shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4442 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French
| Message 9 of 11 10 January 2016 at 6:34am | IP Logged |
People tend to think of Mandarin as the standard in China. There are all sorts of different sounds that are influenced by regional dialects such as Shanghai, Beijing, Taiwan, etc.
Came across a video: Different accents of Mandarin
You can try the Glossika Mandarin training program:
Chinese Fluency Training Day 1
If you have trouble getting YouTube online in China, you can use the Glossika Language Training link:
Fluency 123 - Chinese (Mandarin, China)
Edited by shk00design on 10 January 2016 at 6:35am
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Elsinore13 Groupie United States Joined 4974 days ago 41 posts - 53 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Mandarin
| Message 10 of 11 13 January 2016 at 3:29am | IP Logged |
Sorry to take so long to reply back to you!!
They do have audio files that support the book, however I think you may get more from Pimsleur or Assimil. You can download them the book's site to follow with the book. The one thing about the 24/7 book is it prioritize your learning based on time to study. Since you know your tones and general pronunciation of words you may skip as good section of the book.
I think the grammar is presented in a very understandable manner. It provides lots of examples of how it's used. As a person who hates grammar any way you can sugar coat it is fine by me! I think the book does a very good job. And I think it's kind of smart of the author to throw it in the last chapters of the book. Hook the reader in with starting working with the language right away and slip in grammar little by little. (Now if I could find a book like that for German!)
The best way to compare it as think of it as a phrase book with the most important phrases and explanation of how and when to use them,plus more. If you're on the fence about getting the book I did see that it is available for Inter-Library loan through the OCLC Worldcat system.
Best of luck!
edited for additional information
Edited by Elsinore13 on 13 January 2016 at 3:38am
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Po-ru Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5478 days ago 173 posts - 235 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Korean, Spanish, Norwegian, Mandarin, French
| Message 11 of 11 16 January 2016 at 6:20am | IP Logged |
Thanks for the replies. I am tempted to go with Assimil 2 and then perhaps just pick up a textbook
when I get to China. Chinese Pod 101 really was impractical for me. The introduction of new
vocabulary was not really well planned (a lot of new higher level and idiomatic vocabulary early on),
nor was the grammar well presented. While it offers a lot of material, I think it would be better used
as review material rather than material one uses as a primary source of study.
Has anyone tried the older linguaphone methods? Or any other methods that may be around?
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