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Chinese (Mandarin) I
Average Customer Rating:  
List Price:
$345.00
Asia Trips Trips Price:
$327.75
Your Savings: $ 17.25 ( 5% )
Subject To Change Without Notice
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Pimsleur
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Binding: Audio CD
Dewey Decimal Number: 495
EAN: 9780671790615
Format: Audiobook
ISBN: 0671790617
Label: Pimsleur
Manufacturer: Pimsleur
Number Of Items: 16
Number Of Pages: 159
Publication Date: 2000-01-01
Publisher: Pimsleur
Studio: Pimsleur
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Editorial Reviews:
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Comprehensive Chinese (Mandarin) I includes 30 lessons of essential grammar and vocabulary -- 16 hours of real-life spoken practice sessions -- plus a Culture Booklet. Upon completion of this Level I program, you will have functional spoken proficiency with the most-frequently-used vocabulary and grammatical structures. You will be able to: * initiate and maintain face-to-face conversations, * deal with every day situations -- ask for information, directions, and give basic information about yourself and family, * communicate basic information on informal topics and participate in casual conversations, * avoid basic cultural errors and handle minimum courtesy and travel requirements, * satisfy personal needs and limited social demands, * establish rapport with strangers in foreign countries,
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Buy it at Audible
Comment: Word to the wise: you can download the whole program (all 3 courses) on audible.com for less than the cost of getting 1 course on amazon. Just get an annual membership for $229, and you can download all 3 courses, and still have 6 credits left over for 6 more audiobooks. Just want to make sure everyone knows about that option.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The best start to chinese!!
Comment: I have been studying chinese intensively about 6 months. I am actually able to carry on with staff at chinese restaurants, and talk to people at a low level online. I am actually planning a trip to beijing in a year or two and want to speak very well when I get there. Also, there is a business opportunity to open up new markets in China, so this is important and practical to me. I think this is very important background information when you read a review about pimsleur. This is because pimsleur seems to be designed for businessmen, practical people who need conversational chinese quickly and efficiently. For these purposes, pimsleur cannot be beat for any language. Period. I have used living language, fsi, pdq, and most of them. Pimsleur made the basic syntax of chinese grammar, the pronounciation of the tones, and the uniqueness of the chinese measure words all very clear and simple. Anyone who does not appreciate the excellence of pimsleur probably doesn't understand how difficult it is for a mature english speaker to wrap their head around these concepts -- until pimsleur's mandarin. After finishing 1,2,3, I went on to barron's mandarin (to get the basics down in a more academic way), McNaughton's Reading and Writing Chinese (for the writing - which is actually very easy, not worth acquiring until after you have verbal fluency), and Schaum's Outline of Chinese Vocabulary (for more vocabulary) and Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar (for comprehensive grammar). All of these other study materials are very facile after pimsleur. Pimsleur duplicates the experience of being a child and learning language naturally from one's parents. There is plenty of time for didactic grammar and literacy after verbal fluency, just like most readers of this learned their english. I don't think including pinyin transcripts is a good idea actually, because living language does that, and I found it confusing, that the verb to-be "shi" was really said like "sure". It was better to just learn the language. Now when I use a pinyin book like the chinese vocab book, I make pronunciation analogies to words I do know, and my pronunciation per chinese natives is supposed to be very good for my level. I credit pimsleur with my excellent pronunciation and intuitive understanding of syntax. If you do something besides pimsleur, your business task will be much more awkward. I can only imagine negative comments come from students, who need material that ties in with all the useless stuff that goes on with academic language instruction. I still can't get several useless phrases about pens and tire companies out of my head from years of school and university French! Pimsleur is about talking -- to chinese people. Talk that gets the job done -- find a bathroom, book a hotel, order a dinner, catch your plane, and sign your contract. That's what you need.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The best out there !!!
Comment: I tried couple different Chinese audio programs. I am sticking to this one. Pimsleur makes sure that you learn the basics and can speak them with confidence. It might seem to a little slow in progress, but that is the way it is when learning foreign language. There is no king's road...
Other programs tend to cram in too much stuff. After listening couple times, you are still unable to say things well. On the other hand, Pimsleur keeps repeating past lessons out of the blue occasionally and that does help you to remember them. Just be patient and stay at it. I believe you will get there (and hope I get there too). I liked it so much, I purchased (II) as well.
Now, some reviewers complain it doesn't offer 'reading' training etc, but that is not what Pimsleur promised. You need to study the reading in parellel with other resources. I don't know what is the best program for that, but good luck in finding one. Think of how much time (years) you spent in learning English at school...
Customer Rating:
Summary: I love Pimsleur's method, but NOT FOR STARTING Mandarin. Needs more explanation, not "listen and repeat".
Comment: I love Pimsleur's method, but NOT FOR STARTING Mandarin. Needs more explanation, not "listen and repeat".
For an English speaker, Mandarin requires more up-front explanation of how the pitched syllables work.
I've used Pimsleur's audio CDs for learning basic Japanese and Spanish and *LOVED* it.
But when I bought Pimsleur's Mandarin, I was stumped. I couldn't even imitate the very first sentence, no matter how many times I went back and tried again. My mouth just didn't know how to make that sound. And there was no explanation, just "listen and repeat".
After an hour of trying one sentence of this Pimsleur Mandarin, I had to give up. Knowing there must be a better way, I was about to take private lessons.
Instead, the brand new "Michel Thomas Method" to Mandarin has just been released by Dr. Harold Goodman and it made all the difference in the world. A completely different approach that I feel needs to come FIRST, BEFORE you get into the Pimsleur method.
In the Michel Thomas method, someone really takes the time to explain the sounds and grammar. No memorization, just explanation then experience. It gets you really understanding the basic building blocks of Mandarin first, so that when you're done with its 10-hour audio CD program, THEN you can come back here to Pimsleur's Mandarin and it'll all make sense.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An essential set of tools for learning Chinese
Comment: The Pimsleur method uses only audio lessons which means that the lessons can be heard while driving, working out at the gym, any where. Other audio lessons are often combined with a workbook which means you are stuck at a desk. Yet, it is also the quality of the lessons.
Each lesson builds upon another. With Chinese especially, the Pimmsleur approach makes sense. I studied Chinese for a year in Shanghai and did well enough but after adopting the Pimmsleur approach, my pronunciation and comprehension improved dramatically.
Even if you use a different system, I would suggest that you also use Pimsleur as well.
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