New Practical Chinese Reader, Textbook Vol. 1

I have started my Chinese studies from an other language book during a language course, but after a time we have changed to New Practical Chinese Reader, which was far more better. Maybe those who have studied English as foreign language like me agree that this is a good book. Its main story is about some students studying in Beijing, and the lessons are about their life. From the very first lesson there are enjoyable conversations and useful phrases, so we can have the impression of a rapid progression which is important for guarding the motivation. The lessons have good structures and a good balance of texts and exercises, each lessons contains model phrases and explanation for the stroke order. It is easy to follow the instructions. There are not too much new words in one lesson, so one can manage to study them lesson by lesson.

I used this book for a high school students who just started learning Chinese. The book is well organized at a pace that the progress can move smoothly. I am glad that I picked a good one.

This is a well organized book that makes learning easy. The text is arranged with a dialogue at the start of each chapter and with the new words & verbs embedded in the dialogue. Each chapter builds progressively on the last and there is enough English to bridge the gap so you will not be completely lost.
One criticism is that the basic survival language / useful travel phrases take a while to show up and the book would be better organized if we were exposed to more of that sooner. But, otherwise this is a good learning tool. I have just returned from 2 weeks in China and the material in this book served as a good foundation.

Although I don't think this book technically qualifies as a reader. I think it is an excellent book for beginners. It starts with text and is followed by new words. It includes notes on the texts, a grammar section for each chapter, drills and exercises, and also a section on writing characters including the stroke order. This would be an excellent companion to students studying beginners chinese in college.

I'm currently using this book for my Chinese 101 class in a community college. As a high school student, I was first scared to take a college class. However, this book have been really helpful to me. The text are easy to understand and not boring. Overall, it's a great book.