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Mandarin resources | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| berabero89 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4641 days ago 101 posts - 137 votes  Speaks: English, Amharic* Studies: Spanish, Japanese, French | Message 1 of 9 18 April 2013 at 1:38am | IP Logged | ||
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I have both volumes of Assimil for Chinese, but I peeked ahead to the last few lessons
and I'm disappointed with the quality of the course. I read somewhere on this forum that instead of the usual 2000 or so words that Assimil teaches you, Assimil Chinese leaves you with half that amount. Does anyone know of any good beginner's courses for learning Mandarin (preferably not only audio-based)? Also, what have your experiences been with Assimil for Asian languages? Thank you. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sillygoose1 Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 4635 days ago 566 posts - 814 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: German, Latin | Message 2 of 9 18 April 2013 at 2:09am | IP Logged | ||
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I, too, am also interested in this. It seems Assimil for Mandarin/Japanese lacks a little bit. I tried using Colloquial but it's about the same as Assimil.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| berabero89 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4641 days ago 101 posts - 137 votes Speaks: English, Amharic* Studies: Spanish, Japanese, French | Message 3 of 9 18 April 2013 at 2:56am | IP Logged | ||
As I've read posted on this forum before: "There's Assimil and there's...Assimil." It seems to me a shame that a company this great in creating language courses has also decided to publish books of (apparently) low quality. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Paco Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 4276 days ago 145 posts - 251 votes Speaks: Cantonese* | Message 4 of 9 18 April 2013 at 3:48am | IP Logged | ||
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I don't have to "learn" Chinese and I have not used the course, so please take my
opinion with a grain of salt. There are few courses which employ the parallel text method and come along with audio. Assimil is one of them; Linguaphone is another good choice. If method is important to you and money is not a huge problem, you might want to start with Assimil. The good thing about the method is that it gets you think in the target language. Once you can think in it, acquiring vocabulary can be done later with other manuals or even bilingual texts and readers. As for quantity which you concern, you may refer to the links I gather for you below. If you count the number of entries you may feel it is not as good as the other courses in the product line, but if you consider the number of hours you need to finish the course, it might be a different story. Reading from a number of posts, quite a lot of members here agree Assimil Chinese is a good course in terms of quality. A bit of fact: According to the List of Frequently Used Characters in Modern Chinese published by the PRC government in 1988, 2500 characters constitute the most frequent word list, while another 1000 make up the sub-list for most frequently used characters. (Data for Hong Hong and Taiwan are different.) Chinese language is difficult. Though its grammar is straight forward (in the point of view of an English speaker), there are a few stumbling blocks: Chinese characters, the 4 tones (in the case of Mandarin), and above all, Asian culture. You will need more than 1 manual. I have searched a bit for you. Here are two threads you might be interested: Drawbacks of the course Someone has counted the numbers P.S. And congratulations. You are going to unlock one of the best literary traditions and intellectual fountains. Best of luck to you in your Chinese journey. Paco Edited by Paco on 18 April 2013 at 4:22am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6378 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 9 18 April 2013 at 3:48am | IP Logged | ||
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I think Chinese with Ease is good and for sure not of "low quality." I found it very challenging, particurlaly volume II, and it kept me busy for a very long time.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| LatinoBoy84 Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5574 days ago 443 posts - 603 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish*, French Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Latvian | Message 6 of 9 18 April 2013 at 4:13am | IP Logged | ||
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Try following up Assimil with either Linguaphone or the old Colloquial Chinese (by Tung).
For the newer edition of Colloquial they do have Colloquial 2. If you finish Assimil you'll have a great base for either "Chinese Made Easier" or "New Chinese Practical Reader. Popup Chinese and ChineseLearnOnline are my two favorite Chinese podcasts and are worth both worth the money. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| js6426 Diglot Senior Member Cambodia Joined 4519 days ago 277 posts - 349 votes Speaks: English*, Khmer Studies: Mandarin | Message 7 of 9 18 April 2013 at 5:57pm | IP Logged | ||
Chinese Made Easier is great imo. Currently working through book 2 alongside Pimsleur, having done Assimil previously. I really like the way the books are set up and they introduce the characters so that you are gradually weaned off the pinyin which I find helps me a lot. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| berabero89 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4641 days ago 101 posts - 137 votes Speaks: English, Amharic* Studies: Spanish, Japanese, French | Message 8 of 9 19 April 2013 at 3:49am | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you all for your help. I'm most likely going to follow through with Assimil and
whatever beginners' courses I can find and then move on to Chinese Made Easier and the New Practical Chinese Reader. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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