Colloquial Chinese: The Complete Course for Beginners (Colloquial Series)

Rating:
Summary: for release:
Review: First established over 50 ago, these self-contained and accessible courses are authored by respected scholars to guarantee superb support to users.

Traditionally available in a wide variety of formats -- books, cassettes, CDs, and packs -- we are very excited about expanding our, and your horizons, with Colloquial CD-ROMs. First to be released in this new multimedia endeavor are Chinese, French, Portuguese and Spanish.

Incorporating our seasoned experience with new technologies, these courses combine a truly interactive learning experience with sound, academically proven principles for acquiring the skills to speak a language with comfort and ease. Colloquial CD-ROMs feature:

--abundant exercises to learn and test your abilities, many more than other language courses --a simple interface that allows the learner to jump right in without first having to read an extensive user manual or help guide --record and playback audio facility to test and improve pronunciation --real life situations recorded by native speakers that enable the learner to communicate confidently in everyday encounters --back-up materials including reference grammar and vocabulary list for quick look up

Ideal for beginners in the language, or those with basic knowledge, Colloquial CD-ROMs provide everything a student or traveler needs to learn the language quickly, effectively, and thoroughly -- and the new medium makes learning more fun than ever!

We also offer the broadest range of languages -- 50 with the publication of Mongolian in fall 1998 -- and each is written with the same quality and usefulness that have made the Colloquials known the world over. Whether it is Albanian or Japanese, Panjabi or Welsh; and whether for a student, or a leisure or business traveler, these are courses you can recommend with confidence.

Rating:
Summary: Very good.
Review: I like the fact that I can walk around my house freely while listening to Chinese. I don't understand much, but I know that the more I listen to the cassettes, the more I will understand.

This is a very good series.

-Calvin

Rating:
Summary: You will never improve
Review: I think this book cant help you improve yourself. Even if it practiced so HARD and takes UP all your time with,,,GRAMMAR and then you lean on VB. (Vocabulary) I guess it all comes down to effort even thinking about it now I guess we dont really even know how many Chinese there will be. The language is a living language and can mean many things. We are the chosen people without a reason to even thing. I sware. Now you talk but cant do nothing cause you just screaming anyway. I WISH youd.

Rating:
Summary: Really good for the beginner.
Review: I'm a complete beginner in chinese. This book with its accompanying Audio-CD's give's the beginner a good base in chinese llanguage. As soon as someone finishes this book, he will be able to understand basic written and spoken chinese and move conveniently around china as a tourist or even bussiness traveler (the book's text are based on business traveling). It is good for those who wish to have a basic knowledge of the language. Then they can move on a more academic book.

Rating:
Summary: fair or good for beginners like me.
Review: The grammar is clear and enough for beginners like me. The sentences are simple enough. I like the quizz/question parts, they made your brain work.1-I wish they had both simplified and traditional characters like Tung's books, but I know that's impossible. 2-the CD sound was hissing and not digital-like.3- It seems that the chinese speakers in the CD had been away from the mainland many many years so their accent were not quite beijing's.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent for the traveller
Review: While this is not an academic text (as the reviewer from London - living in Beijing - notes), it is excellent for the independent traveller who might be going to Singapore, PRC, or ROC. Along with the tapes that accompany it, I found that 6 weeks of study prior to my trip to Taiwan gave me the basics for getting around solo. The course is a good balance of grammar notes and practical vocabulary. If I wanted to learn how to read Chinese newspapers, I'd certainly enroll in a language school and not try to learn the language all on my lonesome. I highly recommend any of the Routledge series books for Southeast Asian languages as well. These books and tapes are far superior to any others I have used for self-study in preparation for a trip.

Rating:
Summary: Not an improvement on the Tung and Pollard version
Review: You may be wondering why Routledge have two books on their catalogue with the same title? The earlier work (1982) is by two of the staff at London's University's SOAS. The newer, by Ken Qian, seeks a less academic approach and is clearly targetted more at the unaccompanied beginner. While the publisher's decision to issue an easier and more 'popular' textbook is understandable the old Tung and Pollard version is being kept in print due to its popularity as a university text and the fact that the Chinese character texts are available separately. If you want to really learn Chinese to the level of being able to read newspapers and novels one day then you'd be better off with Tung and Pollard.