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stephanhodges -

I see that the Assimil approach for Chinese was just released. Do you have personal experience
with it, or just have faith that "it must be good" because it's Assimil?

According to http://how-to-learn-any-language.com...?TID=2235&PN=1, it still wasn't available
by March 2006 (for English speakers), although the Assimil web site does offer it now.

Regardless of how good the program is, there's only 2 1/2 hours of audio with the first (of two)
course. Pimsleur beats that hands down. IMO, that's much more important, as long as the items
being taught are fairly accurate.



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Ferno -

ideally you should have gone through Rosetta Stone before doing anything else (grammar, english
translations, pinyin, characters)..










johnmck -

Now you have learnt some of the language why don't you try using it. You learn more by speaking
than by listening. Get yourself a Chinese language partner at:
http://www.polyglot-learn-language.c...x_polyglot.php

There are lots of Chinese who will help you speak Chinese if you help them speak English (or other
languages) If you have ADSL and use Skype then it does not cost you a penny.










pookie -

Hi everyone,

I'm also just coming to the end of Pimsleurs level 3. I've had language partners since before I'd
started level 1 (at that point i'd done a one year course at Leeds Met Uni). It's fair to say
other than making good friends, having a language partner until at least being at Pims level 3 was
useless. Unless of course they are natural teachers and can purely teach you rather than
conversation exchange.

I now find that I can effectively have a conversation partner now that I've nearly finished level
3. One thing you wont have is being able to rely on the repetition to ingrain a new word. So make
notes when with a language partner and ensure that you have them memorized before the next
meeting. Maybe 5 -10 new words a meeting is a good way of progressing. I've used text books before
when at Leeds Met, and they were boring an unmotivating. a language partner is the way forward for
me. I'm fortunate that I live in Nottingham and have 3,500 native Chinese on my doorstep to choose
from. My email request last year for a partner elicited over 300 responses - mainly from girls!
They seem to be far more interested in language exchange. Anyway, I'm digressing.

GET A LANGUAGE PARTNER AFTER FINISHING LEVEL 3!










bomaci -



Quote:

I see that the Assimil approach for Chinese was just released. Do you have personal experience
with it, or just have faith that "it must be good" because it's Assimil?

According to http://how-to-learn-any-language.com...?TID=2235&PN=1, it still wasn't available
by March 2006 (for English speakers), although the Assimil web site does offer it now.

Regardless of how good the program is, there's only 2 1/2 hours of audio with the first (of two)
course. Pimsleur beats that hands down. IMO, that's much more important, as long as the items
being taught are fairly accurate.

I friend of mine is using the Assimil chinese so I have had a look at it. I would use it myself
but I already know most of the vocabulary it teaches so it feels a bit pointless. Sure if you
count the CD:s there is more audio in a Pimsleur course but you have to consider how much of that
audio consists of pauses and English prompts. Furhtermore there is alot of repetion in Pimsleur so
the number of unique sentences taught in Pimsleur isn't necessarily that big. The audio in assimil
is chinese and only chinese. I have used Pimsleur mandarin myself and I enjoyed it but I'm
starting to think that Assimil is a much more efficient way of learning a language. The Assimil
chinese course has 105 lessons and teaches about 1500 words so it goes much further than Pimsleur.
Futhermore towards the end of the course the speakers start speaking at more natural speed than in
Pimsleur,so Assimil also has some use for training listening comprehension. I think that if you
took two learners with equal talent and let one of them use Assimil for 6 months and one of them
use Pimsleur the Assimil learner would have progressed much farther.










runehh -

A lot of good input for me to look at, I will have a look at the different suggestions and see how
it goes.

Anticks, about my level now (having finished Pimsleur III lesson 25) I find that people can
understand me very easily and also that I pick up new words much easier than before. However, I
still struggle when people speak to me if they speak at normal pace, and obviously there are still
many words I don´t know. Also, some of the commonly used words in Pimsleur are not used that much
in the place I am staying (in Zhejiang). For example, nar (where) is narli, idienar (a little) is
idienidien and so on. Once you remember this it is not a big problem but for a beginner, such as
myself, it can be quite confusing. So, as happy as I am with Pimsleur, I still find there is a
long way to go before I can make actual conversation, or understand a conversation between two
Chinese people.










incuria -

Thanks Bomaci. That is good feed back.

Has anyone used either the "Teach Yourself Chinese or Teach Yourself Beginners Chinese - same
British publisher and author - one has a slightly larger book (by 100pgs or so)" or the
"Colloquial Chinese - (Routledge Publisher in USA)" self teaching courses?

They both use a book/cd's combination and look to cover similar material with the Teach Yourself
Series also having a dedicated but seperate learn Beginners Chinese script book.

These seem to bridge the gap from just audio to combined audio - script/pinyin. Maybe beyond
Pimsleur but before (New/Old) Practical Chinese Reader Course?


For example broadly grouping in order of difficulty/content:

Pimsleur (audio only) - vocab 500 words?
Assimal (audio with book) but more vocabulary - 1500 words?

Colloquial Chinese (audio + introduction to script)
Teach Yourself Chinese (audio + short introduction to script) + (extra learn script book available)

Practical Chinese Reader (audio + pinyin/script leading to pinyin phased out/script only in extra
volumes).

Comments anyone?










yingguoguy -

I bought Colloquial Chinese as one of my first Chinese text books and can't say I cared for it
very much. I don't have the book with me and haven't looked at it for a year or so, but if I
remember rightly, it didn't focus enought on hanzi and I found the audio a little too fast as a
beginner. (Though if you're using it to suppliment Pimsleur this might not be a problem). Found
the layout of having pinyin and hanzi in seperate sections rather than above/below each other
confusing and awkward. I ended up using the (Old) Practical Chinese Reader, which I'm fond of
dispite it's faults. I find the New PCR series excellent, but haven't seen Textbook 1 so don't
know if it's suitable.

I'd echo what Pookie said, there's a right time to get a language partner, if you can't say
anything then it will be very boring for them. It's worth paying someone for a few lessons to help
you with your tones and basic pronounication though.



Quote:

I'm fortunate that I live in Nottingham and have 3,500 native Chinese on my doorstep to choose
from.

Ask them to teach you one hanzi each and you'll be literate.










nongmin -

If you have a fast internet connection, you may want to try www.instantspeakchinese.com
This new system is similar to Pimsleur but covers more dialogs/vocabulary and uses more practical
language. You can hear every word pronounced clearly by rolling over the word. I am the product
manager for this product so let me know if you have any questions. We've spent quite a while
developing the product and its received great reviews.

There is an online video demo at www.instantspeakchinese.com/faq.cfm -> then click on the
"Lessons" demo.










stephanhodges -

Nongmin, perhaps you could start a new thread and introduce the product. I have a couple
questions, but I don't want to misdirect this thread.












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