Rocket Languages 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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Muchas Gracias. Soy aprendiendo espanol para rocket!
I love that rocket makes learning fun and it’s easy to get caught up in the lessons so that you hardly know how much time you have put in studying. Rocket makes learning and studying a language something enjoyable and not a chore to be done.

Rocket Languages has really been perfecting their approach to language acquisition with the Spanish Travelogue (and I have been through the other three levels). The course is wonderfully varied to keep me interested, and by the time I’ve finished a lesson, the phrases stick – and, most importantly, are useable. When I speak in Spanish to one of my Skype contacts about the lesson, I am speaking with a very competent level of fluency. What could be better than that?

Btw, the storyline describes an incredible trip through Latin America. I can’t wait to visit some of these places…

I absolutely love Rocket Italian. I have tried Duo Lingo and Rosetta Stone and this is by far the most effective program I've used. This program is unique in that you hear new vocabulary and grammatical concepts in the context of a conversation and then delve in to the grammar after seeing it in context. Whoever wrote this really knew what they were doing because you will complete one lesson and then later in the lesson, or even a few lessons later, the grammatical concept will be fully laid out. This sense of "hey, I've heard that before" makes new grammar and vocab so much easier and more natural to learn. Seriously, it works. You do have to put a little work into memorizing the conversation in each lesson, but the "Practice this conversation" mode allows you to grade the task by slowly making it harder and harder by taking away words. Again, genius! My brain has been able to go back to draw on previously memorized conversation to help me remember conjugations, phrases, and grammar. I am in my mid-thirties and have a terrible memory (let's just say I make for a lousy trivia buddy), so it is shocking that I am having such success with my Italian.

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I have previously tried Rocket German which was good and Rocket Arabic is of an equal standard. I like the way that early lessons are structured towards a tourist who just wants to "master" a few basic phrases which can then be built on. In this respect the lesson material is spot on. The only comment I would make is that for those people who do not want to learn to write Arabic, it would be more helpful if the feedback in the voice recognition related to the romanised words rather than the Arabic. However, overall it is hard to beat Rocket Arabic for the features it offers. As an experienced traveller who likes to be able to say a few words in the language of whatever country I am in, I know that there are two things that are essential in a language programme. The first is the chance to rehearse useful phrases so that they can roll off the tongue fairly easily. The second is the chance to attune your ear to native speakers saying everyday things at a normal speed. Rocket Arabic delivers on these two fronts in spades.

Loving the program so far. I was doing duolingo for months and still never felt like I could have a real conversation with anyone. I'm just 3 courses into rocket and feel like I could can actually use what I have learned. My favorite part is being able to do courses while I drive.

This program is the best. I have used the Pimsleur course for Spanish and although it is a good program for purely memorization of phrases, it does not teach you the language or explain the verb conjugations or sentence structure. I used the Italian program for my trip to Italy and it was wonderful. Some people actually thought i spoke the language fluently and I had to stop them and slow it down. The program was worth every penny.
I am now using the Spanish program and the difference in my understanding of the language and the speed with which I am learning it as compared to Pimsleur is unbelievable. If you want a program to learn a language and you are willing to put in the time and effort, this is your program.

I love Rocket Language. I am learning russian, and find this method very helpful and at the same time very easy and fun to use.
I recommend this method to learn russian. I think then I will learn italian.

So, I have finished all of level one of Rocket Spanish and am ready to write a review. Full disclosure. I had a good base of Spanish when starting this program so I was not a total beginner.

1. I loved the level one course.
2. The conversations with Mauricio and Amy were great.
3. The grammar lessons in the language and culture sections give important lessons on Spanish grammar. They are a little dry and can be difficult to get through, but it is grammar what do you expect?
4. The flashcards, hear it, write it, know it, and quiz at the end we're all great reviews to make sure you remembered the new stuff. (Though a little monotonous).
5. The price I paid was well worth it. I bought all 3 levels and got a great deal through The Mezzofanti Guild. If you look around the internet, you will find great discounts.
6. I really liked the fact that when you buy Rocket Language you get the course for life. Most other programs have a monthly fee and when you stop paying your access stops.
7. I have read some reviews that Amy is annoying. I did not find that to be the case in the level 1 course. I did do the first lesson in level 2 and Amy was a little annoying in that one so we shall see how that goes.

There are a lot of Spanish programs to choose from. I looked at a lot of reviews before deciding on Rocket Spanish and I am glad I chose this program to enhance my Spanish speaking.

I like Rocket Inglés, because they explain well the way to understand and learn much better my new language, and I can study when and how I wish, and I understand better than with other programs to learn my new language, thanks Rocket Inglés