Customer Reviews

Rosetta Stone V2: Chinese Level 1 [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought the Rosetta Stone Powerpack. It has a bunch of different languages to choose from. I got to the end of the Manderin lessons. Each of the Samples has 2 levels with 10 lessons. So I bought THIS package, which has 8 levels, so I could continue.
I already took some classes in Bei Jing, so my Chinese is not too bad, but this tought me some more things. The powerpack is great. It is very simple to learn from. It shows a girl, and says "female person", a boy, and says "male person". Short and simple. AND they talk slow, so you can understand every word. And as you progress, they add new things to it.
This Personal Edition is not ADDED levels. It is all new lessons. The speakers are different. The words are different. They seem to use to Bei Jing Way of speaking, not the Proper Way of speaking. They have all these RRRR sounds to things. Boy child is "Non Hie", but in Bei Jing they say "Non Har". ONLY in Bei Jing they use this. Poor Choice for such a big sofware package.
And the first lesson, first page, is no longer "Boy Child", "Girl child", "Boy Adult", "Girl adult". That is simple and easy to understand. Instead, they say "That is a Boy Child" "That is a Girl Child". How is anyone supposed to pick that many words up so quickly? And Chinese use measure words (kind of like La, Los, Le in other Europe Languages, but in Chinese there are about a hundred of them) so how are we suposed to figure this stuff out in the first lesson on the first page?
Also... They talk as fast as someone on the street. Blazing through each sentence, so you can not make out the tone, or even the pronunciation.
Even if you have some Chinese background, this is a hard package. It gives an advanced speaker new ways of saying things, but the beginer is better off getting the Power Pack, and the Instant Immersion Chinese 2 CD set. Also look ... for CyberChinese ... This is a computer version of one of my text books at school: Practical Chinese Reader.
Also get Basic Chinese : A Grammar and Workbook by Yip Po-Ching. I can not say enough good things about this book. It is the best reference book around, and super handy when taking a class, or learing with a computer.
Good luck, and Zai Jin!

I was originally using Rosetta Stone's Chinese program through online subscription. I went several times through the entire program before I decided that monthly subscription was getting expensive and since I enjoyed going over this program very much I finally decided to purchase it.

The online version has Chinese only written with pinyin and I was a little bit disappointed that it didn't have Chinese characters anywhere. When I received the package, I was thrilled and delighted to find that it had two books included and the books had all the material written both with Chinese characters and pinyin. This has taken my enjoyment of this program to a new level.

I do need to add that I have purchased numerous other books and programs, so this is not the only one I have been using - and the other books and programs have helped me tremendously in using this one.

Working with the entire Pimsleur program first has helped me tremendously in working with Rosetta Stone, as did many other books that deal with grammar and writing. Also, among different dictionaries, one of my favorites is Wenlin's electronic dictionary as well as NJStar program. Yes, getting all of these programs can get pricey, but they are all well-worth it, especially if you're learning Chinese on your own. They will serve you for a long time and will make the arduous process of learning Chinese a breeze, allowing you to progress easily and to enjoy the process.

The computer based speech recognition is fantastic and makes duplicating the nuances of the chinese language easier. But the fact that the computer system and accompaning texts give you no, absolutely no, english translation is the stupidest mistake ever made by a teaching system. Rosetta says it interferes with the "full emersion" system of learning. They forget that full emersion is when you go live in the community and can constantly receive feedback on sentence structure, meaning and tense.

For instance, the standard Rosetta first lesson show a picture of a girl and a spoken phrase in chinese to match the picture. You can also see the picture and a chinese character phrase or pinyin english phrase. But nowhere is there an english translation of the phrase you are learning. So you do not know from just seeing a picture of a girl whether you are saying, "this is a girl", "a girl", "girl", "I am a girl", or "you are a girl".

My chinese speaking friends had to explain to me the phrase meant girl in the singular form and that the singular form was typical for all "feminine" objects.

I have called Rosetta and there is no english translation available when it would only cost them cents to reproduce. Do not buy this system unless you have a chinese tutor available to you.

Does it "teach? Yes and no. If your native language is English, the Rosetta Stone method is an acquired taste, since it uses no English, or any other language for that matter, to teach. And you'll find it more difficult than the traditional word memorization method.

HOWEVER, the pronunciation and the listening value of Rosetta Stone Chinese is superb! I cannot emphasize enough how important good voice actors can be for language learning software. China is a very large country with many different dialects. Having a proper northern accent is like the difference of having a Hollywood accent and a Texas redneck accent. The voice actors are the best I've ever heard, and a zillion times better than Wenlin's voice actors.

5 out of 5 stars! Not just because they have good voice actors, but because they have IMPECCABLE voice actors. I've been learning Chinese Mandarin for over 6 years, and my native language is English. This is the only software that will get rid of your accent, if you don't have time to travel to China.

I have been a litlle sceptic when I purchased this product but after having been using it for a year I am amazed by the progress I made. With the Rosetta Stone can I not only learn the vocabulary it also forces you to think in the language and to repeat phrases. The different features enable you to chose speaking reading or wrting excersices, in order for you to work on all of these skills seperately until you are satisfied. Why no five stars? Well unfortunately there's no way of learning Chinese Kalligraphy on the computer so the only writing excersices are in pinyin which uses the latin alphabeth. But on the whole I can recommend this product to everyone who wants to learn Chinese!

Had I known then what I know now, I would have never bought this, at least not now.

The software is in phoenetic mandarin (pinyin) which isn't helpful in understanding what you are saying. Unless you have a basic understanding of chinese you will learn chinese with no context and therefore not be able to use a word of it (or sentence of it -- we don't know what we're learning, so how can we use it?). My son and I are learning it together and though he's a stud at it, even he can't figure out the meaning of what we are saying.

A big disappoint given the hefty price. I thought Rosetta Stone's expertise would deliver a useful product, but alas, the beautiful diction of the speakers is about the only upside.....

This product lives up to its hype! Mandarin, to the English speaker, is so very, very foreign. Before you realize it, Rosetta Stone really does teach you the language in a very simple, go at your own pace way. Rosetta Stone shows pictures of a girl, boy, woman, man, dog, cat, etc. and an accompaning sentence below. Before you realize it, the student learns which word(s) mean what and this continues through the lesson into more and more complex situations. Highly recommend the product! Xei, xei!

I'm 11 years old and find the Rosetta Stone Chinese simply the best language learning method program out there. I have been using it for a while now and my Chinese teacher (Who is Chinese) Says I speak Chinese like a native, without an Australian accent! I find it fun and simple to use but very effective. It makes you associate the words with pictures that stay in your mind so you don't fall in the habit of translating everything.

My mother says it's hideously expensive but after wasting money on cheaper versions she realizes it's definitely worth it.

The Rosetta Stone rocks!

I was originally using Rosetta Stone's Chinese program through online subscription. I went several times through the entire program before I decided that monthly subscription was getting expensive and since I enjoyed going over this program very much I finally decided to purchase it.

The online version has Chinese only written with pinyin and I was a little bit disappointed that it didn't have Chinese characters anywhere. When I received the package, I was thrilled and delighted to find that it had two books included and the books had all the material written both with Chinese characters and pinyin. This has taken my enjoyment of this program to a new level.

I do need to add that I have purchased numerous other books and programs, so this is not the only one I have been using - and the other books and programs have helped me tremendously in using this one.

Working with the entire Pimsleur program first has helped me tremendously in working with Rosetta Stone, as did many other books that deal with grammar and writing. Also, among different dictionaries, one of my favorites is Wenlin's electronic dictionary as well as NJStar program. Yes, getting all of these programs can get pricey, but they are all well-worth it, especially if you're learning Chinese on your own. They will serve you for a long time and will make the arduous process of learning Chinese a breeze, allowing you to progress easily and to enjoy the process.

Rosseta Stone's method of learning a foreign language is the way quite diffrent from other methods taught .

As RS explains it, the method is similar to a baby just hearing his /her parent's utterance in the development of language skill.

Indeed, I was surprised to know that only picture and utterance corresponding to it came up on my computer screen when I inserted RS CD in my CD-ROM.

I think basically language learning should be like one RS recommends.
But if you use your dictionary to reinforce your comprehension of picture and utterance , your language skill will be better honed up. Those who use RS method for language skill are adult individuals and combination of RS with dictonary use, I think, would enhance the learning process.

H.Yamaguchi