The Easiest and Fastest Way to Learn Mandarin Chinese Did you know that Mandarin Chinese is the world’s most widely spoken language with over one billion native speakers? Once you get the basics down, you’ll be surprised how quickly you’re able to begin speaking it. And even knowing a little bit of the language will make travel to China far easier, and much more fun. Whether your goal is to travel, communicate with friends or colleagues, reconnect with family, or just understand more of what’s going on in the world around you, learning to speak Mandarin Chinese will expand your horizons and immeasurably enrich your life. The best part is that it doesn’t have to be difficult or take years to master. Thirty minutes a day is all it takes, and we get you speaking right from the first day. Pimsleur courses use a scientifically-proven method that puts you in control of your learning. If you’ve tried other language learning methods but found they simply didn’t stick, then you owe it to yourself to give Pimsleur a try. Why Pimsleur? - Quick + Easy – Only 30 minutes a day. - Portable + Flexible – Core lessons can be done anytime, anywhere, and easily fit into your busy life. - Proven Method – Works when other methods fail. - Self-Paced – Go fast or go slow – it’s up to you. - Based in Science – Developed using proven research on memory and learning. - Cost-effective – Less expensive than classes or immersion, and features all native speakers. - Genius – Triggers your brain’s natural aptitude to learn. - Works for everyone – Recommended for ages 13 and above. What’s Included? - 30, 30-minute audio lessons - 60 minutes of recorded Notes to provide you some insight into Mandarin Chinese culture - In total, 16 hours of audio, all featuring native speakers - a Notes Booklet and User’s Guide What You’ll Learn Builds upon skills taught in Pimsleur’s Mandarin Chinese Levels 1 and 2. In the first 10 lessons, you will expand your vocabulary and increase your fluency to an even higher level. You’ll gain experience participating in many informal and some formal discussions on practical, social, and semiprofessional topics. You’ll skillfully form longer, more complex sentences, and most importantly, you’ll find yourself being understood, even by native speakers unused to dealing with foreigners. You’ll be able to join in conversations eagerly, confident of being understood. In the next 10 lessons, your skills will demonstrate ever-increasing mastery of Mandarin Chinese. Speaking with grace and complete naturalness, you’ll enjoy fluid conversations on many new subjects. Delving deeper into cultural norms and situations, you’ll find yourself responding effortlessly, and able to choose from a wide accumulation of vocabulary and structures. In the final 10 lessons, you’re nearing fluency with agile responses, and a natural sounding, near-native accent. You’re able to utilize the language in subtle ways, and speak using past, present, and future tenses. Self-confidence soars as you no longer experience the language and culture as a foreigner, but as someone with a deepening insight into the Mandarin Chinese-speaking world. One hour of recorded Cultural Notes are included at the end of Lesson 30. These notes are designed to provide you with some insight into Chinese culture. A Notes booklet is also included. The Pimsleur Method We make no secret of what makes this powerful method work so well. Paul Pimsleur spent his career researching and perfecting the precise elements anyone can use to learn a language quickly and easily. Here are a few of his “secrets”: The Principle of Anticipation In the nanosecond between a cue and your response, your brain has to work to come up with the right word. Having to do this boosts retention, and cements the word in your mind. Core Vocabulary Words, phrases, and sentences are selected for their usefulness in everyday conversation. We don’t overwhelm you with too much, but steadily increase your ability with every lesson. Graduated Interval Recall Reminders of new words and structures come up at the exact interval for maximum retention and storage into your long-term memory. Organic Learning You work on multiple aspects of the language simultaneously. We integrate grammar, vocabulary, rhythm, melody, and intonation into every lesson, which allows you to experience the language as a living, expressive form of human culture. Learning in Context Research has shown that learning new words in context dramatically accelerates your ability to remember. Every scene in every Pimsleur lesson is set inside a conversation between two people. There are no drills, and no memorization necessary for success. Active Participation The Pimsleur Method + active learner participation = success. This method works with every language and every learner who follows it. You gain the power to recall and use what you know, and to add new words easily, exactly as you do in English. The Mandarin Chinese Language Over one billion people speak Chinese. The two most common dialects are Mandarin and Cantonese. They are not mutually intelligible. Mandarin is the official language in Mainland China, Taiwan, and Singapore. The Mandarin dialect is used in most Chinese schools, and in most TV programs, movies, and radio stations throughout the country, even in Guangzhou (formerly Canton), where people speak Cantonese in their daily lives. Mandarin is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Tech Talk - CDs are formatted for playing in all CD players, including car players, and users can copy files for use in iTunes or Windows Media Player.

Gio

I have finished Mandarin I, II, and III. As I initially listened to each lesson, I repeated the lesson two or three times, as needed. When I was completely through, I spent two weeks (my first and only time) in China. I found that I could say and understand some simple things. I made lots of Chinese friends because I tried to speak their language even when they spoke perfect English. When I returned to the U.S., I have been going through all three volumes again--this time not repeating any lessons. I will probably later do this a third time. I do it while driving, and I find that I still enjoy the lessons and often prefer them to whatever is on the radio stations that I listen to--sports, news, music. I also listen to Chinese pop music and love it. I try to understand as many words and phrases from the songs as possible. I will need to study the Fluenz Mandarin courses, or others, to get more practice than Pimsleur offers, since Pimsleur is solely audio. I need to hear Pinyin much better to be able to use a dictionary regularly. Sometimes I start to study Chinese writing--but that is a massive task of memorization. I occasionally watch a Chinese movies and try to understand as I read the subtitles.

Having done all this, I am happy with what I have learned. Yet, I am not good at tones. I can't sing, even in English. Pimsleur will generally tell you the tone the first time a word is introduced, but rarely repeat that information again. Someone like me would profit from frequent repetition of being told what the tone is, since I have great difficulty deciding if I have heard the second tone or the fourth tone. And, even if I know the tone, I doubt that I correctly reproduce it. Also, I can hear, but I cannot make a convincing imitation of the Chinese sound for the vowel in the pinyin "si"--which is one of the most common words and includes all forms of "to be". I would like Pimsleur to spend more time explaining how many words are compound forms of other words, such as dian hoa (which sounds like tien hua)--telephone.

I may be entirely wrong on this, but I felt like volume 1 contained the most new information, followed by 2, and with 3 being the least useful.

After all this work (which is enjoyable--I am just doing this for fun), I still understand only a few sentences in a typical movie or long conversation or speech, and I typically will understand two or three words, or a phrase, in a sentence--not enough to know much about what a Chinese person is talking about. And when I speak to a Chinese person, even if they are impressed by how quickly I can rattle off phrases that I learned in Pimsleur, they quickly find that they cannot understand me. Typically, they "correct" my attempted Beijing pronunciation or choice of words (even where I am fairly sure I am correct as to Beijing Mandarin as taught by Pimsleur). Often, they tell me I have used the wrong word (the one I was taught in Pimsleur) and come up with an entirely different word which they say is the customary Mandarin word. And, most often, they find that they don't know what I am trying to say, and switch back to English.

To go past where I am now, I will need to go beyond Pimsleur. It teaches only 200 or 300 words, I think, and I believe that a working familiarity with about 2,000 words is necessary for conversational purposes beyond the most simple of situations. The best thing about Pimsleur is that it is interesting and engaging enough--and can be done while driving or doing other things--that I finished the whole course and still have fun repeating the course. I wish that Pimsleur had many more volumes. I have bogged down with other courses, even when they perhaps offer superior information. Pimsleur would be most valuable to the person that will be moving to China for an extended period of at least a few months, promptly following completion of the Pimsleur course.

Axebourne

So I finally made it through the 3rd installement. It took me six months to get through all 3 levels, including some breaks and weekends off. I also did each lesson two or three times. I have a long commute, so I was able to get through 1 lesson twice in one day, once in each direction. Overall, I'd say Pimsleur a great way to get started, with any language. I previously got through Pimsleur French levels 1 and 2, and I found that it really got me on my way with that language, which I am now fluent in. Chinese is harder, becuase it is so different from anything I know. (Althought in my opinion the pronounciation is easier than French.) I think that Pimsleur is particularly good at inculcating good pronounciation, some sense of grammar, and an intuitive sense for a language. It's also perfect for learning on the go, as you are not tied down to a computer. And I totally buy into the theory that a language is best learned orally at first. At the same time, however, I have been using an on-line flaschard program (Remembr.it) and I can now recognize and pronounce about 800 characters. (I recommend this program as well. I am now rereviewing levels 2 & 3 of Pimlseur Mandarin, which is going very fast and I expect to complete in six weeks. I'm doing this to increase the amount of material I remember cold. To get to the next level of with Mandarin, I definitely think I will need some private lessons. I know I have a ways to go before I can speak and understand spoken Mandarin with some fluency. Probably another year or two. Sounds like a long time. But having gone through it in French, I know it can be done. Bottom line: Pimsleur will not make you fluent. But it will give you a great base to work from.

Na

I ended up finishing level three the day before my first trip to Beijing. It was amazingly useful in talking to some of the taxi drivers (not one spoke English) and in a couple of conversations I had with guides and other people I ran into that didn't speak English. I got quite a few compliments on my Mandarin...just be warned...if your pronunciation is too clean, people start speaking at normal speed.

I'm now a lot more confident in my studies of Mandarin and have moved on to more advanced grammar and vocab books. Having been through Pimsleur, I find the grammar exercises much easier and of course, pronunciation is close to effortless (but not quite). It gives you a very good feel for the various tone combinations.

The only drawback is the amount of time spent on directions...but that's a problem in almost every language program. Communicating directions takes a pretty high level of comprehension. Being able to ask directions to a place really doesn't do much if the person doesn't speak VERY slowly when giving them to you. All in all though, definitely worth it. I just wish there were a level four.