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Fluenz Mandarin 1+2 Learning Suite Mac, Including DVD, Audio CD, Podcasts, and Fluenz Navigator. Next-Generation Chinese Language Learning Software | 
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| From: Fluenz
Category: Software
List Price: $357.00
Buy New: $323.00
You Save: $34.00 (10%)
New (2) from $323.00
Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 1630
Format: Dvd-rom
Media: DVD-ROM
Operating System: Mac OSX 10.3 Panther
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 5 x 5 x 5
UPC: 804879078029
EAN: 0804879078029
ASIN: B000PUNZNY
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Features:
| • | We custom made Fluenz Mandarin as language learners who knew there had to be a better way to learn languages. The multi-media application was specifically designed to help English-speakers gain fluency in Chinese. | | • | To create a live learning enviroment, similar to what you are used to in a classroom, language tutor Sonia Gil guides you on video every step of the way. | | • | Adults do not learn in the same way as children; we need to use the rules of languages we know to learn other languages. Fluenz leverages your knowledge of English to accelerate your learning of Mandarin, with an emphasis on those words you are most likely to use. | | • | A next-generation platform blends beautiful full motion video with engaging, interactive workouts, including voice recording so you can compare your accent to native speech. | | • | Included is the Fluenz Mandarin 1+2 DVD-ROM for your computer (Mac OS X 10.3 and above, running great on Tiger and Leopard), an audio CD for additional training, and the handy Fluenz Navigator for on-the-go referencing of important words and phrases. |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Fluenz is a software company founded by a group of passionate language learners who felt there had to be a better way. At the center of our Mandarin program is language tutor Sonia Gil, who went to China herself to learn Mandarin. Sonia is there to guide you throughout the program, blending full motion video explanations in English with a series of highly engaging workouts, helping you understand and speak relevant Mandarin. The Fluenz system follows three clear principles: 1) Live Learning - Learning a new language, especially one as unfamiliar as Mandarin, is difficult to do on your own. With Live Learning, we have brought to computer education the essence of the classroom experience: a teacher. All words and phrases are thoroughly explained and you are guided through a structured learning process. 2) Leverage Learning - Modern linguistics tells us that as adults, we need to use the tools of the language we already know and apply them to learning a new language. With Fluenz, you learn first in English and relate basic Mandarin grammar and syntax to that of English, rather than trying to understand Mandarin grammar with Mandarin logic. Using the English you already know to learn Mandarin is the essence of Leverage Learning.3) Relevant Learning - You need to start learning the words and structures that will allow you to communicate the most in the least amount of time, taking into consideration which words are easier to remember for English speakers, which expressions make the most logical sense to us, and which are most useful--"cell phone" instead of "red apple." Being able to communicate right away in simple ways is the key to Relevant Learning; And, with more than 13 types of workouts covering verbal expression and comprehension, as well as reading and writing, you practice and internalize what you learn in the video lessons.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 Great Concept, Product and Service January 5, 2009
I am studying Chinese just for fun--I've never been there but hope to take a vacation there this year or next. I've completed 32 of 90 Pimsleur Mandarin lessons (which are entirely audio) and plan to finish those. I've read a lot about Fluenz and its online primary tutor, Sonia Gil (who amazingly also teaches the Spanish, French and Italian courses)--you can find information on Amazon, Myspace and Facebook about Fluenz and her. They have a good philosophy on how to teach a language to English-speaking adults, which includes a teacher (better than any of us probably had in a classroom), and training techniques including video, audio, writing (typing words), recording and listening, phrase by phrase, to your own voice compared to the fluent speakers, and many other exercises. In addition to the DVD, they also provide an Audio CD which you can use in a CD player or download to an iPod or similar player. Here you can listen while driving or exercising to Sonia's associates--they provide a good supplement to the course. The Fluenz team also has recorded podcasts available to its customers, which can be downloaded for additional learning. I have enjoyed all the resources provided--altogether, it is an enjoyable and excellent way to develop a very good working skill for enough Chinese to get by while continuing to learn more. Fluenz expects to have a Mandarin 3 available this spring.
Even though I am well on the way with my Pimsleur courses (which I bought before I ever heard of Fluenz--a relatively new and small company with a great team and product), I thoroughly enjoyed and benefited from the very first of the 45 lessons in the Fluenz course, and I will definitely finish the entire course with enthusiasm and continue into Fluenz Mandarin 3 when it becomes available.
A few reviewers have criticized the fact that Sonia Gil is not a native Chinese speaker--she went to China for an intensive course, apparently in preparation for teaching this course--she is a co-founder of Fluenz. She herself says that her pronunciation, while very good, is not perfect, and that she is still learning. Her pronunciation is perfect for my purposes, and I will be very happy if I can pronounce Chinese nearly as well as she can. Also, other speakers, some native in Chinese, also are used in the DVD exercises, the Audio CD, and the podcasts. Moreover, two native Chinese speakers review and approve all the course materials. A big advantage of having Sonia be the teacher is that she has had to learn this language herself and knows and appreciates the areas where English-speaking learners are likely to have the most difficulty. In balance, I think having Sonia be the primary tutor is a plus, not a minus. We all can hear native Chinese speakers not only in the Fluenz program, but in other programs. What Fluenz does is to get you speaking Mandarin very fast and to provide a base for further learning. With this goal in mind, Fluenz elected to teach pinyin (Chinese sounds using the Western alphabet, rather than Chinese characters). The spelling and the accent marks really teach an English speaker the words and sounds very quickly--and those of us who are interested in the Chinese characters can continue our studies or supplement Fluenz with other materials.
I feel much more confident in my pronunciation and mental understanding of exactly what words I am saying, based on Fluenz, than my confidence that I am correctly hearing what I am supposed to be saying in the all-audio Pimsleur courses. I still like the Pimsleur courses very much--I just find that having listened to a lot of them, I am finding Fluenz very helpful.
If I can learn Chinese, anyone can. I am not good at languages, and I live as the troglodyte in a family of great language learners--one of my four kids is fluent not only in French, Spanish and Portuguese (and proficient in Italian), she speaks different dialects of each well enough to fool local natives into thinking that she is a native of the same region. Chinese is a tonal language (four basic tones can change the same word into four totally different meanings--some of which could be quite embarrassing if the wrong tone is used). Fluenz does a great job in teaching the tones so that even I (who cannot carry a tune or sing even in English) am beginning to feel confident that I can avoid total disaster.
Fluenz's customer service has a reputation (based on the company's own descriptions and on the many reviews in Amazon and Facebook) for prompt, responsive and friendly personal attention and service. In my case, I sent an email with several questions and, on the morning of the first following business day, I received a very nice, personally written response with the answers, helpful suggestions, and a wish for happy holidays.
I have a technical, computer observation that might be of interest to Apple Mac users. I first tried on my Apple laptop the Windows version of the Fluenz DVD, because I can run a Windows XP or Vista virtual machine on my Mac, and figured that I could use the DVD not only that way but also on my desktop, which is a Windows-based PC. Everything worked fine until I tried to record my own voice using the Mac's internal microphone while running Fluenz in the Windows virtual machine. That's when I discovered (and this is not a problem peculiar to Fluenz) that the Mac's internal microphone does not work well (very low, garbled sound, if any) when running a virtual machine via either Fusion or Parallels--I verified this problem with an Apple employee and by online research. So my choice was to buy an external microphone and connect it by a USB cable, or return Fluenz Windows and get Fluenz Mac. I opted for the latter. I now have Fluenz for Mac, and it works perfectly--I've tried all the different types of exercises--on my Mac. (And, of course, when I had earlier run the Fluenz Windows version on a Windows PC, that version worked perfectly there, too.
Lastly, the Fluenz primary program (the one on the DVD--not the Audio CD or the podcasts) must be run on your computer directly from the DVD. I think that Fluenz protects against unauthorized copying in this way. But without being able to make a backup copy or to transfer the DVD onto a computer, it places a premium on being very careful not to lose or damage a DVD costing over $300. I hope that Fluenz would for a nominal charge replace a damaged DVD, but I have not asked them and hope that I never need to ask.
All in all, I highly recommend Fluenz for Mandarin or any language that it offers. (By the way, I have no connection to the company and don't know any of the people there personally, although they seem from the company descriptions and pictures and customer service to be very nice.)
David Keyes
Houston, Texas
Better than Rosetta in both function and retention December 26, 2008
I've tried both Rosetta Stone and Fluenz for Mandarin, and by far, Fluenz offers the better path for retention of vocabulary and functional words you are going to use. I travel to Taiwan and Mainland China a couple of times a year now, and now I'll be able to explore without fear of being hopelessly lost.
I think the best compliment I can pay Fluenz is that when I first went to Taipei in 2007, I felt completely lost, and started looking for something, anything, that would get me started. I went online to the Fluenz site and took the sample lesson. Over a year later, I still retained what I had learned (basic phrases for "I want that one" and "No Thank You." Now that I'm jumping into the meat of the course, I'm finding that ALL the lessons are like that.
Where Rosetta Stone provides pictures and makes you match up the words to the pictures (which I immediately forgot,)Fluenz takes a completely different approach. You watch a conversation 3 times, then an instructor comes on screen and breaks it down for you. Then, you start the drills. Each lesson builds on the next. It's simple, but it works amazingly well. Plus, Fluenz focuses on functional dialogue - words you'll use in a restaurant, a taxi, etc.
 got me out of the house! September 27, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I had been living in Shanghai China for about 8 months and found myself trapped at home watching bootleg DVDs and eating at high priced resturants. From the moment I started Fluenz my local staff was impressed with my quick pickup of elements of the language. In fact they started speaking more Shanghainese as it became apparent I could understand them!
Fluenz customer service is also top notch. When Paypal delayed giving them my payment, I told them I needed the product in two days (because I was flying back to China) it showed up no questions asked! Even better - when they upgraded the initial version, they sent it to me without asking.
The podcasts are good reviews and are very helpful. I find Rosetta Stone annoying and not very helpful. I really don't need to tell anyone that the Elephant was playing ball with the boy. The Fluenz approach is much more practical and useful from day one.
I did not give 5 stars because I feel that including optional display of Chinese Characters would make the product that much better. OVERALL - GREAT.
A Great Way to Learn a Language September 11, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Fluenz is based on one on one tutering in a classroom setting. While Rosetta immerses you in Mandarin, Fluenz believe adults and small children have different ways of learning languages. While I seemed to be able to pick up enough to travel in Japan with Rosetta Stone in a month, it just wasn't working as well for me with Mandarin, maybe because I was doing two languages at once and I was confusing myself. However, I speak Spanish and French and I don't get confused. Don't get me wrong, Rosetta Stone Mandarin is a five star program, it's just that I felt I needed more, so I turned to Fluenz, decided to do them both, Rosetta in the morning, Fluenz before I went to bed, so that it would percolate in my dreams.
The Fluenz system works with logic and memory, You hear a phrase, click on the correct picture, learn the way a child learns. Fluenz introduces their sessions in English, Rosetta does not. Both are useful methods for me, for me they complement each other.
You listen to a conversation several times with and without subtitles. After the short conversation you match up Mandarin phrases with the correct English counterpart, kind of like with a work book, with Mandarin on the left and English on the right, only you're not drawing lines connecting them. This is fairly easy.
Next you see some images and you match the word or expression that matches it, much like you do in Rosetta Stone. Then you write words in Mandarin, of course you're using Pinyin. This is harder, but it seems to reinforce what I've learned. Then you have to write out words you hear only. This is harder still. And like with Rosetta Stone, you can record yourself and listen to how you're doing and you can also enter into a conversation, playing one of the characters. It's kind of neat hearing yourself played back.
So which do I prefer, Fluenz or Rosetta Stone? They're both great. I've done well with Rosetta Japanese and am progressing with Mandarin, but I'm moving faster using Fluenz too. Fluenz is just simply a great way to learn a language, however you should know it's a six month commitment. You can't rush it.
Good principles, good practice April 29, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
As a lapsed Chinese speaker who picked up Mandarin on the go while living there, I have to say I like the sensibility of their adult learning approach. This is the way I learned this language the first time, but having it reinforced with clear explanations of why the grammar and usage works the way it does -- the audio CD was great reinforcement for this -- is aiding my self-review and helping unlearn a few bad habits I picked up the first time around. Since it's not new material for me, it would be nice to find a way to pick up the pace, but that's a minor issue.
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