What I Like:  Pimsleur is extremely inductive, and extremely methodical. What do I mean by "inductive"? Pimsleur plays passages of dialogue and teaches you to correctly guess at the meaning and grammar of the expressions in it just by hearing them in context. That's excellent. After all, it's how children learn, and it's how you continue to learn new words in English. Keeps you from thumbing through grammar books all the time. The lessons give you obvious short goals to accomplish, and there's so much careful repetition of everything that you can't help but learn.

What I Don't Like:  I teach folks to make your ears do the thinking. Save yourself stress and frustration:  learn as much new stuff as you possibly can by ear, before you try speaking. Pimsleur doesn't do that; it's got you pronouncing and repeating Chinese expressions literally within seconds after the very first lesson starts. Means you start off fast, but it's hard on your brain, and your mouth. Also, Pimsleur is audio based, which means you'll need to go elsewhere to master pin yin and reading and writing. And the fact that it's so methodical means you may well go crazy with all the drilling and repetition.

In a Word:  This is a great way to learn immediately useful stuff by audio without the hassle of reading or writing. 4 Dragons out of 5.

Tip:  Make Pimsleur just one small part of your personal program. Use it only 2-3 times a week at the most, and use different materials the rest of the time.

Click Here to Buy Pimsleur Now

What I Like:  Rosetta Stone is visual. So it's inductive, too, which makes the grammar and such a lot more natural. Better still, you're even more in control, and you can "work out" your ears as much as you want before you try speaking. That's good. And this is a much more thoroughly audiovisual set of materials, with sights and sounds and lots of interactive helps.

What I Don't Like:  The pictures and sentence structures early on come off as too static and simple. Rather than starting out with the "Hi, Hello, What's your name" structures, you're starting off instead with descriptions of people doing activities, which teaches you more grammar than may seem immediately useful. Most folks would get bored out of their skull listening to endless one-sentence static repetitions of "the boy is eating" or "they are walking."

In a Word:  Still can't beat a complete multimedia approach. Make it a weapon in your arsenal. 4 Dragons out of 5.

What I Don't Like:  Not much to dislike, except the obvious "it would be nice if this were video rather than just audio" bit. You'll learn plenty if you listen repeatedly. I do.

In a Word:  Listening to fresh material from native speakers is a good thing. 4 Dragons out of 5.

  What I Like:  Co-author Joel Bellassen argues that you can't get inside the Chinese mind without getting inside the character system. And he's right. The best feature of these books by far is that they use my 80/20 Rule to teach you lessons:  in other words, you start with the most-used characters first. The first volume covers the top 400, which gets you recognizing 67% of what you read in magazines and newspapers, and the second volume adds the next 500, which kicks you up to 88%. Not bad! The next best part is how utterly concise and unintrusive their English commentary is, especially as you progress through the second volume; there's virtually no English at all on the audio.

What I Don't Like:  No color; very few visuals, and these dump a lot on you fast. You'll wish you could have twice the time and space to absorb it. Also, some of the dialogues come off corny and awkward, as they're attempting to make as much use of vocabulary in as little space as possible. Funniest of all:  the recordings and dialogue are done by northerners in Beijing (huge surprise), so if you live in the South you'll run into a lot of expressions here that you'd never use. Still, anyone can get grounded in solid Putonghua with these materials.

Tip:  With each new chapter, start by listening to the audio dialogue and examples first without cracking the book. You'll be amazed at how good your ears get by doing this.

In a Word:  There's no more comprehensive way to get inside the Chinese mind and uncover the culture through the written language. 4 Dragons out of 5.

   Click Here to Get A Key to Chinese Speech and Writing on Amazon.com

   What I Like:  This thing is so nuts-and-bolts practical and loaded to the hilt with so many how-to's and actionable tips, when it was first published countless readers mistakenly decided they didn't need language school or formal training anymore. Their bad. You'll never run out of new ideas with a book like this. It was a hit among Christian overseas workers in the 1970s, but it's useful whatever work you do.

   What I Don't Like:  Cheesy as hell. And this is written for people studying any language, not just Chinese. So a lot of its assertions and explanations will seem non-specific and sometimes irrelevant. The illustrations along the columns are loaded with dorky puns.

   Tip:  This is perfect for you if you're fresh off the plane and hardly know a word of Chinese. The first big section of the book is about what to do your very first week of study.

In a Word:  A practical guide, reasonably worth owning. 3 Dragons out of 5.

   'LAMP' is currently out of print. Find it on eBay, or search for it on Amazon.com here:

   What I Like:  This isn't about learning Chinese at all. But it's great entertainment. David Sedaris is an American humorist who writes about life experiences doing speech therapy as a junior high kid, and then moving to France and learning French from tapes and from a cruel, verbally abusive classroom teacher. He's funny as hell, with some surprising insights into living in a foreign culture and learning a foreign language that you'll relate to instantly.

   What I Don't Like. It's not about Chinese at all, and the majority of it isn't even about language learning. But you already know that. Warning: Sedaris is openly gay. This is somewhere between PG-13 and R. If that sort of thing is beyond your comfort zone, then skip this one.

   Tip:  The title chapter will have you bent double with laughter.

In a Word:  Get it, if just for the laughs. 3 Dragons out of 5.

   Click Here to Get Me Talk Pretty One Day on Amazon.com

Reviews & commentary copyright ©2006 by Bryan Todd. All Rights Reserved.
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