IndhuRen Posted October 13, 2006 at 02:53 PM Report Posted October 13, 2006 at 02:53 PM Hi Friends, I have all the 3 levels of Pimsleur, Colloquial Chinese for Beginners by Kan Qian and Rapid Literacy in Chinese for Beginners by Zhang Pengpeng Please advice me on which of the 3 should I start using to learn mandarin. I am a total newbie....... Quote
HashiriKata Posted October 14, 2006 at 07:45 AM Report Posted October 14, 2006 at 07:45 AM I don't know "Rapid Literacy" so I can't say anything about it but I'd suggest you to use both Colloquial and Pimsleur together. They're complementary and not one or the other. Good luck! Quote
wai ming Posted October 14, 2006 at 09:07 AM Report Posted October 14, 2006 at 09:07 AM 'Rapid Literacy' is based on the assumption that you've already mastered Chinese pronunciation - Zhang Pengpeng takes the view that it's easier to learn Chinese if you learn speaking first, then common radicals, and then characters, if I remember correctly. I think it's better to leave 'Rapid Literacy' until you've spent some time on Pimsleur/Colloquial first - once you've mastered Pinyin and got a good handle on pronunciation, 'Rapid Literacy' is good for learning characters. Quote
IndhuRen Posted October 14, 2006 at 11:17 AM Author Report Posted October 14, 2006 at 11:17 AM Thankyou friends for your advice. Think I will start with Pimsleur first and finish Level 1. Then I will move on to Colloquial Chinese. In this way I would no get too "bored" with any one reading material:D BTW is there any Indian trying to learn Mandarin. Just want to know the strategy they used.... Quote
JackP Posted October 18, 2006 at 05:14 AM Report Posted October 18, 2006 at 05:14 AM Moreover, "Rapid literacy..." is the third part of the series. The first is "Intensive spoken Chinese" which focuses on... speaking... The second is "The most common Chinese radicals" which he advises you start with somewhere halfway through "Intensive spoken Chinese" and focuses on writin. "Rapid literacy in Chinese" is part three of the series and you should have finished the two other parts. The first couple of lessons are not too difficult, so if you already have some training in Chinese you might be able to start with part three anyway, but I would say start with part 1. Part 1 and 3 come with tapes, but I haven't been able to check those out yet... Haven't got anything to play tapes... Pimsleur is great for pronunciation, but for me it works too slow. The Ken Qian one I really liked, but it is still back home; couldn't carry all my study materials when I moved to China... Quote
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