Rocket Languages Reviews

This software is really awesome I have been learning Chinese for a month now and I am really good at it.

On the plus side, the website is attractive and functions well. The interactive lessons are well-structured and nicely done. I appreciate that they make continued improvements, such as the addition of Write It in the testing sections. Also appreciate that both sound and text are downloadable and the website allows you to listen to only the parts of the lessons you want. I haven't taken advantage of any "social" features like the Forum but I appreciate that Rocket tries to foster a community. The "points" system is an interesting idea.

On the downside, I think there's too much repetition of non-essential vocabulary in the testing sections (I really don't think lesson or unit are words to keep hammering me with). I also think built-in flashcards linked to My Vocabulary would be nice or perhaps automated flashcards for each section. It's also not clear the sequencing of the lessons. This is partially intentional but you'll find yourself tested on material you haven't seen if you don't move across all the lesson types. That said, I've given feedback to the team on many points and they've nearly always been responsive and eager to help and take feedback.

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I do like that the literal translation is also provided. It helps to understand how the sentence is structured. I often try to do it in my head but it's nice to the see it confirmed.

I like the Rocket Chinese Course.
Interestingly, I can only give 5 stars, if I try to click higher than that, it defaults to no stars...
I very much enjoy the energy the instructors have. The level of progress for each lesson is well done. You learn quite a bit with each lesson, and the audio is engaging. But you don't get thrown so far into the deep end that you get frustrated and quit. I is a very good balance between enough old (to prevent frustration) and enough new (to prevent boredom.
I also interacted with the customer service once. It was a very good experience. They took my feedback and incorporated it in the very next update. They also addressed my (user created) problem. They were prompt, and kind, and very helpful.

they have a microphone that you can speak

این سایت بهترین سایت آموزش زبان هستش و من واقعا راضی بودم تو مدت خیلی کوتاهی چیزای زیادی یاد گرفتم و از سازندگان سایت خیلی خیلی متشکرم

It's hard to think how Rocket Chinese could possibly be improved. The content is just amazing, everything from the language itself through to very helpful culture tips as well.

The hosts are delightful, easy to understand and a pleasure to learn from. Obviously Chinese is not the easiest of languages to learn and progress would be impossible without a very well thought out and executed training program such as this.

Well done to everyone involved, I'm thoroughly enjoying my language learning and I certainly appreciate all the hard work that must have gone into developing, improving and running the course.

There is no functionality to allow you to quickly click on a word that you don't know to figure out what it means. Instead you have to wait through the painstakingly slow audio to hear someone tell you what it means. Very frustrating, especially if you're like me and learn better through seeing.

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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Microphone does not pick up short words, so it is impossible to check pronunciation on basic language units. Especially debilitating for Chinese learners where tonal pronunciation is crucial.

There is very little teaching. Provided flash card sets dumping 30 new terms with no organization, no intuitive backbone reflective of that of the language itself makes me question the expertise of the instructors. This weakness is also reflected in sloppy errors: voice lines which don't match the text underneath, an occasional condescending tone to the learner, and statements that words completely new to the learner were already covered in previous lessons when they were not.

This software would be acceptable if it was free, but given the high price, it's quality does not justify a purchase.