Graded Chinese Reader, by Sinolingua

[Geiko]

Today I discovered there's a new book of these series, this one being aimed at people who know around 500 words. Therefore the series should be read in this order: 

 

1. The new one, with 500 words.

2. Graded Chinese Reader 3 (1000 words).

3. Graded Chinese Reader 1 (2000 words).

4. Graded Chinese Reader 2 (3000 words).

 

 

[Meng Lelan]

What stories are in the new one for 500 characters?

[xuefang]

Thank you for letting us know! It's great to see more and more well done graded readers made for learners on different levels. I personally don't like that these Graded Chinese Readers include pinyin, but in any case they are great learning material for students.

[Geiko]

Xuefang, I totally agree with you, pinyin was really disturbing even when using that specially made grid, especially because at those levels you only need pinyin for the hardest words, at the most. 

 

Meng Lelan, I will ask the bookshop!

[stoney]

I like the material in these but also find the pinyin very distracting. I won't buy anymore of for this reason. I had Reader#1 and was able to find the stories online without the pinyin. If I could find similar material for the other readers I would buy more of them. Like I said the material in these books is great. If the pinyin doesn't bother you then I recommend them. Hope the publishers catch on to this problem.

[Flarioca]

I've bought Graded Chinese Reader 3 and it came with a nice grid, which allows you to choose reading either the characters or the pinyin transcription. Very handy. I'll certainly buy this new one, which is much closer to my level.

[elina]

What stories are in the new one for 500 characters?

 

15 Abridged versions of mini-stories written by contemporary Chinese writers, reflecting the everyday lives of ordinary Chinese people.

More details:

Graded Chinese Reader 500 Words

http://www.studychineseculture.com/book.asp?id=5210

Yesterday, the latest book in this series was released, which is at 1500 words level:

Graded Chinese Reader 1500 Words

http://www.studychineseculture.com/book.asp?id=5211

 

I personally don't like that these Graded Chinese Readers include pinyin, but in any case they are great learning material for students.

 

Like I said the material in these books is great. If the pinyin doesn't bother you then I recommend them. Hope the publishers catch on to this problem.

 

The publisher has put the nice grid mentioned by Flarioca in every book in this series.

[li3wei1]

If they ever publish an e-book version, it would be handy to be able to have a 'dimmer switch' on the pinyin, so you can make it fainter (or smaller), or even disappear, but bring it back when you need it.

[pprendeville]

That's a brilliant way of phrasing it "dimmer switch". I downloaded DimSumWarriors Warriors recently and when I read it in English and then turn reveal the Chinese characters, the pinyin over them is impossible not to look at. Th dimmer switch idea would be a great addition to any ebook.

[Meng Lelan]

The new 500 character version, so far I can't find what stories are in there. The book is available from Sinolingua but hasn't made its way to US marketers like Amazon. But I did kind of (in my search) stumble across "Lady in the Painting" which I read in my first year Chinese class so I ordered it for my kids. Should be good.

[querido]

The playing time of the audio of these first five volumes is almost 19 hours.

It's professionally enunciated and recorded and is neither slow nor fast. It's read with the natural pauses in dialogue that a storyteller would add. All of these volumes are read at about this same natural speed.

The two new ones show the cover of a volume at 2500 that might be next.

Thank you elina! :-)

[elina]

 

If they ever publish an e-book version, it would be handy to be able to have a 'dimmer switch' on the pinyin, so you can make it fainter (or smaller), or even disappear, but bring it back when you need it.

Excellent idea!  Have conveyed this suggestion to the publisher, although at present they have not planned an e-book version.

 

 

The two new ones show the cover of a volume at 2500 that might be next.

Thank you elina! :-)

You’re welcome  You’re a really good learner, I just checked your package number from the internet, and found you have read the books just after a few days when you receive them, no wonder why you can make great progress , since you’re so studious, 好好学习！天天向上！

 

The publisher said Graded Chinese Reader 2500 Words would be released in several months, and as soon as it’s available, they would inform us and we would upload it to our site at the first time.

[roddy]

Is anyone else noticing errors in the pinyin? MichaelS has reported:

 

There are some horrible errors in the pinyin in places! 了解 (le5jie3) and 流行 (liu2hang2) :S

 

in Graded Reader 1. 

[querido]

I'm only listening now.

It might be a good time to submit corrections because it looks like they might reprint 1, 2 and 3 (with covers that say 2000, 3000, 1000, to match the other ones).

[Meng Lelan]

And I look only at the characters when I read so I never noticed the pinyin problems....thanks roddy for putting this up here, hopefully the publisher can do something about this. 

[michaelS]

For reference, and before I forget, here are the page numbers:

p. 143: 这是外地人来北京要看的第一个地方

Zhè shì wài de rén lái běijīng yào kàn de dì yī gè dìfāng

p.145: 他对他们不太了解

Tā duì tāmen bù tài lejiě

p. 155: 刀郎的歌在2004年里非常流行

Dāoláng de gē zài 2004 nián lǐ fēicháng liúháng

There may be others - obviously I was trying to avoid the pinyin, but I got tired of manhandling the blocker, and I guess I was looking at the pinyin on some level, because the mistakes jumped out at me!

[imron]

The perils of automatic pinyin conversion.

[elina]

Thanks Roddy and MichaelS to put forward the errors, I have conveyed these to the publisher, hope they will revise them when reprinting the books.

[elina]

The publisher said Graded Chinese Reader 2500 Words would be released in around July.

 

And recently they have published 5 new books of Glimpses of Contemporary China, about 2500—5000 words level, details:

http://www.studychineseculture.com/search.asp?keyword=Glimpses+of+Contemporary+China&thetype=bookname&submit1=SEARCH

[hoshinoumi]

I just bought the 1500 words version. Texts are interesting and easy to follow. But the pinyin is just so distracting!!! The pinyin grid is also really uncomfortable to use, I even had to cut the gaps to make them longer since it was so short that it always covered one character. As it was previously said, pinyin may be needed for the 500 and maybe 1000 word version, but at this level it's simply too distracting. 

I would definitely buy it as an ebook if it had the option to remove the pinyin. Until that happens, I don't reccommend it (in my personal opinion).