Best language software for Mandarin?

Question

I'm starting freshman year of high school. My high school does not teach Mandarin so I picked Spanish because it's the easiest A. I really want to learn Mandarin as it would be a very valuable tool in the careers I'm interested in (economics,global trade, military). I'm going to have to use a software like Rosetta Stone. I'll start studying Mandarin when I'm a sophomore.

Is Rosetta Stone the best language software? It costs 200 bucks for the first level alone... is it worth it? I learn best with writing and visuals, I'm not a great verbal learner.

Answer 1

I have used Mandarin Rosetta Stone before. I say it's not worth the price. It isn't horrible. It could be a decent vocabulary builder/driller. A lot of the vocabulary it starts you out with aren't very useful anyway (the boy is in the plane?) unlike Michel Thomas (generally excellent grammar-building courses) which stresses more pronouns and more generally applicable types of phrases.

The other thing is that it doesn't explain anything so you can remain clueless about many aspects of grammar etc. You can't really use it alone to learn a language, especially one like Chinese. It doesn't even teach hanzi (the characters) from what I saw. Everything was in pinyin (the romanization system).

The voice recognition part is pretty bad. This kind of technology is pretty primitive right now. It's simply not very useful for actually telling if you sound good.

Rosetta Stone is a good supplementary tool but I wouldn't plan on using it alone. It's not the ultimate tool to fluency that it's makers make it out to be. If you have money to spare, go ahead an buy it. However, it's not the most effective tool by any means and it's not worth the high price.

This site has the FSI Chinese program for download for free. I've never tried FSI Chinese but what I've seen of various FSI programs is decent. http://www.fsi-language-courses.com/Chin...

Answer 2

Rosetta works good for visual learners and verbal, too. But you can't be 100% fluent by just using Rosetta :)

Answer 3

before paying money try to catch up with everything you can get for free... look for any info on the web, there are plenty web sites with free lessons to try... asking about the best software is like asking about the tastiest snack...

:D

any search engine, magic words "Chinese language"

:)

learning language is like playing the basketball... if you want to get the right feeling -- go to the playground

:P

Answer 4

As a dedicated Rosetta Stone user, yes, it is TOTALLY worth it! I highly suggest it.

Answer 5

Rosetta stone is a waste of money if you intend to learn the language properly.

At the least get the program 'Tell me more'. That teaches you about grammar and such.

Rosetta stone is boring and formula-matic. It offers not explanations or translations. You cannot seriously learn a language using it. Especially a language as foreign as Chinese.

Also, with regards to learning Chinese, you are really better off getting a native tutor or sorts. Because anyone that is intending to learn East Asian languages seriously needs to be surrounded by the real language by either going there or getting a native where you are. If you try to learn Chinese and expect to reach the fluency that military or business requires you will only succeed if you actually take up classes somewhere, and are prepared to dedicate a LOT of time to it. These languages are no push-overs.

I hope this helps <(^_^)>