Customer Reviews

INSTANT IMMERSION CHINESE - Format: [DVD Movie]

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

Neat program & seems to be the only thing like out there - language learning on your DVD player (use with your remote). Pretty simple suff, & doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out (like some programs!). I think it's a good start - something to play around with, teach you some basics & get you on your way. Not to mention, you get to do it in your living room VS sitting in front of a computer!

Oh, this is probably OK for very young people and/or who are still learning English, but when trying to repeat phrases in Chinese, it took about 20 seconds or more to get an immediate "what's that he/she said?" And when you're trying to hear a phrase repeated in Mandarin Chinese over and over and over, those seconds of delay this takes for every single phrase drives you out of your mind with impatience. The thing that makes it hell is that the English phrase is first repeated amid the pauses. I think I know what "how was your day" sounds like in English. I don't want to hear it repeated with delays included just to hear the Chinese phrase repeated, including all the delays you get with it too. Too bad, because otherwise it looks like it might have worked, but it's going to the yard sale.

Like most items in the Instant Immersion series, this consists of listening to useful phrases for travel and somehow recalling them later. This consists of a speaker saying a phrase (often long and/or poorly worded)once for you to memorize. That's really not how language is acquired. It's necessary to have at least a basic idea of what the words that you're stringing together mean on their own. For example, teaching a non-English speaker to say "Thank you for your help" is nice, but what if they just want to say thank you? With this series, you won't know which words to use or how to construct your own phrases.

This could be good if you're just looking to get used to listening. I've had far more success with Pimsleur and the Teach Yourself series. Popup Chinese is also a great alternative. Pimsleur is my pick, though, because you learn how to string together different parts of phrases on your own, not just repeat a string of sounds like you do with this one.

Excellent introduction to the sounds of Mandarin, and the menu is accessible in English, French, German, Spanish and Mandarin. Easy to use, with high quality pictures that look great on a TV screen. Wonderful alternative to hunching over a computer.