Original edition by Ray Daniels who studied Chinese as an exchange student in Taiwan and Beijing. He met his Chinese wife in a tea shop in Taiwan. Revised by Haiyan Situ, a Beijing native who has taught Chinese at the University of Otago, New Zealand. Revised by Jiageng Fan who specializes in the linguistic relationship between the Chinese and Japanese languages and scripts, focusing on the etymology of characters. He has lived, studied and taught Chinese, Japanese and/or English in China and Australia and has traveled extensively. After obtaining a B.A. at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, then working as a magazine editor, he moved to Christchurch, New Zealand, where he earned a First Class Honours Degree from the University of Canterbury. He is pursuing his PhD at the University of Canterbury.
Cheesy title but actually a good reference! Have to remember that this is still a Tuttle book. Has pinyin with tone marks AND characters. The language is also (presumably) not the stuffy phrasing you find in textbooks, but none of that outrageous slang nobody really uses, or would dare to use. -Goodreads One of the things that I most like about the books is that they include the English translations of the phrases as well as the sentences and words in the writing system of the language alongside the transliteration. This is great both for those who are interested in a more conversational approach and for those interested in more in-depth learning. --Eurolinguiste