You don't need characters to speak Chinese! In fact, for English speakers, learning the characters is an inefficient process and slows down your progress in learning to speak and listen to Chinese.Instead, use separate but integrated "tracks" to help you efficiently master the basics of spoken and written Chinese. "Basic Spoken Chinese" provides success at a beginning level of fluency.Unlike many textbooks, this book focuses on the challenges faced by native English-speaking students in learning Chinese. Detailed explanations in English of Chinese pronunciation, grammar, usage, culture, society, and recommended learning approaches. Included DVD offers videos featuring over 100 native speakers in many diverse Chinese-speaking societies, from mainland China and Taiwan to Singapore and Malaysia. This software program allows the learner to view 40 on-location, native-speaker videos of the book's 40 core Chinese conversations, and interact with them in various ways: user can select/replay any specific portions of the videos; can choose to also view the conversation in pinyin, Simplified Chinese characters, or Traditional Chinese characters (appears beside the video as each spoken line occurs); or can choose to mute any Chinese or American speaker's audio, to practice speaking along with the videoAn included Audio disc provides over 6 hours of native-speaker audio, including all of the book's conversations, build ups, new words, supplementary vocabulary, dialogues, and other key items.Teacher's Guide is available electronically.A written Character Transcript (Simplified and Traditional) is available electronically. About the Series: Respected Chinese language expert Dr. Cornelius Kubler, who has taught diplomats, business people and students, presents a learning system that uses separate but integrated "tracks" to help you efficiently master the basics of spoken and written Chinese. The materials in "Basic Chinese" allow you to move from complete beginner level to basic fluency.