pinyin in the back of the book. Pretty easy navigation between the pages helps create a more fluid reading experience. Illustrations are nice. I am the last person to spend money on books but now own all of L2 and L3 readers. I want L4!Over the years I have had trouble understanding the sentence structure, remembering basic phrases, identifying multi character words, hearing words in complex sentences. After getting halfway through Sherlock Holmes my reading speed had increased. As I made my way through each of the Companion books it was easy for me to see progress in understanding. One day I noticed that I wasn't translating, I was reading in Chinese and understanding the story- Comprehension increased. Within a few days of beginning this intensive reading I went from stumbling through each character, not sure which characters combined for other words to reading half sentences, on to full sentences, multi sentences and whole paragraphs.This reading comprehension has now translated over to my listening skills. I am hearing more individual words and can visualize more of the characters as I listen. I have better success translating both speech and text with no supporting context I am still far from the comfort level that I would like to be (watch TV, read Harry Potter) but all of a sudden it all seems possible.I am currently working on L5 Rosetta Stone and this new found comfort has helped immensely as they have increased the reading and listening exercises. I also have an Amazon review for Rosetta which I will update upon completion.IMHO Prior to beginning with Mandarin Companion I was at a low L3 HSK level and am now at a high L3. I'm now confident enough to take the HSK 3 test.I would highly recommend at least trying one of these books, it might just be the breakthrough that you need. . Neither the Audible nor the L1 books were available when I bought my books so I can't speak to either of them. I did like all the stories but also liked the culture based stories of one of the competitors and will read them again. However the format of this book series made it the correct tool for my needs. I really liked not having the distraction of the pinyin within the story. I wish I had this 8 years ago!

This is a great series of Mandarin readers!I have been studying Chinese for 4 years now, both in and outside of China. Following very slow progress, I began reading the academic research on second language acquisition and came away with an understanding of “extensive reading” for grammar and vocab acquisition and consolidation- the best method for intermediate learners. (Extensive reading consists of reading works in another language where you comprehend roughly 98% of the content without having to stop and consult the dictionary or grammar reference). The only problem- there are very few good sources in Chinese that facilitate an extensive reading program.There is the China Breeze series, which is good, but I prefer the Mandarin Companion series for several reasons.The most important is their presentation of new vocabulary. When there is a word you likely have not come across in the course of your introductory studies, they provide a reference in the back to define these words- most books do this. But with the Mandarin Companion eBook format, you can quickly tap the word to get its meaning without having to flip a few pages. Importantly, the authors have taken care to continue to present the same words several times to further concrete them in your brain (all with links back to the word’s definition).Of less importance, but still nice- the books include illustrations and fairly compelling stories, things that will keep you interested and reading each day.I am glad we are getting more and better resources for extensive reading in Chinese! And I would recommend this series to anyone interested in this approach to language acquisition.

Highly recommend this book. Purchased the Kindle version. Words could be copied and a Kindle translator was able to translate the words I didn’t know. Story was engaging, especially given the limited vocabulary used, with the right mount of new words for an upper beginner. So far the best book I’ve read in this series.

I've always loved Sherlock Holmes. So to have this story as intermediate Chinese language practice, was really fun for me.This is a great book in a great series from Mandarin Companion. I would recommend this book to any intermediate student of the Chinese language to practice their reading skills and really build confidence in their learning.As a graded Chinese reader, this book uses the concept of 'extensive reading' and fully accomplishes its goal to provide a fun and enjoyable story, with smooth and relatively 'easy' Chinese vocabulary and grammar. The book allows you to enjoy the story, while internalizing the flow of language and improving your reading comprehension.The story is a fun adaptation of The Red Headed League to a funny and suspenseful Chinese context. I remember this story from Sherlock Holmes. Great to read it now in Chinese.Kindle version is great and convenient for language students. You can read on various devices, highlight words as you read, navigate easily, etc.

This was my first exposure to a graded reader in Chinese. I have learned Chinese for about 2 years while living in China and recently returned to the US. I was looking for a way to bolster my Chinese and am glad I came across these wonderful resources. I was familiar with John Pasden's work through Sinosplice and ChinesePod, and in this series he has delivered more high quality resources that I have come to expect from him. I was blown away with how much intrigue the authors could pack into such limited vocabulary. I read the book over a weekend. If you are wondering if you have enough vocabulary to read this book, check out the free sample. For reference, I have passed HSK 3 but am only just beginning to study for HSK 4, and only a few words not in the glossary were outside my vocabulary. Thank you to everyone involved in this project. Keep up the good work!

I loved reading this book. The language is simple, the plot line is slightly strange but uncomplicated, and the book is very short. For a beginner though you wouldn't want anything else. I loved reading this book and at the time found it just challenging enough. I found the vocab list on Skritter and used that to cement the words from this book into my learning. The step up to level 2 really was not that much from here. This was my first book I read in Chinese and I loved it. I have read a few others in the series and this was my favourite though I have not read Great Expectations of which I hear good things. If you want the audio you can find it on Audible.

Like many of the other reviewers of this reader, I've largely been using a combination of text books and Skritter, as well as other learning resources, for my Chinese studies.This book offers another way to enhance and solidify your learning in a much more relaxed manner.As a general guide my Chinese is probably about HSK 3 level (600-800 words) and I was able to read this fairly comfortably, with maybe around 20 or 30 new words to look up and add to my Skritter list.The kindle text is also great if you download a Chinese dictionary and translator, as this allows you to double check your learning as you go by merely highlighting individual characters or a series of characters. This is much more convenient than a paperback book where cross referencing can be time consuming.I'm going to check out a few of the other books in the series and hope for some level 2 and 3 books soon.Well worth a fiver!

This is just the right level for me at the moment and is a wonderful tool alongside the other methods I am using to study Mandarin. Unlike some of the other Chinese Kindle books, the text is beautifully clear (ie. it has not just been scanned in as a photo) and there are already notes and you can create your own. More like this please! All we need now is an interactive Chinese-English dictionary to go with it!

I am a newbie to learning Mandarin. I have perhaps 500 characters that I can rather painstakingly work out. Deciphering the first page of this has been very good for me as it as taught me a lot of grammar as well as reinforcing the characters. It's 'yet another' channel of learning along with lessons, ankidroid, youtube and Skritter.I'm looking forwards to the day when I can 'just read it' the way that I can read English books

This book is good for my confidence. I get bored just studying all the time, or having to read kiddies' stories. This book uses the most common words and also gives translations of some more difficult words.I would love to have more books like this.