Chinese with Rosetta Stone?

[socialistkoala]

Has anyone here had experience with learning chinese via Rosetta Stone?

And if so, was it rather helpful and well done or would you suggest goign a different route?

I tried some of their trial stuff and really liked it, so I thought I might ask some other people about their opinion.

[efpierce]

I have been interested in learning the Chinese language and I thought about Rosetta Stone when I found out a friend was using it and picking up the language rather quickly. I think it's a good way to go.

[deen the breen]

I think Rosetta Stone is good, but I doubt that it really makes sense to spend money for learning Chinese with Rosetta Stone. There are so many great resources to learn Chinese that are FREE. so why spend money for studying it?

if you use www.nciku.com and www.chinese-tools.com for example, you have so much great content that is free...you would better start off with those resources.

[BWL]

I do agree that there are many resources online, some free and some not that are readily available for language learners. For a language like Chinese that is radically different from European languages ,it is essential that learners hear the words and pronunciations. This is to allow them to familiarize themselves  with the different tones and pronunciations (I have American friends who kept mixing up the z, zh, j, q, c and ch sounds in Mandarin, although acceptable in South China, is considered incorrect in Beijing and the rest of the Mandarin-speaking areas).

[linguaholic]

I agree BWL.But of course, Rosetta Stone also comes with audio...still, there are so many websites that offer audio lessons for free as well, so I would still not go with Rosetta Stone, unless you get it as a gift from your mother or so :=) The pronunciation in Chinese, especially the // z, zh, j, q, c // sounds are really a great difficulty for foreign learners of Chinese..also Europeans are struggling with this, trust me:=)

However, if you can speak whole sentences, the ambiguity of your messages drastically decline, even if your tones and the pronunciation is not perfect. If you just say a word to someone, then of course, your tones and pronounciation needs to be perfect in order to get the message across.

[BWL]

I definitely agree with the part about speaking whole sentences  , even Chinese people from Henan or Shaanxi who visit Beijing and who speak Mandarin with heavy accents are understood if they speak using whole sentences and not single words!

[Brad]

I think I might try it out, I have heard good things.

[Wufnu]

I would not recommend Rosetta Stone to learn Chinese.  I used it while taking Chinese courses at my university and felt it really didn't teach me anything at all.  Once I actually lived in China, I knew it didn't teach me anything.  You're better of sticking with either traditional books (I suggest Integrated Chinese, especially if you are going to learn to read) supplemented with podcasts, videos, etc.

I know how it feels to think you might be able to just use a program an hour a day and learn Chinese but the reality is that it's not going to happen.  It takes a lot more work than that and what RS actually teaches isn't really useful once you actually get to China.  They just talk differently than what is taught (and I'm not referring to dialects). 

[mareebaybay]

This thread made me realize just how useful Rosetta Stone could be. I have never used Rosetta Stone, but I would love to. Rosetta Stone looks like it helps everyone, pursuing a new language. It is definitely something I could look to trying in the future.