More extensive Pimsleur?

[Jakegwood]

Anyone know of a more extensive Pimsleur course? I don't just want a couple days or weeks of lessons... I'm thinking on the order of a year or two of daily audio lessons each about 30 minutes to an hour.

[大肚男]

did you consider listening to podcasts. I know that popup chinese and chinese pod would have at least couple of years worth of podcasts.

[icebear]

I've used ChinesePod for several years and it, or Popup Chinese, are probably as close as you'll get to what you are looking for. They have a huge amount of lessons at all levels, and the price for a 2 year premium membership is worth it in my opinion, so long as you use it daily. It isn't a panacea, however; you'll need to compliment it with other forms of study to ensure you are well rounded in the important areas (speaking, reading). Another common issue is that these systems don't really guide at all regarding what lesson to study or when to jump up a level; I'd suggest also following a more traditional textbook series to give your studies a bit of structure and logic, and study podcast lessons with vocabulary in your current textbook lesson.

[大肚男]

I agree with Ice Bear that you need to add other components of Chinese, because that will actually speed up, rather than slow down your progress.

I don't know why, but I just assumed that you were merely looking to study in the car or at the gym where audio is the only safe method.

[Wang7]

If you live in an area where there's a large Chinese Mandarin population checkout Craigslist/Backpage and see if you can find a tutor to help you with your shenghuo kouyu. It's relavtively cheap, and the amount of information that you'll retain will far outweigh any language audio program. If not Icebear's suggestion would be the way to go.

[Jakegwood]

Thanks guys. Haha, no I'm not one of the people who thinks I'll learn Chinese in the car. Actually the opposite. I have put soooo much time into reading, which is working, but when I go to speak I can barely say anything.

I use the free ChinesePod now, but it's all beginner level, I think at this point it's definitely worth the investment.

I try to speak with my Chinese friend, but of course they don't want to speak with me just to hear me fumble with words. Also, most of them only know 口语 so when I use more formal words I find in newspapers and books, everything sounds weird to them, and I guess speaking with more literary Chinese sounds strange anyway. I have been reluctant to hire a tutor, just for the price, but come to think of it, at this point, it's probably worth it.

Thanks!

[Pendragon]

I also wish someone would simply make an extended version of Pimsleur. Regardless of its limitations the Pimsleur format works quite well to speed up your spoken language. Would be really easy to make, it's just an SRS but then with spoken questions and answers (and a careful ordering of words, building up gradually longer sentences). Someone could make some money with this!

Perhaps we could even make it ourselves in Anki using google translate for the audio.

[heliogabalo]

Pimsleur is going to release a new set of audios in 2013. Mandarin Chinese IV - V and VI.

I love the method so I'm happy with that!

[Pendragon]

That's great news Helio, I can't wait!