"Defrancis Intermediate Chinese Reader" and "China Scene" Vocabuary Lists COMPLETED

[ablindwatchmaker]

It has been grueling, but I've finally managed to assemble rough vocab lists for the Defrancis Intermediate Chinese reader as well as the vocab from the textbook "China Scene". I have used simplified Chinese, but it shouldn't be hard for you to go copy-paste the simplified characters into Google translate and get the traditional versions (Yes, I'm aware the book is in traditional).

 

The Defrancis Reader vocab list is full of spelling errors and there are some errors with the pinyin as well (I was trying to go fast). Additionally, this list contains 2,000 out of the 2500 words. I omitted the rest because they were either grammatical constructions, too basic, or too cumbersome (hard to explain). That being said, I was careful to ensure that the translations are by the book and/or include other valid translations. There are many typos on the English end, but I doubt this will be a problem for people who speak English. I'm also assuming people will adjust accordingly.

 

Finally, I do not recommended using this list if you don't already own the textbook. You won't understand many of the translations and won't have access to the sentence patterns that put the words in context. Use this while you are using the series or after you have completed it.

 

The "China Scene" vocab list includes about 85% of the words from lessons 1 through 13 (14 and 15 are supplemental lessons). Again, there are errors, but the translations are sound. 

 

Enjoy the fruits of my labor

defrancis intermediate chinese reader vocab.txt

China Scene vocabulary.txt

[Meng Lelan]

I'm impressed you have China Scene, too. Is that used in any of your Chinese classes and where?

[ablindwatchmaker]

China Scene is used in our 6th semester Chinese class at UT Austin. I love the text, I just wish I could get off the textbooks lol.

[Meng Lelan]

Third year Chinese at UT Austin? The Chinese program must have changed a lot there, when I visited in 2006, the textbooks for third year Chinese did not include China Scene and they were using very old editions of NPCR for the first and second year levels. Do you have the syllabus for the class using China Scene? I think you had two years of Chinese at Austin Community College. By the way I may be in Austin for a deafblind Christmas party next weekend, will PM you later today. 

 

I am going to take a look at your DeFrancis lists too. Many thanks for doing this. The DeFrancis and the China Scene were my big favorites for self study. 

[ablindwatchmaker]

Yeah, they are now using "Integrated Chinese" for the first two years. For the 5th semester they use "A Trip to China" and then "China Scene" for the sixth. We have other classes outside of this but that is the core progression. Next semester I will be taking classical Chinese and probably another Chinese elective.

 

I have attached an old syllabus which is identical to the one we are currently using for "Chine Scene," but it doesn't have a lot of info.readings 2 syllabus.pdfreadings 2 syllabus.pdf

[Meng Lelan]

Thanks, this helps. Hope to see you in Austin soon. 

[刘慧婷]

Thanks for sharing this!

 

I'm heading into my 6th semester of studying Chinese at uni and we're going to be using China Scene so you're vocab list will be a good preview of what is to come whilst I wait for my textbook. I didn't expect other students to be studying from it because from what I've seen it's a really thick textbook and it seems like a daunting task to go through all the content.

 

What did you like and dislike about it if you don't mind me asking?

[Meng Lelan]

Exactly what you said. Thick and daunting. But that's because the whole book has the trad on the right page and simp on the left page, throughout the whole book. But I thought the content was remarkable in that it delved into adoption, funerals, etc topics that I did not see other texts even touch. 

[ablindwatchmaker]

I really only have one complaint, and that is the lack of clarity with a few English translations. Every once in a while you will find a word with an English translation that is technically correct but doesn't honor the meaning within the context of the passage. At UT, we are required to translate all of the passages into grammatically correct English, and our teacher routinely corrects the translations that are based on the vocabulary list in the textbook. It's not that they are wrong, but they aren't always the most appropriate translations. That being said, this is a problem with all textbooks and the only reason I notice it as much with this one is because I am required to do precise translation. In the past, we weren't asked to do as much translation, so for all I know the other books weren't any better.

 

Well....Another is that the audio components and visual components are very expensive. I can't afford to buy them, but it would be really nice to have them. Right now, we are taking what was originally broadcast on television in the form of a documentary and only focus on reading and composition. I've always hated when classes omit listening components, but I guess the class is "Readings in Modern Chinese 2."

 

The book is great, overall. You will learn a ton of modern Chinese history, especially during and after 改革开放 in reasonably advanced prose, you will become familiar with many conventions used in classical Chinese and newspapers, and learn a lot of formal sentence patterns that will assist you in higher level writing. The class doesn't focus on colloquial Chinese much, but you will still get quite a bit of useful stuff from it.

 

If you ever need any help with any aspect of the book, let me know and I'd be more than happy to help. If you're interested in really learning the sentence patterns, I have created an Anki deck based on the sentence patterns, but I'm still uncertain as to the legality of posting it publicly, so you will need to PM me.