Pimsleur Chinese (Mandarin) (affiliate link) is one of the most popular tools available for learning Mandarin Chinese. When I first began learning Chinese, I went through Pimsleur programs 1 to 3 and found it to be a great primer for learning the language. The features I liked about it included:

• It was audio based, which meant I could listen to it on my iPod or while on the go
• The lessons got harder as Chinese from earlier lessons was reused, which meant real progress
• It forced me to constantly review earlier material as this material was reused in later lessons

There were a few issues about it that I didn’t like though:

• The Chinese being used was very Beijing centric, which wasn’t how the locals where I was (Taiwan) spoke
• The program only had 3 levels (now 4), and I wanted more beyond that
• It was mainly an audio program, so I didn’t have any pinyin or character sheets to follow along with
• While there was a lot of learning done within the lesson, there wasn’t much I could do outside of the lessons to help review the material

CLO was actually created to address these issues. I tried to incorporate the features I liked about Pimsleur (audio based, progressive, constant review) while adding more to it, namely:

• Use speakers from Taiwan, whose accents I find are easier for beginners to follow (due to tones being emphasized more)
• Expand the course to 7 levels of difficulty
• Provide transcripts in pinyin or characters to follow along
• Provide review tools to let students review the vocabulary, grammar and characters taught in each lesson

The course has gotten great feedback over the years, but we are not done yet. Expect to see more tools added in coming months to improve your learning experience. Stay tuned!