Rosetta Stone V3 Chinese Mandarin Level 1-3 Set with Audio Companion OLD VERSION

bit pricey but i think if you are commited to learning mandarine then it will be worth it. if it were a computer chip that meant you could speak chinese and was 300 quid then you would most likely do it. this takes more time but i am sure the end product will be similar. i am teaching english to chinese children at the moment and the techniques are very similar. i believe it is the best program on the market. Read more

I will be moving to China for a few years. I have Rosetta 2.0 and have been using it for a year, this is the online version provided by my company. Because I am almost done with Unit 2 I am looking at buying Unit 3. I am learning a lot with Rosetta but had to figure out how to make it work or me. During the first month or two I ran into many frustrations that have been mentioned in other critiques. The pictures are not always demonstrative of what the text is trying to teach, non-useful words pop up occasionally (kangaroo??), the lack of measure word explanations or any explanation of sentence structure or tones adds to confusion. The large number of words introduced quickly made it very confusing to continue in Pinyin since the tones are never explained, so I switched to characters and now can read a lot of characters. I did find a method of study that works for me and am learning a lot of words, some sentence structure and do get a lot of exposure to listening and speaking. Version 3 seems to fix some but not all of the issues I have and I still may buy Version 3. I saw some reviews that mentioned Fluenz. I tried the demo and though the vocabulary is very limited when compared to Rosetta, I liked the style of instruction. Sonia¡¯s step by step explanation is welcome. The exercises are easy and give a good system of repetition, the typing is easier than one reviewer states (you just type the tone number after the vowel and the tone mark is inserted). I showed the demo to my GF who has been resisting learning the language and she liked it. The content is useful; the words that are presented can be used immediately and are presented in different sentences to get you to think about making and responding to simple sentences and questions. Rosetta V 2 did not present n¨« h¨£o (hello) until Unit 2. There are some improvements that could be made to Fluenz execution but the software is working, we have had the software for a little over 2 weeks and have gone through 6 lessons. My GF is picking up the conversations quickly and walks around during the day repeating the words, constructing sentences and seems to be enjoying the experience. Fluenz does not use characters but with the tonal explanation and well executed repetition exercises the pinyin is useful. As Sonia states early on most Chinese cannot read Pinyin, if your directions and electronic translator are in Pinyin you better be able to read and pronounce the words. So which software to buy? If you are going to China soon, on a business or pleasure trip, get Fluenz to learn some immediately useful conversational skills and learn the basics of the tonal language. Going for a long time or planning on continued business? Start with Fluenz and then switch to Rosetta for more advanced listening and vocabulary skills. If available go to local classes soon after starting your software usage. Read more

We're very happy with this approach to learning a language, even our 7 y.o. is having fun with vocabulary. Read more

This item was missing the password, so I bought an extremely expensive paperweight 😕 Read more

I also teach Chinese to both adults and children. Today, I installed the "application" program, which gives your a choice of focusing on listening, writing, reading and speaking or just some of them. I selected them all. After I was done with that, I was required to insert the "Level one"/ "audio" disc, which takes me through the beginning of the lesson. I learned men, boy, women, girl, this, eat, run, juice, water, tea and sentences that would incorporate all of the above. I could listen to a native speaker pronounce the word while looking at a picture/image without any help of translation. For example, they show you the image of tea while saying "Cha." If I need to, I can also replay the pronunciation over and over. For practice, after I've learned the new word, I am required to listen to what he/she says and then pick out the picture that matches the word/sentence. At this point, you realize that everything is all set up for the learner to learn by listening and matching the sound to the image/picture without giving you a chance to utilize the part of your brain that converts the new language to your mother tongue or vice versa. Every now and then, you are required to repeat the phrase or word into your microphone. After my first try, I put my American friend into the experiment, as I watched on his side and remained uninvolved. Amazingly, by the time he got through the first part of the lesson, he could understand it when the native speaker (computer) said men, women, boy, girl, water, tea, run, tea in Chinese and matched them with the right image correctly 99% of the time. I was very very impressed and pleased. Had he really put into some time to stop and repeat over and over, he would've definitely been able to say those words without any cues. So, stop and repeat and stop and repeat. Success in speaking relies heavily on your own speaking in the learning process. Also, next to the picture/image is the pronunciation composed in alphabets. For example, men in Chinese "nan ren" and women is "nu ren." Listening and speaking altogether is no problem! Within 20 minutes of time, my American friend (who had been a complete "Chinese illiterate") eventually was able to know and remember those new words that he had just learned for 10 minutes. In the meantime, if you'd like to change the setting to make the speaker speak more slowly, or change the male voice to female, you could do so by clicking on "setting" on the upper right hand corner of the window. Nothing is perfect. So, here are some drawbacks, in my opinion. First, you need to read the very long manual and know what to do with all the discs in the package. There is also a speed manual that is written in less than a few pages to help you jump start quickly. And then it'd take about 20 minutes to install everything. Secondly, you need to be good and sensitive with the computer. For example, the computer man or woman says "nan ren" and then stops, I don't see any directions or instructions on the page, but to continue, I click around and repeat the word. There-- I realize they are waiting for me to repeat the word into the mic. Another example, now I know I need to repeat after them, I keep speaking words into the microphone. At one point, the computer says "nan ren" and there are three or four images at the bottom, I keep saying the word into the mic but get no response. So, I start clicking around. There-- I realize this is the matching exercise. I wish they were more clear with instructions as to some, this may cause discouragement and impatience. So, my advice is: Speak into the mic or click on pictures if you have no idea what to do. I haven't gone far with the set of program, but my feeling is this is a system designed to help you learn the basic words and basic sentence patterns without having to go to someone. Also, the real and trained native speaker that provides good and authentic pronunciation is a big plus, as the reality is not every native speaker you encounter speaks his/her language properly. I highly recommend it for beginners to get a strong jump start. For those who are intermediate or higher, know that ultimately to learn a language, one would still have to interact with one another. Read more