Instant Immersion Mandarin Chinese Deluxe review:3 stars (bit of a con) - As another reviewer said, this "deluxe 8 cd" stuff is misleading. The core part of the software is the "Tell Me More" 4-cd set. However, there is only 1 lesson on each cd (total = 4 measley lessons). If you click on the "choose a lesson" icon, you are presented with a choice of...one lesson! Pathetic! If you buy the proper "Tell Me More" pack, you will have only 1 cd but it will contain loads of lessons.

Also, I was really interested in learning to speak and listen, not so bothered about reading and writing. Speaking and listening only makes up about 5% of the software, so it's not very useful in that respect. Also be aware that the characters are all simplified Chinese characters, so if you wanted to learn traditional characters, keep away. If your main interest is learning to read simplified Chinese,then this is not bad,otherwise I think it's not much use, and putting so little content on so many cds is really dishonest, and I think Topics shouldn't be rewarded for such trickery. My advice is: don't give them your money!4 stars (Good vocabulary builder) - This program doesn't seem to be good for absolute beginners, but it's good for expanding your vocabulary. It took me a while working with other programs for learning Chinese before I was ready to make good use of this one. Dictionary part of it is awesome because you can see how the words are written in Chinese characters as well as in pinyin. It has lots of fun games to test your comprehension and a lot of the material is focused on testing your knowledge of Chinese characters.

The program does teach some dialogues as well as grammar and it is helpful for making sure you're pronouncing the words correctly, but for me the greatest benefit of this program lies in helping one to learn lots of words and characters. You get to learn about 3000 words and 800 characters and the best part about all of these words is that you get to hear them and you get to play with characters through lots of fun games. It really does help to retain the information.5 stars (Great Software!) - This is a great software to learn Chinese.Indeed, I would have never though I will be able to learn Chinese as it seems complicated but this software had the answer for me.First, you are able to hear the language, and then it is your turn to talk and improve your pronunciation. This immersion method was very helpful.You could learn and pronounce hundreds of words, sentences.Very interactive package that I will highly recommend. The activities proposed in the software are also very good with fill-in-the blanks, crossword puzzles,..., a good and fun way to learn a difficult language!
Instant Immersion Mandarin Chinese Deluxe Features:
Computer software (programs)
Education (Educational)
Reference
Foreign Languages (Language)
Asian
Learn learning
CD
PC: Pentium(166 MHz recommended), Windows® 95 and higher includeing XP, 16 MB RAM (32 MB RAM recommended)
90 MB HD (110 MB recommended), 2X CD-ROM drive (12X CD ROM drive recommended)
16-bit Windows - compatible sound card, 640 X 480, 256 color graphics card (1024 X 768, 65,536 color graphics card recommended) Microphone and speakers or headset, Internet access and e-mail address r
Topics
PC

Instant Immersion Mandarin Chinese Deluxe is the CD-ROM version. The full version can be purchased by clicking on the "CLICK HERE TO ORDER" button below for around 36.99USD.