Chinese/English: Set (3-Level Set): VocabuLearn: Music-Enhanced

Rating:
Summary: mmm... accent-free?
Review: Any study material has both pros and cons, and depending on how you use it, this material could be a great learning tool for learners of Mandarin Chinese.
Only my complain is that the Mandarin speaker in this recording sometimes mis-pronounces words (actually very frequently and I know it becuase I listened to it with my Chinese friends.) According to my native Mandarin speaking friends, approximately 10 to 15 % of the words in the entire recording are either mispronounced or do not exist.
But that means that it makes you explore the Mandarin vocabulary by myself; checking words in a dictionary or go ask your Chinese friends what they mean, etc; which is good because since this material only provide you with word-to-word translation practices, you need to learn how they are used in sentence levels by yourself. So it was anyhow, a good practice for me to learn how to use a Mandarin-English dictionary.

Rating:
Summary: Great Supplemental Tool for Increasing Your Vocabulary
Review: The Baroque music, which plays in the background and is intended to enhance your focus, concentratin and retention of the words, doesn't run throughout the recordings, but comes and goes. The reasoning behind this, when they were creating these recordings was that if the music is played all along, you may drift too deep into a trance (I don't think that's bad for learning, though), and that it would be better if you stay closer to the conscious level.

Trying to consciously remember all the words as they are poured out may be too much, but you can have the recordings also play in the background while you're doing other things. It will help to impress them upon your subconscious mind and you may just find yourself enjoying increased comprehension; and then you'll eventually find yourself using these words with greater ease.

Each level contains 1,500 words and it will definitely help you to rapidly increase your vocabulary