After School Chinese: Level 1

Hosted by Donald Holder (an American teacher living in China), After School Chinese: Level 1 is a comprehensive language course featuring eight DVDs, two audio CDs, and a CD-ROM that includes a PDF student book and instructional guide. While Mandarin Chinese is not generally regarded as the easiest language for Westerners to pick up, this solid program will give viewers an excellent head start, as it alternates between word and phrase repetition by Holder (on a Mister Rogers Neighborhood-ish set) and segments featuring a class of Chinese students. Each of the eight lessons here follow the same format of dialogue segments, followed by specific vocabulary recaps (both with Chinese characters and phonetic pinyin), and sentence pattern reviews (all separately accessible, with different inflections demonstrated by Holder, and clips of a girl and boy from the class). “Lesson 1” covers greetings (including informal, respectful, and plural ways of saying hello), “Lesson 2” explores countries, “Lesson 3” is on saying goodbye, with other lessons including asking questions (“Where are you going?” “How much is it?”), expressing thanks, learning directions, and days of the week. Additional lessons in the complete four-level course set (available for $699.80) include time, transportation, shopping, weather, parties, colors, going to the doctor, writing letters, and “At McDonalds.” Highly recommended. Aud: I, J, H, P. (J. Williams-Wood)