A Key to Chinese Speech and Writing Book1

The two volumes that make up this method of le...

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The two volumes that make up this method of learning Chinese were published in France at the end of 1980 (Ⅰ) and 1991 (Ⅱ) respectively. They are intended for students with no previous knowledge of the language. We would like to express our gratitude to those colleagues in Germany, America, England, China and Scandinavia who, acquainted with the French manuals, first put forth the idea of an English edition. Our thanks go to them for the continued interest they have shown in the present volumes, in which there is, no doubt, room for improvement. This interest, we feel, has been kindled by an entirely different conception of learning Chinese. Departing from the usual form of teaching in vogue for the last forty years, this new approach is nevertheless intrinsically traditional, in that it shows a great respect for the originality of the Chinese language. In every aspect of life, only when we chose to look reality in the face, can we avoid encounters with conflict and disorder. In terms of learning Chinese, the written language is not merely a graphic duplicate of the oral sounds. Bearing this consideration in mind, Chinese students as well as their professors must adopt two separate approaches of the language which consist of distinguishing two systems of logic of thought. Those two systems are not identical and they may even conflict with each other. Meanwhile, one has to keep in mind that the Chinese characters as fundamental unit of written language should always be entitles to a specific place and that is what I strove to do in this book. We would like to thank Mrs. Anne Alexis and Ms Jocelyne Finazzi for their attentive editing.