I don’t know why this approach is so severely criticized by users, but when I found this ESCC‘s (European School of Correspondence Courses) Chinese textbook in my archive, I suddenly remembered myself having learnt Spanish and Arabic via the same method.
It’s really like Assimil sans peine, but with more practice and fun.
English title: ESCC “Chinese for Beginners”
Original title: ЕШКО “Китайский для начинающих”
First published in the Levinarium Telegram Channel (now closed and deleted)