This Basic program contains 5 hours of audio-only, effective language learning with real-life spoken practice sessions. HEAR IT, LEARN IT, SPEAK IT ® What is the Pimsleur® difference? The Pimsleur Method provides the most effective language-learning program ever developed. The Pimsleur Method gives you quick command of Mandarin Chinese structure without tedious drills. Learning to speak Mandarin Chinese can actually be enjoyable and rewarding. The key reason most people struggle with new languages is that they aren't given proper instruction, only bits and pieces of a language. Other language programs sell only pieces -- dictionaries; grammar books and instructions; lists of hundreds or thousands of words and definitions; audios containing useless drills. They leave it to you to assemble these pieces as you try to speak. Pimsleur enables you to spend your time learning to speak the language rather than just studying its parts. When you were learning English, could you speak before you knew how to conjugate verbs? Of course you could. That same learning process is what Pimsleur replicates. Pimsleur presents the whole language as one integrated piece so you can succeed. With Pimsleur you get: Grammar and vocabulary taught together in everyday conversation, Interactive audio-only instruction that teaches spoken language organically, The flexibility to learn anytime, anywhere, 30-minute lessons designed to optimize the amount of language you can learn in one sitting. Millions of people have used Pimsleur to gain real conversational skills in new languages quickly and easily, wherever and whenever -- without textbooks, written exercises, or drills. The 10 lessons in the Basic Mandarin Chinese are the same as the first 10 lessons in the Pimsleur Comprehensive Mandarin Chinese Level 1. The 10 lessons in Basic Mandarin Chinese are also the first 10 lessons in the 16-lesson Conversational Mandarin Chinese edition. Pimsleur learners progress from either the Basic or the Conversational to the Comprehensive Level 1, and not from Basic to Conversational edition.