Ideal For: High school, college, heritage learners, and professional training programs in Chinese, especially those focusing on computer literacy and keyboarding in Chinese.

Chinese for Tomorrow is a new Chinese language textbook series published by Cheng and Tsui Company. The textbook series is especially designed for students using “Computer Chinese” (CC) approach, which treats computer input of Chinese characters as both a language learning tool, and as a fifth language skill, along with the more traditionally defined ones of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Chinese for Tomorrow addresses the most formidable hurdle facing beginning Chinese language learners by allowing them to write (type) in pinyin and see those words displayed as Chinese characters. It integrates computer input and handwriting instruction as complements, each supporting the other to help students read and write Chinese. The major difference between this approach and traditional approaches is that this course allows students to more gradually develop their skills at writing Chinese characters by hand, rather than requiring them to memorize how to write large numbers of characters while they are still struggling to grasp the basics of the language. In this way, students can use pinyin for the task for which it was intended--as a phonological tool--and not as a substitute for writing characters. Students can read and write (composition) from the
very beginning with assistance of computer.