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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| AlexL Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7090 days ago 197 posts - 277 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 25 of 32 23 September 2008 at 5:41pm | IP Logged |
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New Practical Chinese Reader (NPCR) is a good series. It is not, as the title suggests, a reader, which has caused
some confusion here. It is a textbook, similar to Integrated Chinese. There are 70 lessons in all 6 volumes (I believe only 5 have been published...), extensive CDs to listen to dialogues, etc., and even a DVD where they've filmed the first textbook's dialogues. Each lesson has a number of parts. First, you have the text, which are basically dialogues and occasionally a paragraph of or two. In the first six lessons, there is a pronunciation section below the text where pinyin is taught. In these lessons, pinyin is emphasized within the texts and exercises, too. After the sixth lesson, pinyin is de-emphasized and characters are the focus, though the dialogues still have easy-to-read pinyin transliterations below the characters. Next is the New Words section, which looks at the new vocab in the lesson and how they are made up of different morphemes. There is also supplementary vocab for interested students. Then there are the notes, which are explanations of any points of interest in the text, whether cultural, grammatical, or related to vocabulary. Then there's Conversation Practie (in the first six lessons) or "Drills and Practice" for lessons 7-14, which are pretty much exercises for students to practice. Reading Comprehension and Paraphrasing is another set of exercises designed to test your comprehension. For the first six lessons, there are Phonetics and Pronunciation drills that, with the accompanying CD, help you master the tones and sounds of Chinese. Grammar contains the more detailed discussions of grammar points in the lesson. It is not comprehensive but does go over the most important structures. Characters sections teach about 10-20 characters per lesson, starting with radicals and simpler characters and expanding into more complex ones. Generally, some of the characters learned are from the texts and some just constitute pieces of those characters. Last, there's Cultural Notes, English explanations of Chinese culture. Later on, these are dropped in favor of Chinese reading selections about Chinese culture. It is a comprehensive series that I think is quite good. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| TheElvenLord Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6086 days ago 915 posts - 927 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Cornish, English* Studies: Spanish, French, German Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 26 of 32 24 September 2008 at 2:49am | IP Logged |
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Thanks AlexL, thats a great help!!
I am still saving my pennies, as it were. The "Credit crunch" is badly affecting us here in Cornwall! I have started Mandarin lessons (woohoo), so I think it would be a good supplementary to it. TEL 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 Hencke Tetraglot Moderator Spain Joined 6900 days ago 2340 posts - 2444 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Finnish, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 27 of 32 24 September 2008 at 5:18am | IP Logged |
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This is just my own totally subjective two cents, and it could be very different for you, but I shelled out for NPCR when I was first starting out with Mandarin three years ago and facing the facts today it turns out to have been a mistake.
I bought the complete first two books: Textbook, Workbook, Instructor's Manual and CD's. I did a few brave attempts to start learning with those lessons in the beginning, but in my case it never seemed to get off the ground. Now, three years on they are still sitting there in the bookshelf collecting dust. Maybe they are more suitable for study in a university setting, with teachers and fellow students etc. and not so ideal for self-study. Or it might be it's just me. I just don't know. Oh well, they are still sitting there, and I might get around to actually using them eventually. In the meantime I am using other materials. I just got the books for David and Helen in China, much cheaper than NPCR as it happens, and the recordings are available on the net for free. David and Helen is not beginner level though. You need a year or two under your belt, or three like me, before tackling it but it's about right for where I am now. I am just finishing lesson four, aiming for a pace of two lessons a month, and I am liking it more and more as I go along. Edited by Hencke on 24 September 2008 at 5:22am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| TheElvenLord Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6086 days ago 915 posts - 927 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Cornish, English* Studies: Spanish, French, German Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 28 of 32 24 September 2008 at 7:38am | IP Logged |
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Thanks Hencke
TEL 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| stelingo Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5838 days ago 722 posts - 1076 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Czech, Polish, Greek, Mandarin | Message 29 of 32 11 December 2008 at 6:18pm | IP Logged |
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I would recommend 'The Chinese Classroom'. There are 2 books. The first one is a nice introduction to the spoken language and comes with an MP3 CD. Book 2 teaches you 400 hanzi. http://www.lexusforlanguages.co.uk/index.html
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| jimbo baby! Senior Member United States Joined 5983 days ago 202 posts - 208 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* | Message 30 of 32 12 December 2008 at 7:27pm | IP Logged |
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Chinese Link is a classroom textbook. It comes in 4 parts, 2 for elementary, 2 for intermediate. There is a choice between traditional and simplified characters.
JIA YOU! is a 2 part textbook that has traditional and simplified characters in the same book. Both series have accompanying workbooks, CD and DVD learning materials. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| dswans Newbie United States Joined 5895 days ago 17 posts - 17 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 31 of 32 13 December 2008 at 11:58am | IP Logged |
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If you are looking for a free text book, you might want to look at the MIT open course ware web site (MIT OpenCourseWare). There are multiple levels of Chinese (Mandarin) in both regular and streamlined formats. The Chinese courses provide both audio and texts. I have no experience with this particular course, but have found other courses offered on the web site to be quite excellent. Edited by dswans on 13 December 2008 at 11:59am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| capison Newbie China Joined 5813 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes | Message 32 of 32 31 December 2008 at 10:54am | IP Logged |
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there are a lot of good books to introduce how to study mandarin. especially some chinese website is a good resource to study mandarin.
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