Forum

David and Lin: The Rocket Chinese forum seems to be largely ignored. Could a reminder about its existence be included somewhere in your pages? It could be such a useful site.

Hi there, yes, it's a shame that not more people are using it. We've just revamped the forum and upgraded it to make it more user friendly, so I hope that makes a difference. Let's hope you broke the ice ;) Please feel free to ask as many questions as you like, just fire away. We are here to help.

As I am a new user, it seems that the Forum is under utilised. Perhaps the reason being that it seems limited in what one can convey in English text. Perhaps it would be beneficial to use Pinyin text without the tone marks to leave a message or ask a question? If we were to assume the correct tone was applied to the Pinyin word eg: "ruguo wo bu dui, qing gausu wo", perhaps that might ecourage more input?

How would you suggest the Forum be used to advantage? I have posted elsewhere a suggestion that Pinyin text be used. In that way it would at least identify the correct grammatical structure and also improve one's vocabulary.

I'm a total newbie, still getting my head around lesson 1.1, but I do intend to use the forum when I progress a little. Just letting you know that there are some of us out there... Maybe you could make an "introduce yourself" type thread. It might encourage lurkers to come out of the shadows. Building community always helps forums take off.

Hi Mick....Yes I am new to this site, although not new to Chinese (Hanyu). But I am still trying to get around this Forum and how it works. It may be clear to some but not to me, but then I guess I should look up the user guide?? Anyway...I studied spoken chinese for five years back in the 80's and have been to China three times, twice doing my own thing. Now I am retired and although I have many close friends who are Chinese they all speak Cantonese and little Mandarin so I want to refresh my knowledge. Most of this course is easy for me except for some of the vocabulary I have not encountered before. but I do think it is very well presented. The fact that you can download the lessons and play them on your Mp3 player is a very practical way to learn. Of course it is the "sound" and not the spelling of the pinyin word that is important. As I mentioned before that is how we studied Morse Code. I would still like to see some random words. The "all reviews" in the last lesson is great but it still runs in a lesson sequence making it easy to know what is coming. Hope you stick with it ....after a while it starts to come together.

Hi guys, thanks for your suggestion, I have just added a new category, called "Your story", where you can introduce yourselves and talk about why you are learning Chinese, whether or not you have been to China, your learning experiences, your hobbies, everything you can think of. See you there 8-)

"Your Story" is a great way to get members involved with the Forum and to strengthen their interest in their learning. At a later time I will provide details of my story but meanwhile... I do believe that it would be of considerable benefit to encourage some forum communication in Pinyin. Some time ago when I as having private lessons my teacher would write to me each week in Pinyin, mostly in words we had covered previously, but if there were new words I could look them up in a Pinyin/English dictionary. Iwould then translate his letter into English and it would be marked at the next lesson. It really helped with the grammar and the multiple use of the same words.

Hi again, yes, that sounds good. Please feel free to use Pinyin. If you want to have your Pinyin reviewed by us, please post it in the "Everything in Chinese" category. Have fun! :D

Following a few months absence I was pleasantly surprised on my reurn, to find the new format. Yes, a big improvement especially with the self test etc. I agree that the Forum is beneficial in many ways and it would be great to see more activity. Having studied Mandarin for some time I find that not all Chinese articulate with the clarity of our presenters. Hence one may encounter some spoken Chinese that is difficult to understand, but may in fact be that the speaker may speak very fast, or tend to mumble etc. An example would be when an English speaking person has poor diction or pronunciation consistent with their state or territory. If we listen to perfect English from a Grammar School graduate it is quite different from a poorly educated person with poor diction. SO, don't always put youself down..there may be valid reasons why you "bu mingbai".

Hi there, thanks for your comments. I'm glad to hear that you enjoy the new format. We are just about to launch the sequel to Rocket Chinese Premium - Rocket Chinese Premium Plus. It will go live tomorrow! Rocket Chinese Premium Plus will expose you to more advanced conversations with two native speakers - Lin and her friend Tao. Both will speak slightly faster and there are also a few exchanges outside the conversations to expose you to more spoken Chinese. I'm curious to hear how you will find it. Best wishes :P