Customer Reviews

Mandarin Chinese: Learn to Speak and Understand Mandarin Chinese with Pimsleur Language Programs (Pimsleur Quick and Simple) (English and Mandarin Chinese Edition)

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
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the first four cds of instant conversation are the exact same as the quick and simple cds.
dont waste your money buying both if you really want to learn chinese

I'm over half way through the program now and can happily say that I'm not discouraged! I had heard from others who do speak Mandarin that learning outside of an immersive Chinese environment is not possible. I'm no longer convinced that this is true. Mind you, I haven't tried conversing with Chinese co-workers yet (I'm waiting to learn more), but I'm certain that this day will come. I'll be signing on for the 30-tape epic when I'm done with this mini-course.

Oh, get a good book with pinyin in it as a companion. The Basic Chinese (I think -- tall & red) book seems great. I used Lonely Planet & I'm not impressed -- a lot of the terms differ from what Pimsleur is teaching.

I have had this Pimsleur product for some time now, and have tried to use in conjunction with assistance from my wife who is a native Mandarin speaker and teacher. It starts well, with lessons 1,2, and 3 teaching you useful greeting, and phrases, but when you get to lesson 4, it goes of at a tangent and starts to teach you how to ask directions to college rd, and longpeace street!This continues until lesson 5, by which time you are thoroughly bored stiff!Then in lesson 6 the pace rapidly speeds up, to a point where you are completely confused.
Many of the phrases are only spoken once, and at normal conversational speed, this is far to fast to be able to comprehend, and to get the pronunciation right, which is very important in Chinese. Some of the phrases are repeated slowly starting at the end of the sentence, word by word, but this is not useful. It would be far better if the phrases were just spoken very slowly, and then again at normal speed.
Personally I do not recommend this product, save your money and put it towards a course that will teach you useful phrases at a more sensible speed, so that you can learn to speak accurately in pronunciation and tone quality. When you live amongst Chinese people as I do, you realise very quickly how important tonal accuracy is!

The Pimsleur method is quite effective. A Chinese-American friend said this is a good program. I used it for about a month before traveling to Shanghai and Xian China. The bits I did learn were dead-on. Native Chinese were impressed with the quality of the Mandarin that I did know.
I did also get a phrase book so I could see the actual words, but I didn't look them up until I had practiced them with the CD. Sometimes it is difficult to tell if the speaker is starting a word with a b or d or p sound. This is an excellent program.

Don't waste your money on this rigid method. You'll find yourself limited for time like I did and have to review the same 10-15 minute segment over and over.
There are no tracks and no flexibility.
I returned this course and bought Behind the Wheel Chinese 8 mulit-track CDs instead.
Far better course and I LOVE the way the interviewer gets right down to getting you to speak the basics in Chinese.
Amazing how quickly I am learning to speak Chinese with Behind the Wheel Chinese and unfortunately how little vocabulary I liearned with the trackless Pimsleur Chinese course.

The CDs are well prepared, practical and logical in sequence and are easy to listen to; they give the impression of a patient language teacher that not only teaches you Mandarin, but ensures that your pronounciation is accurate. Even current non-native Mandarin speakers can use the lessons on the CDs to brush up on pronounciation and style. This has to be one of the very best, if not the best way to learn Mandarin at home.

My native tongue is Frisian, a language spoken only in the northern part of the Netherlands. In kindergarten only Dutch was spoken so I was forced to learn to speak that and in high school I learned French, German and English which I can speak pretty well. Later on in life I learned some Spanish and Russian for when I'm on vacation so they are just very basic.
They say that once you already master a few foreign languages it is much easier to learn another language but I really doubted if my 50 year old brain would still be able to absorb another one. I decided to give the Pimsleur Mandarin Quick and Simple a try, it is not expensive.

To me it was surprisingly easy but, probably due to my age, I needed a lot of repetition and studied the same sections over and over again. As someone already mentioned the pace suddenly speeds up from lesson 6 onwards. In my case I had to use a foreign language (being English) in order to learn a new one. Maybe that is why I took a bit longer and maybe needed more repetition.

You will need a lot of discipline, try to listen every day during your daily commute, at least for a period of about 4 -6 weeks. By that time you will probably know the sentences by heart and you're able to pronounce them correctly. Despite what the Pimsleur approach propagates: no endless repetition, I think repetition is the only way to go here. At least that's what works for me.

I know by experience that during your stay abroad, the locals will appreciate your effort to speak their language very much, even if you pronounce it not entirely correct. Your intonation may be wrong and it may induce an occasional chuckle (happened to me several times) if you say the wrong words but keep in mind that it is always highly appreciated. So don't be shy and have a go at it when in China or with Mandarin speaking friends.
Pimsleur's Q&S is very basic but it will give you a good first impression of the language, if you decide to continue with the 30 lesson courses of Pimsleur I would advise to get a good phrase book as well.

Conclusion: recommendable: it is very basic, but a good introduction in the Mandarin language. Good value for money.

This cd really help us in learning Chinese. It's wasn't boring at
all and was very convenient since we spend a lot of time in the car.
The cd was in great condition and arrived speedily.

This is from a perspective of a person who has better linguistic aptitude than most people around, but who certainly isn't a language genius.

I join reviewers who find this CD set a useful sampling of Pimsleur method. It teaches very little Chinese, no way near making you able to maintain open end conversation (even if by sheer luck you manage to agree on tea/beer in Collage Rd/Long Pea st, and no one suggested orange juice in Short University Lane - what will you talk about while at it?)

From my experience: A, there is no magic, it is not like storing it under the pillow and the next day - boom. The method takes concentration and patience. B. It helps if you go every now and then to a library and peep into a more comprehensive Chinese language book to check specific points. For example, M and N sound very similar, you may want to make sure which it is. Or look for a more thorough description of the tones, and be reassured that the fact it sound different than described is because it is - the tones are context dependent and also intention sensitive (words my sound somewhat different if you make a statement, ask a question or try to flirt). C, you are likely to feel occasionally that the time you have to retrieve the requested word/phrase/sentence and say it is not enough. Join the club! D. I'm not sure about hearing each CD once. I hear most of them two to five times. This is for fear of accumulating uncertainties, until eventually it will all sound like Chinese to me. Maybe you won't need that. But if you will, you're not the only one.

But! I, for one, did go on to the more comprehensive course. There maybe something to this method, especially if your primary goal is to be able to converse.

This program offers a lot of value for how much it costs. It is the best audio Chinese program you can buy in its price category. Pimsleur did a good job on this one. I particularly appreciated how they explained how to pronounce the pinyin equivalent of "ren." They said that this was pronounced not with a R but a cross between an R and Y. As you know, Mandarin is a language that does not always map 1 to 1 over to English. This great explanation on how to pronounce a difficult word for Westerners learning Chinese typifies the thorough research Pimsleur did to create this program.