Customer Reviews

Just Listen 'N Learn Chinese

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This is a good text with audio program to get you started in basic Chinese. The lessons flow well from one to the other and, although the text itself is small, plenty is packed into its lesson pages. A feature I really liked was the colorful culture notes (and the interesting pictures accompanying them) that end each chapter. Another interesting feature was the tapes "go native" dialogues which compliment the other dialogues. Whereas most tapes have only professional speakers in sound studios, these recordings sound as if they were made by average folks and children (yes, children) on the street or in bars in any given Mandarin province. This sort of rustic authenticity is both good and bad. For the beginner, especially listening in the car without the text in front of you, it comes across as too fast and almost unintelligible when compared to the slow, carefully enunciated speakers on other tape programs. But the good side is that it gives you a real world sense (after all, this is what you're going to be encountering on the street) and these dailogues, it must be stressed, only compliment the other, more profressional dialogues and vocabulary readings on the tapes. That's another reason I like this program. Some programs, like TY, don't include isolated vocabulary readings - a must in my opinion for language learning and retention. All in all, a good program that probably worth your money.

The narrator fills the tape with frequent suggestions that anyone could think of for one's self. Things like "please feel free to rewind and go back anytime you like" get tiring really quick after you hear them over and over. And over and over. I heard comparatively very little Chinese. Personally since we all learn differently, I must admit I prefer the language tapes that have a native speaker say a phrase followed by the phrase in English. If you are very dependent minded and like interruptions for common sense things that you could easily think of for yourself, then get this. I found it unlistenable. I am still enthusiastic about learning Chinese.