Living Language Mandarin Chinese, Complete Edition: Beginner through advanced course, including 3 coursebooks, 9 audio CDs, Chinese character guide, and free online learning Unabridged Edition

If you are the kind of person who is motivated to learn Mandarin Chinese, and you are also the kind of person who learns well on their own, this is going to work very well for you. I haven't been using this very long, so I will drop back in with updates.There are 3 general study books ("Essential", Intermediate, and Advanced) which cover phrasing and grammar with both pinyin and Chinese character representations. There is another book that gives an excellent intro to character writing - so far the best I have seen. The tracks on the 9 CDs (I am guessing about 7 hours of content) correspond to specific sections in the 3 books.The books are well written and well formatted. The packaging is professional and clean. The content is well organized and approachable. The commentary sections are superb. Having the English, pinyin, and Chinese version together is fantastic.At least in the beginning, they stick to easily pronounceable and also very useful phrases. Basic grammar is covered early. Their explanation of tones, and practice, is very good. The lessons are small, so you can pick one and work through the whole thing in one sitting (I am finding you need to repeat a single lesson maybe 5 times). The CDs are tracked to the lesson plan, but it works surprisingly well just to listen without the book.So the first thing you are going to want to do is rip the CDs you are studying. The tracks are much easier to find when they are on your phone. There are 4 lessons per CD, broken up into many tracks. You will probably want to combine all the tracks for each lesson into an MP3 for easy listening in the car. The entire CD can be listened to this way, but I find having the single lessons to be the most convenient form. The sections seem to flow together pretty well, and you can get a lot of repeated listens this way. You *will* want to rip the CDs as MP3s as soon as possible.For learning characters, they kind of throw you into the deep end, but they really cover the material well. It is very much worth the effort to learn the writing, and not at all difficult if you start right away. I recommend you get a phone app that does handwriting recognition on Chinese characters. There appear to be several good ones. The software is great for practice, and you will want to practice writing the characters, not just reading them. The characters are a lot easier to recognize when you can write them from memory.There are a number of good books that give a different, complementary introduction to Chinese writing. I dug up a few, but if you want something that looks kind of like a children's book, check out Chineasy. It's fun. Whatever you do, don't skip the writing!So - to summarize - you will probably want to record the CDs into a format you can more easily use. You will definitely want to check out some of the software packages that help you practice (available free or cheap), especially for writing. And you may find other complementary materials to help you get started if you are stuck.The bottom line is that this is the real deal. If you do the work, you will be able to functionally speak, read, and write Chinese when you are done. I'm convinced of this after the first couple of weeks, and I will check back in as I make progress.Yes, this is only 1/10th the price of Rosetta Stone, and 1/20th the price of Pimsleur. I looked at both of those, and if all three had been the same price and I could only choose one, I would stick with Living Language. I am very impressed at the value. There is no "catch."...Update 2014-08-14:I'm using a single 20-minute session per day to study (the timer on Android works great for this). My progress isn't fast, but I am hoping the continuous exposure over time will work for my old brain. I am slowly "getting it." It's hard to commit to a lot of time every single day, but I think I can do 20 minutes - and I look forward to it because it really is kind of fun.Once you get into the lessons, they tell you about the games on their website at [URL redacted - don't want to break the rules]. The games on the website are free (you can try without buying), but you really need to be doing the lessons for them to make sense. They really help accelerate your learning, and they are pretty well done!I am still working the 1st lesson at this point, but I have skipped to the back of the book to study pinyin pronunciation, common characters, and common signs (can you tell the men's room from the ladies?). The deeper I go, the more impressed I am. Apparently this whole set was meant to delivered as 3 rather more expensive packages, one for beginner, one for intermediate, and one for advanced. This set is the whole thing in one box.I feel almost guilty for paying this little for something that is clearly worth a whole heck of a lot more. Almost.Update 2014-08-24:I'm augmenting my active 20 minutes of study with passive listening. You must learn the characters and pinyin forms, which is fun but takes work. You also have to be able to hear and repeat the pronunciations correctly. Chinese is not a language for slackers. And you have to sort of do it all at once. You have to read, you have to write, and you have to listen and speak. By the way, Google has an excellent pinyin keyboard on the Android. It is great for entering Chinese characters (phrases) when you don't know what you are doing!

Absolutely amazing value for a course that is the equivalent of about a full year of college-level Chinese, and pitched at a much more manageable pace and without all the linguistic jargon.I've started and stopped studying Chinese probably a dozen times over as many years, mostly because the language and the instructional materials for it have proved so opaque and impenetrable. I finally broke through with the Living Language program. I did not expect a popular market product like this to be both so serious and so effective. It led me in so gently that I didn't realize how quickly and smoothly I was progressing, and in retrospect, the specific vocabulary and grammar it was teaching me was 100% spot on (HSK levels 1 and 2 are a piece of cake after this program).From absolute zero, the program led me into the thicket of Chinese--both spoken and written--and before I knew it, I was hacking away into the next and the next areas of the jungle. The vocabulary introduced is largely the same as the most popular 1st year college Chinese textbooks, and this program's introduction to characters is better than any of the dozen or so other programs I've tried and/or am now using. In less than a year, I've started emailing and speaking to a Chinese colleague in Chinese, in addition to my main and most daunting goal, doing research in Chinese on modern legal developments. I obviously have a good way to go, but after finishing the Living Language program, I am totally comfortable navigating intermediate-level material, and I am totally confident of the path forward.The next step seems to be picking up with Integrated Chinese Level 2 or the equivalent (IC seems to be the best product available now to get me where I want in terms of grammar and key vocabulary development), but I would recommend that anyone facing the juggernaut of Chinese begin to attack it with the shockingly inexpensive and yet extremely effective Living Language materials.

This book is great for self-learners. As you move through the pages and sections, you'll be introduced to enough vocabulary, and enough grammar. It does not give you too much, making it a struggle to move to the next step. It feeds enough so to make it interesting, yet challenging. It has different sections that give you a chance to practice your vocabulary, and your reading and comprehension.The accompanying CD is also great. You can use it on its own, and you can practice your listening and speaking skills anywhere. However, it's also great in following along the book. All sections of the book tell you which audio section to listen to. So, it is easy to follow, and you won't get lost.The book uses Simplified Characters and Pinyin. If I want to locate a character's traditional version, I just either use google or the Reading and Writing Chinese book, both locating the character using the pinyin.So, if you want to have a good start, and have a good Mandarin foundation, this book is great for you. By 2/3 of the essential book, you'll be very familiar with the frequently used characters and know it's meaning when you see them and also know how to count to the hundreds, and thousands.

I was recommended to try Assimil until i heard their Chinese books are not of great quality. So i found Living Language and so far it has proven to be indispensable in teaching me the basics of CHINESE. I use it everyday!

Happy with the order

Easy to use with focus on the spoken language.I use the CD's in my car from and to work.High quality and straigth forward.Urteil "Sehr Gut" :-)

いやこれいい♪英語中国語両方用で買ったが日本語がないのがいいねgood