Rocket Chinese Reviews
Find out what actual users have to say about our courses through their Rocket Chinese reviews.
In my pursuit of trying to study Mandarin, I have tried many, many, many courses, both in-person and online, and never quite found one that helped me stay motivated. In each case, I never felt like I was absorbing anything and would become discouraged really easily.
After trying a few lessons of Rocket Chinese, I can honestly say that this is by far the best course I’ve tried so far! I can not say enough good things about this course! Among the many things I love about it:
1. The price: the price is extremely reasonable especially given it’s a lifetime membership!
2. The course structure: the fact that the overall course initially focuses on oral rather than both oral and written skills. While I definitely want to learn the written portion and the course has more than enough to cover that in later lessons, I really prefer to focus on my conversation skills initially especially given that pronunciation is extremely critical in Mandarin! Many courses focus on both from the start, which ends up overwhelming and discouraging me.
3.
Response from Rocket Languages
Please contact customer support about the Siri issue. It is probably an easy fix. Also, offline usage on the app is coming soon!
It's so fun and I enjoy learning from the app. Thx you so much now I am trying to become a foreign exchange student in china. It mean a lot to me that I can now feel more confident to travel outside the US and not feel like an outsider cause I don't know what your saying!
I have been looking for a language learning software that provides everything I need in one place. This program does that! Another awesome fact is I can bring the lessons with me either online or offline. I love the product so far and will buy it for other languages!
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.
The price can't be beat! I especially enjoy that I control what and when I want to focus on for my study sessions. The interactive audio sessions actually helps me to think in the target language. I'm having problems with the speech recognition and will likely need to contact tech support; however, the first few hours into the course and I'm enjoying what I received for the price.
Overall this program is excellent. The lessons make sense and the progression seems natural. The only major problem with the course is the voice recognition. It's terrible. Obviously if I was a great speaker of Mandarin I wouldn't need this program, but even when I'm really close to the right pronunciation, it doesn't register it as correct. It sometimes stops recording before I've finished speaking (especially on the longer sentences), and sometimes out of frustration I've spoken gibberish, not even close to the right sounds, and it gave me 100%.
So I treat the voice recognition like an audio book. Just repeat, but the feedback is totally meaningless. I'm happy with my purchase since I was able to buy this program on sale.
I am pretty happy with the whole experience, although I haven't used the program as much as I intended. Wish I had more time! A well thought out and fairly comprehensive approach to solo language learning. I shall be renewing my subscription for sure. Perhaps a section for HSK Exams could be a useful addition for those of us going down that path, just a thought. In summary, my overall user experience is a very positive one.
Very well designed course, it is easier to learn the sounds in Chinese which is the most difficult part about learning the language once you memorize basic vocabulary.
Excellent Course, highly recommended.
Even if the cost scared me, I have walked through just to try to follow a friend suggestion (and furthermore because it is explained that you have six months to get back your money if you are not convinced by the method).
Sincerely I don't regret for the moment. The lessons are easy to understand and we really feel a quick progression of our langage level.
If I just have a recommandation for the Rocketlangages teachers, I would appreciate to have a chinese Dictionnary which one countains all the words we saw, and a second dictionnary more complete.
Best wishes and good continuation.
Sincerely,
Jeremy
Response from Rocket Languages
A "dictionary" of all the words/phrases is available under the My Tools > My Vocab section. And, our money back guarantee is 60 days not 6 months!
The learning format is presented well, the only complaint is the price, which is a bit high. The voice recognition is done well however it has issues recognizing the English form of the names such as Dave some times.