Teaching Chinese at Home

[tamarind]

tamarind:

Dear all,

Note that the total cost of all the 7 books is about RMB104 (SGD22).

四五快读
http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=20645179

Search for 四五快读 for all the 7 books.

Direct shipping to Singapore by dangdang is additional RMB70(SGD15).
Total cost + shipping should be less than SGD40 (prices/exchange rate may fluctuate) for all the 7 books.

If someone else offers to ship for you, first check how much they charge per kg. The 7 books weigh slightly less than 2kg.

I would highly recommend buying direct from dangdang. If there are any problems, you can email them directly for refund. If you don't have Citibank Credit Card, you can always ask any friends who have Citibank credit cards to order for you.

These books are out of stock at dangdang at the moment, they should have new stocks soon.

There are other websites selling these books :
http://www.amazon.cn/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Dbooks&keywords=%E5%9B%9B%E4%BA%94%E5%BF%AB%E8%AF%BB&Go.x=14&Go.y=10&searchKind=keyword

Amazon China also ships direct to Singapore, but their shipping is very expensive compared to dangdang.

Parents who are not buying the whole set, note that it is very important to read the first 30 pages of the first book to understand how to teach effectively. I tried some of the games suggested by the book, and my boy really enjoys it !


Read my blog for more details :
http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2009/12/teaching-chinese-at-home.html

Also take a look at my list of wonderful Chinese picture books :
http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2009/12/chinese-picture-books.html

[schellen]

tamarind:

schellen,

dangdang.com delivers free to any address in China. The best thing is that you can pay cash on delivery in China.
I think that their prices are even cheaper than the local bookshops in China.
I am not sure which local bookshop has stocks now.

You can google 四五快读 to search.

Thanks! That's good news. Only problem now is whether my relative is currently in China and if he is willing to help me, and also coming back to celebrate CNY. Otherwise, I'll just wait for the stocks to be replenished at dangdang.com and convince sashimi to use his credit card.

[tamarind]

These books are also available at http://www.amazon.cn. But their direct shipping to Singapore is too expensive.

The best deal is to get someone who is in China to bring back to Singapore

I have recommended these books to the National Library, hopefully they will bring the books in soon.

[Charmaine_chong]

Hi Tamarind,


Great!

Thanks for your update.

[windows]

znzyzyzx:

dimsum:

Both citibank visa and master can be used. I was using master then too.


Regarding rejection after entering the secure code, calling both dangdang and citibank helpdesk won't help. I encountered rejection so many times until i wanted to give up. Then, suddenly, it was accepted! Very frustrating indeed.

Basically, our credit card transaction is handled by PayEase, not directly by Dangdang. You can refer to PayEase website Help section which provides some info on the frequently encountered problems.

http://www.beijing.com.cn/views.do;jsessionid=5A21A7CEEBDD9595328961BE9DD876CC?mid=web_help&rows=1

One important thing to note is once your dangdang order is rejected after you enter the secure code, you must re-create a new order (which will have a new order number). DO NOT keep submitting the same order request.

Hi, thanks a lot. Managed to get thru' when done from home.

sorry, not very good at this online thing...can provide guidance? need to register at dangdang.com, apply citibank online secure code, anything else?
will they calculate the shipping fees before confirming everything? the web says the shipping charges is 50% of the total cost - so it doesn't mean that the more you order, the more shipping fee you save? roughly how long does the parcel reach SG?
thanks in advance for the advice.

[curiousl-ks]

dimsum,


how many time did you have to submit your order befre it gets through…
i havce tried afew times and they keep telling me…

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[tamarind]

windows,

Yes dangdang will calculate the shipping charges before you make the payment. I don't how what is the formula they use, it is not 50%. An order of 100 RMB may have a shipping charge of 70 RMB. My recent order :
商品金额合计：\t￥253.80
运费：\t￥169.30

You don't save shipping charge by ordering more.
dangdang states that it takes 4-8 weeks to reach Singapore. But I received my books in less than 4 weeks.


curiousl-ks,
You must activate Secure Online Shopping for your Citibank Credit Card. Read this webpage for more information.
http://www.citibank.com.sg/SGGCB/APPS/portal/loadPage.do?tabId=creditcard&path=/promo/det/sos_overview.htm

You will need to setup a personal message and password. For example, you setup a personal message : curious and password kiasu123.

At the dangdang payment page, after you enter your credit card number, you will be connected to the Citibank server, and your personal message \"curious\" will be shown, and you need to enter your password kiasu123.

Note that if your payment fails to go through for whatever reason, you need to enter all your items into the shopping cart again and check out a new 订单。The previous 订单 will be automatically canceled after a few days.

Sometimes the Citibank server may have problems, you may have to try again the next day, or you may be asked to reset your Secure Online Shopping password.

It is not easy to get through when you are ordering for the first time, you need to keep trying. But it is well worth the effort. There is a huge collection of Chinese books at dangdang with many books that cannot be found in Singapore, and the prices are cheap.

[tamarind]

Dear all,

I just received more books from dangdang yesterday. I bought 2 series, 不一样的卡梅拉(6 books) and 能干的小海狸(7 books), total 13 books, cost about SGD 22 including shipping. It is very worth it !

不一样的卡梅拉 is the all time best selling series in China. My girl likes it very much.
Check out my blog for photos of the pages. Find out what kids in China love to read !
http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2009/12/chinese-picture-books-2.html

[windows]

Hi Tamarind, thanks for the very detailed guidance. Will try it again. And yes, agree that the web has lots of good Chinese books at a reasonable price. If the online works, bye bye to the lugging of books from China! Everytime when we pass by bookshops in SG, just cldn’t bear to pay thinking of the original retail price in China…

[Blobbi]

tamarind:

Dear all,

I just received more books from dangdang yesterday. I bought 2 series, 不一样的卡梅拉(6 books) and 能干的小海狸(7 books), total 13 books, cost about SGD 22 including shipping. It is very worth it !

不一样的卡梅拉 is the all time best selling series in China. My girl likes it very much.
Check out my blog for photos of the pages. Find out what kids in China love to read !
http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2009/12/chinese-picture-books-2.html

:drool: :drool:
Tks for the encouragement, Tamarind. OK I get myself a citibank card, sigh. The big deterrent is this wall of CHinese words that hits me when I open the website :(.

I better do it cos my son is already saying \"I hate Chinese!\". This is a word of warning to all parents - no exposure is no good, sigh. I asked him how come he can read. He says \"Just cos I can do it doesn't mean I like it.\" :faint: