Mandarin Companion: Novels in Chinese that even a beginner can read

When Jared Turner, the co-founder of Mandarin Companion, sent an email to me, I’ve went to check his website right away.

Why? Because, as you can read on the headline above, they offer an elegant solution to a difficult problem. No, I’m sorry to disappoint you but they don’t solve the pollution issue that is affecting China.

But if you’re learning Chinese and you feel frustrated…

A big problem when you begin to study Chinese Mandarin

What’s the biggest problem for people that start to study Chinese? What’s the biggest obstacle to become fluent (whatever “fluent” means to you)?

You may differ with me, but in my opinion is the fact that everyday Chinese sources – newspapers, novels, movies, – are so difficult to understand and, after a few trials, you give up ’cause it’s just too boring.

“What the hell, I watched this movie three times and I still can’t get who is the assassin,” is a common feeling among Mandarin’s students.

When it comes down to movies, using English subtitles is a partial – and acceptable – solution. If this is what you’re looking for, then FluentU may be a good starting point.

But if you want to read a novel then you have few options. Well, as far as I know until some months ago you had no decent options whatsoever (unless you’ve at least a HSK5 level).

Why at least HSK5? Because I can write and know the meaning of almost all the characters of the HSK1-HSK4 lists and I’m still stuck. Give me a Chinese newspaper and I won’t get much out of it.

And Mandarin Companion offers a solution to this problem. This is the reason for which, after almost a year, I took the time to write an article about Chinese language.

How does Mandarin Companion work?

The idea is quite simple. The books are classified by level of difficulty. All the books that belong to level 1 only contain 300 basic Chinese characters. This corresponds, more or less, to an HSK2 level that, I guess, anybody can reach in about six months of full-time study. Unless you’re studying on Sborto’s class, ça va sans dire.

This is an awesome concept because it means that beginners Chinese students can now read (and understand) a short novel in Chinese language.

Consider that, even if you could already find in the market books in Chinese that use a limited number of characters in order to ease the comprehension, as far as I know the choice was limited to books for children.

Here the titles offered by Mandarin Companion so far:

• The Secret Garden, 秘密花园.
• Sherlock Holmes and the Red-Headed League, 卷发公司的案子.
• The Monkey’s Paw, 猴爪.
• The Sixty-Year Dream, 六十年的梦.
• The Country of the Blind, 盲人国 (this one can’t be bought in Europe as there is still under copyright).

All the books belong to the level 1 as, at the moment, it’s the only level that exists (keep in mind that we are talking about a company that started less than a year ago).
Source: http://www.saporedicina.com/english/mandarin-companion-novels-in-chinese-for-beginners/