Product Description

Power Chinese was designed to meet the specific learning needs of native English speakers. You can spend as little as 30 minutes a day and in just eight weeks you will have covered the equivalent of one year of college-level Chinese. Using an innovative learning strategy which breaks down and then reconstructs the Chinese language, Power Chinese will have you reading, writing, and using essential Chinese in no time. Power Chinese begins by tackling the most difficult aspects of Chinese for the typical English learner, including pronunciation, tones, and key aspects of syntax and grammar. But don't worry! Challenging Concepts Made Easy These and all other concepts introduced in Power Chinese are presented as comparisons to how things are done in English--allowing you to focus on those areas that are most different from English and making learning Chinese easier and more enjoyable. Power Chinese is based on the same award-winning method that earned Power Japanese dozens of stellar reviews and awards. The Power Method--uniquely suited to meet the needs of busy learners--includes: * Memory techniques that make information more digestible and more retainable to adult learners * A less intimidating approach that leaves out information that is not absolutely relevant to understanding the language * Extensive use of graphics to heighten right-brain participatory learning

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1602 in Software
• Brand: Transparent Language, Inc.
• Released on: 2004-03-29
• Platforms: Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows XP, Windows 98
• Format: CD-ROM

Features

• Fully animated stroke-by-stroke writing of the 600 most-common simplified Chinese characters.
• More than 800 phrases and 1,200 sentences chosen for their high frequency in everyday speech. See these words and phrases over and over in sentences, in dialogs, and in video clips.
• Over 2,500 audio clips of words, phrases, and sentences all spoken by native speakers.
• Extensive interactive drills to help you retain what you have learned.
• Humorous dialogs to further promote retention of key phrases and concepts. Video clips of impromptu interviews with real people speaking Chinese in real-life situations.

From the Manufacturer
Power Chinese was designed to meet the specific learning needs of native English speakers. You can spend as little as 30 minutes a day and in just eight weeks you will have covered the equivalent of one year of college-level Chinese.

Using an innovative learning strategy which breaks down and then reconstructs the Chinese language, Power Chinese will have you reading, writing, and using essential Chinese in no time.

Power Chinese begins by tackling the most difficult aspects of Chinese for the typical English learner, including pronunciation, tones, and key aspects of syntax and grammar. But don't worry!

Challenging Concepts Made Easy

These and all other concepts introduced in Power Chinese are presented as comparisons to how things are done in English--allowing you to focus on those areas that are most different from English and making learning Chinese easier and more enjoyable.

Power Chinese is based on the same award-winning method that earned Power Japanese dozens of stellar reviews and awards. The Power Method--uniquely suited to meet the needs of busy learners--includes:

• Memory techniques that make information more digestible and more retainable to adult learners
• A less intimidating approach that leaves out information that is not absolutely relevant to understanding the language
• Extensive use of graphics to heighten right-brain participatory learning

Power Chinese includes:

• Fully animated stroke-by-stroke writing of the 600 most-common simplified Chinese characters.
• More than 800 phrases and 1,200 sentences chosen for their high frequency in everyday speech. See these words and phrases over and over in sentences, in dialogs, and in video clips.
• Over 2,500 audio clips of words, phrases, and sentences all spoken by native speakers.
• Extensive interactive drills to help you retain what you have learned.
• Humorous dialogs to further promote retention of key phrases and concepts.
• Video clips of impromptu interviews with real people speaking Chinese in real-life situations.

Discover for yourself why Power Chinese is unique and unequalled among Chinese-learning systems.

Customer Reviews

Have fun learning to read and write Chinese
This program definitely deserves a review. I found it so much fun to work with that I stayed up all night, as long as I could keep my eyes open. It feels more like playing the game than investing an effort in learning. It is beautifully structures - it seems just to be made perfect for Western minds, or rather for people who have short time span.

The program teaches grammar, too, in a way that seems more like watching a commercial on TV. It is offered in easily digestable bits, which are immediately followed through practice that is structured just like playing a game.

New characters are introduced throughout the program and through the exercises. Information about every Chinese character is available throughout the program. All you need to do is click on the character you don't know, or that you might have forgotten, to see how it's written (stroke order and count, which are by the way, very colorful), to hear it pronounced, or to check out the pinyin spelling. You never feel stuck.

Some characters are "deconstructed" to provide some possible logic that may help in memorizing the character. There are also few cultural bits and pieces, and even videos with people who have mastered the ability to speak Chinese fluently - for motivation and encouragement. The program is really good throughout in taking the stress out of learning Chinese characters, in making it as easy and enjoyable as possible and in motivating you to keep going.

best foreign language tool I've used
I have studied several foreign languages, and used various learning tools along the way. None of them can compare to the Power Chinese program. I have been amazed at how fun and effective this program is at teaching mandarin. Nothing about this program feels like work. I look forward to sitting down with this program every day and adding to my beginner's knowledge of chinese. I never thought learning Mandarin could be as easy as this program has made it. The program is very effective at building your knowledge of the language step by step, in a way where each lesson builds on the previous one. My retention level has been extremely high on everything I have studied so far. Unlike many programs that simply teach through a "flash card" or memorization approach, Power Chinese teaches through an interactive learning method. Each section covers a small amount of material, but makes sure that you know it thoroughly before moving on to the next lesson. I have only had the software for a couple of weeks, and I am amazed at how much of the language I understand already. Also, the price for this system can't be beat, and it even includes a rebate. If you want to learn mandarin, buy this product.

a very useful and underrated program for beginners
I love this program. It's visually entertaining, and the text is entertaining, too. The author has a sense of humor. You click on a shivery little button (the buttons jiggle until you click on them), and read some humorously phrased piece of information. Each page is like an adventure game where you click on things and learn some surprising new fact. Plus the material is very clearly and logically presented - in addition to being entertaining.

I know that some people think that you should just jump into speaking without understanding anything, but I have an analytical turn of mind, and I like understanding stuff. That said, I don't want to be overwhelmed and bored with technical grammatical terminology. This program balances explanation and practice perfectly. For example, in an exercise to learn Chinese sentence structure, you rearrange pictures (e.g. of a man, and eye to represent "see") in the order a Chinese would say it.

I could go on and on about how much I like this program, but I think you get the idea. I went to the Transparent Web site to see what else they have, and ended up downloading the free version - and then buying the enhanced version - of "Before You Know It - Chinese". It's an excellent electronic flashcard program with a clever design that allows you to add modules.

Power Chinese is elegant, well-done software - a great self-teaching tool to learn Chinese. People always talk about Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone... They should be talking about Power Chinese!!