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The Easiest Way To Learn Mandarin applies more than a dozen established memory techniques, nearly all for the first time, to the learning of Mandarin. The techniques include most importantly: Word Images, Image Maps, and Illustrations. Other mnemonics include 100 Basic Mandarin Words; Rhymes; Humor; Spelling, Sound, and Meaning of Names; and more. The Dictionary presents mnemonic word images for 1,400 English/Mandarin words. The book’s greater value lies in its potential for helping users expand their knowledge beyond the Mandarin presented here through the use of mnemonic methods, such as six strategies for creating English mnemonic images of Mandarin words. For details, including samples of mnemonics applied to Mandarin, click here.
How does one become tough? The answer proposed in Becoming Tough is, “Whatever kind of toughness you seek, it is achieved in the same way as any skill, through practice and study, that is, through training.” To that end, Becoming Tough presents simple exercises whose outstanding feature is their use of easy, repetitive physical movements to facilitate concentration. Because a long-lasting physical activity is easier to sustain than a long-lasting mental task, the poorer one's ability to concentrate, the more important this assistance becomes. Physical fitness is a significant by-product, not only because it improves physical health but also because it encourages social confidence and self-esteem. Another exceptional feature is a toughening program that addresses the user’s long-term aspirations for change without interfering with personal beliefs that the user does not wish to change. For details, including a sample chapter, click here.
May 2011
An environmental crisis in the largely desolate Xinjiang region of the People’s Republic of China re-ignites the centuries-old conflict between the native Uygurs and their recurrent Chinese masters. The escalating disaster draws in criminals, opportunistic politicians, terrorists, and military forces. A Uygur doctor and Chinese colleague defy Beijing and enter the affected region. A Chinese-American doctor, Dr Robert Jiang, with the aid of an American special operations team, infiltrates Xinjiang to rescue his Uygur and Chinese friends from gangsters, Muslim radicals, and Special Forces of the People’s Armed Police. Together with another “hybrid,” a resolute young Uygur-Chinese woman, Robert uses a rare Chinese-Muslim martial art ( xīn yì liù hé quán) in confrontations with their enemies. The information they attempt to bring out of Xinjiang could jeopardize the Communist Party’s long subjugation of the region and eventually its control over the whole of China.
For details about the book, click here. For descriptions of the Chinese-Muslim martial arts mentioned in the story, click here.
The Easiest Way To Learn Mandarin:
Image Maps, Word Images, And Other Mnemonics
(Second Edition)
J.J. Counsilman, PhD, and Shi Huijing, MBA
Journey Into A Far Country
J.J. Counsilman
The Superior Men of Xinjiang
J.J. Counsilman
Becoming Tough
(Third Edition)
J.J.Counsilman
The Belgian Mandarin
Anne Splingaerd Megowan
The Belgian Mandarin is a fascinating non-fiction chronicle of the extraordinary life of Paul Splingaerd, the Belgian orphan who traveled to China as a young man in 1865, and became a top-ranking mandarin. Paul's adventures may sound more like fiction than fact, but he really did exist. His four decades in China were during the pivotal post-Opium Wars years when China's doors were being pried open for trade with the West. Paul explored all regions of the “Middle Kingdom” with renowned German geologist Ferdinand von Richthofen, and established a fur trading business in Mongolia before being appointed customs inspector in China's far west by powerful viceroy Li Hongzhang.
Find out what brought Splingaerd to China, and read about how he earned recognition from his king, King Leopold II, who made him a “Chevalier de L'Ordre de la Couronne.” Splingaerd's perspective on China's interaction with the West during the late nineteenth century offers the reader many intriguing insights into the roots of China's dynamism in the twenty-first century.
Masterfully authored by Splingaerd's great-granddaughter, Anne Splingaerd Megowan, The Belgian Mandarin is one unforgettable read, a well-researched and richly illustrated account of the extraordinary life of a truly exceptional individual. For details, including an excerpt from the book, click here.
