Customer Reviews

Simon & Schuster's Pimsleur Quick & Simple Cantonese Chinese (No Books! No Classes! Totally Audio!)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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I am writing in response to a previous review that was posted from a native Cantonese speaker in Hong Kong. I am originally from Hong Kong myself and have been speaking Cantonese my entire life though I've lived in The United States since I was very young. Listening to the CD's they sounded perfectly fine to me and not at all dated or incorrect and not in any way different from how I speak to my family or friends.

I believe what the previous poster was objecting to in these CD's is that Cantonese spoken in Hong Kong is constantly changing in very subtle ways. The language is essentially the same but imagine the difference in English between Great Britain, Ireland, Australia, The U.S. (The South, in New England, in New York, in the West Coast, etc...)

Its funny but whevenever I return to Hong Kong and I speak to someone who lives there they always try to guess whether I'm from Canada, the US or Australia because I'm not completely up to date on the changes in inflection, slang, intonation, etc...

Overall, a good system to get your feet wet in learning some basic Cantonese. I bought it for my girlfriend who is not Chinese and so far she's learned enough for us to carry out basic conversations in Cantonese. Also, one of the speakers in the CD's has a bit of a nasally voice which does detract a bit from his pronunciation which I've had to correct for my girlfriend.

Of all of the languages that I've learned so far, Cantonese is the most difficult. Pimsleur makes learning such a complex language enjoyable and stimulating. I really like the way the narrator goes into detail about the Cantonese word order and the variety of tones associated when speaking the language. So far, my progress has been excellent. When I speak the small amount of Cantonese that I've learned, people tell me that I sound like a native speaker. Who knows, I might even purchase the Mandarin in order to be knowledgeable of both Chinese dialects. I think that anyone considering to study an Asian language should definitely try the Pimsleur Chinese programs. It would give that person such an advantage to a complex language.

This is the best program to begin learning Cantonese. The recordings in this set will mainly give you just the taste of Cantonese, or rather if you considered learning Cantonese hard and even impossible, this program will convince you that you can learn Cantonese easily.

Yes, you will definitely want to continue with Pimsleur's Cantonese I. If you're committed to learning Cantonese, you may as well just go and get Cantonese I, since all the lessons in this package are repeated in Cantonese I.

The Pimsleur method is the best language program that I've used, especially for the beginner. I tried other products with other languages and just recently began learning Cantonese. I surprised a friend living in Hong Kong with my accurate pronunciation and beginner's understanding of the language. To be sure, the language is evolving and the way some words are pronounced has changed - something that is described in the Teach Yourself book, which is another excellent product. The downside is that this program spends a lot of time teaching a limited amount of material, and it's expensive, especially if you purchase subsequent lessons. The program warns against using other language programs while using Pimsleur, especially printed material with Americanized spellings, suggesting that this will lead to incorrect pronunciation. While I'm sure this is a risk, most other Cantonese language resources use Yale romanization, which is almost as much of a standard for the language as pinyin is for Mandarin. If you hope to use any printed resource to help you learn Cantonese, you'll likely have to learn Yale romanization. I don't know that there's any perfect language program, but this product is very effective.

This is a great product, the comprehensive set is better. It's a real shame that there is only 1 volume of the comprehensive set - I would buy the others in a heartbeat (publisher please note!)

I was originally skeptical but found the lessons to be good. Cantonese is a challenging language due to it's specific use of intonation and this program does well to emphasize this. Like any language, a lot of repetition is required but since it is in CD format it is convenient in the car or any travel situation. This is definitely a good start to learing Cantonese but instruction from someone fluent is needed in order to perfect the pronounciation.

I love the Pimsleur system. This program inspired me to take Cantonese lessons. I have found that despite 8 months of formal classes, what I remember is what I learned from Pimsleur. It definately gave me an advantage over my classmates. However, many of the pronouciations have been challenged by my teacher and some of what I learned from Pimsleur I now believe may be just plain wrong.
I think it is a good start for those planning on studying the language.

These cds are a great way to start into cantonese. It moves at a good pace and does a great job at retention. After the first time, with the first lesson I was able to recall the phrases with ease. I certainly wouldn't say these cds would get you very far in hong kong, but it is a great start!