Fast-Track Mandarin Chinese (Book/Cassette Course)

Rating:
Summary: A Superb Introductory Course
Review: I have found this to be one of the best introductory courses on the market. Although it was written in 1986 the material is still useful today. The author gives several examples of greeting and meeting people in a variety of settings. He even explains how the book should be studied to get the most out of the material. The text and the tapes ( highly recommended ) are well organized and structured. The topics are practical situations that one is likely to encounter visiting a Chinese speaking country. Some examples are introducing oneself, formal introduction and conversation, talking on the telephone and inviting people. There is one small issue to contend with, however. The tapes do not have pauses built in some of the exercises. So you have to stop your tape player to repeat what you have heard. But on a more positive note the text is loaded with extensive practice sentence patterns and substitution drills. This course is a very useful addition to any self study Chinese language library .