Customer Reviews

Learn Chinese from Modern Writers: An Interactive Multimedia Language Program (China's Modern Writers)

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

 

 

A real gem, consisting of a number of interviews with the old bulls of the Chinese literary movement (Ba Jin, Mao Dun, Ding Ling, Cao Yu and Ai Qing) who both sparked and supported the revolution. If you think you speak Chinese, you can watch/listen to the original interviews in the voices of the writers themselves. And, after that kick in the pants, luckily, you'll find a button allowing you to listen to the same responses in modern, standard putonghua. Flipping back and forth will do wonders for your Chinese, even as it bruises your ego.

The interviews are backed by transcriptions and, as I remember, English translations of at least some of the content. There is no pinyin for the interviews, but I think there is for the glossaries. This is the line in the sand, marking an opportunity to jump into real Chinese that is vastly different from what you see in your textbooks and hear from your teachers. I highly recommend it.

The book used to be sold separately for about $30, and the book and CD containing the program together used to run about $100 or so.(This is not a DVD, it is a computer-based multimedia learning program, not a movie or video. There are over 240 interactive activities for practice in the system, but to me the interviews are the heart and soul of this learning experience.) If you cannot afford or cannot obtain both, get the CD as the book cannot give you the flavor of the interviews, and won't give you the very thing you paid for. I repeat, the book alone is just a workbook for the interview material. Get both if you can, but the CD alone is worth the money if you can't get both.

Another caveat. I have been able to run this on XP, but it baulked at being installed on Windows 7. I haven't given up, but I really don't know if it's gonna work. (Blissfully, I know nothing about Vista, so I don't know if it will install on a Vista computer.) It uses QuickTime to run, and provides an older version (ver. 5, I think). I don't know if it will run on a Mac, but it might run on a Mac with a Windows emulator. If you're serious about Chinese, I think it's worth the risk, or worth the fiddlin' around you might have to do to get it to run.

If in fact this program won't run on Windows 7, I hope somebody has the means to update the original, or make a work-around public, as this is real Chinese, and a really good first baby step for all you budding sinologists out there.