absolutely the best if you really want to learn

Paul Noble, Kai-Ti Noble and Dirstin(?) are the best teachers. I have learned so much from them and if they are reading this, I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you. Please consider making a 3rd book too! After I completed their first book I felt that I had learned more with that audiobook than I had with many months of studying using other audiobooks, apps and textbooks. This 2nd book had my head spinning. Still is! It's almost too much, but through every hard bit, Paul guides you slowly, with so much repetition and explanation. There is so much that makes his book better than anyone else's book, but the major thing is that he makes you think and speak all the way through. You start speaking sentences very quickly in the first book, not repeating , but actually putting together the pieces that you have been taught to make sentences. This book teaches you much more complex sentence structures, and there were times when my brain just couldn't take it and i had to go back and start over. This book is much harder than the 1st book and there isn't as much time to answer, so he's making us think quicker. You are constantly having to think and put together sentences using the skills he teaches. Everything is explained clearly though and so many things that I partly knew just "click" into place with Paul's explanations. The end result though is that when trying to talk to my Chinese friends in Mandarin, I actually can. I have learned how to stop and think and make sentences. For instance, what is the word for "car" how to do I say "drive car". How do I say, that "your son is going to drive the car over here and pick you and the kids up, you need to wait over there for him". Yes, I actually had to relay that message to my friend's Chinese in-laws while in DC. I was able to make a sentence and be understood by my friend's non-English speaking in-laws. This happened while a group of us were visiting DC and in fact i even stopped and offered to help take a picture of a chinese family, all in rather stunted Mandarin, but I felt confident enough that between what I had learned and a few sign gestures I could make this offer. The students I was with couldn't believe I did that. This book is not just a quickly put together book to make a profit. This is a book that required a lot of planning to make and is made to really help a person LEARN mandarin, not just learn a bit of vocabulary for a tourist visit . By the way, Paul uses different food names throughout the book and it's worth looking up the recipes and making them. Mapo tofu is now one of my specialties, LOL. I wish I could give more stars! take a look at my other reviews and you will see how many other learn mandarin books I own. NONE of them compare to this one. I gave all the other good reviews, because at the time they each helped me some. I wish I hadn't wasted so much time on them though, I learned so much more from this book. This is the one you want!

23 people found this helpful

Much better than Pimsleur

I've spent years using Pimsleur to limited results. Paul Noble has exposed the flaws in Pimsleur to me. Firstly one needs tone practice, pinyin, actual explanations of sentence structure and an understanding of what is required and what can be left out, as well as a modern vocabulary. all of these things Noble provides and Pimsleur is lacking.

10 people found this helpful

Great for Making Chinese Stick!

Both of Paul Noble's Mandarin Chinese resources are wonderful. I've made it through both and feel much more confident both speaking and understanding Chinese than I did before. (I have studied some in the past). He allows plenty of time to think through your answers (unlike most "book on tape" type learning methods) and being given permission to forget was invaluable in helping me keep on moving through the course until I found I was suddenly actually recalling the "harder" vocabulary. And the way he teaches Chinese grammar is clear and easy to understand and will stick with you long after you've finished. Highly recommended.

3 people found this helpful

A good but not sufficient Pinselur alternative.

This book and the previous one will give you what you need to start learning Chinese. Technically speaking, they will get you past HSK 1 and well into HSK 2 vocabulary. That is good. However, it is nowhere near as thorough as Pimsleurs Mandarin Chinese. A good start nonetheless.

2 people found this helpful

Loved this series!

I learned so much from these books! I listened at least 20 times over the course of a year and I just returned from a trip to Taiwan where I was able to have basic conversation with people, it was awesome! I've tried all the other Mandarin Chinese courses and Paul Noble's is definitely the best one so far.

PLEASE PAUL, WE NEED STEPS AFTER NEXT!

2 people found this helpful

Truly useful for your next level Mandarin

If you have learned the basics of Mandarin and would like to go further, this is the right material for you!

I have basic Mandarin plus extensive self-study and initially, I thought this book might be too basic. However, I still benefited in terms of reviewing and increasing my vocabulary and at the same time reinforcing what I already know.

The audiobook is a perfect companion to supplement your learning as you can use it while travelling, driving or anything else you can do while listening.

Paul Noble may be a Westerner who is not a native speaker but I believe he did study the language and was aided by a team of native speakers to come up with this book. It is not only his language knowledge but his method that helps very much in learning and practicing my Mandarin.

Highly recommended.

1 person found this helpful

Good teacher.

Great Teacher and pronounciation. Repetition is Key. Dont worry about pausing everything will come again.

1 person found this helpful

Just as great as the first one

I've just finished the second Paul Noble's complete course for Mandarin Chinese (for the second time) and I must say, the books have really sparked my passion for learning Mandarin and are an incredible resource to learn the basics very effortlessly and in a playful manner. Two months ago I couldn't say a word in Chinese, 我会说中文了。

Fast, Fun and Effective

Out of all of the different audio courses I have tried so far, this one is the best.

best Mandarin audio learning tool but PDF sucks

this is another great example of how to lead a student to actually getting something they can use. Paul leads you step by step through the vocabulary and sentence structure so naturally that it does not feel forced. The sentence structure is obvious so that you can mix and match vocabulary to what YOU want to say instead of feeling that you are restricted to what the authors wanted.

One huge negative is the PDF. The Mandarin characters are very difficult to read, since the Acrobat sizes the book down?

In addition, there are three versions to each translation. Pinyin, Traditional Characters, and Simplified Characters. I would prefer there be an extra PDF. One with Traditional/Pinyin and the other with Simplified/Pinyin. Why not? Internet paper is free.

overall, I would buy any Mandarin book this guy puts out. The audio product is top notch.