Review
“Pimsleur programs provide plenty of positive reinforcement that will keep learners on track, and we found that Pimsleur gave us more proficiency and confidence in speaking the new language than any of the other language programs we reviewed.”– AudioFile Magazine”EXTREMELY ACCESSIBLE…each section within the lessons is short enough to hold our attention, and there is enough repetition to teach even those who consider themselves slow learners…Pimsleur [programs] are extremely thorough and easy to use — quite lively!”– Boston Herald”Learn French while commuting, German while jogging, Spanish (or Russian, Italian, and Japanese) while cooking all with NO WRITTEN MATERIALS!”– New York Daily News”Designed for the ear [Read More...]
Buy Chinese at Amazon
Internet Item of the Day: Need great Christmas ideas? Check out these Christmas Articles which are full of great Christmas 2009 Gift Ideas.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I used Pimsleur’s Basic Mandarin Chinese (which is just the first 10 lessons of Pimsleur’s Mandarin I series) prior to a 10 day visit to China in March 2008 (Beijing and Liaoning provinces). I was aiming to pick up some basic language to help navigate my way around and order in restaurants (I was off the tourist trail some of the time).
Summary: Pimsleur is extremely good, but do NOT get the Basic Mandarin Chinese product. At the very least, get the Conversation Mandarin Chinese product (which is the first 16 lessons of Pimsleur’s Mandarin I series). Here is my reasoning.
I highly rate Pimsleur’s approach to learning Mandarin Chinese. Pimsleur has you listening to native speakers and doing intensive repetition. As a result, you acquire a very good accent - the Chinese people I spoke to on my travels all understood me perfectly, and those who spoke English told me I had an excellent accent. However, the vocabulary in the first 10 lessons is limited, and much is not relevant to the casual traveller. Furthermore, you really need to learn Pinyin if you’re travelling - so you can say place names, etc, correctly in your conversation. Pimsleur discourages this.
Disadvantages:
1. Limited vocabulary - in 5 hours of lessons, and with all the repetition Pimsleur does, you naturally learn a limited set of vocabulary. You don’t even learn all the numbers from 1-10! On the plus side, what you do learn you will know very well and will be able to use in conversation. I’ve written out the complete list of the vocabulary and phrases you do learn below.
2. Vocabulary and phrases not targeted to the causal traveller - the Basic series is just the first 10 lessons of the larger Pimsleur Mandarin I series, the latter of which is geared towards teaching you to speak conversational Mandarin. Many basic phrases useful to travellers are not covered, such as `How much is this?’ - essential for bargaining in markets, or common phrases useful in restaurants, such as `please wait 5 minutes’, `bill please’, or directions such as `turn left/right’.
3. You don’t learn any Pinyin or Chinese characters. Pimsleur worries that if you read Pinyin, you’ll acquire an American accent. I think this is a valid concern, however, to learn additional vocabulary, and read place names and the like, you need Pinyin at some point. My solution was to do the whole Pimsleur series first, and only then learn Pinyin (there are lots of online lessons to learn Pinyin).
Advantages:
1. Great accent.
2. Everything Pimsleur teaches you, you learn, and learn really well. It becomes intuitive. You can and do use it in conversation with native Chinese. Although not everything was relevant to my needs, I was able to order drinks in restaurants and have some basic conversations with taxi drivers.
Recommendation:
If you are going to learn Mandarin Chinese, I highly rate doing one of the Pimsleur series. Chinese is not a language you can learn from a book. But if I were to do it again, I would do the Conversational Mandarin Chinese - the first 16 lessons. The first 10 lessons are insufficient. I suggest you start by doing a Pimsleur series, then once you’re speaking confidently and your accent is pretty good, use online lessons to learn Pinyin/Characters and to extend your vocabulary as needed.
Vocabulary and Phrases taught:
1. Vocabulary: Excuse me, please let me ask, English, Mandarin language, American person, I, you, can (not) speak, to be (am), (yes/no question particle), a little
I can(not) speak English. I am (not) American.
2. Vocabulary: Chinese person, hello, how are you?, (very/not) well, thank you, goodbye
I don’t speak well.
3. Vocabulary: how about (you), but
4. Vocabulary: to understand (the situation), what, road, street, where, located, here, over there
I don’t understand what you’re saying.
You speak Mandarin very well.
Where is Long Piece Street?
College Road is over there.
5. Vocabulary: to eat, to drink, would (not) like, something, to know
I would like to eat something.
Do you know?
6. Vocabulary: my place, your place, when, now, later, to go
Where do you want to go to drink/eat?
7. Vocabulary: tea, beer, (not) OK
8. Vocabulary: restaurant, hotel, lunch, or (for questions), to do, to buy, to want(order), two (glasses), with, whom
I would like to order two beers.
I would like to eat lunch with you.
9. Vocabulary: o’clock, what time, one, nine, eight, or (for statements), impossible
What don’t I understand?
10. Vocabulary: anything, five, three, four, am going to (want to), as for me,
What time is it?
Is it four o’clock?
Overall I really like this program, and it’s helping me to learn some Chinese.
Things I like best: 1) They use two speakers, a man and a woman. In my opinion the woman speaks more clearly and I find it easier to hear and repeat after her lines, however having two speakers really helps when you’re having trouble hearing exactly how they are pronuncing something. 2) There is sufficient repetition to really learn the material well.
Things I don’t like about the program: 1) There is absolutely no written material for the course. I understand that the purpose of the program is to teach you how to speak (and not read or write), but how difficult would it have been to include a 1-2 page transcript of the words and phrases that are being taught? They can say all they want about how “that’s not how you learn a language naturally…you do it by listening,”…fine, but I still want to know how the words look in writing. And why hinder the people who want to reinforce their learning through seeing it in print, when it would seem so easy to just throw in a cheap transcript and leave the options to the learner. 2) Although the amount of repetition is warranted, it gets a little frustrating when after an hour or so into the CDs you’re still working on a few variations of a very few sentences. I don’t really fault the program for this however, its just a difficult language to learn I think. I haven’t tried others, so I can’t make comparisons with other products, but overall I think it’s a decent program at a pretty reasonable price.
I studied Mandarin Chinese in College and had forgotten almost everything I learned. This is a wonderful way to start once again at the beginning. I have studied many languages and used many different learning systems. Pimsleur’s learning model is the best I have encountered. I would recommend it for anyone who wants to learn how to speak Mandarin Chinese. I plan on purchasing the entire series.
If you are short on time and are traveling and need to learn enough of the country’s language to survive, I would recommend Baron’s series called something like Let’s Go or Getting By in …