A few months ago I decided to learn to speak Chinese. My wife is from mainland China, and we would like to live there someday. After looking a lot of possible programs, we chose Pimsleur’s Mandarin Chinese. I use the cassette course , but there’s also a CD version.
Here’s why a like Pimsleur so much:
- The lessons are all aural – there is no workbook. This may seem like a drawback, but in fact it’s a definite plus because you are forced to learn the language naturally, the same way you learned to speak as a child.
- The pacing is perfect. Each lesson is about 25 minutes long, and you can stop and start within a lesson easily. I usually listen to a lesson three full times (over the course of 5-6 car rides) before going on to the next one.
- It reinforces word memory well. The Pimsleur method does an outstanding job of introducing new words while reinforcing old ones. The result is you that words get "burned in" to your long term memory in such a way that you don’t forget them. I didn’t realize how powerful this technique was until I was on tape 8 and they touched on a phrase we hadn’t covered since tape 2. Amazingly, the words came easily without any "ums" and "ahs" as I struggled to remember.
Bottom line: Pimsleur’s Mandarin Chinese is a great value. It can be a little expensive. Once you’ve completed a course, it’s unlikely you’ll need it again, so you’ll find a lot of them for sale on eBay. Click here for a list of those currently on sale.