I lived in China for about 2 years and it was often difficult to find books that taught the Chinese Language for a Western Mindset. A friend found these books break down the language into segments where you learn the most common characters and then how the characters you learn form new words. In the last few years there might be better books that have come out that teach language learning for Mandarin but when I left in 2002, there was nothing I found that took this approach. There are companion Cassettes but I am unaware if they are available here.