Rocket Chinese Reviews

This reviews Rocket Languages' Chinese Premium and Premium Plus. The program is well organized in its audio and website. Audio lessons use a typical conversation to teach new words and basic grammar lessons. Lin Ping, the teacher for the course, has a good clear Northern Chinese accent and speaks the majority of the time. It is peculiar that she converses with Dave, an Austrailian with a good accent, but not one I'd try to imitate if I was trying to blend in while visiting. This is fixed in the Premium Plus section. There is some English to introduce the subject and context, but the majority of the lesson is repeating words while you can follow a written transcript in Pinyin and I think Simplified characters. Then you practice memorizing by repeating sections of the conversation, hearing and identifying words, and speaking the words in Chinese knowing their equivalent in English. (hard!) The only major complaint is a lack of a translation dictionary to double check if the words you are adding to your vocabulary have the right definition (the audio tapes breeze through definitions only once); when looking up a word you will most often find it used in other lessons/sentences.

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Lin & David make learning Chinese a pleasure. I don't get much time to study but this course makes a very difficult language easier to understand and my wife's family say my pronunciation is very good. Thanks. Alan Barlow

I like the coverage in Rocket Chinese III in terms of vocabulary and grammar. The conversations between Lin and Tao are sometimes a little corny, but mostly cover relevant and useful situations. I wish there was more connectivity across lessons. Much of the vocabulary introduced in one lesson will never appear again; it would aid learning if more words were repeated over time. On the other hand, occasionally a word that has been introduced before will be introduced again as if it's brand new. I also wish the course would more often ask me to construct sentences based on what I've already learned, rather than simply repeat a sentence that I have just heard.

I am lazy to learn a Foreign Language when most of the 'locals' can speak and understand English (like in the Philippines where I have lived since 2001 and 96% speak English).

However working in China as an ESL Teacher, I quickly learned that perhaps 96% can't speak or understand English! Rocket Languages gives me the 'Tools' to learn, and my Chinese Students the chance to practice it. I'm increasing my vocabulary, that I can 'think in Chinese' now!

There are many options when it comes to learning Mandarin and they all seem convincing. I have tried several when I first began some years ago. These included private lessons, online one-on-one, and well known DVD lessons. It was not until I took up Rocket Languages that my learning started to show significant results. I was not just learning words but phrases that could be used in real life situations. The methods Rocket Languages use are most effective by the way they are structured and their native speakers have excellent pronunciation. I have travelled four times to China and have been told that my pronunciation is so good that they assume I am fluent, I am not, but I am confident in almost any situation in mainland China thanks to Rocket Languages.

I used Rocket Languages as a valid help in learning languages. It is incredible how fast you can learn with only 30 minutes a day. I am learning Mandarin, and, believe me, the course is great. Do not pay too much attention to who tells you learning Chinese is impossible, and online courses do not work. You should see the face of my Chinese colleagues and customers when they hear me speaking Mandarin. Now, they are the ones who think: "That's impossible!"

I will be travelling to China in August to study Mandarin and attend an immersion course for 4 weeks. Rocket Chinese has helped me progress so much over the last month as I have committed to a daily routine of 30 minutes, consistent study and I can really notice the improvement in my knowledge and understanding. The great thing about Rocket Chinese is that I can listen and practice the Audio conversations while I'm driving! This will definitely give me a great foundation to work from for when I commence further mandarin studies in China!!

I'm currently using Rocket Languages to learn more Chinese. I live in China right now and what I really enjoy about these lessons is that they are immediately applicable. I studied for 30 minutes yesterday and immediately had new vocabulary to use with my Chinese friends. I'm feeling quite positive about this language course.

I am exploring rocket chinese, I miss some examples of practice diffent conversation situations and also the quiz is static, when you repeat the quiz is very easy to answer. The rocket review is very good, but should be also dinamic. Anyway I try many chinese courses and this one is the one that I feel more confortable for the moment.

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.
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