Ouch, My Ears!, October 24, 2004
　

English part on this CD is awesome - both the background music and the voices sound professionally done. The problem with Chinese is not that the vocalists are bad - for the most part they sound decent - but no matter how good voice you may have if you keep on trying to squish 5 - 10 syllables into a beat of music that can accommodate harmoniously only one or two - it's not going to work.

The music on this CD was created to accommodate English verses. When these English verses got translated to Chinese, the number of Chinese syllables that has to fit into the same music constantly comes out as being either not enough or too much.

it makes me wonder if musicians who were involved in creating these songs didn't have ears to hear how bad the combination sounds, or they didn't care, or thought that kids for whom it was made, would either not notice or care.

This recording could've been done beautifully if instead of using popular western music to accompany Chinese verses, they picked perhaps some Chinese music.

(...)

A disappointment, July 10, 2001
　

This book and tape set was somewhat of a disappointment. The female vocalist in the audio recording valiantly attempts to sing Chinese lyrics to familiar American children's tunes. In this case it just doesn't work. The lyrics sound like they were "squeezed" into the music. Many of the tunes are completely out of rhythm. My children were also turned off by the singer's voice which is somewhat high pitched and grating. It would have been nice if the songs were set to Chinese melodies instead of western tunes. When learning a foreign language why not also learn the music of that culture as well?
　

the good and the bad, August 18, 2004
　

I will attempt to give an objective review.
The good:
* Good concept: the book follows a little Chinese girl, Marie, throughout her day. On the way, you learn the Chinese words for family members, colors, clothing, body parts, days of the week, etc.
* Good Chinese pronunciation: Considering how many local dialects and accents there are in China, I am always concerned about pronunciation. I was pleased to find that the Chinese narrator speaks Mandarin with very good standard (Mainland Chinese) pronunciation. Note: standard Mandarin pronunciation in China and in Taiwan, though similar, have slight differences.
* Good English vocalists.

The bad:
* Poor Chinese vocalist: The narrator, who also does the singing, needs singing lessons! To be fair, she is not a terrible singer, she sings about as well as your average mom or grandma. But then again, your average mom or grandma would not be featured on a music CD, right? In several songs, she is off beat and off pitch.
* Hand-written book: Another thing I did not like is that the book is completely handwritten, so it is not very professional looking.
* Mistakes in the lyrics: I have found that the written Chinese lyrics do not always correspond to what is actually sung and some of the pinyin is incorrect.

Other neutral information:
* The songs are mostly standard western songs with make-shift translations. What bothers me is that many of the songs, such as "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," have had standard Chinese lyrics for decades, yet the version in this CD sounds as if someone just decided to make up new lyrics. The translation tends to be more or less a direct translation of the English, which is probably what was intended. However, this also means that some of the songs sound very strange in Chinese.
* The Chinese lyrics are written only in pinyin without any Chinese characters, so I had to write them out myself.

Do I recommend this product? Well, that depends on who you are. I believe that this product is useful in introducing VERY YOUNG children to the sound of the Mandarin language. Since young children are a very forgiving audience, they probably won't object to the high-pitched, occasionally out-of-tune vocal performance. My bilingual 3-year-old son loves the CD. So if you have children under 5 and if you believe you can tolerate the singing, I would recommend this product. The product states that it is for kids ages 2 to 12, but I seriously doubt that any child above five years of age will enjoy the music.

Almost couldn't be worse, December 29, 2003
Reviewer: A reader
The idea of recording Chinese language children's songs is great, but unfortunately the music on this CD is terrible. The singing sounds like a bad female impersonator, and the music sounds like super-cheapo eletric organ samples. It's almost unbearable to listen to. My spouse who speaks chinese says the pronounciation was unrecognizable, maybe because of the very high pitched voice.

I hope someone else will give this idea a second try and use native chinese speaking children to sing and professional musicians for the music.

Excellent!, May 21, 2003
　

We've owned this CD for 2 years now and we listen to it often. My son is now 2 years old and his Chinese daycare teacher is constantly amazed at how well he is picking up Chinese. She tells me that he is learning Chinese much better than the other non-Chinese children. She has asked me more than once if we speak Chinese with him at home. No, we don't! However, I play the "Teach me Chinese", "Teach me More Chinese" and "Sing 'n Learn Chinese" CD's in our car all the time. That's the only Chinese my son hears outside of daycare.

I agree that the Chinese singing voice is a bit weak. I've heard other Chinese music, and it seems to be a quality of Chinese singing to have a high-pitched, nasal sound. The voice on this CD is no different. We got over that hurdle after about 1 week. Just like any new music that you don't really like the first time you hear it, it somehow grows on you. Now I listen to it and it sounds normal. There is also Chinese dialog spoken by children. The songs are all sung in English as well (mostly), and the English singing voices are very pleasant.

A side effect of using the Teach Me Chinese CD's to teach my son Chinese is that I'm starting to pick it up too! I can sing several of the Chinese songs completely from memory now.

If you are serious about giving your child Chinese as their second language, I would definitely recommend the 'Teach me Chinese' series.

Major Disappointment, March 23, 2003
Reviewer: A reader
My kids screamed, "Turn it off! Please!" They could not stand listening to the very high pitched and out of tune voice. Needless to say, Teach me Chinese did not work for my children. I have had better luck with Sing 'n Learn Chinese.