Chinese (Mandarin) Level 1 Lessons 11-15

Learn to Speak and Understand Mandarin Chinese with Pimsleur Language Programs

By: Pimsleur

Narrated by: Pimsleur

Length: 2 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

Pimsleur® equals success. Just one 30-minute lesson a day gets you speaking and understanding like no other program.

Chinese (Mandarin) Level 1 Lessons 11-15 builds on material taught in prior units. Each lesson provides 30 minutes of spoken language practice, with an introductory conversation and new vocabulary and structures. Detailed instructions enable you to understand and participate in the conversation. Each lesson contains practice for vocabulary introduced in previous lessons. The emphasis is on pronunciation and comprehension and on learning to speak Mandarin Chinese.

Content note: The Mandarin Chinese phrase is qing gen zhe shuo and means "listen and repeat". When first introduced in lesson 11, it's given with the definition and repeated. After that it's given with the definition several more times. You will encounter this with the introduction of new Mandarin Chinese words moving forward, whenever you are told (in Chinese) to "listen and repeat". It is a cue that a new word is coming up.

©2000 Simon & Schuster (P)2010 Simon & Schuster

Critic reviews

"Pimsleur programs provide plenty of positive reinforcement that will keep learners on track, and we found that Pimsleur gave us more proficiency and confidence in speaking the new language than any of the other language programs we reviewed." (AudioFile magazine)

Learning by listening

The Pimsleur method works exclusively through listening and repeating. There are no "official" written materials, but you can find transcripts on the web. For Mandarin , this method is ideal. The biggest barrier to being understood in Mandarin is learning how to make the sounds properly. This involves two different problems: first, making sounds that you're unaccustomed to making in English and second, making the sound with the proper pitch pattern. Although there is a western-type "alphabet" called pinyin, trying to divine the sound and the pitch from it is virtually impossible. So, here, where you have no written materials, you are not tempted to try to "learn by looking." The lessons keep the number of new vocabulary words down to a minimum and the focus is on learning how to make sentences and, you use what you know in many different settings. The upshot is that if you have "learned" something, it means you know how to use it. This is very different from other methods where you could "know" quite a bit about the language in terms of vocabulary, grammar, etc., but being unable to really utter a sentence or answer a question. I think it's, by far, the best thing there is out there.

Working for me so far..

I'm listening to & from work. Each lesson takes approximately 30 mintues, which works out great, since that is the length of my commute. I listen the same lesson 2x a day and it seems like it's helping stick to my memory! Just wish more a few seconds longer was allotted for student's response time.

Pimsleur is great

This is the best way to learn outside of a few apps. If you want to learn to speak and have some down time, this is a great way to learn.

perfection

This place in Tim's ller really help me to be able to talk with my friends so much easier I can't wait for the next lessons

necessary program

It should be no detractor that some of the suggested phrases are not exactly how mandarin speakers would translate the English prompt. For example, when counting money mandarin speakers will not use the quantity word “kuai” ren ming as they practice in Pimsleur. My Chinese wife will listen and give such insights while I practice these lessons. Even still, only since using this program has she said my mandarin pronunciation has started to become very good, while she would just laugh at me and not understand anything I tried to say when I was learning from other subscription websites. I am not a smart person, but I look forward to doing these lessons every day as much as I can. It makes me feel proud of myself, as what seems impossible to remember one day will just spontaneously click after a few days repetition. I see a future where I hope to make jokes and have deep conversations with my wife and her family in China.

excellent for learning how TO SPEAK- A MUST

Look up the transcript for level 1 to use in edition for character study and extra practice. I have learned french over 5 years while struggling to speak it on the spot .. This is a good solution for that. Consistency of once a day listening is needed. don't listen to more or skip any days

It's not a glitch

Any additional comments?

This is where the instructor begins to say "please repeat" in mandarin, instead of english. I guess some people didn't get it and think it's a glitch. Personally, I find it's a lot better if you can listen to instructions like "please repeat" and "listen to this conversation" in mandarin. That way you never have to shift gears, so to speak. And can begin to think and listen as well as speak in mandarin.

Minor error, but still good

There are times when "Please repeat," spoken in Chinese, is inserted in, which seems to be an error, but I didn't find it to be much of a problem. Maybe it even accidentally helps learning, since you learn to recognize and ignore it after a few times, and you learn a new phrase in Chinese.

Overall, I found this to continue to be an excellent course.

DELIVERS EVERY TIME!

The Pimsleur programs are the best! I recommend them to all trying to learn languages

strange phrase throughout book distracting

A strange phrase is repeated just randomly throughout the book sometimes very frequently other times not so frequently, however throughout every chapter this strange phrase pops in and it's very distracting when you're trying to learn a language. Called customer service for Audible and they did not know what to do and said they would pass it on to the manufacturer, have not heard anything back from the manufacture and it's been at least a month