Rocket Languages Reviews

I've taken several college level Spanish courses and learned words and conjugations but very little speaking and that is my weakness. I started with the first lesson on Rocket, and I found the hearing, speaking, and reading along with immediate reinforcement has really helped my ability to communicate in Spanish. I've just finished the first section of level 1 and my confidence has improved.

I'm not quite a complete beginner and I've only been using the course (French) for a few weeks but find it very comprehensive in terms of topics covered and the grammar explanations seem great. Travelogue is too advanced for me atm.

There is a bit too much English in the full lessons, I know it's for beginners but the bad jokes and bits off topic are a bit annoying. There seem a few things missing from the app (Android) like the end of section tests and the survival kit audios in the playlist. Maybe I've missed it somewhere but a search function would be good to find subject/grammar topics, I know you can see headlines in the contents. It would be nice to be able to highlight somewhere which topics I want to go over again, e.g. for some of the easier sections I've not bothered to go through all the Reinforcement Activities to make them green as I don't feel I need to, but for some topics I want to go over them again, and a way to highlight which ones "I've done" would be useful.

I think it is quite expensive (I've bought all levels) but I understand a lot of work has gone into them, but am hoping it will be worth it as it's probably too early for me to say, but there is the money back guarantee which is reassuring. I've not had to deal with the Customer Service so can't really comment on that.

I started with Rocket German several years ago but somehow got lost in the shuffle of time and situations. I have re-opened my account and find a completely new format so will have to browse the site extensively to feel comfortable but it looks very interesting and seems to have great potential. Thank you.
Marvin W.

Overall Rocket Italian is a pretty good system. You get exposed to the language in a variety of ways and have some explanation as to why a particular pattern exists.

It does have the problem that there is only one correct answer for each thing. This of course ignores the fact that many things can be said in slightly different ways. As an example the phrase "She is angry" technically can be said as either "Lei è arrabbiata" OR "È arrabbiata" however the only accepted answer is "È arrabbiata". In other places an answer is only accepted if it has a he/she indicator.

There are also numerous places where the English phrase refers to you plural but for some strange reason they have not realized that _every_ place they do that needs some kind of indicator that they mean you plural rather than you singular since English only has 'you'.

Overall the issues with Rocket Italian aren't that big but they make it feel more like you are memorizing lines in another language rather than learning another language. The dialogues are the worst for this as they slowly take away more of the words you are supposed to say but you have to say the phrase word for word to get it right even though there are times when you could get the same meaning across with slightly different words. (They really should package the dialogue portion so that it can be used by actors memorizing lines as that is what it does.)

I'm enjoying this software, but the sign language lessons need a way to slow the signer down. I am having an extremely difficult time understanding the women's signing. Having a way to slow down signing would be extremely helpful.

Je suis une étudiante sérieuse et je uis toujours à la recherche d'un partenaire linguistique. J'ai 57 ans. J'ai fait un séjour de 2 mois en France en 2011 dans la ville de Dijon où j'ai suivi des cours de francais à l'université de Bourgogne.

Good for picking up conversation skills. Lessons build well on each other and great focus on practicing speaking. I do wish there was a greater variety in terms of the types of exercises to complete. Also more review type exercises would be nice.

I have studying Mandarin Chinese for about four months. I started with another "highly rated" and very expensive program by a competitor. After two months I could only say hello and goodbye and a lot of phrases which I wasn't sure of their exact meaning and none of them related to any topics I wished to practice at the local Chinese restaurant (you have to look at pictures and decide what is being depicted. No English translations are anywhere in the program). Then I purchased Rocket Chinese and within two weeks, I could actually speak some meaningful Chinese...and know what I was saying...as do the Chinese that I practice with. Rocket Chinese tells you the words, pronounces them correctly for you, slows them down and then adds them to sentences, and speaks them in a dialog with another native Chinese speaker. It also shows you the written characters and the Pinyin language as you go. If you want to learn this difficult language, Rocket Chinese is my recommendation. It doesn't cost you an arm and a leg and you will be speaking basic Chinese almost immediately!!

Plenty to learn. Some things I prefer to learn is a slightly different order

Rocket French seems to be doing well teaching me introductory french. It is very in depth compared to the free resources for learning french out there. Sometimes the audio lessons have a little too much chit chat for my liking, but on the positive side it follows an amusing story and often explains the new words and phrases well. Not a huge fan of the vocal recognition exercises as they are not always accurate. Overall, happy with my purchase and already feeling much more confident about my french skills!