1. REVIEWS - Learn Mandarin: Fluenz Mandarin
1+2+3 with supplemental Audio CDs and
Podcasts
ViewUserReviews
Average Customer Rating
4.5 out of 5
Product Feature
75 sessions of up to two and one-half hours each --q
the most comprehensive software application
covering the first, second and third level of
Mandarin anywhere. Fluenz Mandarin 1+2+3 will
guide you in English through the challenges of
Mandarin with a proven system.
Includes Fluenz Mandarin 1+2 and Fluenzq
Mandarin 3 DVD-ROMs, two audio CDs for
additional learning, exclusive, downloadable
podcasts for further practice, and the handy
Fluenz Navigator for on-the-go referencing of
important words and phrases.
The Fluenz language tutor guides you on videoq
every step of the way, recreating a one-on-one
tutoring experience, utilizing explanations in
English, placing you in real-world contexts, and
immersing you in the culture.
Fluenz blends a video tutor with a range ofq
engaging, interactive workouts to improve your
reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills in a
unique approach that is currently being used by
the US Navy, senior personnel at the UN and
UNICEF, executives of Fortune 500 companies,
students at Harvard Business School and other
leading universities.
Please be aware that we cannot guaranteeq
third-party sellers are providing the program's
latest version. Older versions of the program are
unlikely to work on Mac Lion OS, Mac Mountain
Lion OS or Windows 8. Fluenz cannot support
programs purchased through third-party sellers. To
guarantee that you're getting the latest version
make sure your shopping cart indicates "Sold by
Fluenz", whether it is fulfilled by Amazon or
directly by Fluenz.æ

2. Read moreq
Product Description
The only interactive language program featuring real teachers who guide learners every step of
the way, explaining in English the intricacies and shortcuts of Chinese. Ideal for those who thrive in a
teacher-oriented learning environment, who need to understand how the language works in plain English, and
who seek relevant Chinese they can actually use while in China.
The team behind the application combines recent Harvard and Cornell graduates, some of whom went to China
to learn the language and understand the specific challenges for English-speakers, seasoned Chinese teachers
trained in the teaching of Mandarin to non-Chinese learners, and veterans of technology start-ups.
Fluenz Mandarin 1+2+3 is composed of 75 full sessions that each include up to two hours and thirty minutes of
training. Every session features a set of clear, common sense tools that progressively increase the learner's
range of communication. Instead of endless expressions that follow simple present tense sentences no one
really needs (This is an apple, The woman runs), Fluenz builds steadily from useful structures like questions and
commands (Where can I get a taxi?, Stop here), and useful vocabulary (restaurants, transportation, directions,
etc.) to more and more complex speech. The third level focuses on work-related activities through intensive
training with the past tense, the present progressive, subtle forms of description, measure words, conditionals,
and strategies for using the right word order. Read more
Product Description
The only interactive Mandarin program offering an immersive environment that recreates the best elements of
great one-on-one tutoring.
A Great Teacher on Your Computer
Discover Mandarin through the power of two great tutors with the comprehensive 1+2+3 program. The Fluenz
custom-made approach guides you in English every step of the way through the challenges of Mandarin, while
immersing you in the beauty of Chinese culture.
A Proven Track Record
Fluenz's unique approach is currently being used by elite units of the US Navy, senior personnel at the UN and
UNICEF, executives at Microsoft, HP and Intel, as well as students at Harvard Business School and other leading
universities.

3. How Fluenz gets you there:
• A real on-screen tutor who guides you every step of the way.
• Using English explanations so you never get lost.
• Immersing you in the culture of the language.
f2
is the newest version of Fluenz, containing hundreds of small yet significant improvements over all prior versions of the program.
f2
is a hybrid Mac/Win system which can run directly from the hard drive, offering superior audio and video quality, more powerful
tools for targeting the areas where you need the most work, and enhanced navigation to give you complete control over the
learning process.

5. The Most Comprehensive Program to Learn Mandarin
Mandarin 1+2+3
This comprehensive program will guide you through Mandarin in 75 sessions that take up to two hours and
thirty minutes each to complete. Each session is led from beginning to end by a tutor who guides learners
step-by-step with explanations, strategies, tactics, and tips to help English speakers reach a level of
conversational Mandarin in the least amount of time. The program is jointly led by Yi Wei and Sonia Gil, recent
graduates of Harvard and Cornell who have been developing Fluenz Mandarin during the last four years.
The Fluenz Difference
Designed by recent graduates of Harvard and Cornell Universities, along with veterans in language learning
and high technology, Fluenz addresses the critical issues for adults and teens to reach fluency: 1) clear
explanations in plain English, 2) the motivation only a great teacher can provide, and 3) hundreds of hours of
focused practice specifically tailored to help English speakers master Mandarin Chinese.
No Substitute for a Great Tutor
Fluenz offers a great teacher to challenge and inspire you. Instead of matching pictures with Mandarin words
over and over again, fluency can be reached more quickly by having someone actually explain to you in English
how the language works. That's why every Fluenz session is built around a tutor who leads you through the
learning process. The matching of pictures and words typical of immersion methods cannot account for, or
explain, how the tone system works in Mandarin. This is critical because without mastering tones, no Chinese
speaker will ever understand what you are saying.
Adults Should Be Taught Like Adults
Linguistic research shows that adults learn languages differently than children. Adults really benefit from
having clear explanations of how Mandarin Chinese works. Instead of focusing on childlike phrases such as "red
apple, green apple," Fluenz has you ordering food, giving directions to a taxi driver, making hotel reservations,
and handling a wide range of other real-world situations right from the start. The program's third level expands
your range of communication at the workplace by providing the relevant vocabulary and grammar.
Custom-Made For English Speakers
Cookie-cutter approaches based on matching pictures and words follow the same script from language to
language. But using the same script to teach both Mandarin and Spanish doesn't make sense. Each language is

6. unique, and each one presents its own unique challenges to an English speaker. For example, it is impossible to
understand the tone system of pronunciation, "measure words", or rules regarding word order that are unique
to Mandarin without a brief yet effective explanation in English.
Three Steps Towards Fluency
With Mandarin 1+2+3, you'll start out by building a strong foundation in how the language works from
pronunciation to grammatical structures. Right away, you'll learn how to form useful questions and statements
("The check, please"), and from there you'll begin to construct more complex sentences allowing you to
interact at restaurants, hotels, airports, train stations, and other essential locations. The third level of the
program takes your Mandarin to a whole new level, enhancing the complexity and subtlety of your speech with
in-depth work on tenses, conditionals, comparatives, and more formal structures. The step-by-step Fluenz
system has been designed to move you beyond canned phrases to being able to participate in natural,
unrehearsed conversation.
The Fluenz Approach to Mandarin Chinese
Chinese is easier to learn than most people imagine, but it must be clearly explained. For example, one of theq
biggest challenges for Westerners is the fact that each syllable must be pronounced with one of five very
different tones. Two words can have the exact same letters, like ma, but they can mean either mother or
horse depending on which tones are used. While these tones are very difficult to learn by simply listening to
them and hoping to imitate them, a simple, common sense explanation in English (comparing familiar English
sounds with each tone) can go a long way to mastering them and to navigating the many exceptions and
changes that govern their use.
Using English can make all the difference in understanding "measure words," a key concept in Chinese that isq
absent from Western grammars. There is no way a learner can grasp when and how to use the right "measure
words" unless the concept is explained and practiced in English. Mere imitation of expressions is simply no
substitute for a good understanding of what's going on.
The Fluenz recording engine helps people hone their use of tones through self comparison, which makes farq
more sense than voice recognition systems that are so finely tuned to the five tones that it becomes very
difficult to get it right. While voice recognition has advanced in recent years, its use in the learning of Chinese
by English speakers can actually hamper learning by forcing them to meet impossible standards. Beginning
Mandarin speakers should first focus on being understood, not on achieving a perfect pitch.
How It Works
Fluenz Mandarin is organized around one-on-one tutoring sessions that each take up to two and a half hours to
complete. The tutor for the first part of the program is Sonia Gil, whose journey learning Mandarin in Shanghai
and Hangzhou will enlighten your own process. The second part is taught by Yi Wei, a native Chinese speaker
who grew up in Chicago and went on to Harvard.
How Fluenz Begins
The Fluenz tutor begins each session with a brief introduction. This provides an understanding of how the new
material will take you a step closer to fluency, while immersing you in the cultural context and the experiences
of everyday Mandarin in China.
Introducing useful, everyday language
This is followed by a realistic conversation between native speakers that uses all the words and structures to be
learned in the session. These conversations place you in the most common, everyday situations right from the
very beginning. These interactions have been designed to address the specific situations English speakers face
in day-to-day China, and to lay the foundations required for more advanced study of the language.
Immersive one-on-one tutorial
Immediately after the conversation, the tutor presents a full tutorial explaining in detail and in English how
every single new word and structure works. Beyond in-depth explanations, these tutorials offer strategies,
tactics and personal experiences that give you valuable insights.
Workout to fluency

7. After each tutorial, the program turns to over a dozen different types of increasingly challenging workouts that
cover reading, writing, speaking, and listening. These workouts reinforce and expand your communication at
the same time. The recording engine allows learners to work on improving their tones and their overall accent.
Coaching you forward
At the end of the session, the Fluenz tutor returns to offer a conclusion, along with the kind of inspiration only a
great teacher can provide.
The Path to Fluency 1+2+3
1. Build a Strong Foundation
Fluenz Mandarin begins by teaching how to form questions and statements that are useful on day one and that
can be intuitively understood by English speakers (i.e. "The check, please," "I want this dish"). The Fluenz team
felt this was more relevant than phrases such as "The man in running," typically found in other programs. For
example, after only the first four sessions of level one, learners are already able to have effective conversations
in a restaurant.
2. Describe Location and Directions
The program then shifts to describing and asking about location. In this way users can learn the basics of how
crucial verbs work while advancing their vocabulary related to transportation and travel. Instead of memorizing
words and pictures, Fluenz users actually get to understand how questions and phrases such as "Where is the
hotel?" and "I'm going to the museum" both work and are used in everyday life.
3. Gain Confidence With Your Verbs
Mandarin verbs can be easier to learn than expected because they don't require conjugations, feminine or
masculine endings, and no plural agreements. Because Fluenz has been designed from the point of view of
English speakers learning Mandarin, the program takes advantage of this fact to accelerate the learning
process.
4. Valuable Descriptive Terms
Because language without description lacks life and color, Fluenz puts great emphasis on how to add this
important dimension to your interactions. Plus, when traveling or living in China, nothing is going to be more
helpful than "bigger," "smaller," "less expensive," and those other adjectives that both make sense to English
speakers and are easily used in forming sentences.

8. 5. Building Blocks of Sophisticated Communication
Since the key to fluency in Mandarin is being able to use all of the most common parts of speech, Fluenz covers
a wide range of central grammar issues. Learning key elements in Mandarin such as word order and commands,
you'll be able to correctly form ever more complex sentences and express yourself with solid, confident
Mandarin.
6. Understand Directions and Transportation
Giving and receiving directions is both a way to continue building the essential tools of Mandarin
communication and a way to develop the skills anyone traveling will always need. Fluenz creates a path that
gives English speakers complete control over the critical vocabulary and structures for asking questions,
indicating directions, negotiating transportation, and explaining locations, all within the very specific
circumstances of contemporary China.
7. Easily Handle Numbers and Time
After thorough workouts enabling learners to talk about location with ease, Fluenz makes sure you master
numbers and, therefore, time. From counting to telling the time, Fluenz users gain control over a wide range of
time-specific communication. Once time and location are joined, it becomes possible to form complex questions
and statements in a variety of situations, such as planning trips or making appointments.
8. Confident Shopping and Negotiation
Throughout the program, your ability to interact in shopping situations is steadily improved. Fluenz works on
the critical verb "to want" in the very beginning, and soon enough you learn how to ask about prices, make
comparisons between different items, and express exactly what you're looking for. By the end of the program,
you'll be able to handle shopping, ever important price negotiations in markets and shops all over China, and
other purchasing situations with ease.
9. Make Plans with Conditions and Possibilities
Fluenz gives you the tools to make detailed plans, whether a lunch date with a friend, a business meeting, or
travel abroad, using the nuanced tenses that allow you to express condition and possibility.
10. Discuss Family and Describe People
As your Mandarin becomes more complex and flexible, conversations will move from basic needs and wants to
sharing personal stories and background. Beyond telling stories, however, the vocabulary used to describe
family can translate into a multiplicity of scenarios and give you the capacity to describe people whether

9. looking for someone in a restaurant or talking about your favorite movie star.
11. Express Opinions and Preferences
From dining situations to making plans with friends, being able to express your opinions and preferences is a
key component to everyday language. The program introduces the verbs that will empower you in shopping
and negotiating situations ("I prefer the blue one"), making plans ("I think we should go tomorrow if it isn't
raining"), and discussing an endless number of topics from politics to sports ("I wish I could play tennis, but I
think I'm a good soccer player").
12. Mandarin for the Workplace
Fluenz Mandarin has been used by executives who work at Microsoft, Intel, HP, by students at the Harvard
Business School and other universities, senior personnel at UNICEF and other international institutions because
they were either going to China or were already working there. Fluenz equips you with the tools to handle
scheduling, negotiation and formal conversations, while providing you with the strongest possible foundation in
the language from which to expand your vocabulary to suite your field of expertise. Most importantly, you'll be
learning how to engage in conversations from day one, which means you can start using your Mandarin in the
workplace right away.
13. Advanced Concepts
Once you've established a foundation in how the language works, it is time to add more life to your Mandarin
by expanding not only your vocabulary, but also your comfort with a variety of familiar expressions and
sentence structures. As the program progresses, you'll acquire tools to hold conversations with the present
progressive, the simple past and the past participle, the use of conditionals, relevant vocabulary, a number of
all-important "measure words", expanding vocabulary for descriptions, and a great deal of emphasis on word
order. The more advanced sessions focus on work-related activities, such as making appointments and visiting
factories.
14. Ideal for Communicating Wherever People Speak Mandarin
While Mandarin is an ancient and beautiful language, it is also the means of daily communication for over a
billion people. Fluenz Mandarin has been designed to strike the right balance between its legacy and its
dynamic nature, providing a firm basis for travel, living, and further study in China and Taiwan, and to
communicate with the ever-larger number of Mandarin speakers in Macau, Hong Kong, and communities from
New York to Singapore.
15. A Winning Team
Sonia Gil's experiences learning Mandarin in China and Yi Wei's native mastery of the language provide the
ideal tutoring experience for English speakers.
Great Audio CDs and Exclusive Podcasts
Audio CDs: Mandarin for Your Car or iPod
The Audio CDs have been designed to follow the interactive program, providing an ideal supplement for on the
go learning.
Fluenz Podcasts: Download to Learn on the Go
The Podcasts offer a more informal setting to follow key concepts, cultural context, and the adventure of

10. learning Mandarin.
The Fluenz Navigator: Your Essential Phrase Book
Fluenz Spanish also comes with the Phrase Book Navigator, a useful quick-reference guide for travelers.
What's in the Box
Read more
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