ACE My Language Mandarin Chinese

I am very dissatisfied that the product is available for free on the Apple store. I was going to use the app as a supplement to the text book. Very upset about the book cost.Huge thing missing from the text is an actual translation of the passages to check ourselves.

This is a review for the Mandarin Chinese edition of the ACE My Language book series. I can't speak to the other language versions of this book, but based on reviews of the other languages the editions aren't formatted in the same way. For example, someone mentioned a vocab list included in the book - so such thing in the Chinese edition.Description:This book comes with 148 passages in Mandarin Chinese with DLPT (Defense Language Proficiency Test) style multiple choice questions and answers in English. Also included with the book is an audio CD with audio of each of the 148 passages. This book is supposed to function as practice for the DLPT, as a way to quiz yourself and get yourself ready to take the test. If you don't care about a DLPT, then it's supposed to be a good challenge reader to expose you to something like 95% of the Chinese you'd encounter reading news articles.*Disclaimer, I haven't finished the whole book so it's typos may only be isolated to the two that I found. I will update this review if that turns out to be the case. However, the two typos to me are so frustrating that I deemed it necessary to post this review to let you all know of the risks of buying the book.*Issue #1Passage 4 of the book has questions that DO NOT RELATE at ALL to the text. At first I thought I was just an idiot - then I pulled out my Pleco optical reader (Great App if you seriously study Chinese) to double check words I wasn't sure about and it confirmed my suspicions.(SPOILER ALERT~!)The Passage talks about two animal rights activists arrested in Singapore for protesting at a KFC. The questions for this passage are as follows:4.1 This article's main character is:a. A British Motoristb. An American driverc. A suicide bomber from the UK.d. An British police officer4.2 Critics of the speed camera argue that:a. The cameras malfunction too frequently to be effective.b. The cameras are a money-making opportunity.c. The cameras have failed to reduce accidents.d. The cameras have failed to deliver improved road safety and are little more than a moneymaking opportunity.(I copied this over from the book - the typos are part of what is printed, not me fat fingering the keyboard.)Um, what? As you may have guessed, no where in the text does it talk about drivers or suicide bombers or anything about the UK. Nor does the text have the word "camera" hidden anywhere within it. The text and the questions simply don't match. At first I was mildly annoyed by this, thinking "They must have just mixed it up with a different text and set of questions. I'm sure it's in this book somewhere." Nope. I searched through all of the questions. Nada. Zero. Zilch. Zip. Nothing! No questions that ask about Singapore or animal rights activists or being arrested or deported. So now what? Is this isolated or am I going to have to do this over and over again throughout the whole book? It's not a big deal if you're using the book as reading practice, but if you're using it as test taking practice & DLPT prep, this is a SERIOUS flaw of the book. If I'm trying to read through the passages 2-3 types tops, answer the questions and then move on (for test prep practice) - I can't do that if I have to go back 4, 5, 6, 7 more times (and then look up words I don't know) just to find out that, no, I'm not crazy, and no, my Chinese isn't suffering that badly - it's the book that's messed up.Issue #2 - when I was trying to find the missing questions to passage 4, I discovered that there are ghost questions in the "questions only" section.(The book has 3 parts: Chinese text with English questions; English questions only - for use with the CD; & the answer key.) "Passage 149 with questions 149.1 and 149.2" is listed in the questions only section but doesn't appear in ANY other section. There is not text for "passage 149". There is no audio for 149. There is no answer key for 149.Oh, and personal preference issue #3 - The answer key is just "A, C, B, A, D, C" style. There is no English translation for the Chinese passages. No supposed vocab list that other reviewers were mentioning. Which is kind of annoying - and would be helpful in identifying further errors of passages not matching questions.Again, I haven't finished the 148 (149??) passages in this book yet - so this may be it for typos. However those two are more than enough to make me wonder how it got through the editing process.Also worth noting: Global Language Systems (the company that created this book) specializes in custom Middle Eastern Language products and services (says so right on the book). So my thought is that the Middle Eastern ACE My Language books might be excellent - and then they decided to do a Chinese edition and then didn't bother giving it the same love an attention they did for the Middle Eastern books? I dunno. Just a theory.Related/unrelated: I also had problems with the ACE My language Chinese App (it refuses to show anything past the first passage).

This is not a good use of your studying time or dollars. I don't really have anything to add in the way of criticism that hasn't already been mentioned in the other reviews. I just want others that may be interested in purchasing this that the other reviewers were not just angry internet trolls.

I have to say I rarely look at reviews of the ACE books because they are very well received by language professionals who have used them with huge success for the past 13 years. We at Global Language Systems are always open for reviews and suggestions sent to us regarding books in the series. Thus, I was extremely surprised with the reviews for the Chinese edition. Like all other editions of the ACE series the Chinese edition was used with success by thousands of readers who used it to prepare for their DLPT or foreign service exams. Not one comment ever came back about typos or errors in the book. Indeed, nothing even close to the accusations laid by the five reviewers has ever come to our company. I want to point out that only one of the reviewers is a verified purchase. We welcome all to contact us through our web page or Facebook pages to voices concerns, suggestions, or criticisms. One final note, each one of our books was produced by "native speaker" linguists. Each book was edited with care and at great cost by other professional linguists to make sure that the books are as free as humanly possible from error. Additionally, the audio that comes with each book was made by professionals and native speakers of the language. We would like to thank all those who continue to faithfully buy the books and reiterate that our door is always open to any criticism or suggestions. If there is anything we can do to help dissatisfied customers they can always contact us directly.

My review is for the Mandarin Chinese edition. As other reviewers have mentioned the numerous errors and poor editing in this book render it nearly unusable. I would not recommend this product, it is unfortunate it seems to be the only product designed for DLPT practice.

ACE My Language is the best program you can get. I know the author and he has authored many other books in adittion to the ACE my language series. The author Jabra is as credible as you can get and an authority in many languages with experience over 30 years in linguistics and translation. The US military and other organizations hire Jabra to custom create language programs and classes even until this day. If you see any review that tries to discredit this work or the author, please ignore and buy with a peace in mind.