Pimsleur Level 1

[Fluxy]

I have been reading up on Pimsleur and it seems like there is some mixed opinions but do you think this would be a good investment to a beginging in cantonese? Im going for a mastery of tones, i do not care about slow progress on how fast i speak, just mastery of tones and speaking it correctly.

I was looking at this product on ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Pimsleur-Learn-CHINESE-CANTONESE-Language-Level-1-CDs_W0QQitemZ6999041090QQcategoryZ29792QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[Ferno]

With Mandarin they give full tonal explanations (ie: this word is pronounced with a falling-rising, followed by a high-level tone) with almost every word.

I don't have any experience with Cantonese, though. With the extra tones in Cantonese (and the confusion concerning how many there actually are) they might have simplified things...

[novemberfog]

I borrowed the basic set (4 tapes, 8 lessons) from a friend one time. I thought they were pretty good. The tones were not explained so much, but in important places it would specify them. I recommend reading up on the different types of tones just so you have an idea. Pimsleur alone is not really enough, but it is a good start. I think the most important thing for learning Cantonese is access to a native speaker, or at least a second-generation speaker who is comfortable speaking Cantonese.

[Fluxy]

wow i just got the pimsluer 30 lesson deal and man its alot harder than i thought... ALOT different than spanish / italion / french languages lol

[Ferno]

huh? i never tried a European language with Pimsleur... i think it would be even harder, every time you get a new phrase the narrarator will have to talk about the inflection and stuff (the word endings... or prefixes... that change)