I like the Pimsleur courses a lot. They allow you to get to a very basic speaking level in a language very quickly.
The courses are audio-only -- in fact, they expressly discourage you from reading the language while you are listening to the course.
Nevertheless, now that I am finished the first eight lessons I feel the need to actually see what the written Chinese (both pinyin and characters) looks like. So here is the vocabulary from Pimseur Quick and Simple Chinese Mandarin, Lesson 1. I show both the standard pinyin and in my own phonetic impression of how the words sound.
Words (with translations from Pimsleur)
对不起
dui4 bu5 qi3
dway boo chee
excuse me
英文
Ying1 wen2
een wen
English (language)
会
hui4
whey
can
说
shuo1
shwa
speak
你
ni3
nee
you
不
bu4
boo
not
吗
ma5
ma
?
请问
qing3 wen4
chin wen
please let me ask
我
wo3
w'awe
I/me
普通话
pu3 tong1 hua4
poo tung hwah
common language / Mandarin Chinese (PRC)
一点
yi1 dian3
ee dyar
some / a little
美国
Mei3 guo2
may gw'awe
America
人
ren2
yren
person
是
shi4
shr
am/are/is
Characters (with translations from MDBG)
yi1
ee
one; a, an; alone
bu4
boo
no, not; un-; negative prefix
ren2
yren
man; people; mankind; someone else
hui4
whey
assemble, meet together; meeting
ni3
nee
you, second person pronoun
ma5
ma
(question tag)
guo2
gw'awe
nation, country, nation-state
dui4
dway
correct, right; facing, opposed
wo3
w'awe
our, us, i, me, my, we
wen2
wen
literature, culture, writing
shi4
shr
indeed, yes, right; to be; demonstrative pronoun, this, that
pu3
poo
universal, general, widespread
dian3
dyar
dot, speck, spot; point, degree
mei3
may
beautiful, pretty; pleasing
ying1
een
petal, flower, leaf; brave, a hero; England, English
hua4
hwah
speech, talk, language; dialect
shuo1
shwa
speak, say, talk; scold, upbraid
qing3
chin
ask, request; invite; please
qi3
chee
rise, stand up; go up; begin
tong1
tung
pass through, common, communicate
wen4
wen
ask about, inquire after