Practical chinese Reader V New Practical Chinese Reader

[Toffeeliz]

first off - see that guy? It says that Ding Yun is his mum and that Gubo is his dad. But in Practical Chinese Reader - it says that Gubo's girlfriend is Palanka, and that Ding Yun is just a friend........why did they split up?!?!

is there a mad story of this scandal in any of the books?

On another note - has anyone here had experience of both texts and would care to share a detailed comparision? :mrgreen

[yingguoguy]

I too was scandalized when I picked up the New Practical Chinese Readers, especially as it was Palanka who first introduced Gubo to Ding Yun. We can only hope the mystery is resolved in NPCR 6 to be published next year.

The other great mystery from the reader series, which country the first book was set in, has at last been cleared up. The strangly unidentifiable country with the suspiciously clean living students and peasants is in fact Canada! (At least that's what I infer from Ding Libao being Canadian) Are Palanka and Gubo supposed to be Sinofications of Western names, I've spent many an hour scratching my head over this?

As for comparison, the new series improves on the old one in almost every respect. Some people on the site have complained that the NPRC go downhill with every level, but I've been using them and are quite happy. The old ones are still worth picking up second hand as the material in both is completely different.

[heifeng]

it says that Gubo's girlfriend is Palanka, and that Ding Yun is just a friend

that famous just a friend line....**cough**cough**Lession 6: 包二奶**cough**cough**

"and you say he's just a friend, and you say he's just a friend...":mrgreen:

[Toffeeliz]

lmao! I just can;t beleive it is all. BUt maybe Palanka ran away with Wang laoshi? lol

there really should be a Practical Chinese Reader fanfiction website lol

my chinese teacher has the new versions and I have books one to three of the old. I think that the new one is a lot easier on the eyes but I like Palanka as a character, and Gubo had some nice illustrations teehee, such a cutie pie. lol

[wrbt]

I believe another benefit of NPCR series is that while learning your fundamentals you're also working with vocabulary/characters/patterns that is supposed to be aligned with HSK. I've not taken HSK so I don't know if this is true or not, and of course it's likely only a small portion of those who take Chinese will have that goal but for those who do sure seems like a nice bonus.

I was looking in the back of book 4 and it says by completion of 1-4 one should have mastered about 2400 vocabulary items and over 1200 characters.

I've not seen book 5. Anyone care to offer a review?

[meigui80]

When my chinese teacher told us about Gubo and Ding Yun having a child, I thought she must be kidding. Today, i found out this was not the case. Gubo and Palanka have been with me through my university years as I studied chinese and then went to Beijing-basically, I was studying chinese with them. Finding out that Palanka's boyfriend and best friend had an affair/got married is absolutely heartbreaking After everything Gubo and Palanka have been through together, studying and metting Palanka's family, and then living together in Beijing. Toffeeliz, its funny you mentioned a Gubo and Palanka fanfiction site, thats what I myself was thinking of doing, maybe I should now I've had my own ideas of Gubo and Palanka, in particular their future, e.g. getting married and living in Beijing, and their children growing up in Beijing and going to school. I think Imight just make such a website