John DeFrancis Beginning Chinese Reader Vocabulary Spreadsheet

[ablindwatchmaker]

Hey guys! I recently posted on here asking if anyone was in a position to offer a vocabulary list for "Intermediate Reader of Modern Chinese" in exchange for a complete list of all vocabulary contained within the Defrancis Beginning Chinese Reader books. Well, it doesn't look like anyone has one available, so I'm just going to post what I have and hope someone finds the files useful. There are, undoubtedly, a few errors that will need to be corrected, but that shouldn't prevent anyone from getting something out of it. I will post lists for both the character text and the reader. I hope this helps!

Defrancis Beginning Chinese Reader Part 1 Complete.txt

Defrancis Beginning Chinese Reader Part 2 Complete.txt

Defrancis Beginning Chinese Character Text Complete.txt

[Fred K]

Thanks, this is useful for me. Seton Hall U put out a recording of the BCR Sentences, Dialogs and Narratives, this can aid listening to it.

Do you still need the Intermediate lists? I have the Part 2 of DeFrancis' Intermediate Chinese Reader book (a 1967 edition, the title differs from what you listed), and I probably have Part 2 somewhere. I may get around to compiling lists, if you need them.

What is your experience with the method in these readers? The idea is interesting, but I have some gripes about what has been implemented.

Cheers,

Fred K.

[ablindwatchmaker]

That would be wonderful. I haven't completed the first because I've been tied up with my classroom text, but it will be extremely useful once I start on intermediate. I would love to have a list of parts 1 and 2!

I think the readers are very, very solid. My reading speed tripled or quadrupled after starting on this series. I've also learned a ton of useful vocabulary. More importantly, the readers give you tons of sentence patterns in a variety of contexts, so you end up learning the grammar quite naturally. Instead of reviewing a pattern 2 or 3 times, you see it dozens of times over a longer period, which leads to greater retention, at least in my experience. I use this as a supplement though. I'm actually skeptical of self-teaching from scratch. I think that self-teaching is more useful after one has attained at least low-intermediate level in a formal classroom environment. I've met a few people who speak fluent baby Chinese after having self-studied and living in China without formal study, and this is something I'd definitely like to avoid!

[Meng Lelan]

Thank you for doing this!

[ablindwatchmaker]

It would be awesome to have the entire series posted on this forum. I'm also working on the princeton series, as well as the Zhongqin reader, if anyone is interested.

[wibr]

If you are interested in this topic, you might also like:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/49790-defrancis-readers-vocabulary-lists-chinese-only-traditional/