Instant Immersion Mandrin Chinese Deluxe

Rating:
Summary: Japanese or Chinese?
Review: The editorial review for this CHINESE software above states "Start your study by mastering Hiragana, Katakana, and basic Kanji..." Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji? Chinese does not use Hiragana or Katakana and the "Kanji" are known as "Hanzi", so goodness knows what you are getting with this software! Steer well clear!

Rating:
Summary: Japanese or Chinese?
Review: The editorial review for this CHINESE software above states "Start your study by mastering Hiragana, Katakana, and basic Kanji..." Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji? Chinese does not use Hiragana or Katakana and the "Kanji" are known as "Hanzi", so goodness knows what you are getting with this software! Steer well clear!

Rating:
Summary: Great Software!
Review: This is a great software to learn Chinese.
Indeed, I would have never though I will be able to learn Chinese as it seems complicated but this software had the answer for me.
First, you are able to hear the language, and then it is your turn to talk and improve your pronunciation. This immersion method was very helpful.
You could learn and pronounce hundreds of words, sentences.
Very interactive package that I will highly recommend. The activities proposed in the software are also very good with fill-in-the blanks, crossword puzzles,..., a good and fun way to learn a difficult language!

Rating:
Summary: Good vocabulary builder
Review: This program doesn't seem to be good for absolute beginners, but it's good for expanding your vocabulary. It took me a while working with other programs for learning Chinese before I was ready to make good use of this one. Dictionary part of it is awesome because you can see how the words are written in Chinese characters as well as in pinyin. It has lots of fun games to test your comprehension and a lot of the material is focused on testing your knowledge of Chinese characters.

The program does teach some dialogues as well as grammar and it is helpful for making sure you're pronouncing the words correctly, but for me the greatest benefit of this program lies in helping one to learn lots of words and characters. You get to learn about 3000 words and 800 characters and the best part about all of these words is that you get to hear them and you get to play with characters through lots of fun games. It really does help to retain the information.

Rating:
Summary: Definitely not for beginners !!!!
Review: Unfortunately this is not a good software.
1. There is no system in presenting information (lessons not really lessons)
2. They could combine all 5 interactive CDs into just one! Each of them has no more than 140MB and "Black Belt" CD has just 25MB! So, all that "8 CD set" is nothing but an advertising trick!
3. There is a Chinese(pinyin)-English dictionary but there is no English- Chinese one!
4. Could not find any info about how to write Chinese characters
Overall, may be good for those who already know at least 300 characters and currently studying Chinese (like in college or with a native) but for independent study - below average.