Easy Chinese Mandarin, Level I (Includes Easy Chinese Tutor CD-ROM and Easy Chinese Basic Text and Workbook) (Easy Chinese Self-Study Program)

asked by macfan on November 9, 2006 3:33 AM

Easy Chinese (Mandarin, Level 1) is a self-study course designed for anyone interested in learning the Chinese language using a step-by-step-approach. The program includes a book (Easy Chinese: Basic Text and Workbook) and a CD-ROM (Easy Chinese Tutor). The Easy Chinese Self-Study Program is most appropriate for those who want to learn the Chinese language on their own with the help of a computer; it is also intended for those who are enrolled in a regular class as an enrichment or a tutorial program. The Easy Chinese program is noted for the following: 1. It teaches Chinese characters, compound words, and sentences that appear most often in modern Chinese publications and everyday correspondence. 2. It emphasizes especially on reading and writing the Chinese language. 3. It employs a systematic, self-paced, and outcome-referenced approach. The learners know precisely what they will learn and how learning will be measured. 4. It allows the learners to learn both! traditional and simplified Chinese characters with a just little extra effort. 5. It provides numerous learning tools, examples, sentence patterns, exercises, and self tests. 6. It includes more than 700 compound words and 1,000 sentences in the first course. 7. It emphasizes on comprehension rather than rote memory.

Easy Chinese: Basic Text and Workbook: Each lesson in the book includes a number of base characters from which many compound words and phrases are formed. Each character set includes traditional and simplified characters, compound words or phrases, pinyin pronunciation guides, and definitions. Except for the first two lessons, each lesson in the first course includes a number of illustrative sentences using words and phrases already introduced. Each set of sentences includes traditional characters, simplified characters, an English translation, and a pinyin pronunciation guide. At the end of each lesson, a variety of exercises are provided to reinforce learning. Both a Chinese index and an English index are included for easy reference. The Easy Chinese Tutor CD-ROM: The Easy Chinese Tutor CD-ROM offers a variety of learning tools, exercises, and tests that are not found in the workbook. Some of the features include: Animated character writing. Brief story or origin about each character. Templates are provided for printing hollow Chinese characters. Diagrams and boxes are used to explain sentence structures. Logical cues are provided for learning compound words and phrases. Pronunciation by a native speaker. Conversion from traditional characters to simplified characters, and vice versa. Information about Chinese grammar. Phonetic drills.

System Requirements: Windows 95 or higher. 100 MHZ or faster 4xCD-ROM drive or faster. Speakers

Note: Based on all models tested, the Easy Chinese Tutor CD-ROM is compatible with Windows XP. In the event that it doesn't work on your own computer, please first make sure that you have followed the instructions provided on how to start Easy Chinese Tutor. If it still doesn't work, please feel free to return it to the seller for refund.

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Reviews

While I'm pleased with the methodology, the quality of the book and the exercises, I'm disappointed with the CDROM Tutor application. The user interface design is very poor and unintuitive. Certain sound files are corrupted since clicking them results in an error message ("computer memory is full"). As a result, pronounciation is unavailable for those characters. At the lowest level, the application must also be poorly coded since it constantly consumes 98% CPU power on a powerful PC. In this day and age, the application ought to be browser-based. I recommend that the author overhaul the application and port it to a new technology.

reviewed by markymark on November 22, 2006 10:46 PM

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First this review is from a beginners point of view, and after looking to buy a chinese "course" among several titles I decided for this book and I do not regret the decision. Now to the review: This book is decent but the software that accompanies it makes it good, do not be discouraged that it is not "excellent", you DO can learn chinese with this book. Firts lets talk about the negative aspects of this book and its CDROM. It focuses on writing and reading and not so much in speaking or hearing. For instance, on the book you barely get any mention of the famous 4 tones of chinese, but in the CDROM you can hear every character of the book and also see a simple diagram of how is the tone pronnounced (like going from a high to low tone ); sadly the pronounciation is not as clear a one would wish and you spend about 3 seconds whenever you want to hear again the last character. This book is not like the one you would find in a formal chinese class, it has no pictures with dialogs and to be honest it is a bit abstract, if you are a good self student then this book is really helpful in learning.
On the good side this book has traditional and simplified forms, the CD shows you how to write the characters and also a has a nice explanation of how many of the characters came to be that REALLY helps to remember them. Also the exercises section of the book is thorough (only with the written chars.) and you know the best way to learn is to practice; I was forgetting, the selection of the characters to learn is very good, you learn popupar characters that let you start recognizing them wherever you read real soon!. My recommendation is to buy two books, not just one, no matter how good people say they are you are better with two sources of information. This book is strong in reading and writing and getting the "idea" of the characters so you should get another that is strong in developing your hearing and speaking abilities.

reviewed by ozone on November 22, 2006 11:40 PM

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