Customer Reviews

Rosetta Stone V3: Chinese Level 1-2 Set [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought version 2 of Rosetta Stone Mandarin. I found it difficult to learn with it, but I figured I should trust them and keep trying. I found it annoying that version 2 had no real rhyme or reason, and I wasn't sure what it was trying to teach me. Add to that, the voice recognition was a little poor (especially with the headset that came with it).

I don't know WHY I decided to splurge and buy version 3, but man, what a difference! Aside from the nicer looking GUI, it does something really useful: it organizes a lesson plan for you. And TELLS you what the plan is trying to do. Oh, and even more importantly, it actually include "Nihao" and "Zai Jian" in the 1st lesson (V2 -- you'd go through like 8 levels before you learned any useful conversation).

So far, I'm enjoying it more. The lessons are broken up into pieces with an estimate of how long it will take. Also, it now piece-meals information. Before, with the very long sentences in v2 (long, hard-to-pronounce sentences in the FIRST lesson, yet!), you kind of guessed what it was trying to teach you. With V3, it's more explicit with new activities like "Fill in the blank" where you chose the response.

The voice recognition is FAR superior and the headset provided is _very_ nice. I still wish the visualisation of your voice was easier to interpret and I wish I could select a part of the clip to practice with, but otherwise, it's so much nicer. During the pronunciation exercises, you can pause and go to the pronunciation lab to work on your pronunciation before getting marked on it.

Overall, I love this version. It actually organizes your learning, if you want (you still have the option to pick and chose), according to your goals (e.g., you can say you aren't interested in reading/writing at all and it won't push it on you). Oh, and I chose to learn reading/writing -- the chinese character drill section actually reviews a word one character at a time so one has an actual chance of learning now.

Good work, Rosetta Stone!

This was a great tool for my son when he was getting ready to teach in China. He enjoyed learning from his Rosetta Stone. He also studied very hard at the library, and took two semester of Chinese in college. I consider this product a great supplement to learning. I feel that you do need more than this product when learning such a difficult language.

I decided to purchase this Rosetta Stone V3: Chinese Level 1 & 2 based on many positive reviews. However, I found it a bit difficult to learn Chinese if you are a beginner. I hope there is at least an introductory explaination in English.