28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This series is actually one of the best you can get., August 4, 2002
This review is from: Practical Chinese Reader: Elementary Course, Book 1 (Paperback)
The 'Practical Chinese Reader' series may be old and slightly outdated, but in my experience, such methods can actually be some of the better finds on the market. There is nothing wrong with the vocabulary. The Chinese taught is the modern standard of the People's Republic of China, and the English employed is that of the British Commonwealth. Not particularly a surprise, copyrights to both languages would belong to the Chinese and the English, respectively. The word 'zúqiú' (zú 'foot', qiú 'ball') is based on the word 'football'; the word 'soccer' is primarily American usage. The word 'kèting', which roughly translates to 'guest hall' (the place where one receives guests), has its equivalents in 'drawing room', 'living room', or 'salon' -- all of which refer to the same thing. Some words may have dwindled in usage in the past fifteen years like 'tóngzhì' (tóng 'same', zhì 'will' = comrade), but these are in the minority.
The pronunciation and grammar are impeccably explained and demonstrated. However, the explanations do use a good amount of linguistics terminology, a method seldom used in the United States outside of university level courses.
The 'Practical Chinese Reader' series offers plenty of exercises. In volumes one and two, stroke order charts for newly learned characters are available to guide beginners in correct writing habits. After diligent completion of all six volumes of this series, one will have a solid foundation and a strong command of the Chinese language. One will also have a better understanding of Chinese society through the illustrations of everyday life, common situations, modern Chinese thought, modern Chinese behaviour, and extant Chinese traditions in the dialgoues and reading passages.
There is no propaganda in these books. If the texts seem to contain propaganda, they only reflect the overlooked obvious fact that Communism has permeated all facets of life in China over the last sixty years. These books were composed long before the recent commercial and societal reforms -- both questionably beneficial to China despite Western approval. Moreover, the publisher Commercial Press is a state-owned enterprise.
Indeed, many of the images do recall the 1970s, yet with the retro style trend that began in 1990s, they are now more delightful than distasteful. The typography is excellent. The books were actually typeset by metal press rather than typewritten. While the print quality is not terrible, editions printed in Hong Kong with high grade paper, richer inking, and sturdier binding are available. Such editions might be difficult to find unless one shops on-line or visits a good Chinese bookshop. Better than newsprint despite the appearance, Mainland editions use natural pulp based paper without the bleaching. I have had the original edition for about two decades without a problem with the binding.
Even though audio recordings for 'Practical Chinese Reader' are available, check with a professor to ensure that the audio was produced using native Northern Chinese speakers. The best bet is to make good friends with native speakers from in and around Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei province. Another good means of practice would be to watch or listen to broadcasts from via satellite television or internet radio. Chinese Central Television and China National Radio generally employ presenters and performers whose Chinese is exemplary. In addition, DVD issues of well-produced dramatic television serials ('telenovelas') from China are now widely available with ample dialogue, scenes of historical and contemporary life, and subtitles in Chinese for those who need them (non-speakers, the deaf, and students).
Be warned that members of the overseas Chinese communities might not be good barometers for comparing your progress since the majority of them come from areas that do not naturally speak Northern Chinese. Some may be from areas that speak a highly mutated form of it from inundation by Southern Chinese languages. Moreover, the level of language that these books teach might be more elevated, cultured, and intellectual in flavour than one would encounter from overseas Chinese, many of whom were not raised or educated under the PRC system.
Overall, I highly recommend this series as one of the best ways to begin studying Chinese and to build a solid foundation in the language. Along with a good dictionary, a guide to master handwritten Chinese ('Learn to Write Chinese Characters' by Johan Bjorksten, published by Yale University Press, is spot on), and a few Chinese friends, the 'Practical Chinese Reader' series should do nicely for linguistic success.
Also, remember to practise, practise, practise. Contrary to many of the myths about Chinese, it is not a difficult language to learn. The key lies in committing time and energy to practise it. Good luck!
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Product for Learning Chinese Currently Available, October 29, 2004
This review is from: Practical Chinese Reader: Elementary Course, Book 1 (Paperback)
I started using the Chinese Reader books by John DeFrancis roughly twenty years ago. These are some of the finest works for studying the language available but I found that they placed language learning (ie. spoken) in one book and character study (written) in a parallel book. This may work for some but I found it somewhat confusing although the presentation of grammar is excellent! I used DeFrancis as a supplement to the Practical Chinese Reader series.
In college my teacher used the Practical Chinese Reader books. The entire series is six volumes in length with a companion CD/tape set. The grammar/vocabulary is presented alongside the characters. Interesting and pertinent stories (throughout all six volumes) guide the student through different situations such as life in school, a party or a dinner at a friend's house, a trip to the hospital, a train ride, cultural notes, selected works of well known Chinese drama, fiction, etc. This is just a sampler of the tremendous amount of material provided in the entire series.
Those who wish to learn the spoken language and then the written characters may do better with the De Francis series. Students looking to learn grammar, new vocabulary and characters simultaneously should turn to the Practical Chinese Readers. Other Chinese study programs teach all of these elements, spoken and written, at once but none do so with the depth and relative ease of PCR. For these reasons, the PRC books are highly recommended!
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The good books always fall apart, June 25, 2002
This review is from: Practical Chinese Reader: Elementary Course, Book 1 (Paperback)
There are three main points I'd like to make about this book, but first here's what I think about it. The book takes the reader at a decent pace, explaining pronunciation, grammar concepts, and whatnot in great detail. There are exercises to practice that one can do with a partner or by himself. Vocabulary is relatively slow at the beginning, but so it is with all language books. It's great if you want to learn Chinese and have had a little bit of exposure to a language with a different writing system. Finally -- the reader must decide if this is okay with them -- in every chapter, the beginning text is written in both Chinese characters and pinyin (english letters), so you can't really be sure that you are reading it on your own or using the pinyin as a crutch. However, there are practice texts throughout later chapters that give you the chance to read characters alone. The second volume of this book takes away the pinyin, so you can't use it like in the first book. Here are my points:
(1) THE BINDING ON THIS BOOK IS OLD, AND THUS IT FELL APART AFTER TWO DAYS OF READING IT. I'm not too sure if this is a problem with this particular shipment, or if all these books will do that, but I didn't buy the book to look pretty, I'll just tape it up.
(2) THE BOOK IS BEST FOR THOSE WHO HAVE EXPERIENCE IN LEARNING ANOTHER LANGUAGE AND THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN EXPOSED TO LINGUISTICS TERMS AND IDEAS, OTHERWISE YOU NEED A TEACHER. Thankfully, I am both, so this book is incredibly helpful. They have diagrams to show the position of the tongue, and use words such as "fricative, affricative, hard palette, aveolar" to describe how to pronounce the words. If you don't know these words, you'll be confused on pronunciation; you should get help from someone else. However, if you know linguistics, this is what you're looking for.
(3) THE BOOK IS OLD, SO THERE ARE SOME PHILOSOPHIES AND TERMS THAT ARE NOT USED TODAY. Based on another review, I've learned that some of these words are incorrect. As well, the book usually mentions something about the Chinese attempting to create an alphabet, and thus they use simplified characters as a bridge to get to that point (...). As far as I know, the Chinese have no intention of doing such, because to be honest, learning Chinese characters is not that hard for Chinese.
Enjoy the book if you get it, because it's a good one, but make sure you have some tape handy to bind it back together.
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