Living Language Mandarin Chinese, Complete Edition

Complete Mandarin Chinese is a unique multimedia program that takes you beginner to advanced level in one convenient package.

At the core of Complete Mandarin Chinese is the Living Language Method™, based on linguistic science, proven techniques, and over 65 years of experience. Our method teaches you the whole language, so you can express yourself, not just recite memorized words or scripts.

9 Audio CDs: Vocabulary, dialogues, audio exercises, and more

Mandarin Chinese Essential:
CD 1 Lessons 1-4
CD 2 Lessons 4-8
CD 3 Lessons 8-10 and Review Dialogues
Mandarin Chinese Intermediate:
CD 4 Lessons 1-8
CD 5 Lessons 8-14
CD 6 Lessons 15-20
Mandarin Chinese Advanced:
CD 7 Lessons 1-6
CD 8 Lessons 6-11
CD 9 Lessons 12-16
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Simplified Chinese 汉语, traditional Chinese 漢語, pinyin Hànyǔ, or Chinese 中文, Chinese writing is a group of related, but in many cases mutually unintelligible, language varieties, forming a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Chinese is spoken by the Han majority and many minority ethnic groups in China. About 1.2 billion people (around 16% of the world's population) speak some form of Chinese as their first language.

The varieties of Chinese are usually described by native speakers as dialects of a single Chinese language, but linguists note that they are as diverse as a language family.[a] The internal diversity of Chinese has been likened to that of the Romance languages, but may be even more varied. There are between 7 and 13 main regional groups of Chinese (depending on classification scheme), of which the most spoken by far is Mandarin (about 960 million, e.g. Southwestern Mandarin), followed by Wu (80 million, e.g. Shanghainese), Min(70 million, e.g. Southern Min), Yue (60 million, e.g. Cantonese), etc. Most of these groups are mutually unintelligible, and even dialect groups within Min Chinese may not be mutually intelligible. Some, however, like Xiang and certain Southwest Mandarin dialects, may share common terms and a certain degree of intelligibility. All varieties of Chinese are tonal and analytic.