My Very Honest Opinion
I’m going to be completely honest here … I started with the MB Lite, free version with the idea that if I could speak and read Chinese at even the most basic level by the time I finished the first three phases, I would buy the pro version. I felt that this was a considerable investment and I needed to be 100% convinced that I not only could do it but that I would stick with it. When I started,I had serious doubts about this format for learning Chinese. Not because it doesn’t work since many have learned it using this method and I am in no position to judge the effectiveness of the program over all. My doubts stemmed from my own lack of confidence that it would work for me personally. But … here I am reading Chinese sentences using the characters I have learned so far with understanding, without pinyin, and being able to pronounce the characters. I am also starting to be able to read other materials that have characters I recognize and get the meaning of the sentences even if I don’t know every character used in the sentence. I feel now like I can really do this and I plan upgrade to the paid-for MB Pro.