CD

Published: 28/09/2007

Extent: 2 Hrs

Series: Michel Thomas Series

 

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Summary:

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.

You’ll stick with it because you’ll love it

· Use the unique method perfected over fifty years by the celebrated psychologist and linguist Michel Thomas.

· This 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 – without the pressure of writing or memorising.

· You pick up the language naturally and unforgettably.

The NEW Mandarin Introductory Course

This is th

• Learn another language the way you learnt your own

• Effective method - the Michel Thomas Method of language teaching works with the brain

• Motivating - live classroom situation with two students encourages you to learn with the students on the recording
• All-audio - the way you want to learn
• 
  

  Revolutionary kinaesthetic method for teaching Mandarin tones

• Pronunciation is gently - but effectively - corrected

• Reference booklet - accompanying booklet lists key phrases in English and Mandarin (transliterated script)

• Suite of progressive and complementary course components: Introductory, Foundation, Advanced, and Vocabulary

• Sales record - the hugely successful Michel Thomas Method is applied to Mandarin.

Table of Contents:
Introduction. How to use this course. Background to Chinese languages.
Tones in Mandarin
The form of the verb in Chinese languages doesn’t change: e.g. shì (‘to be’) also means ‘am, are, is, was, will be’
wo = ‘I’ and also ‘me’: form of pronoun doesn’t change in Mandarin
There is no word for ‘a’ or ‘an’
ni = ‘you’
ta = ‘he, him, she, her, it’
Words for nationalities
Add men to pronouns (‘I, me’ etc.) to form plural (more than one): women = ‘we, us ’ etc.
ma = question marker, to change a statement into a question’ Goes at the end of the statement.
ne added to mean ‘how about ...?’
Adjectives, such as ‘busy’, in Mandarin, are also verbs: máng means ‘to be busy’
To form a negative, put bù = ‘no, not’ in front of the verb
Add hen to fulfil the two-syllable meter rule (also means ‘very’)
Greetings ni hao and ni hao ma (‘hello’ = ‘you good’, ‘how are you’ = ‘you good (question)’
In Chinese the character/word has the same form for both individual and plural form
In front of another falling-tone word, bù (falling tone) becomes bú (rising tone)('trampoline' rule)
Question with a question word, such as ‘why?’
Use zài to emphasize ‘now, at this very moment’
Word order in Chinese: who—when—what is happening
xiang = ‘would like to’
néng = ‘can’

About the Author(s):

Dr Harold Goodman is a physician and surgeon, who had Michel Thomas as his teacher for nearly ten years. During this time Michel Thomas's goal was not to teach Dr Goodman a specific language (though he did instruct him in two of the languages he taught) but to train him to understand his method of teaching - which he then used to teach others, with great success. Dr Goodman teaches and practises in the United States.

Readership:
Self-access course for adult beginners

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