Customer Reviews

Behind the Wheel Chinese (Mandarin), Level 1: Learn to Speak Mandarin Chinese Quickly and Easily! (8 One Hour CDs)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I have purchased and successfully used Behind the Wheel Chinese/Mandarin.
It blows me away that a person buying a car course in Chinese would complain about having a written text, Pinyin version or otherwise. Any true scholar of Chinese will tell you that learning to speak the language correctly is the key. Written Chinese is a whole new ball of wax and can actually detract from the learning experience for speaking purposes at least. Imagine trying to read Chinese while driving. Give me a break. For that reason, Behind the Wheel Chinese is simple, straightforward, easy to understand, easy to use.
The course has two excellent native Mandarin speakers, a male and a female and an American instructor without an accent who explains everything.
Both voices repeat twice so that you can duplicate the difficult and challenging sounds of Mandarin which uses different 'tones' to convey meaning.
You learn all of this stuff in the comfort of your own car without having to look up or read anything. If you really want to learn to speak Mandarin, I recommend you go out and buy this course immediately. After you have learned to speak Mandarin at a conversational level from the course like I have, then go out and learn to write it if you will.
Not me. I'm thrilled enough just to be able to speak and understand Mandarin at a normal conversational level.

This is exactly what you think it is. An audio CD course for learning Chinese while driving. This course builds your listening skills as well, because the the English phrase spoken by the English speaker is repeated at least twice by the Mandarin speaker, in Mandarin. So not only do you get to learn vocabulary, your listening and speaking skills get exercised as well.

If you are serious about learning Mandarin, you won't be disappointed by this audio book.

I bought Behind the Wheel Chinese two weeks ago and am delighted with the results I am getting.
Mandarin can be diifficult because of the accent and the tones. This course makes learning to speak Mandarin easy because the two native speakers (one male and one female) go to great lengths to prounouce everthing slowly first and then at a regular pace.
I LOVE the sentence building techniques. I learned how to say 'I want to eat' within the first half hour session. The tone of the words convey meaning, and I am well on my way to speaking this language.
The folks at our local Chinese restaurant can't believe what I can say to them in Chinese in such a short time and frankly, I can't either.
This course is a 'must buy' if you want a fast and very easy way to learn a very difficult language and enjoy the process.

I never leave reviews but just had to after I received this product. For someone learning Chinese, this is a waste of money. There is no logical order to the phrases. Most Chinese CDs are set up by category - Greetings, Shopping, Food, Etc...This one is all over the place. And the meaning of the various words isn't broken down. So, sure I can hear them say a sentence and repeat it but I don't know which word has which meaning. I have taken several Chinese classes and thought this would be a supplement. Not at all. It is one of those products that I wish I still had my receipt for so I could return it. But I am hoping this review will save others money.

It is truly wonderful to happen upon a foreign language course that truly performs above the industry standard.
What most impresses me about Language Dynamics courses is that they are so intelligently organized that even a very small fund of vocabulary easily produces an enormous amount of meaningful communication and serves as a solid base for future learning in the target language.
My expectations for this course were exceeded by the flawless design of the course,
the simple and straightforward method, and the wonderful and professional presentations.
I wish to go into a bit more depth about the method because I think that the novice learners out there may need to read this.
1. Far from being a simple 'listen and repeat' language course, Behind the Wheel courses use a dynamic 'sentence building' technique.
2. The basis of this technique is not simply random words but rather 'high frequency vocabulary' which are words which are used most frequently in any language. In this case, Mandarin Chinese.
3. To these frequent words and 'modal' or mood verbs such as 'I want' 'I like'
and so forth, the course proceeds to build the listeners' ability to form original yet simple sentences which later form a foundation for future communication in the language.
All of the material I reviewed in a number of Behind the Wheel courses can be immediately applied to effectively communicate in the target language.
This happens not by accident but by the intentional and intelligent design of the course by its developers.
Faith Pierce/Ph.D. Candidate/Applied Linguistics

This audio set is very useful for getting an idea of how things are pronounced natively, and some slight variations on those pronunciations. However, it would not be a good idea to start here, as it relies heavily on memory. However, a good accompanying set to any books and courses.

Meant to be listened to, not to replace study while not driving.

It was evident to me from the first 5 minutes I spent listening to Behind the Wheel Chinese that I had picked a winner.
The method is so effective that it actually had me speaking sentences within the first hour of the course.
The most impressive part of the course is its inherent simplicity. Just imagine trying to teach English speakers how to speak Mandarin Chinese. No easy feat.
For the money I can't imagine anyone gettng better results than I am getting.
This course gives even timid souls like mine confidence in actually speaking Mandarin.
Look no further. You have found the best.

The 'good' doesn't stop with CD1. It's just beginning.
I notice no difference between the approach used in 'Behind the Wheel Chinese/Mandarin' and other Behind the Wheel courses I have used.
CD 2 and beyond evolve sentence building, tenses, expressions,
and tons of vocabulary that they teach you how to assemble.
Great course.

I love the way Mike Frobose lays out the drills - it really cuts to the chase and gets you speaking the language. I would highly recommned this CD pack to anyone that has a commute to work, or that can download it into their MP3 player and listen to it during a workout or on a plane trip.
You might be surprised when you get the product - it practically looks homemade, but it's definitely the best language teaching CD's out there that I've found.

The most important thing to remember when purchasing this pack is that these CDs are for beginners, NOT novice speakers. People who have had some training with Chinese in the classroom or self-study may be able to pick up and use this CD pack, but the information is presented too rapidly (and there is too much presented at once) to be good for initial acquisition.

I would give it 5 stars, but there is no clear advertising about this product. If I had some information about the rapid pace and the target audience, I probably would not have purchased this set. It will, however, be a useful set once I've mastered some basic phrases.