Drive-In Chinese [Audio Cassette]

A nice combination of vocabulary development, speaking practice, and listening comprehension.

I like the structure. The tapes are organized into short "topics." Within each topic a few sentances are introduced, along with 15 or so vocabulary words that you can substutute in to form your own sentances. The sentances and words are within a conversational topic, such as ordering in a restaurant, so after each section you feel a little bit of confidence speaking on a certain topic.

I found it had the right amount of discussion of grammar and pronounciation. Enough to get you going without bogging you down in details or lists.

Unlike many similar products, one of the instructors on this tape is bilingual. I found this very helpful. He could explain aspects of grammar and pronounciation using both English and Chinese words in the same sentance.

Drive-in Chinese is designed as a purely audio course. Although there is a guide book, it is not necessary to do any written exercises to follow the course. This worked for me because I don't like working with the pinyin system (Chinese words written phonetically in the English alphabet).

There are a few dumb jokes, but at least it attempts at some humor to lighten up the mood a little.

I found this product to be comparable to the Pimsleur programs, but much more cost-effective. It has a similar approach, with emphasis on forming original sentances and listening comprehension along with the standard "repeat this sentance" practice. Drive-in Chinese is much "denser" than Pimsleur. The Pimsleur program introduces only a few words in each lesson and has a LOT of practice and repitition built into the program. With the Pimsleur program listening to each lesson once or twice is enough, while with Drive-in Chinese I listened to each lesson 8-10 times before I was ready to move on.

If money is no object, I would go with the Pimsleur program (actually that is what I am doing). It is easier to use (no rewinding) and more confidence-building because a lot of time is spent practicing words that you aleady know from previous lessons.

However, if you are on a budget, I recommend Drive-in Chinese. With the $15 set, you will probably learn as much as with about $200 worth of Pimsleur CD's, you will just need to listen to each section of the tape multiple times.

I liked Drive-In Chinese much better than Language/30 Mandarin. Language/30 is just a long list of phrases and sentances to repeat, without any listening comprehension exercises or instruction to help you form original sentances. I didn't learn anything from it at all, to be honest.

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