Rocket Languages Reviews

Lesson 1.7 is about to do me in. I simply cannot understand it when they're saying such long sentences and speaking so rapidly. Then again, I got made fun of once in the 90's Mexico when I said cuatro because I said it so slowly. I'm from the South. I speak English slowly and damned sure can't speak Spanish that fast. I also can't remember all those words and phrases. There were a lot of them in this lesson!

Overall, I'm very satisfied with the product and approach so far, particularly coming from 7 months of Duolingo. It is a significant upgrade in experience over Duolingo. It has the right balance of drill and practice and grammar fundamentals, in the context of a conversation-driven learning style. It seems natural and well thought out. I truly appreciate that I can skip what I want in deference to things I already know. I know I will soon get to things I will not be able to skim or skip and I look forward to that. The "say it" element of the structure is excellent. It is forcing me to speak, which is exactly what Duolingo does not do well. I have lots of words and lots of conjugations, but on the spot I am like a deer in the headlights, and Rocket's style forces you to just "talk", mistakes and all, which is great. The speed and clarity of the voice actors is excellent and it makes listening easy and approachable. The rolling text approach on screen is great, as I can look at the scroll when I want to and look away (to test myself better) when I don't want to.

A couple of constructive things to say.

1.

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Awesome, provided an easy way to learn reading, writing and listening Japanese language.

I'm currently only halfway through the second lesson, but it seems good so far. You should be aware that the main reason I'm writing this review, is because they'll give me $10 cash back if I do.

Note that there are a lot of special offers, and the one they email you may not be the best one available at the time. Also, if you're paying by credit card, and you're not in the US, you will probably get a better deal if you pay in USD, and let your bank do the currency conversion, instead of taking the option to pay in your local currency.

Honestly though, it does seem pretty good so far, and seems to be very good value.

I think the Rocket format is a solid tool for learning - especially for beginners. Each lesson is a conversation between two people that you study and use to learn vocabulary and grammar. I always enjoyed that the format gave me little "stories" I could grab on to as memory aids. It really gave me a great start.

As my enthusiasm waned, as it always will when learning something new and moving past the beginner phase, I found that the rocket format started to bog me down a little. Some lessons would have over 60 phrases to practice and memorize. I'd get bogged down trying to get through the homework. I felt my learning speed was slowing down as I entered Level 2 of the course, and I began to turn to other tools like "Spanish Dict (spanishdict.com)" to augment the material and speed me up.

I think the course could be improved drastically in three ways.

1) Shorten Lessons. People like to move through lessons quickly. It produces a sense of accomplishment. This means, reducing the number of phrases to be mastered in each lesson.

2) Enhance Memorization Tools. There are well known systems for reviewing words and the idea of building a deck of flashcards you can continuously review is missing from the toolkit of Rocket Spanish.

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Still on the first module, but enjoying the program. The only thing that bothers me is that there is too much explanation and repetition even in English. I would not mind repeating dozens of times the language I am learning, but not English (unless I was taking an English course).

Love everything so far, but I’ve noticed that you are changing the voice actors with the audio files. In my opinion, I’d prefer the original combination of the English Kenny and the ‘Osaka’ kansai-jin Sayaka...especially Sayaka, whose accent, in both nihongo-ga and eigo-ga is very helpful in terms of realistic Japanese phonetics. The new Sayaka is less ‘endearing’ and the new Kenny-san has perhaps a too refined Kanto-style accent.

Dont ask me to review so often..................................

I've been delighted with the entire program so far. Particularly good were the i-pod downloads with Paul and Marie Claire. I'm learning French slowly, but I'm learning. I have Rosetta Stone and Pimsler.... they don't match up to Rocket Languages .

I have enjoyed and gotten a lot from the program. I have recommended it to friends which is the highest compliment. We have purchased in Mexico and make frequent trips. Each trip my comprehension and conversational Spanish improves significantly.