Which Textbook?

Hello,

I have a quick question. I studied Chinese for a year last year in college but due to class conflicts, I was unable to continue with Chinese this year. I decided about a week ago though that I would like to do some self-study.

Last year, I used Beginning Chinese by DeFrancis (it's a green book, no characters but in depth grammar) and Elementary Chinese Readers Book 1. I recently bought ECR2 (it's for the 2nd year level at my school).

I was wondering though, what others I should use and how many characters they have in them if people know the approximate amount.

I heard that the New Practical Chinese Reader is good (it has 1-4 published and 5-6 will be published soon).

I also heard that ECR has a total of 4 books.

How many characters do these books teach in all and which one would you recommend?

I've been told that "A New China" http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0691010455/qid=1131518690/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-5733642-7838503?v=glance&s=books is good.

Can someone give any recommendations?

Thank you.

I like the New Practical Chinese Reader a lot, as I mentioned in this thread: http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/5993-new-practical-chinese-reader-good-books. I'm working my way through book two at the moment. You mentioned that books 5 and 6 will be published soon, but I know that I've seen at least book 5 already at the bookstore. NPCR has audio tapes and a workbook that come with it, too.

As for the number of characters, here's a count (from the character index in the back) of the characters in book 1: 420.

and i ever post the same (of course...)

try to take a look in the courses at www.eblcu.net and the use the "backdoor" access to these courses:

www.eblcu.net/lesson/

tell us later what do you think about these courses.

the H101 contains 2800 chinese words and 1700 characteres.

regards and good luck

Thanks for the info.

I didn't realize that book 5 had been published.

Also, the website seems interesting but it works rather sporadically over my computer. I'll keep on looking at it though.

http://www.yale.edu/fep/catalog/standard2.html

The series by Huang and Stimson has 2 sets of books, vol 1,2 spoken, and vol 1-4 written.

The written volumes have both traditional and simplified.

that link shows the number of characters for each volume in the written series. the prices are probably old.

If you are interested I can post an mp3 of a dialog from the 1st lesson in the vol2 of the spoken series. I am not sure how, so I'd need help from roddy.

A typical course at Yale in the mid-late 80's would cover vols 1 of the spoken and written series in semester 1, vols 2 in sem 2, then written vol3 and written vol4 in the 3 and 4 semesters.

Yale is now using David and Helen in China for its 2nd year course.

(I don't know what they use for their 1st year course)

I use D+H for listening and "practical" vocabulary practice.

http://www.columbia.edu/itc/ealac/zhang/dh/dh_audioclips.htm

is the link for all the audio files. Think ipod/daily commute.

http://classes.yale.edu/chns130/

has a bunch of supplemental materials for D+H.

The Huang and Stimson books are of the same era or slightly after the DeFrancis books if I remember correctly, so if presentation style matters that might be important too you.

You could ask your teachers from last year what they recommend.

Where's the best place to purchase the NPCR and the audio?

I don’t know if it’s the BEST place to purchase NPCR, I just would like to say: on our site, we have the entire series of NPCR for sale:

New Practical Chinese Reader Textbook (1)+DVD

USD 11.00

http://shop.aaawww.net/mod8/detail.php?gid=470593&userid=7912&catid=662814

New Practical Chinese Reader Textbook (2)+DVD

USD 12.25

http://shop.aaawww.net/mod8/detail.php?gid=470595&userid=7912&catid=662814

New Practical Chinese Reader Textbook (3)

USD 7.25

http://shop.aaawww.net/mod8/detail.php?gid=318189&userid=7912&catid=662814

New Practical Chinese Reader Textbook (4)

USD 8.38

http://shop.aaawww.net/mod8/detail.php?gid=318196&userid=7912&catid=662814

New Practical Chinese Reader Textbook (5)

USD 7.38

http://shop.aaawww.net/mod8/detail.php?gid=412826&userid=7912&catid=662814

I live in the U.S. what's the cost for shipping overseas from China?

For grammar, I like the Routledge Beginning and Intermediate Chinese Grammars. They are largely intended for self study, and I learned a lot from them.

For characters, hmm, I prefer just to work through "Reading & Writing Chinese" by William McNaughton and Li Ying. It is a nice reference book for beginning and intermediate students as well.

Elina, I looked on your site. It was not obvious to me what shipping costs would be (without actually placing an order).

Can you give a rough estimate of what the actual shipping costs to the USA would be for one or all of the books you mention?

Also, do you know what the shipping durations are from shipment to arrival?

Nearly at the bottom of the homepage, there is a link of “Distributing Method, Cost and Time”

http://shop.aaawww.net/mod8/fsql.php?id=217544&userid=7912

And the payment method:

http://shop.aaawww.net/mod8/fsql.php?id=217547&userid=7912

Something about us:

http://shop.aaawww.net/mod8/fsql.php?id=218326&userid=7912

Some of our customers write their enquiries and needs to the email address on our website, which is the same with actually placing an order. We always give a reply within one working day.

Please note: from April 29 to May 7, we will take a rest for the National Public Holidays: 五一国际劳动节.