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Living Language Mandarin Chinese, Complete Edition: Beginner through advanced course, including 3 coursebooks, 9 audio CDs, Chinese character guide, and free online learning
368 pages, Audio CD
First published September 20, 2011
4 people are currently reading
85 people want to read
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 9, 2019
If this is your first Chinese learning book, check your motivation. If you really want to learn Chinese and is short in cash, this might be quite worth it. If you can spare more dough, there are tons of textbooks out there that aren't as dry as the Living Language Approach. Don't be fooled. The "intermediate" and "advanced" will not really take you anywhere near fluency.
Good:
Non-intimidating especially in the beginning: would present vocabulary and use them in phrases and sentences in succeeding chapters.
Not terrible for the price.
Good quality audio recording.
Cons:
Absolutely boring especially towards the "Intermediate" and "Advanced" books.
Ridden with typographical errors: you can spot them if you're a diligent student.
Equivalent to first year Chinese: you will be able to move on to legit low intermediate books or HSK3.
I started with this and there are absolutely many more ways to start worse. I wish I had started with Integrated Chinese (but too pricey!) or the Standard HSK course (I didn't know about it when I purchased these books) though.
Good:
Non-intimidating especially in the beginning: would present vocabulary and use them in phrases and sentences in succeeding chapters.
Not terrible for the price.
Good quality audio recording.
Cons:
Absolutely boring especially towards the "Intermediate" and "Advanced" books.
Ridden with typographical errors: you can spot them if you're a diligent student.
Equivalent to first year Chinese: you will be able to move on to legit low intermediate books or HSK3.
I started with this and there are absolutely many more ways to start worse. I wish I had started with Integrated Chinese (but too pricey!) or the Standard HSK course (I didn't know about it when I purchased these books) though.
Displaying 1 of 1 review