Using several textbooks at the same time - Confusing?

[barcelona]

As mentioned on Textbook recommendations for people starting Chinese thread, i'm planning to use three courses (all of them include the audio part, btw)

Scurfield's Teach Yourself Chinese;

Integrated Chinese Level 1;

Pimsleur Level I;

Is it true that these courses when used together will compliment each other and will lead to better knowledge at the end or some possible contradiction between different sources might confuse the user and bring more harm than gain overall.

Mind you, i've learned several languages successfully before and would have never considered to pose such a question before but... chinese seems so different that i'm really at loss.

Thank you.

[roddy]

I think they'll complement each other. True, they may contradict each other now and then - but bear in mind that it's probably a case of both being right, rather than one being wrong, and you'll be fine.

Just make sure you don't do what I have a habit of doing - using one book till it gets difficult, and then trying another . . .

Roddy

[beirne]

I used Teach Yourself Chinese and Integrated Chinese at the same time back when I started, but only because I was using TYC in private lessons and IC in a continuing education class. For simplicity, though, I would suggest going through IC 1 first, then either go through IC 2 or TYC, depending on which one you think would fit better.

Using Pimsleur at the same time, though, is a good idea, because you can do that in your car. Having devoted a lot of time to studying Chinese, I'm gearing my answers toward efficiency.