Rating: 
Summary: A bargain, but you get what you pay for.
Review: This is an affordable language set for learning very basic Mandarin. I have not studied Mandarin before, so pronunciation is somewhat unclear on the CD. There is no pinyin which makes it difficult to know the correct pronunciation. The male voice on the first CD seems to pronounce the words too quickly and make the tones unclear for an untrained ear. Since the tones are of uttmost importance in Chinese, this is a serious drawback.
That said, there is much helpful on these CDs. The games do help the student to learn to link the concept or object with a particular Chinese word. The immersion approach is helpful in learning basic phrases and the meaning of phrases that are not immediately evident (like the "hosts" of the games telling you in Chinese whether the answer was right or wrong). It stresses listening skills (maybe to the detriment of speaking skills). If one were unfamiliar with Chinese (the importance of tones and the correct pronunciation of consonantal sounds) it would be very difficult to learn to speak Chinese well.
But the set very inexpensive. You get what you pay for.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Good for the Beginner
Review: This program comes in a 2 disk set. The first disk is for beginners, while the second disk is for the more advanced. I have just completed the first disk and am beginning on the second. I thought I could never learn Chinese and was very surprised that I can actually speak and understand some of it. These disks are not overloaded with vocabulary, so after you have finished them you may want to go on to a more in depth program. The only drawback I have on this is that in the first disk when they show you the words, they put up the Chinese character and not the Pinyin form ( that is how it is pronounced using English letters ). This makes it hard to understand some words. To fix that, just pick up a Chinese -English dictionary that shows the words in Pinyin. However,on the second disk they use Pinyin insead of the Chinese characters. Actually, when you are done with the numbers section on the first disk, you can go to the second disk and use the number section on that disk. It gives you good practice and counts to 100 ( the first disk just counts to 20 ).If you want to test your skills at learning Chinese, this is a fun way to do it without spending too much money....
Rating: 
Summary: Could use improvement
Review: This program is useful for learning Chinese...I'll just list my complaints/suggestions: 1) Only simplified characters are shown. If you want to go to Taiwan, you'll need the traditional characters. A simple switch at the beginning that allows you to choose between character types would be a big improvement. 2) No pinyin. When learning words, it much easier to hear the pronounciation if you have pinyin. 3) There is no way to adjust the word lists. There are 42 items on the "food" list and you have to learn them all before you can do well on the quizzes. I find it easier to learn a few (3-5) words at a time. If there were a checklist of words to include on a list it would be so much better. 4) They claim that the quiz adjusts itself to ask words you have missed before but it sure doesn't seem that it works that way. 5) "Well Done" (when you get everything right on a quiz) for some reason is in English--everything else is Chinese. Yeah, it's a nitpick, but somebody has to say it! PS If you're looking for a dictionary, WenLin is it!
Rating:
Summary: Okay for speech, but doesn't help with Chinese characters
Review: This software is okay for learning to say a few basic words and phrases. The variety of activities makes it more interesting than a phrasebook. But it won't help you if you want to learn Chinese characters, which are the more interesting and important part of the language. If you want to learn to read Chinese, you'll need a good textbook and maybe a Chinese reading & dictionary software product like Clavis Sinica.
Rating:
Summary: An outstanding bargain, but get a dictionary too
Review: This would be a very good price for just the first of the two CDs. Both CDs allow you to listen to words and phrases from a variety of categories of everyday vocabulary such as time, numbers, colors, and food, and both offer quiz games to test your knowledge. I am still working my way through the first so the second is still beyond me, and I'm concerned that I might not be able to understand the second even after mastering the first. Fortunately there is built in help in English. The first CD allows you to listen to two different voices (one fast and natural, the other slow and careful) pronounce a starting collection of words and phrases, record yourself speaking them so you can compare, and test your knowledge with simple quizzes of 4 levels of difficulty. In about a month I have learned enough Chinese to impress my Taiwan-born fiancee and now she wants to borrow it! Caveats: You probably won't have enough vocabulary for comfortable conversation by the end of the first CD. But Chinese is hardly a simple language to learn and you will be amazed at how quickly you benefit from the course. Also, the first CD has some inconsistencies; the two voices actually say different things for some of the words. I used a Chinese-English dictionary to decide which was correct. If you are going to learn the language a good dictionary is a valuable companion reference.
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