NPCR Confusion

[joshuawbb]

Firstly, sorry to be a pain, as I'm entirely new to this book series. From what I thought I knew before, the NPCR series was in Simplified Chinese but I guess now that there are separate Simplfied and Traditional versions.

I just bought NPCR 1 today without that knowledge and it seems everything inside is traditional, so I guess I'll have to change it if I can. I might just be being stupid, but apart from looking in the book, how can I distinguish which version is Simplified and which is Traditional? I bought NPCR 1 in Traditional by mistake, and I also have the NPCR 1 Workbook.

I notice now that my textbook says on the back, right at the bottom, that "texts in traditional characters are provided". That doesn't seem to help much, since my workbook actually says "texts in simplified characters are provided" but it's still traditional inside anyway.

[absurd]

If it says "texts in traditional characters are provided" on the back it means it's in simplified; it means that the texts reappear in traditional characters in an appendix, but the book is otherwise in simplified.

[Xiwang]

In this series, for the simplified version, the Chinese characters in the vertical orange box on the cover are in simplified form ("新实用汉语课本"):

http://www.blcup.com/en/showpic.asp?fn=200694842333956.jpg

In the traditional character versions of these textbooks, those same characters are written in traditional form ("新實用漢語課本"):

http://www.blcup.com/en/showpic.asp?fn=200811131557121777.jpg

The easiest way to tell is probably to look at the fourth and fifth characters ("hanyu"). If "hanyu" is 汉语 (instead of 漢語), then it is the simplified character version of the textbook.

Don't feel bad. I also almost bought the traditional version of this book at a Beijing bookstore by mistake until the clerk asked me if I was really sure that this was what I wanted.

[Scoobyqueen]

The easiest way to tell is probably to look at the fourth and fifth characters ("hanyu"). If "hanyu" is 汉语 (instead of 漢語), then it is the simplified character version of the textbook.

However, if it was using traditional characters wouldnt they be more likely to call it Zhong Wen (written in traditional chacters) and not 汉语 (漢語)?

[roddy]

No, because it's still the same book.

[imron]

Zhong Wen (written in traditional chacters)

It's the same in both - 中文

[joshuawbb]

Thanks everyone - as Xiwang said it is the characters "Hanyu" which make the difference, so I know next time what to look for. The bookstores I bought the traditional versions from didn't have the simplified versions, so I'll keep them around just in case I decide to learn a few traditional characters, since the bookstores don't do refunds; only exchanges.

Xiamen University International Bookstore and the 02 Sun bookstore near it tend to have a pretty low stock of the NPCR series, so to find all the different books it takes a walk along Zhongshan Lu or a few other roads for bigger bookstores. I found NPCR 1 textbook and workbook in Xinhua Bookstore in Zhongshan Lu and textbook 3 in 02 Sun. I suppose it's better to buy them as I see them instead of waiting until I need to.