Rocket Languages Reviews

The interactive audio is excellent however I struggle with the writing component. I am not sure what would be the best way to learn written Chinese over the internet, but I know I struggle with the way it has been presented to me here. However I purchased this product to learn the spoken language which it is great to learn from.

I am just restarting to learn Mandarin using Rocket Chinese because I had been too busy teaching and building new courses at my current school in China.

Positive:
1. Listening, Reading (in pinyin - latin script and Simplified - chinese script), Writing (initially in pinyin) and speaking is available from the very first lesson.
2. Step by step in a logical fashion based on what would seem to be logical needs of a person new to learning the language.
3. Clear and colourful interface that is easy to follow.
4. There are now cute little incentive badges that give you a sense of your progress. These complement the already colourful interface, but I think this is helpful for both younger and older learners

While I like the course layout very much, there are just a couple of tiny problems that I suspect will be addressed quite quickly on the technical side.

1. I haven't yet figured out how to prevent my browser (Firefox) from asking permission everytime RocketChinese wants to use the camera/microphone. Because I am used to the 7/24 customer service, email is obviously slower, but their responses are usually within 24 hours... so, not intolerable.
2.

Read More

I love the fact that I can pay once for this product and not have to worry about paying every month. It gives me the flexibility to learn whenever I want without trying to cram as much as I can before something expires. The lessons are great and I love the review process that allows me to grade and compare my voice to the other. This is definitely one of the best and most flexible programs for learning Chinese on the net!

What I like best about my Rocket Chinese study is the devices that keep me very consistent in my effort. I have done at least some Chinese study for 135 days in a row. I am also very happy to have the strong support on pronunciation. I truly have come to believe that whatever success I have in another language will depend mostly on whether I sound right. One of my daughters-in-law is from China, and it is my fondest hope that someday I will have a fully bilingual grandchild.

good good......................................................................................................................

I looked into different options, from intensive Chinese lessons to online applications like Rocket languages. Ultimately, I realized that I was going to get the same learning without spending thousands of euro. This application is superbly done and the voice recognition is simply amazing. I strongly recommend. I'm making great progress and feel that I'm going to be able to survive on my next trip and more...

What I like about Rocket Chinese are:

+Writing part: Makes you understand the strange writing system which the Chinese people use. Video recording on how to write letters makes you visualize how you are going to do this, instead of only knowing the theory.

+Audio lessons: Its like a good conversation. Good mood. Nice personalities. Possible to upload to mobile.

+Design: Simple. Progress is showed at the top and give you a little bit more motivation.

+Culture: Interesting reading throughout the learning. Makes you understand China a little bit more.

The record with voice recognition grading really helps to get your pronunciation right, and the playback of your voice really helps you find out why you did get the grade you expected. These tools give a strong incentive to practice speaking, and have helped me to progress faster. The downside is that these tools are only practically useful on PC and not useful on Android because of speed and different limited web page. (I cannot speak for Apple versions).

I would give the course 5 stars if all features were available on all platforms.

On android viewing the website, speech recognition is so much slower to respond, and much less accurate, so the time delays become frustrating - it is very dependent on internet and wireless speed. The key thing android misses is it that it has no ability to play back what you said (so that you can hear and correct your own mistakes). From the forum comments this appears to have been missing for 2 years or more, and I think Rocket Languages should make playback of your own voice a priority fix for android users.

Read More

I love this. I am very good, already, and I practically just began! Rocket languages is one of the best you'll find. : D

The ability to download the interactive audio and listen to it offline is great for making use of my time commuting on the London underground, then practicing with the Hear-It / Say-It / Know-It when I get home in the evening.
I hope they make the mobile-app have an offline mode too one day so that I can do the hear/say/know-it practice off-line too.