[.ca] Ultimate Chinese (Mandarin) Beginner-Intermediate (CD/Book) (ISBN 1400021030)

Very Good:
I found this book to be very good and well worth the price. Even though it is mostly geared towards conversation and vocabulary through conversational dialogues using pinyin, it covers some very basic Chinese characters as well. Each chapter covers a specific topic or gives a specific situational dialogue between a few people. I found this method of instruction very useful/helpful. The new vocabulary is shown almost entirely in pinyin except for the few odd words which also show up as Chinese characters. If you want to learn how to read Chinese, this is probably not a good book by itself. I have no hesitation in recommending this book for anyone interested in learning to speak Mandarin. Real beginners would probably find the kit (book & CDs) to be a better choice since it is difficult to learn any new language by just following a book.