I have a close Chinese friend who listened to some of the recordings on my IPod - she said go with CLO. She constantly remarks on my great accent which she says is always the biggest problem.
I travel a great deal and knowing Chinese, even a little, can only be helpful when 1/4 to 1/3 of the worlds' population speaks Mandarin Chinese. You are doing a great job - I seem to be going very slowly; however, my friend says I am not but rather she is impressed with where I am and again is most concerned about the correct accent.

Thank you so much for these wonderful podcasts. They are clear, organized, thoughtful, and marvelous. I went to Beijing once in 1998 and have always wanted to go back. Im returning in sept for a bit and wanted to learn some chinese. I took chinese in college so its a review with some vocabulary. I have a bachelors degree in psychology. I really like the way you break it down into literal translations and help us learn about why word combinations mean new words.