PAVC New 2017 vs CCC

[JamesMills]

Hi all,

 

I am going to buy either A course in contemporary chinese or practical audio visual chinese 3rd edition (2017). Has anyone had experience with either of these textbooks? Can anyone recommend which would be better?

I am a beginner and know both zhuyin and pingyin. Pingyin comes more naturally to me being a foreigner.  

Which textbook would be a good place to start? I heard PAVC is better to start with book 2, not sure if that is the case with the newest edition? 

 

[Shelley]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

 

I am not familiar with either of the 2 courses you mention, but a popular choice is New Practical Chinese Reader, this is a full course with books 1 through 4 covering grammar, vocabulary, reading, writing characters, and with the DVDs, listening. There is also a workbook which is well worth having to practice what you are learning. There are also videos on You Tube.

 

ISBN for book 2 is 978-7-5619-2895-0   this should lead you to the series.

 

Book one is in pinyin (not pingyin) to start with but starts teaching characters after lesson 4 or 5 IIRC. I think it is a good idea to start learning characters as soon as possible as it is part of becoming fluent. or at least proficient.

 

There is also the choice of simplified or traditional, depending on where you intend to use your Chinese you should choose the appropriate one - Simplified for mainland China and traditional for Taiwan.

 

You don't say where you are but these textbooks are usually easily bought on line or bookshops can order it for you if they do not stock it.

 

If you would like to read more about this textbook and how I use have a look at my blog in the link at the bottom of this post.

 

 

 

 

 

[księżycowy]

I am currently working my way through PAVC (volume 1, though I have all the volumes and workbooks), and I can can safely say I like it. How much Chinese do you know? If you don't know any hanzi, it makes no sense to start with volume 2, and it builds off volume 1. PAVC requires that you can read and write characters pretty much from the start (as in, it teaches you some in a lesson, and has you reading and writing them in the same lesson.)

 

I also looked into CCC back when I was looking at Chinese courses to use, but I never bought it, so I can't help you there.