NPCR workbook questions

[love_china]

Hi!

I'm interested in buying the workbook for NPCR online, but I have a few questions for the people who currently use them/have experience with them.

1) What kind of exercises are in the workbook? What is the general format? are there worksheets for writing out the chinese character over and over for practice, or is it mainly answering questions etc?

2) are there english definitions of the chinese words as well as pin yin for each new word introduced?

3) I noticed on ebay there are several different books for NPCR: the workbook, textbook, CD... do I have to purchase all of them?

4) What online sites do you buy your NPCR books from?

Thanks so much!

[topple]

I wouldn't use the NPCR series.

Have you considered the Boya or Spoken Chinese series? At least with these two series, they actually finished writing all the textbooks and the level goes much higher than in NPCR. I say this because once you finish NPCR 5, you'll have to switch to another series anyway to improve your Chinese even further. It's also been years since book 5 came out, and I know alot of people are waiting for the final book in the series. Why wait and waste time when there are alot of other great textbooks out there.

Oh, one last thing, when you purchase these books, they actually come with listening CDs, unlike the NPCR series where you have to purchase them separately. Also, the NPCR books just seem too bulky for my taste.

[renzhe]

I found NPCR good, and I switched to native materials after finishing book 5.

You might want to get the workbook and the CD, depending on your learning style (whether you want to do many exercises).

Luckily, the DVD contents are available on youtube, so you don't need to buy that.