Teaching Chinese at Home

[tamarind]

nz:

daddybear:

[quote=\"chrismei\"]
yes i agreed that it is still reasonable compared to the price in Singapore. Tot of getting more saving since the shipping fee is about 75% of the cost of a book ??? and to ensure that i can receive my books in time. The storybooks that i ordered in Oct 10 has not arrived yet and dangdang informed that they need another 3 months to check from the date they reported lost...

That makes no sense as a new delivery should take 8 weeks. I would suggest you ask for a full refund and make a new order.

chrismei,
my order was shipped out in early Dec but til date, still no news. DD said needs 3mths to trace my parcel.

daddybear,
not so straightforward. DD told me since it had been shipped out, the only way to get a refund is do not accept the parcel when they deliver to me. Parcel will be returned to DD and DD will then refund the money to me. Quite ridiculous since DD was the one failed to deliver the goods within 8weeks. Quite a number of mummies had similar encounter. I guess there's nothing we could except waiting...[/quote]
The problem is not with dangdang. It is with the shipping service. It could also be due to wrong delivery by Singapore Post.

Previously I had one parcel from amazon.com delivered to the wrong address. I called Sing Post, was told that someone already signed for it. But it is not anyone in my family !

I read a few letters in the Straits Times complaining about the poor delivery by Sing Post.

In any case, try to push dangdang for a refund. Tell them that you are in Singapore, how to return the parcel to them ?

I advise you to quickly call the bank to dispute the charge. You have up to 60 days from the date that the charge shows up in your account to dispute the charges. Then you don't have to pay until the bank investigates with the merchant.

[tamarind]

smurf:

But if u really need the books now, what would you do? Just pluck it from the shop right?


I thought the shops are good enough for basic reader, of course if u want advanced readers, then china website would be a better choice as they stock much more. But for very young children, I think brick and mortar stores are good enough.

For example, for the siwukuaidu, I just plucked them from the store last mth. although they cost few dollars more, but I dun mind, coz at least they can be used immediately. If I wait for DD to be delivered, I think until now, I would still be waiting and risk not deliver at all.

I think DD is good if you have the time to wait and you have ample books to read.

Actually there are no books that are so important to me, that I must have it now

Even for the Si Wu Kuai Du series, you may take up to 1 to 2 years to finish the books, so 8 weeks is not a very long wait.

I think that Local shops have a very poor collection of basic readers. I stopped buying Chinese books for my kids at Popular bookshop since they were 3 years old. The quality if simply very poor.

Please take note that dangdang.com is only an online website, it contains the largest collection of all books published in China. If someone can offer an alternative website that delivers faster, I am very willing to try.

dangdang is very reliable in China, too bad the shipping service causes so much problems.

I do advise parents to check out the Si Wu Kuai Du series at the Bras Basah bookshop first before deciding how to buy it :

http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2009/12/teaching-chinese-at-home.html

Yes there is risk when ordering from overseas, there is a possibility of lost parcel. I also wrote in my blog that :
If you do not have experience ordering books online, I don't advise you to order directly from dangdang.com.

[smurf]

Siwukuaidu is quite important to me. I cant wait, so I just pluck them from the store. Although 8 weeks may not be long time to wait, but its better to start early using the book rather than start late. Coz I dun have any other useful books. Some of the books that I bought were not useful at all.

[tamarind]

porcupine12trade:

Yes I am using the Sage books on my #2, i find the books usedul, at least I know she has learnt some new words! I think she can recog the words, just that some words she \"guess\" by the sentence and got them right. I'll continue with this coz I believe its better than doing nothing. Btw if I get the 45kuaidu, do i need to use both Sage and the 45KD? Thanks

The Sage basic Chinese is only good for up to P1 level. The 45 Kuai Du is up to P3/P4 level. For kids to be able to read any Chinese books independently, it is best to learn all the words in the 45 Kuai Du books.

[ahxuan.031873ymail.031873com]

tamarind:

nz:

[quote=\"daddybear\"]
That makes no sense as a new delivery should take 8 weeks. I would suggest you ask for a full refund and make a new order.

chrismei,
my order was shipped out in early Dec but til date, still no news. DD said needs 3mths to trace my parcel.

daddybear,
not so straightforward. DD told me since it had been shipped out, the only way to get a refund is do not accept the parcel when they deliver to me. Parcel will be returned to DD and DD will then refund the money to me. Quite ridiculous since DD was the one failed to deliver the goods within 8weeks. Quite a number of mummies had similar encounter. I guess there's nothing we could except waiting...

The problem is not with dangdang. It is with the shipping service. It could also be due to wrong delivery by Singapore Post.

Previously I had one parcel from amazon.com delivered to the wrong address. I called Sing Post, was told that someone already signed for it. But it is not anyone in my family !

I read a few letters in the Straits Times complaining about the poor delivery by Sing Post.

In any case, try to push dangdang for a refund. Tell them that you are in Singapore, how to return the parcel to them ?

I advise you to quickly call the bank to dispute the charge. You have up to 60 days from the date that the charge shows up in your account to dispute the charges. Then you don't have to pay until the bank investigates with the merchant.
[/quote]Tamarind,
The parcel has not reached Spore yet. I know it's due to the shipping service, but really couldn't understand why they need 3months to trace the parcel. My order was placed in late Nov, don't think the bank can help much...

[phankao]

tamarind:

l bookshops have a very bad selection of Chinese books. If parents depend on them, your kids will never be good in Chinese..

So last time, these books were available for you? That's why you became good in Chinese? If not, would never have become good in Chinese?

[phankao]

tamarind:

I think that Local shops have a very poor collection of basic readers. I stopped buying Chinese books for my kids at Popular bookshop since they were 3 years old. The quality if simply very poor..

I must say that the variety available at Popular is not wide enough. Popular is not where I'd go and look for chinese books for kids lah. But I also like to flip and look thru the books. I most likely would buy the books from a local small-sized supplier though. Can get in a few days. Furthermore, if I base on recommendations, what may have been enjoyed by another mother's child may not be appropriate for mine, hence it's still better for me to preview the books.

[Piggy_mummy]

sorry smurf,


borrow this thread…i have something to ask u,pmed u, thanks

[tamarind]

phankao:

tamarind:

l bookshops have a very bad selection of Chinese books. If parents depend on them, your kids will never be good in Chinese..

So last time, these books were available for you? That's why you became good in Chinese? If not, would never have become good in Chinese?

I became good in Chinese by reading tons of Japanese comics translated into Chinese Sadly, many of those comics cannot be found any more. I also went to the library to read lots of Chinese books which is what I advise parents to do now. But I don't have the luxury of time to bring my kids to the library now.

Thanks to the books I ordered from dangdang.com, at P1 my girl could already read books that many P5/P6 kids have difficulty reading. My boy, now at P1, is also reading much better than I could when I was his age.

In secondary school, I read all of Jin Yong swordsman novel, and all of Yi Shu novels. I spent the least time studying Chinese textbooks, but Chinese is my best subject.

Have you ever wondered why so many kids nowadays struggled with Chinese ?

[tamarind]

phankao:

tamarind:

I think that Local shops have a very poor collection of basic readers. I stopped buying Chinese books for my kids at Popular bookshop since they were 3 years old. The quality if simply very poor..

I must say that the variety available at Popular is not wide enough. Popular is not where I'd go and look for chinese books for kids lah. But I also like to flip and look thru the books. I most likely would buy the books from a local small-sized supplier though. Can get in a few days. Furthermore, if I base on recommendations, what may have been enjoyed by another mother's child may not be appropriate for mine, hence it's still better for me to preview the books.

dangdang.com has all the books published in China. No local book shops can compare with them.

The website also includes many customer reviews for each books. Parents in China have a very high standard of Chinese compared to us, so I totally believe that when hundreds of them say that a book is good, then it must be good. That makes it very easy to look for good books at dangdang.com.

When you go to the library or the bookshop, you see thousands of books, what do you do ? Look through every book to find a good one ? How long will that take before you come across a good book ?

I really don't have the luxury of time to go through every book in a book shop to find good ones. I live in Jurong West, it takes a lot of time and money to go down town. I love to just point and click to order books, then have it delivered to my doorstep. In fact, I don't even buy English books from local bookshops anymore. I look for books with excellent customer reviews at amazon.com, then order it online from either http://www.amazon.com or http://www.bookdepository.com. The prices are cheaper then local bookshops, and I don't have to waste time and money going downtown.

Also note that kids must read large number of books, not just a few books. In China, their ministry of education requires primary school kids to read at least 1.45 million words from story books outside of textbooks. Education experts like the author of the best selling 好妈妈胜过好老师 says that kids should read much more than this number in order to be very good in Chinese. I read in the internet that many parents aim to let their kids read at least 100000 words a week.

I feel that kids should be reading one Chinese novel of over 70000 words a week, by the time they reach P3. So we need lots of books !