Chinese Now! 8.0

Using a rigorous conversational approach, this program includes QuickTime video of dialogues between native speakers of Mandarin Chinese. To improve pronunciation, you'll use your computer's microphone to record your voice reading the dialogues and compare your pronunciation to native speakers'. Various other practice modules use communication-gap exercises, crossword puzzles, and guided conversations. You can even slow down the recorded audio and video to ease comprehension. As in all of their software Transparent Language gives each word, as well as each sentence, with its English translation. There is also a basic grammar-help index to look up unfamiliar concepts.

Two criticisms of the software: First, there is no realistic practice with Chinese characters, and at this level, Chinese students should be learning characters and stroke orders and practicing reading. (For this, start here.) Instead, the software uses only Pinyin transliterations (which mark tones, happily). Second, the transliteration style shows the thousands of compound words apart when they might better be written together, such as you lan versus the more logical youlan, "travel."

This software is ideal for students who have already had about one year of Chinese; you should have some familiarity with Chinese vocabulary and terms like "the particle de." Beginners should start with a more elementary system like Kidspeak. Learn Chinese Now! offers a fairly effective audio-visual way to maintain your conversational skills, however, and recording your own voice for playback and comparison is its single greatest strength. --Erik Macki

Amazon.com Product Description
With Learn Chinese Now!, you'll learn by immersing yourself in Mandarin Chinese. You'll participate in real conversations, read interesting articles, and watch intriguing videos from China. In order to simplify the new learner's task, this software uses a writing system called Pinyin, which presents Chinese words using the English alphabet. Chinese is normally written using a system of special characters that are very different from the English alphabet. Pinyin represents the sounds of Chinese in a way that is more recognizable to English speakers.

The main thing is, I've been using this software to study Chinese for almost a year now, and I'm only halfway through the program! It is an excellent program that I highly recommend. My Chinese friends have shown surprise at how much I know, and have remarked repeatedly on how good my pronunciation is.

Working with the program will get good results, but it takes discipline. I study for about 45 minutes 3 times a week. Here is the study program that I recommend:

1. Listen, read, and speak through 2 of the main sections, or about 80 segments.
2. Play each of the 5 games 3 times. For "Plug and Play", play it 5 times instead. And just play "Vocabulous" 1 time.
3. Do this 3 times per week.

A lot of people doing reviews are complaining about the lack of Chinese character teaching with this software. I think this is ridiculous. Chinese characters are very complicated. Even Chinese children learn to speak Chinese before they learn to read it. To introduce characters while trying to learn basic Chinese would be overwhelming. Instead, the program uses the internationally-used Pinyin system. This system is logical and easy to use. Nowadays a lot of Chinese people learn it too. So don't think that by not memorizing a bunch of characters you are not getting "authentic" Chinese. There will be time to study that later after you learn the language.

There are two things about the software that could use some improvement. First of all, the "videos" are not really videos. They are pictures that they show on the screen. They usually have very little to do with the language.

Second, the program does not teach tongue position for pronunciation. This is critical, and I would not have learned it unless I had studied a college textbook from Princeton University that covers it. The difference between the q, x, ch, z, zh, t, r, and c sounds are very important and are not particularly covered in this course.

In spite of its shortcomings, I do highly recommend this software. It is easy to use. It uses native speakers. The sound is clear. The Pinyin is easy to understand. And with a little self-discipline, the program can work wonders.


Very, very poorly designed and extremely buggy   October 27, 2001
 10 out of 11 found this review helpful

I bought this software because I was desperate to find a any Chinese learning software, so I bought this one an also the Rosetta Chinese learning software.
Chinese now is the worst software I ever used, the user interface is very poorly designed and it crashes all the time.
The software offer you meaningless translations and the speech recognition part is completely unusable recording less than one second of speech, you never have time to finish a word before it's done recording.
My only advice is do not buy this software!, Only the package looks nice. You're much better off with a book and a tape


Best available for Mandarin Chinese   August 21, 2001
 3 out of 6 found this review helpful

First of all, it DOES work under Windows 2000 and I've never experienced a single crash. Second, there is a strategy to the exercises. The repitition and tools for marking words you don't know are good. Just listen to the dialogs until you become comfortable with what is being said.

I've found it extremely helpful. It's no substitute for an instructor, but is a strong supplement.

Overall, it's the best Mandarin Chinese tool available. I recommend it.


Don't Bother   August 14, 2001
 5 out of 6 found this review helpful

Don't bother with this software. It is a really pathetic package. First of all, it crashes all the time. Obviously, this package isn't supported since there is no patch for the crash on their website. But secondly, there is no uniform strategy to their teaching methods. Basically, this is just an engine that speaks chinese along side pinyin text. And a few games are thrown in to the mix. The speech analyzer which another reviewer commented on is useless. I can say entirely different words than I am supposed to and it still indicates I am speaking correctly.

Really, I'm surprised that this package is even on the market. You won't learn Mandarin with it. So it's a waste of time.