Practical Chinese Reader

by Tsun Liu and Beijing Languages Institute

Book Overview

This textbook prepared by the Beijing Languages Institute and intended for foreign learners in a course of modern Chinese at universities or secondary schools. The beginning level consists of two... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 7100000882
• ISBN13: 9787100000888
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: China Books & Periodicals
• Length: 584 Pages
• Weight: 1.13 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Best Product for Learning Chinese Currently Available

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!

I have found it very useful

I have purchased this book together with an accompanying set of cassettes and have found both to be very helpful and easy to follow. I should point out that I am studying Chinese on my own (without an instructor) and have purchased just about every book and program I could find and particularly value those which have cassettes and CDs available with the program. I don't think that anyone will master a language by reading just one book and each program has its strengths and weaknesses. And yes, errors do sometimes occur with printed material, but if you are using many different sources to study, that should not be a problem. Few words in this book may not be in use any more, and as another reviewer pointed out if you can find the New Chinese Reader, it may be your better option - nevertheless, you can make wonderful progress even with this book. And if are studying on your own, I highly recommend you also get the audio material to accompany your study. It will make your studying even more enjoyable experience and much easier. The audio tapes that accompany this book have very good sound quality.

Ah, Palanka and Gubo!

My two best language-learning buddies. It just wouldn't be a Chinese textbook without those two! This is an excellent series, by far my favorite of all the Chinese primers out there. As the previous reviewers have mentioned, yes, it's a little outdated and there's a bit of communist propaganda-type stuff in there sometimes, but it's still the BEST primer around! 5 stars.

This series is actually one of the best you can get.

Granted this series is rather old and slightly outdated, but it has been in my experience that such methods are actually some of the better finds on the market. There is nothing wrong with the vocabulary as the Chinese taught is the modern standard speech of the People's Republic and the English employed is that of the British Commonwealth: This is not surprising as the ones who would have the copyrights to either language would be the Chinese and the English. The word "zuqiu" is based on the word "football" as "soccer" is primarily American usage; the word "keting", 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. There are some words which may have dwindled in usage in the past five years like "tongzhi", comrade, but these are moot points as they are in the minority. The pronunciation and grammar are impeccably explained and demonstrated but do use a good amount of linguistics vocabulary, a method not frequently used in overall language instruction in the United States. There are plenty of exercises; stroke order charts for newly learned characters are only in books I and II. It is highly probable that after the diligent completion of this six volume course, one will have a solid foundation and a strong command of Chinese. One will also have a better understanding of China or the Chinese as the dialogues and readings illustrate everyday life, common situations, modern Chinese thought, modern Chinese behaviour, and explain items of artistic and historical cultural interest. There is no propaganda in these books... and if it seems like there is, it only reflects the overlooked obvious fact that Communism has permeated all facets of life in China including the culture and overall outlook on life, not to mention that the Commercial Press is a state owned enterprise and that these books were composed long before the recent commercial and societal reforms, both of which have been questionably beneficial to China despite Western approval. Many of the images do recall the nineteen seventies, but with the recent retro-revival style trend that began in the early to mid-1990s, they are now more delightful than they are distasteful. The typography is excellent; the books were actually typeset by metal press rather than typewritten. The print quality is not terrible, but for improved quality, there are editions printed in Hong Kong with bleached paper (or high grade off-white paper), richer inking, and sturdier binding. These are more difficult to find unless one has a good Chinese bookshop in the area. The paper used in the Mainland produced editions is unbleached natural pulp based paper; it is somewhat better than newsprint despite how it looks. I have had the original edition for more than ten years without a problem with the binding.The Pracitcal Chinese Reader series is available in Arabic, French, Spanish, German, an

Good book, but need tapes also.

I am a college student in my second year of Chinese, this book and the second are great, over the past two years going pretty much straight from the book I have learned to write around 1,000 characters and am starting to feel pretty confident using the language. However anyone who intends to study Chinese NEEDS tapes with pronunciations on them or else you will be lost. Chinese is a tonal language and someone without the right pronunciation could easily get horse and mother confused!