<DIV>Welcome to the world's most effective method of learning Mandarin! This widely-acclaimed series continues to impress and inspire learners whether they're studying Chinese on their own, or in a classroom setting.<BR><BR><I>Intermediate Spoken Chinese</i> and the corresponding Practice Essentials allow you to experience real-life situations in different Mandarin-speaking locales. Each of the common situations explored here—from shopping at a market to playing unexpected phone tag—is one you're most likely to encounter as you interact with Chinese speakers.<BR><BR>The breakthrough foundation of these books is that you don't need to know the characters in order to speak Chinese. This series provides separate "tracks" to help you master the skills of speaking and writing Chinese at your own pace. Some learners place greater emphasis on reading and writing, while others focus on developing a knowledge of spoken Chinese first, and then learn the characters. Both approaches are perfectly valid, and the one you adopt will depend on your personal goals and the amount of time you have for weekly study. This series allows you total flexibility in this regard.<BR><BR>You may choose to use this as a stand-alone book, or in conjunction with <i>Intermediate Written Chinese</i> if you wish to learn the corresponding Chinese characters. The latter introduces the characters in this book in a systematic way.<BR><BR>Key features of <i>Intermediate Spoken Chinese</i>:<ul><LI> Clear and detailed explanations of natural, colloquial Chinese pronunciation, grammar and usage</li><LI> Recommended strategies to help you learn to speak Chinese more efficiently</li><LI> Videos teach you real-life Chinese, the actual speaking styles of Chinese people in various parts of mainland China as well as Taiwan, Macao, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia</li><LI> Notes on Chinese culture and society allow you to understand situational etiquette</li><LI> Discussions of challenges faced by English speakers who are learning Chinese and how to overcome them</li><LI> Audio recordings by native speakers of all the vocabulary, dialogues, and other key items</li><LI> A separate Teacher's Guide and a full character transcript (both Simplified and Traditional) are both available electronically</li></ul><BR><BR>An accompanying software program contains 56 videos shot on location. The software allows students to interact with the videos in various ways: to select/replay specific passages; to view the dialogues in Hanyu Pinyin, Simplified or Traditional characters as each line is spoken; and to mute a particular speaker's audio.</div>