|
|
|
|
|
|
HomeLanguagesChinese |
|
|  |
| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review:
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
 I like it! Apr 15, 2008
Ok, I have been studied mandarin for about a year now with the first book in this series. I have to say that I love the book. The directions are a bit hard but it has facts from China, and at the end of each chapter it tells you how to properly write the characters! The grammar may seem outdated to people because it is published on mainland China which is a communist government. That government wants proper grammar and the proper words used. Every language you learn in school uses proper things while the people may speak differently. I know, I am also learning Spanish, French and German.
I have been watching Taiwanese and Chinese dramas and listening to Taiwanese music and I can honestly say I understand a lot for only 2 semesters of study.
The directions on grammar are a little complicated in that it is in extremely proper English. So it may be a little more difficult to understand.
Overall I love the series.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Great and Fun Resource Jun 21, 2006
I have been carrying this book around with me wherever I go for several weeks now. (It's becoming annoying to my girlfriend.) But I can't help it -- it's the perfect little tome to tote around and just pick up whenever you have a free moment.
The dialogues are sometimes pretty stilted -- how could they not be in the beginning, with only a few dozen words of grammar? -- it's always fun to read and the exercises are actually quite helpful. The pace is reasonable and keeps me on my toes -- I'm up to Lesson 20 and I've been finishing off about a chapter a week.
The only complaint I have is that sometimes the grammatical explanations are in purely technical language and thus of almost no use to the casual learner. I've heard that the New Pratical Chinese Reader is better in this regard and have ordered a copy in anticipation.
3 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 Good one, but the new is better Mar 22, 2006
My chinese teacher and some of the students at my class used this book and said it is a good one, but all agree that the new one (the one we are using at the moment) is much better.
Take a look at the "New Practical Chinese Reader"
9 of 9 found the following review helpful:
Best Product for Learning Chinese Currently Available Oct 29, 2004
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!
14 of 15 found the following review helpful:
I have found it very useful Oct 23, 2004
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.
|
| | |
|
|
|
|
|
