Rating: 
Summary: Quick and easy way to get started in Mandarin
Review: I purchased these tapes before heading off to China on a three week holiday this Summer in hopes that I would be able to speak a little and not look like a buffoon. It worked, although I don't know about the buffoon part. The first lesson is a bit overwhelming because the sounds are so hard to make for Westerners but keep going and, before you know it...it will start making sense. The only problems I had with the tapes were some of the choices of vocabulary which weren't helpful at all e.g. "Do you want to go to my place?" and asking for directons (Would you really understand the answer?) and the exclusion of words which I found, after having been there, would have been extremely helpful e.g. learning to count 1-10 (which is quite easy), and more basic conversation about purchasing, barganing &c. Despite those problems, it is a very good introduction to learing this marvellous language and people seemd to understand what I did learn to say and were often quite pleased...a great way to break the ice and make friends.
Rating:
Summary: Better Method, Better Version
Review: Having studied seven or eight languages, all in college "101" level courses, I can verify that the students who learned best went to class, closed their eyes, and listened. This method is by far the best, and Pimsleur emphasizes this fact with the absence of a text.Chinese the written language can be daunting, but Chinese spoken and heard is surprisingly easy. All you must do is listen, listen. The abridged version here contains 4 cassettes, and covers 8 lessons. There is an longer version as well, which covers 30 lessons in 16 cassettes. Either is a great investment!
Rating: 
Summary: You can do it!
Review: After first trying Teach Yourself Beginner's Chinese (which I rate a one-star), I thought learning Mandarin would be impossible. But now that I have completed my first unit, I am happy to say I am on my way to learning to speak and hear Chinese. I should add that I listened to it about 10 times before I considered that I had "passed" the first unit.
Rating: 
Summary: good for beginners... maybe
Review: I just bought the tapes and thought they were sufficient for beginners to get a feel of Cantonese. Growing up I would hear my parents speak, but I wasn't able to talk back. The tapes were useful in giving me confidence to speak outloud. The method Pimsleur uses to teach this is very good in getting people to speak the language. However, I thought the vocabulary was limited and I didn't really follow some of the structure of the Cantonese language. For a total beginner, just repeating is okay, but I think there should be more exercises to understand the structure of the sentences. Pimsleur gives details on how to say some phrases, but others, you just have to go through it a couple times with trial and error before you get the right sequence of words. Maybe a little hard for beginners, limited vocabulary for people who already know the language, but perfect for those who have a limited understanding and want to practice speaking Cantonese!
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic intro to the language
Review: Unlike other tapes you actually use this one. It might have been good to have a written vocab list but it is not Pimsleur's way of doing things which I can understand. I started this with no knowledge of the Cantonese Chinese dialect but this tape taught me to say and remember a number of phrases. Its like having a language class you can take home and play again and again. You have to do each lesson approx. three to four times but there is plenty of revision along the way also. I did some of the lessons in the car but later ones were too distracting.
Rating:
Summary: 8 of the lessons are those of the basic program
Review: I like Pimsleur method and find it effective. I bought the Basic Program first and, having liked it, I bought the Comprehensive Program. However I was very disappointed discovering that the first tapes are exactly those of the basic course, which was not clearly stated anywhere. Since the price of the Comprehensive Program is quite high, it is not pleasant to discover that part of the money you had to pay was simply devoted to obtain a copy of something you got already.
Rating: 
Summary: Pimsleur Cantonese - tapes with no text!
Review: This is an extremely expensive, but professionally produced set of audio cassettes for Cantonese. The crucial flaw in this product is the absence of a printed text. There is now a well-accepted system of Romanization for Cantonese. Having the text available in this system would be an invaluable assistance in learning. This is particularly important for Cantonese because of the tones. Not having a text available is extremely frustrating...
Rating:
Summary: Excellent language program
Review: My Chinese girlfriend could actually understand me after two days of working with these tapes. She said my pronounciation was quite good! Don't be discouraged if each unit takes longer than a day, you will get there if you persist.
Rating:
Summary: The perfect introductory course to Cantonese
Review: I must say this course is unique. Instead of working out of a book, you learn audibly and verbally. (Just like you learned your native language.) Each 30 minute lesson both teaches you and reviews previous lessons. For me, this continual reviewing made "saturating" the lessons much easier. Although this is far from a complete course, it is the perfect introduction to the spoken Cantonese language. You may not know it while you listen, but you are being presented to the tones of Cantonese. Tones are a major factor in mastering the language. I'd recommend you follow up with "Cantonese: A Complete Course for Beginners (Teach Yourself)." If you want to start learning Cantonese, get this course!
Rating:
Summary: Poor execution of a good technique
Review: The Pimsleur Mandarin course (the 1991 unabridged cassette version) utilizes some good techniques, but executes them poorly. First, I'll say what the course does well: They do a very good job of sentence buildup. That is, they make the student recall a concept a bit at a time, first a few words, then a phrase, and then the entire sentence. They also have question and answer sessions that do a moderately good job of forcing the student to think in the language, rather than simply translate from one language to the other word by word. And, they have more hours of audio material than most other Mandarin courses on the market, which is a very important feature - the student needs as much material as possible to aid memorization. Unfortunately, I find fault with several aspects of the Pimsleur Mandarin course. First, it seems as if the editors did not proof the course. Many times, the instructor on the tape asks the student to say something that requires the use of a word that has yet to be introduced. This is very frustrating for the student. In addition, the period of silence that follows questions and precedes the provided correct response is often too short. This makes it impossible for even a good student to answer the question prior to being given the answer, further frustrating the student. Also, since the student will often hear the answer before he/she has had enough time to recall the answer from memory, the student will not exercise his/her memory, but will instead get into the mode of just waiting for the answer and repeating after the teacher. Having the opportunity to recall information without being given the answer right away is important from the standpoint of improving retention. Second, the course lacks adequate written material. It does not include a transcript of the taped lessons, making study and review very difficult. And, it lacks a dictionary, so it is impossible for the student to look up words he/she has forgotten. Third, the course does a poor job of teaching the student the tones of the Chinese language. Tones are critical; not learning proper tones will result in poor comprehension and saying one thing but meaning something else. The instructors on the tape do not seem to always enunciate the tones clearly and perfectly; tones are often unclear (in my opinion). Since the course does not include written materials to which the student can refer, the student is forced to infer tones of new words from the tape's speakers. This is often extremely difficult. Fourth, the course lacks adequate repetition of the language. Although it includes 15 tapes, each tape has only about 20 minutes of material per side, and each tape has plenty of space filled with slow English explanations (which are nonetheless needed). Thus, the course does not give the student a whole lot of time exposure to the language and does not allow presentation of vocabulary words in many different contexts. This makes memorization difficult. Fifth, the course teaches very little grammar, making it difficult for the student to express things other than basic concepts. Overall, I find the course to be mediocre, especially considering the price. I think that the Pimsleur technique of graduated recall (requesting the student to recall from memory phrases learned in earlier lessons) is a very good one. And, the unique technique of having an on-tape English speaking assistant is quite helpful. But, the execution of the course was poor. As a result, the course is frustrating and time consuming. Nonetheless, with great diligence and expending about 45 minutes per day, one should be able to complete the course and get a very basic working knowledge of Chinese.
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