I have found it very useful, October 22, 2004

I have purchased this book together with an accompanying set of cassettes and have found both to be very helpful and easy to follow. I should point out that I am studying Chinese on my own (without an instructor) and have purchased just about every book and program I could find and particularly value those which have cassettes and CDs available with the program. I don't think that anyone will master a language by reading just one book and each program has its strengths and weaknesses. And yes, errors do sometimes occur with printed material, but if you are using many different sources to study, that should not be a problem. Few words in this book may not be in use any more, and as another reviewer pointed out if you can find the New Chinese Reader, it may be your better option - nevertheless, you can make wonderful progress even with this book. And if are studying on your own, I highly recommend you also get the audio material to accompany your study. It will make your studying even more enjoyable experience and much easier. The audio tapes that accompany this book have very good sound quality.



　

My chinese teacher and some of the students at my class used this book and said it is a good one, but all agree that the new one (the one we are using at the moment) is much better.

Take a look at the "New Practical Chinese Reader"

Best Product for Learning Chinese Currently Available, October 29, 2004

I started using the Chinese Reader books by John DeFrancis roughly twenty years ago. These are some of the finest works for studying the language available but I found that they placed language learning (ie. spoken) in one book and character study (written) in a parallel book. This may work for some but I found it somewhat confusing although the presentation of grammar is excellent! I used DeFrancis as a supplement to the Practical Chinese Reader series.

In college my teacher used the Practical Chinese Reader books. The entire series is six volumes in length with a companion CD/tape set. The grammar/vocabulary is presented alongside the characters. Interesting and pertinent stories (throughout all six volumes) guide the student through different situations such as life in school, a party or a dinner at a friend's house, a trip to the hospital, a train ride, cultural notes, selected works of well known Chinese drama, fiction, etc. This is just a sampler of the tremendous amount of material provided in the entire series.

Those who wish to learn the spoken language and then the written characters may do better with the De Francis series. Students looking to learn grammar, new vocabulary and characters simultaneously should turn to the Practical Chinese Readers. Other Chinese study programs teach all of these elements, spoken and written, at once but none do so with the depth and relative ease of PCR. For these reasons, the PRC books are highly recommended!

I like this book and tapes, but ..., October 22, 2004

I have used this book and tapes and they have worked well for me - in spite of outdated language. It's in these reviews that I've learned of the New Practical Chinese Reader, which doesn't seem to be available yet through the amazon.com - but then I found that Chinasprouts.com has a wide selection of books and tapes, New Chinese Reader series and many others you may enjoy checking out to find what may work best for you.

Very good, but try the New Practical Chinese Reader instead, October 14, 2004

This is the old Practical Chinese Reader, and while it is very good, the New Practical Chinese Reader (Volume 1: 7561910401) is much better; try that instead.

The best starter, September 3, 2003

I used this book for 2 Chinese college courses and it's really great. The way you learn new vocabulary by immediately seeing how they are used in sentences is fantastic. Also, they don't have any sentences that are translated word for word. You just learn to use the words and grammar correcty by seing them used over and over again, which I think is the best way to learn a language. DO NOT GET THIS BOOK WITHOUT GETTING THE AUDIO TAPES WITH IT!!!!!!!!!!! If this is your first chinese learning program, then there is NO way that you can pronounce the words correctly without hearing them on the tapes first! The tapes' pronounciation are crystal clear, pronouncing the "x, q, j, and zh" perfectly (the best Mandarin pronounciation I've ever heard). It is true that the book does contain SOME errors and I had a teacher who gave some commentary on some of the things (really not that serious), but I think this book with the tapes, is an excellent starter for conversational Chinese Mandarin.