Mandarin Matrix’s Chinese Connections (CC) Series is designed for Middle School and above learners. The highlights of this series are:

• Focused vocabulary and grammar backward designed from AP, IB, and HSK exams
• Authentic and informational materials using real-world languages in real-world scenarios
• Topics covering AP & IB themes, and many of the 17 SDGs

 We are excited to announce that we will be launching an additional  30 new books to this series focusing on beginners’ level. Hence, learners can start reading the real-world materials even from absolute beginners!

Here is the  new book list:

Chinese Connections Foundation New Books

Mandarin Matrix now offers books introducing characters & radicals

The new Chinese Connections books include six books about the Chinese character system, Pinyin system, and Chinese Radicals. These books are designed to help learners build foundations of the language, understand basic characters and radicals, as well as how the language works.  

For example, Chinese Connections Foundation B.1 is about Chinese characters in the ancient and modern forms.

Chinese Connections Foundation B.3 is about the Pinyin system, focusing on the tricky ones.

Fun real-world materials for beginners

Who says beginners can’t enjoy fun and authentic materials? Mandarin Matrix new books are tailor designed for beginners, using real-world languages and real-world scenarios. The language is simple enough for beginners to understand, and the scenarios are age appropriate for ages 15 and above. The new books include real-world texts such as shopping list, lunch menu, lost and found poster etc. 

Let’s take a look at an example, Chinese Connections Foundation U1.2 is about playing Bingo. Under this topic, we can introduce vocabulary of numbers, as well as the grammar point of 有 or 没有 , and even the usage of 也 and 只.  

Another example, Chinese Connections Foundation U4.2 introduces a shopping list. This can be included into a shopping, food, or cooking unit.  

From these examples, we can see that the language used is simple, but the topics are fun and authentic. This is the DNA of the Chinese Connections series. 

MORE Social Media and Technology Topics

For teenagers and young adults, more than half of their “real-world” life is online! That’s why our Chinese Connections series has included so many books related to social media, technology, and online life. For example, the book of “介绍自己 Self-introduction” is set on social media profiles, because that’s where  learners will introduce themselves most! 

Chinese Connections 1 U3.1 介绍自己 Self-introduction is set on social media.

We also have  another book about social media, which is “做头像 Making An Avatar.” We use the topic of creating an online avatar to introduce the vocab of body parts, adjectives to describe someone, as well as  the grammar of double adjectives like “大大的”, “高高的” 

Chinese Connections 1 U6.1 is set on social media too.

Aside from technology, Mandarin Matrix has also been focusing on the pedagogies such as CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) and immersion learning. We are also  focusing on developing content for learners to learn about other concepts and subjects in Chinese. For example, the new book in the Foundation level “U5.2 吃肉？吃素？Meat-eater? Vegetarian? ”. It  not only introduces the language, but also integrates the concept of the food chain with language learning. It can be used for fun reading, or it can be used as cross-subject extended reading material. 

To check out our new books and the online classroom, don’t hesitate to contact us for some samples, or   simply sign up using the form here for TWO WEEK FREE TRIAL