Rapid Mandarin Chinese

By: Earworms Learning

Narrated by: Andrew Lodge

Length: 2 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's Summary

Earworms mbt© is a revolutionary accelerated learning technique that takes the hard work out of learning.

By listening to these specially composed melodies with their rhythmic repetitions of Mandarin and English a few times, you pick up over 200 essential words and phrases that will not just be on the tip of your tongue, but will be burned deeply into your long-term memory in next to no time.

If you like music, and want to make rapid progress without any formal knowledge of language learning, earworms mbt© Rapid Mandarin Chinese is the course for you.

Volume 1 is your survival kit of essential words and phrases to get you by on your trip abroad.

You will feel you are learning within minutes and might just be amazed by how easy acquiring a language can be!

©2006 earworms mbt (P)2006 earworms mbt

There just isn't enough of it

I have nothing but praise for the presentation and method. I further give extra high marks for the downloadable text (Audible should make such text availabe with every lanaguage and city guide)! My only complaint is that it does not really supply very much vocabulary. On a price/information ratio, Dr. Blair's Mandarin is better; on price/pleasure ratio, Earworms is tops.

8 of 8 people found this review helpful

Mandarin with a beat

This is an interesting way to learn a language. In this series (I also did the Spanish version) uses background music during the teaching of phrases. You don't speak to the beat or anything like that, but the music takes the boredom out of repeating phrases and words.

I speak Mandarin but it was 'rusty' so I tried this book. I found the lessons a good revciew but don't think it would be good at all if you don't already have some familiarity with mandarin. The two instructors are good but one has a very heavy chinese accent when she speaks english and is sometimes very hard to understand. The other instructor does not sound asian in anyway - his pronunciation of works is average but not a good role model.

The pace starts off slow then ends up going too fast (especially if you don't already speak Mandarin).

There use of music is a most intersting learning tool and if you teach languages you might want to listen just to experience the method.

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

backgroung music

The background music playing all the time makes it hard to understand.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Good

This is a good place to start for the price. I found the music in the background sometimes interferred with the ability to hear the pronunciation clearly. Would be nice to be able to mute it at times.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Chinese made easy!

This is the simplest way to get a basic handle on a new language. The music and the repetiotion work fast, I love it and look forward to the release of Vol. 2

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

So-So

While the content was OK, this audio does not have the feel that I was looking for. I felt embarrassed that someone might catch me listening to the ridiculous music that goes along with the words. If you are looking for repetition though this is the audio for you. You could almost not be thinking and still learn something.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

great method

I got this book after a first educational stint with my mother in law (who speaks only mandarin and mongol). I liked the method a lot and found that indeed remembering new words is much easier than traditional methods. The content is quite basic, but enough for a solid beginning. I liked a lot too the voice of the chinese girl in the recording. After advancing a bit I got the spanish method for my wife (spanish is my mother language) and I'm surprised by how much has she advanced in a few weeks.
It is worth the bucks, I'm waiting for the second volume.
Watch out for the printed version in both chinese characters and english, which also helps a lot, you can get it from their website.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Somewhat useful

This was useful for simple travel in China, but the background music is annoying, and makes it very difficult to hear the Chinese pronunciation and proper accent.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Delivers what it promises...

This has been the easiest and most effective way for me to ingest vocab and basic grammar skills for Mandarin. It delivers what it says it does and doesn't require a lot of attention, which is good because the music is pretty cheesey.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

pleasant way to learn

while struggling thru the Pimsleur system, I got this for my iPod and find it a delight to use. Music is nice and the text gives you plenty of repitition time. Comments/hints are good as well. If feels like a break from my studies. Hope they have Volume 2 asap.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

A good quick fix

Like any of the language courses, you get out what you put in. This course uses a music background with a native and English speaker going over Chinese phrases and words. The course tends to provide a sentence, in English, and then in Chinese and then breaks down all the words in the sentence, and the pronunciations for the words. The course is similar to the other earworms courses, and if you liked one of the others I imagine you'll like this one.



It's not a bad idea, although the tunes are not that great, I find that I can recall some of the sentences. A good supplement for learning, or for a quick fix before heading on holiday but it is not a good standalone course.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Learning Mandarin

The music in the back ground is slightly annoying at first but after a while you get hooked and it somehow helps you commit the language to memory. I have some mandarin already but haven't spoken or used the language in 15 years or so. I found it very helpful.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

good. native speaker, some grammar off

I listen to this on the commute and jogging. if you don't like the music, you get used to it. it is well paced, structured and easy to follow. My friends are native speakers and were impressed with this in comparison to other bigger names that, in their opinion, had less than ideal non-native instructions. They pointed out some grammar was wrong on this but perhaps that is for ease of teaching a novice? recommended, I hope they make more.

Works for me

If you could sum up Rapid Mandarin Chinese in three words, what would they be?

easy rapid convenient

What was one of the most memorable moments of Rapid Mandarin Chinese?

actually learning more chinese

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

no.....its ok to listen in small chunks with many bookmarks as repeated listening was essential for me

Any additional comments?

I live in china and this was useful to accelerate my chinese learning