Michel Thomas Method: Mandarin Chinese Foundation Language Course CD
[0340957263]

Learn another language the way you learnt your own. You learnt your own language naturally and enjoyably: now you can learn Mandarin in the same way. There's no books and no writing, and you will achieve confidence - in hours. With the "Michel Thomas Method" you learn the language in small steps, building it up yourself to produce ever more complicated sentences. The Method works as it breaks down the language into its component parts, enabling you to reconstruct the language yourself - to form your own sentences, to say what you want, when you want. On the recording you will hear two students being taught in real time and in a classroom situation, so you are learning with others. You enjoy their success and learn from their mistakes. You, as learner, become the third student and participate actively in the class. In a very short time you will be able to manipulate Mandarin structures to express what you want to say.It uses the unique method perfected over fifty years by the celebrated psychologist and linguist Michel Thomas. The method works with your brain, helping you to build up your Mandarin in manageable, enjoyable steps by thinking out the answers for yourself. You learn through listening and speaking - the way you learnt your own language. You pick up the language naturally and unforgettably. Dr Harold Goodman was trained by Michel Thomas to understand his Method of teaching. On these recordings he is assisted by native Mandarin speaker Jingtao Deng.These all-audio courses are accompanied by an index, where the Mandarin words are printed in Roman script and translated, for easy reference. "The 8-hour Mandarin Foundation Course" is one of the "Michel Thomas Method Mandarin" courses published by Hodder Arnold, the others being the "5-hour Advanced Course", the "2-hour Foundation Review" and the "1-hour Advanced Review". The "2-hour Introductory Course" comprises the first 2 hours of the "Foundation Course".

Michel Thomas Mandarin Chinese
Michel Thomas Method: Mandarin Chinese Foundation Language Course CD
0340957263

This product was added to our catalog on Thursday 11 October, 2007.

Buying options

£39.78
+
£2.75
Delivery

New

Seller Rating: 4.4 out of 5 from 16317 ratings

Delivery: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days

Quantity Available: 999 Availability: now

Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.

£39.98
+
£2.75
Delivery

New

Seller Rating: 4.9 out of 5 from 5843 ratings

Delivery: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days

Quantity Available: 2 Availability: now

Brand new book sourced directly from the publisher. Delivery in 3-5 days. Customer service 7 days per week

£43.42
+
£2.75
Delivery

New

Seller Rating: 4.6 out of 5 from 54885 ratings

Delivery: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days

Quantity Available: 13 Availability: now

New. SKU 0340957263. Mint Condition - with immediate next working day shipment from the UK to anywhere in the world.

£43.63
+
£2.75
Delivery

New

Seller Rating: 4.7 out of 5 from 77260 ratings

Delivery: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days

Quantity Available: 23 Availability: now

BRAND NEW and IN STOCK - dispatched within 48 hours from the UK

£45.44
+
£2.75
Delivery

New

Seller Rating: 4.7 out of 5 from 154 ratings

Delivery: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days

Quantity Available: 27 Availability: now

Brand new book, in stock and dispatched from the UK. Freepost returns.

£45.49
+
Free Delivery

New

Delivery: Usually dispatched within 24 hours

Quantity Available: -1 Availability: now

£46.13
+
£2.75
Delivery

New

Seller Rating: 4.7 out of 5 from 77260 ratings

Delivery: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days

Quantity Available: 4 Availability: now

BRAND NEW and IN STOCK - dispatched within 48 hours from the UK

£48.78
+
£2.75
Delivery

New

Seller Rating: 4.5 out of 5 from 12095 ratings

Delivery: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days

Quantity Available: 9 Availability: now

Brand NEW, shipped DIRECTLY from our warehouse in the UK via Royal Mail, (heavy items via courier), Delivery typically 2-7 days.

£48.79
+
£2.75
Delivery

New

Seller Rating: 4.8 out of 5 from 504910 ratings

Delivery: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days

Quantity Available: 10 Availability: now

Brand New. Shipped from UK Mainland. Delivery is usually 2 - 3 working days from order by Royal Mail, International Delivery is by Airmail.

£52.06
+
£2.75
Delivery

Used

Seller Rating: 4.4 out of 5 from 16317 ratings

Delivery: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days

Quantity Available: 999 Availability: now

Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.

Product Reviews

Amazing Course that gives you the ability to sound Chinese!

First of all, I'm a Michel Thomas fan. From seeing his documentary in 1997 'The Language Master' I knew he had stumbled on/discovered an intuitive way to learn languages.

I bought his French course in 2001 with excitement - and thoroughly enjoyed it.

As impressed as I was; it always bugged me 'How about an exotic language, like Arabic or Chinese? That would prove this method to work'. Years passed. Michel Thomas died. I thought that was it.

2 years ago, I made friends with some Chinese people and I always said to them that I'd learn mandarin. I never did! I knew from my language learning experience that any course I bought would be a hard slog - unless it was MT.

So it was with great excitement I discovered this course in March this year. I immediately went to my friends and asked 'How long would it take me to learn Mandarin to a basic conversational level?'. They replied, 3-4 hours study a day, for six months.

I replied 'See you in one month'. Such was my confidence in the method that before I'd even ordered it, I knew it would make me proficient as it had done for French & Spanish.

I listened to the course entirely in the car, with my hand signals for tones (and managed to avoid crashing twice!) and after 2 weeks I'd done the Foundation, and then moved onto the Advanced.

During this time I was amazed at how a language so alien was going in and sticking.

Just before I met my friends, I bumped into another Chinese friend of mine and I started addressing her in Chinese. At first, she thought I knew the odd word, but as the conversation continued she began to realise I could speak well. At one point she asked why I'd learned Chinese? I replied 'because I have Chinese friends and I want to speak to them' in Mandarin - she was gobsmacked!

When my friends came round, they too were amazed and very encouraging. One even remarked that I had a 'Beijing' accent. After 1 month? LOL.

What else can I say about this course? Only, if you're planning to learn Mandarin, this has to be your starting point.

Harold Goodman has done an amazing job of making something so alien to us Westerners come so easily - it is evident he put a huge amount of preparation into it, and has used the Michel Thomas method extremely well.

Buy it!

Good for tones

Having been a big fan of Michel Thomas' previous courses, I was keen to see how his method would work with Chinese, which is a very different language to the European languages he had approached himself. For me the answer was a little mixed.

The best aspect of the course, as highlighted in other reviews, is the treatment of the tones, which is the most useful I have come accross, and it is really on the basis of this that I would recommend the course. Whereas most courses simply repeat the tones in order and rely on the listener to pick up the differences, the Michel Thomas method is excellent here in allowing you to listen to the students making the same mistakes as you would and hearing these mistakes addressed.

The other big advantage of this course over the original courses is that there is now a native speaker, meaning that the accent is a lot more reliable than had previously been the case.

However, I did also have a few problems with the course:

The first is, contrary to some other reviewers, I found the mnemonics, although sometimes good, were often bad. One of the potentially difficult aspects of Chinese is that a lot of the words can sound quite similar, with sounds that do not often appear in English. Harold Goodman seemed often to fall back on quite tenuous methods (e.g. "Mr. Dui was always correct" for Dui=Correct, or "Mrs Xia kept hiding under the table" for Xia=Under) with the result that a lot of the CD seems to be taken up with students not quite remembering the right word. Earworms and the book "Learning Chinese Characters" both cope with this a lot better.

Secondly, I felt that while Chinese grammar is often much simpler than English (for example the verbs don't change form) Harold Goodman's explanations sometimes seemed to make it more complicated than it needed to be. For example in a Chinese question, the word order in a question is exactly the same as it would be in the corresponding statement, but the students seemed to be allowed to go through a number of wrong assumptions (e.g. that the question word went at the end of the sentence) before coming to this conclusion. Sometimes the explanations came across as more of a series of exemptions to rules rather than the logical rules that they are. It gets there in the end, but for me it lacked some of the clarity which made the other Michel Thomas courses so good.

Thirdly, as with all the courses in the series, you will need another course as well to teach the more useful, everyday things you will need to say.

Finally, while Michel Thomas always argued that the aim of speaking a language should be to get the ball over the net (i.e. to be understood), I think it is important to know when you are being taught something that isn't quite right in order to keep things simple so that you can be understood. The course uses only one measure word ("ge") throughout; while this may make more sense in a course of this length than trying to learn the separate measure words, I think it would be helpful to point out that this is not quite correct.

To conclude, I have given this course 4 stars because it is so good on the tones, and useful, if occasionally frustrating elsewhere. However, I felt that it lacked some of the clarity of the old courses, and in the absence of some of the verb forms of the European languages, it didn't seem to have quite the same strong sense of purpose. After completing the German foundation course, I really felt that I had a lot more confidence to say things that I had not thought I would be able to say from such a short course and without putting in a lot of work. After doing this course, I felt quite comfortable describing where a television was in relation to a table (provided the options were limited to above or below), but still would not feel comfortable with anything more complex. It is different enough to be a useful addition for anyone trying to learn Chinese, but for me not quite as good as the originals.

MT Chinese course review

Michel Thomas Foundation course review

Having just completed my 4th MT course (Chinese Foundation) I feel an obligation to share my experiences with others who might be considering buying it. First the conclusion. The Michel Thomas Chinese Foundation Course was excellent: 9 out of 10.

Most of us are under the impression that Chinese is a strange alien language that is almost impossible to learn. They are right it is. When I got my first mandarin course I was presented with an array of strange sounds that made me think of a episode of Star Trek and alien encounter of incomprehensible complexity. With this mind-set I approached the Michel Thomas foundation course with some skepticism. Although I did have a fundamental belief in the soundness of his teaching methodology for Indo-European languages, I had no such belief for any other languages.
I have to admit it was a leap of faith. Which with hindsight has now been richly rewarded.

The first barrier to learning Chinese is this strange concept of using tones for each sound that represents a Chinese character. This is beautifully explained at the beginning of the course by the Professor of Chinese with the excellent assistance of a native speaker. To get the message across he tells a series of stories for each tone and allocates a colour to each of them, as well as a hand gesture (Kinaesthetic modality) for each tone, and by using your fist and fingers to re-enforce the learning experience, make it "memorable". This is subliminal suggestion to the brain, something that practitioners of Accelerated Learning who use modality and NLP use all the time.

The speed at which you progress is fine although there are times when you wonder whether you will get the key basic verbs that are so much part of an MT course. The vocab is reviewed and re enforced at regular intervals.

I have been practising with my Chinese friends. In the beginning I found they were correcting me a lot but as I progressed they become increasingly more impressed with my pronunciation and less critical. The secret now is to get my Chinese to a natural speed and that will only come with practice.

Conclusion.
Learning MT Chinese has changed my perspective of learning new languages and thinking outside the box as the teacher said it would. It has given me lots of new perspectives on a number of things. I am getting interested in writing the characters, also Taoism, Sun Tzu the art of war and the culture and history of China. My studies into the historical origins of languages and how they are all connected together has been given new impetus. I feel I am a richer person for the experience and look forward to going to China sometime in the future. Now a brief word on the Pimsleur course which I have tried. I found it useful to bring my Chinese to a more natural speed and flow.
So there is a place for both courses. But if you have a limited budget, go for the MT Chinese course.

Mandarin introductory course is excellent

I've long been a fan of the Michel Thomas method. I learnt Italian painlessly this way and was immediately understood (and equally importantly, could understand what I heard) after going through the CDs just twice. My day job is management and leadership training and I work in many countries and in many cultures. Language learning to date had been restricted to romance languages and German and I approached Mandarin with a little trepidation. This was without foundation. Goodman's approach is wonderful - good humoured, always entertaining and well-paced. I recommend the method highly.

A couple of weeks after buying the introductory course, I trained a delegation of Chinese local government officials. They greeted my first forays into Mandarin with delight saying it was rare for a Westerner even to try it. They were complimentary about my accent and understanding of tones and their replies suggested they understood everything I said.

So if you want a delightful, painless way to learn the basics of Mandarin, look no further.

Bargain As its Â£70 in Waterstones ! Worth every penny !

Harold Goodman is the man that teaches you Mandarin throughout this course. He was lucky enough to spend just more than 10years with Michel Thomas and so picked up his teaching of languages technique.
Its great, and i was lucky enough to think how much is this on Amazon? I won't buy it here at Waterstones as Amazon are bound to have it cheaper... THANK GOD I DID LOOK HERE !!!
If you're trying or wanting to learn Chinese this is something you can't go without. Harold G just makes the tones so easy especially the 3rd and 4th which, according to my teacher, i was having the most problem with.
It has funny parts and you'll never feel rushed and if you listen to it several times you'll begin to naturally say it.
Then you've just got the chinese reading and writing to get under your
belt which is very difficult - over 60000+ (but apparently you only need to know between 1000-2000 to become fluent in chinese) .

Currently viewing: Michel Thomas Mandarin Chinese -Michel Thomas Method: Mandarin Chinese Foundation Language Course CD

Publisher Info


-	Other products

Tell A Friend

Mobile Phone Deals

Free Sony Ericsson C902 with half price line rental

You can now get a free Sony Ericsson C902 Cyber-shot 5 megapixel cameraphone with 8 months half price on a 12 month contract. Line rental is Â£30 per month on T-Mobile Combi 30 and you can claim Â£120 cash back, equal to 8 months half price line rental.

Use our exclusive voucher code when you buy online and you’ll also receive a free Jabra Bluetooth headset with your order.

The Sony Ericsson C902 Cyber-shot phone has sleek looks and a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus, xenon flash and face detection. It’s also a 3G phone with HSDPA mobile broadband. It has an FM radio, a very good music player and 160MB of onboard memory. It has a unique lens cover that slides open to reveal the 5 megapixel camera lens. The phoneâ€™s lighting dramatically signals when you are in camera mode by switching from white to blue and Sony Ericsson has placed shortcuts to the most helpful camera shortcuts around the screen of the phone. These touch sensitive icons quickly enable you to select the function you need, such as turning on the flash or switching to macro mode for close-up shots.

Compare all Sony Ericsson C902 deals

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 08:16:02 +0000

Samsung Tocco Pink

Out now and free on a 12 month contract with cash back and a free Jabra Bluetooth headset when you buy online.

The Samsung Tocco Pink is a 3G phone with a large 2.8 inch touchscreen. You can browse the web while on the move and take pictures using the top quality 5 megapixel camera, which has autofocus, face detection and video stabilisation.

Built from high quality materials, the Samsung Tocco Pink is a luxury phone. It has a flat face with a glossy, dusty pink surround and it comes with a wallet-style leather case to protect the screen.

There are just three keys on the front, and on the side you’ll find a camera shortcut key, a volume control and a hold button which locks the screen and keys..

The Samsung Tocco uses the colourful, award-winning Croix touchscreen interface and provides haptic vibration feedback. It has an excellent music player, an FM radio with RDS, stereo Bluetooth, a brilliant organiser and a good web browser.

Compare Samsung Tocco Pink deals

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 10:00:27 +0000

LG Viewty now in red

Free on a 12 month contract. Only Â£30 per month line rental. Buy online and use our voucher code to receive a free Bluetooth headset with your order.

The LG KU990 Viewty Red is exclusive to Vodafone. It’s a sophisticated and usable touchscreen phone with a 5 megapixel camera and HSDPA. It has a 3 inch touchscreen with an easy to use interface, simply touch the screen with your finger to select the option you want.

The new 5 megapixel camera has a xenon flash, auto focus and ISO sensitivity adjustment. It can record high quality video at 30 frames per second. There is also a secondary VGA video call camera. The Viewty has a built-in FM radio, an MP3 player and a video player.

The LG Viewty has a web browser and a document viewer, supporting Word, Excel, Powerpoint and PDF files. However, with no WiFi and with it’s advanced media features the Viewty is more an entertainment cameraphone than it is a business device.

Compare all LG Viewty Red deals

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 09:58:01 +0000

Sony Ericsson G900 Red out now

Out now and free on O2. The Sony Ericsson G900 Red is a personal organiser in-your-pocket. It also features a 5 megapixel autofocus camera with image and video stabilisation.

With its 2.4 inch touchscreen, the G900 allows you to write and draw your memo’s. You can jot down a note on the screen with a stylus, just as you would with a pen on paper, and save it on your phoneâ€™s desktop to remind you.

The G900 also has Wi-Fi and HSDPA for high speed data downloads.

Compare Sony Ericsson G900 Red deals

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 09:54:58 +0000

Nokia 5000 with free gifts

The new Nokia 5000 is free on O2 and it comes with any of these free gifts when you sign up to a 12 month contract - iPod nano 8GB, iPod Touch, iPod classic, 19 inch HDTV, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, a sat nav unit or a set of GHD hair straighteners.

The Nokia 5000 is an easy to use phone with basic features. It has a 2 inch display, FM radio, email, Opera Mini 4 web browser, a 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth and a music player.

Compare all Nokia 5000 deals

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 09:51:56 +0000

New Sony Ericsson W980i out now

The Sony Ericsson W980i Walkman phone is designed to allow you to listen to music as it should be heard. When closed, the clamshell looks like a portable music player with large touch-sensitive music keys, which offer haptic feedback. A great audio experience requires great quality speakers or headphones. The W980i has built-in stereo speaker but for best performance use the Stereo Portable Handsfree HPM-77 headset, which is included with the phone.

The Sony Ericsson W980i also has a built-in FM transmitter, which allows you to send whateverâ€™s playing on your phone to other devices with a built-in FM radio receiver. You can store up to 8,000 songs on the W980i. With the recent evolution of PlayNow arena, from May 2008 you will be able to access up to 5 million tracks to maximise your music collection. The W980iâ€™s TrackID feature, which can identify any track that you just canâ€™t put a name to, will be fully integrated into PlayNow arena. This makes the W980i a genuine gateway to great music, as you can download the track instantly once it has been identified.

Music aside, the W980i has plenty more to offer too. It has a capable 3.2 megapixel camera, screen rotation, a built-in FM radio, HSDPA for high speed music downloads and it’s quadband so you can keep in touch from almost anywhere in the world.

Compare Sony Ericsson W980i deals

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 18:59:50 +0000

Samsung F480 Tocco with 9 months half price

12 month contract on T-Mobile Combi 30 with 300 xnet minutes and 200 texts per month. Line rental is Â£30 per month and you’ll receive Â£135 cash back, which is equal to 9 months half price. Cash back must be claimed in four stages by sending off your bills at months 5, 7, 9 and 12. Even without the cash back this is a good deal for Samsung’s latest flagship, only Â£30 per month on a 12 month contract.

The Samsung F480 Tocco is a 3G touchscreen phone with HSDPA 7.2Mbps for high speed data access. It has a 5 megapixel camera and a large 2.8 inch display with a haptic touchscreen interface.

Built from high quality materials, the Samsung F480 has a flat face with a glossy black surround and comes with a wallet-style leather case.to protect the screen. There are just three keys on the front of the phone. On the side of the F480 you’ll find a camera shortcut key, a volume rocker control and a hold key which locks the keys and screen.

Other features of the Samsung F480 include an FM radio with RDS, stereo Bluetooth, a brilliant organiser, a good web browser and course a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus, face detection and video stabilisation. The Samsung F480 is a good all-round device with plenty of features that should keep you entertained for a very long time.

Compare all Samsung F480 Tocco deals

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:04:20 +0000

Latest phones with a FREE Acer laptop

The end of month bargains have started. I thought I’d mention a couple of spectacular free laptop offers, launched today on Orange. These deals will end on 31st July.

The LG Secret, one of the coolest top-spec designer phones, is free on Orange Dolphin 35 with a free Acer Windows Vista laptop. Line rental is Â£35 per month and gives you 600 xnet minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited web browsing on your mobile phone.

If you prefer a Nokia, you can have the above deal with the new Nokia 6220 classic. It has a 5 megapixel camera, GPS, HSPDA and much more. It’s a brilliant phone, one of my favourites.

Delivery of your phone and laptop are free. Order before 3pm to receive your phone next day. Your free laptop will be sent a few days later when you return your claim voucher (which you’ll receive with your phone) along with a proof of address and a proof of signature.

Compare the latest free laptop deals

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:45:44 +0000

Nokia E71 out now on 3

Available in white or grey, the new Nokia E71 is a Symbian smartphone with a full QWERTY keypad and a 2.4 inch display. Measuring just 10mm thick this is a very slim messaging device and could be a real alternative to a BlackBerry. Email messaging is well supported with plenty of configuration options including Gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail and Microsoft Exchange.

With a built-in GPS receiver, the Nokia E71 comes loaded with the new Nokia Maps 2.0 application, helping you to find the best routes or explore any city for restaurants, attractions and other points of interest. The 3 megapixel autofocus camera also makes use of GPS by geotagging your photos with their exact location.

The Nokia E71 is a 3G phone with HSDPA for high speed data downloads. It also has Wi-fi connectivity, which is great for browsing the web or accessing emails when in a Wi-fi area.

Compare all Nokia E71 deals

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 11:22:23 +0000

Nokia 6210 Navigator on Vodafone

Out now on Vodafone and free on a 12 month contract from only Â£25 per month line rental. You’ll also receive a free Bluetooth headset if you order online and use voucher code vodablue1.

The Nokia 6210 Navigator is a fully featured slider phone with an improved sat nav system. Designed for those who want an all-in-one device, it has Nokia Maps pre-installed. The interface is very easy to use and the Nokia 6210 Navigator has clear spoken voice directions. It can be used as an in-car navigation device, or for people navigating on foot, with turn-by-turn directions. Compared to its predecessor, the new Nokia 6210 Navigator has a long list of improvements. It has a 3.2 megapixel camera, HSDPA, an FM radio and a large 2.4 inch screen, Internet and email.

Compare Nokia 6210 Navigator deals

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 11:13:32 +0000

Michel Thomas Method: Mandarin Chinese Foundation Language Course CD[0340957263]

Michel Thomas Method: Mandarin Chinese Foundation Language Course CD
[0340957263]