2008-08-30 good dialogues but not a stand alone

As others have said the dialogues are good, the subjects contemporary and the language is very much as it is spoken in China. But it does throw you right in at the deep end, and I can imagine a lot of people despairing and giving up.

I bought it before going to China to work, and it was worth it to see my Chinese teacher's face when I was able to pronounce the Chinese for 'I'm pleased to meet you' apparently first time. In reality it was because I'd spent a good hour playing the phrase on the CD.

But without a teacher to go through the things like basic pronounciation, which this book really skates over, I wonder how useful it would really be.

I also think you're better learning the characters from the start, because that is what the language is really composed of. Although this book covers a bit about the characters, it really is nothing like enough to gain any real understanding. And the characters which are shown in the later dialogues are too small for a beginner to read comfortably.