Starting Out in Chinese (Mandarin) is a beginner-level program that includes short and simple lessons and dialogues. It covers all the basics, with plenty of repetition and practice, making it ideal for audio-only learning.
Starting Out in Chinese is perfect if you want to learn while commuting, running errands, or at the gym - or if you want to learn at home and simply prefer an all-audio course. If you want to refer to written material, you can go online to download the audio script.
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"This is a deceptively simple book. Only until you've reached the end and perhaps started studying further in Chinese do you realise the high quality of these recordings. Each of the ten lessons provide [unannounced] drills for improving tone pronunciation and word pronunciations embedded in carefully chosen vocabulary that demonstrates the learning objectives for each lesson. Contrary to the ad that gives the impression of casual listening (on the bus, etc.), this works best only after a good study of each lesson from the (free) downloaded sheets. Each lesson is only about 15 minutes long, but a good study is initially required. After that, yes, listening while commuting, etc., is an excellent application, but mostly for pronunciation drills and vocabulary review. It's an excellent primer before engaging into a more advanced course, but also serves as "survival Chinese" if you plan to travel to China. Well worth the short money...plan on spending a few months to a year on this if you're a true beginner."
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Mark (4 out of 5 stars)