Customer Reviews

Pimsleur Chinese (Cantonese)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've found the CDs a great help to my Cantonese. I am an expat living in HK for three years and have recently got engaged to my Chinese girlfriend.

My cantonese is 'so-so' but I really wanted to have a good go at becoming fluent (and to increase my confidence). My fiance is impressed with the tones and the repitition but occasionally she'll say, " actually, use this instead. Noone says that anymore".

I know that it's only small things and if your an overseas Chinese then you might not notice these differences in the language (in HK that is, I've got no experience elsewhere).

So although I like the CD's and they are obviously very benificial, I am also lucky to have someone here to correct the errors. Maybe it just needs updating but a great start.

If you want to learn Chinese, forget writing. That is a totally separate slow, tedious process that may or may not reward you depending on your diligence. To learn to speak such a language as Cantonese you really have to focus a lot on listening and mimicing native pronunciation. I know this because I already had basic speaking ability of Cantonese having grown up in Australia to Chinese parents. Changing the tone of a word slightly can effect the meaning entirely so it is really good to listen to the Pimsleur CDs to check my own pronunciation and knowledge. Even though I knew alot of the stuff on most of the CDs, I felt that my fluency improved a great deal and I was able to build up my vocabulary. After each CD you can really feel slight progress, especially if you take some time between dialogues and substitute the words on the CDs for different ones. Maybe from a dictionary or something.

These CDs are really great for learning Cantonese but I really think they are too expensive. I would buy all the sets plus other languages if they were cheaper. Oh well, gotta keep saving! It would also help to have some easy vocabulary printed in Chinese characters to help visual recognition in case you need it when you travel. There is a vocabulary list for the Spanish CDs so I don't know why they haven't included one for these CDs.

I would really recommend this package to anyone wanting to learn the Chinese languages and to people like myself who speak Chinese at home but have low confidence in speaking to others in public. It has really boosted my confidence and I can't wait until the next time I go to Hong Kong and road test my communication abilities!!

Like Dennie in NY, I am also a native Cantonese speaker - born and raised in Hong Kong. My caucasian wife purchased this system about a month ago and it has worked wonderfully for her. I have listened in on the CDs and have offered help from time to time. The system does what it is designed to do and NONE of the pronounciations are wrong. Some of the lessons and phrases are purposefully simplified for the beginners. The idea here is to equip the student with some basic conversation skills and not turn them into a native speaker. Cantonese is a VERY difficult language. It has more exceptions than rules. There are multiple ways of saying the same thing. The Pimsleur system is well thought out and breaks it down so that leaning is fun and possible.

I've discovered Pimsleur language courses surfing the Web (I live in Italy, and they are not available in the bookstores). Languages study is my hobby and before knowing Pimsleur I wasted a lot of money in books and tapes with any results. I learned German and Spanish with Pimsleur and I'm fluent in both languages.
I've studied Chinese for two years with a tutor's help (very expensive) and I dare say I learned more with this Pimsleur Chinese Cantonese course and with less pain than with a qualified teacher.
This set is expensive, but shop around for teachers and ask for fees!!!
Moreover you can choose when and where to study provided you have available a cassette or a Cd player.
The snag is that after the 30 lessons you need to continue your study and unfortunately so far they haven't published set 2 and 3 (available in German, French, Spanish, etc....).

I originally started learning Cantonese when I was little, since my parents are both native speakers. But over the years I used the language less and less, until we only spoke English at home. Sadly, as much as I am able to understand in Cantonese, my speaking and pronounciation are not where they should be. After I convinced my parents to look into the Pimsleur Method, they agreed to buy the course for my sister and me. With just one lesson, I am happy to say that it did not disappoint me and my levels of tones have greatly improved. The only drawback I find is that the lessons are more formal that what I'm used to hearing and the accents of the Cantonese speakers are extremely thick. Overall, this style of learning a language is much more effective than others out there.

I have really enjoyed working with this program. Going through the series I have learned a good number of verbs and sentence structures. The lessons are well thought out and work very well. I especially like that the teacher takes the time to break down each word and phrase, so after just a few times through, I was able to begin assembling my own sentences and branching out from the basic lessons taught. There seems to be a strong logic to the words that are taught and the order in which they taught. For example, the numbers are taught out of order, which forces you to learn the specific words and not learn them as a repetitive series. The benefit is that it is then much easier to recall numbers or identify them when heard, without having to mentally count up from the number one each time.

Although my vocabulary is still limited, I have, on several occasions been complimented on the pronunciation of the words that I do know. It has gone so far that people assume, upon hearing my superior pronunciation, that I am more fluent in the language than I actually am (which by the way, is quickly remedied by using one of several phrases taught in the lessons)

I only wish Pimsleur would put together another series of additional lessons to take my education in Cantonese further.

Prior to buying this, I was very interested in learning conversational Cantonese, but had zero previous experience. I'm the kind of person who tries to find "free" solutions online, but everything I tracked down was very overwhelming. Someone suggested Pimsleur, so I decided to check it out.

It was a bit pricy, but I think it has been worth it. I'm half way through the program, and I'm able to speak/listen to some simple phrases that are commonly used by native speakers. Thus far the vocabulary is very guided for an American travelling to Hong Kong.

It has also helped to understand some simple grammatical structure, so I'm able to construct my own phrases not necessarily on the CDs. My friends from Hong Kong are very impressed with how quickly I'm picking things up.

Anyone considering this product should note that it is a set of 15 cds with 30 half hour audio lessons, where you repeat phrases and answer questions that the narrator has. There are no transcripts, so don't expect to learn how to read or write Cantonese.

Highly reccomended.

I usually don't write reviews, but this is worthy of one:

I was surprised with the instant results I got from using this. I have used other language programs in the past, and this was definitely the best I have used. I am almost done with it, and have really learned a lot within a month. If you are looking to learn cantonese. This is it. Look no further.

I have some cantonese experience prior to this, and although there were some terms I already knew, this really helped me put everything together. I think this is perfect for the beginner. There is plenty of review in each lesson, so that it really sticks.

5 stars.

Pimsleur is the easiest method for a learner to start speaking another language. It is pleasant, non-intimidating and introduces the words used in the dialogues slowly along with an explanation of each word. However, its drawbacks are no written transcripts although the speakers' voices are quite clear; no individual tracks for each lesson making review of certain sections more difficult; and limited vocabulary due to the reliance on memory retention. Pimsleur is pricey considering its drawbacks but with the limited selection of Cantonese learning materials available, this still ranks as one of the better ones.

from what I can gather from the blurb printed inside the cd case, pimsleur uses several techniques to optimize memory retention. for example, they introduce a word or phrase, get you to repeat it, re-repeat it in several contexts, then after a period of dealing with other words and phrases, they start going over them again. basically they keep coming back over the same words and phrases, but with greater and greater intervals between them, since each reinforcement pass allows the phrases to stay in your memory that much longer. the only downside is that the frequent repetition means that new material gets introduced relatively slowly, which at times is a little frustrating, but the good news is that the material that you cover you do actually master, retain and can use, extremely quickly. and the best part for me, is that my memory is usually pretty poor (i don't remember people's names well for example).