New Practical Chinese Reader - good books!

[JonBI]

If we are at a HSK 4 level (meaning we know all of the first set of vocab, and grammar) which book aught we to start with?

[ansileran]

Hi everyone !

Sorry to re-open this topic, but I was wondering if anyone knows where to get the NPCR 5 CDs... They don't have them at the Chinese librairy in Paris so I'm considering ordering them from the net, but having them ship to France really is a pain... Are they available online somewhere ?

[edelweis]

You could try that amazon.co.uk

http://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Practical-Chinese-Reader-Text/dp/7887032415/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1283102808&sr=8-1

[dreamon]

Great discussion about NPCR, thanks! Can't wait to read about fairies and opera, but it's a long way for me. (If a fairy was able to appear even in the most criticizing review, then it's literally a MUST HAVE!! ) May I ask a few questions:

1. There is now the second edition for NPCR, but I saw only Vol 1. Are there plans to publish the other volumes soon? deathtrap wrote that the second edition of NPCR is much better than the first; could anyone please elaborate on the differences? How can something be better than the best?

2. Does it make sense to buy only the textbooks and the audio, but not workbooks and other supplementary materials?

3. I heard somewhere on the forum that NPCR is designed to be studied with a teacher. What if there is no teacher, how much does it reduce the value of NPCR?

4. There is a Russian edition of NPCR, and in other languages besides English; did anyone see them, just out of curiosity? How much worse are they?

[ansileran]

@dreamon :

2 and 3 : If you study with a teacher, I think buying the books and CDs would be enough (it is for volume 5, or will be once I manage to find those d*** CDs). The teacher will be able to correct your exercises. However, if you study on your own, you won't have anyone to correct them and answers aren't in the textbooks. I don't know if they are available elsewhere, perhaps in the teacher's book.

Apart from this, textbook is great even without a teacher if you only intend to learn new words and read a lot. I started like this too. Problem will be grammar. If you really want to study with this book, I suggest that you either get an internet penpal (I'm not sure this is the right word) who can correct your exercises or you buy a grammar book with exercises to practice. Or do both ^^.

Good luck to you !

[chaiknees]

@dreamon:

1) According to Blcup, the volumes 2~4 of the 2nd Edition will be released within September. But this information is a few weeks old and September has already come... Just check their website regularly. Volumes 5 and 6 won't be released in a 2nd edition.

Regarding the content, 1st and 2nd Edition are the same. Same dialogues, vocabulary, grammar and exercises. But the new edition is more convenient to use. The chapters are clearly separated, colours and better layout elements are used for different content, the paper is better, all the drawings and pictures are new and more modern, you find page and chapter numbers on top of every page, some culture texts were updated. Many small things. It just looks more modern now and not that "crappy" anymore, anyway it's totally "compatible" with the old edition as the content is the same. And the volumes come with Mp3-CD, thus it's more ceonvenient to use with Mp3 player or phone withou any ripping and much less trouble than before to collect all the things you need.

2/3) Personally I'd recommend the workbooks. For every lesson you find about 12 pages of various exercises for listening, speaking, reading and writing. In the higher volumes more and more supplementary material which is not related to the lesson's content. As I study without teacher, just for myself, I try to get as much material as I can get to practise. And if unsure for some answers, just ask friends or colleagues to check what you did.

4) I only know the German version of NPCR (only volumes 1 and 2 were released). The content is the same as in the original, just with German annotations. But the layout was much more modern. I found that the 2nd edition of the "English" NPCR pretty much looks like the German "original" version.

--- Every textbook has its' advantages and disadvantages. Just from some forum posts you get the impression that detail complaints (on high level) are blown up endlessly and the whole thing regarded as bad or not useful. NPCR has culture topics indeed, also 2nd volume has chapters about opera and similar things. I am really not in these. But these topics just make the "background story". You still find loads of helpful and practical vocabulary, phrases and key sentences in each and every lesson. You should just have a try with it.

[dreamon]

chaiknees> According to Blcup, the volumes 2~4 of the 2nd Edition will be released within September. But this information is a few weeks old and September has already come... Just check their website regularly. Volumes 5 and 6 won't be released in a 2nd edition.

Could you please give a link to where you read this? (I am not good enough in Chinese to search myself.) Obviously, if I can buy the second edition, I should do that, rather than buying the first edition. It would be really strange if they don't release the new edition for vol. 5 and 6, unless these volumes already adhere to the new format.

It appears that both the textbook and the workbook in the second edition have an MP3, is it really so? Are they different MP3s?

I was also looking at Boya, but it appears to be too hard for a beginner or a lower intermediate studying without a teacher. Please correct me if I am wrong. Is there anyone who used Boya from the beginner level and (mostly) without a teacher? They do look attractive: lots of stuff, MP3s, good sound quality (at least initially), a popular choice in China.

[chaiknees]

@dreamon:

The information is from an e-mail reply of BLCUP Customer Service Center, middle of July. Therefore it's hard to send a link...

Volumes 5 and 6 are still in the old format. I think the reason why these are not released in 2nd edition is, they are completely different from volumes 1~4. Generally the lesson structure and layout is more simple. No pictures, hardly any dialogues, just essays, short stories and such stuff. Lin Na and Ding Libo won't appear there again.

Correct, textbook comes with mp3 cd (price in a chinese bookstore 68 RMB), workbook comes with mp3 cd (price in a chinese bookstore 35 RMB). Of course both cds are different. The textbook mp3 contain the texts, new words, key sentences, phrases and reading comprehension text of every lesson. The workbook mp3 contain material only used when working with the workbook, usually about 4 or 5 exercises per lesson. The audio quality of NPCR, by the way, is excellent.

edit:

Textbook: separate mp3 files for texts, new words, key sentences and phrases

Workbook: one file per lesson, except for the first six lessons (two files for each of them)

[dreamon]

chaiknees> According to Blcup, the volumes 2~4 of the 2nd Edition will be released within September. But this information is a few weeks old and September has already come... Just check their website regularly.

It is November now, and I still only see Volume 1 at the BLCUP English site. Maybe I am looking at the wrong place?

[Chinadoog]

can anyone recommend a website where i can order the NPCR (5-6) books?

[Don_Horhe]

How many threads will you ask your question in?

[Meng Lelan]

can anyone recommend a website where i can order the NPCR (5-6) books?

If you are in the US you can go to China Sprout online and order them.

I got mine in Shanghai's Foreign Language Bookstore a few months ago.

[chaiknees]

Volume 2 of the 2nd edition is available now.

Found it on Dangdang and BLCUP

[Findus]

Hey guys, I was wondering if buying the textbook "NPCR - 1" will suffice for learning decently from the book? I read over at Amazon that to use the workbook, for instance, you would need like, several more items for it to be fully usable/complete. Is this true or false? Can I just buy the textbook and use it on its own? Thank you!

[dreamon]

chaiknees> Volume 2 of the 2nd edition is available now. Found it on Dangdang and BLCUP

Excellent! But what happened to the tones over characters on the sample pages? The tones seem to have shifted horizontally in many places, and some weird sequences of dots appeared in between. Is this a bug or a feature?

[roddy]

What on earth happened with the pinyin - look at 明星片 in the vocab list.

[imron]

What on earth happened with the pinyin

Looks like a font problem to me - hopefully not caused by an older version of Pinyinput

[chaiknees]

Hey guys, I was wondering if buying the textbook "NPCR - 1" will suffice for learning decently from the book? I read over at Amazon that to use the workbook, for instance, you would need like, several more items for it to be fully usable/complete. Is this true or false? Can I just buy the textbook and use it on its own? Thank you!

As for the first edition, workbook and audio material for the workbook had to be bought separately. In the second edition, the workbook includes an mp3-CD, no need to buy it separately.

From one of my old posts:

Personally I'd recommend the workbooks. For every lesson you find about 12 pages of various exercises for listening, speaking, reading and writing. In the higher volumes more and more supplementary material which is not related to the lesson's content.

[qianxi]

Hello, I'm currently working through NPCR 5 and will be tackling NPCR 6 by xmas. However, I have been unable to locate answer keys for the 练习 sections in the these last two books of the series. (I know where to find answer leys for the others). Does anyone know where I could find the answer keys online or where I could buy them? Thanks

[Shelley]

I also use this series and have never seen the answer keys for the last 2.

 

It seems like you are not expected to need them or something.

 

But just cos i haven't seen them doesn't mean they don't exist, maybe someone else knows.