RECOMMENDATIONS           

             "Words and small phrases are the building blocks of language”

The Bottom Line to learning a new language is the fact that you have got to build your language skill word by word, phrase by phrase and sentence by sentence.  There is no way to escape memorization for if you cannot remember the word or phrase, how can you understand or speak the language.  Programs that tell you you don't have to memorize are deceptive.  In addition to our own published CDs, we recommend a few other programs for as life-long language enthusiasts, we have found that no one program was sufficient to satisfy our cravings for material.  Also, different programs have different strong points.  On our web site we have listed five basic requirements that a language program should have. 

Learning Chinese Through Story Telling by Quintessential Language is a CD program which focuses upon stories.    Fifteen of these stories were taken from a Chinese Text  published in China and used in Advanced Chinese at the University of Southern California in the late Forties.  Beginners can start with the easy ones and gradually build their vocabulary.   More aggressive students can ignore the classification of Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced and tackle any of the texts.   Characters used are traditional.  A major advantage to our CDs is that everything is displayed before you on the screen and available at a simple click.

 A program for learning Chinese is found on the internet coming out of Shanghai.  It has lessons from the most elementary to advanced.  For people who require explanations for everything, Chinese pod offers them in English at the elementary level.    At the Intermediate level these explanations are given in a conversation in Chinese between two people using an English word or phrase when necessary.   This is very helpful.  Topics chosen for the dialogs are of an every day nature that deal with various aspects of daily life.  If you don't mind hearing a lot of English during your study time, these elementary dialogs are a good place to begin.  If you object to that, begin with our CDs.  Some of their conversations are not carefully presented; they sound a little tossed off without consideration for the fact that the student has very little ear training.  They could be more carefully presented always keeping in mind the student who is trying to learn Chinese.  Many conversations by native speakers are not always understood even by other native speakers.   www.chinesepod.com. 

Transparent Language NOW series for Chinese can also be recommended for its textual material.  It meets all of the five requirements but lacks  Chinese characters. In addition to Chinese, Transparent Language has also published the NOW series in several other languages. I can recommend them to any one who wishes to learn those languages.  I have used Japanese NOW, French NOW, Russian NOW, Arabic NOW, German NOW and Spanish NOW. Whenever I have any extra time and wish to push ahead a bit in any of those languages, I play a text or two.

        Character recognition can be gained by using any of the above products which have the text in characters. 

 For learning how to write, the finest software on the market is  WENLIN.   It will allow you to read any text in electronic form . In addition to being a dictionary, it is program which converts pin yin to characters, traditional or simplified, and characters to pin yin.  It also shows you how to write a  characters stroke by stroke.    You can download a free demo of Wenlin.     Those who purchase Wenlin from Quintessential Language, will receive at no charge a Learning Chinese Through Story Telling CD of their choice.

All of the above products can be adapted to Home Schooling and Independent Study.  If used regularly and consistently, they can take the student from the most elementary stage of learning Chinese to the most advanced college level.

I  have worked with all of the above.  Based upon personal experience I can recommend them without hesitation .  

                                                                                Tom Curtis.