Lilitu Newbie United States zhongwenstudent Joined 5122 days ago 7 posts - 8 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin
| Message 1 of 20 21 March 2010 at 11:13pm | IP Logged |
I'm new to language learning, and starting Mandarin. I have a few questions that I hope
someone could help me out with, mostly concerning Rosetta Stone, as that is the program
I'm starting with.
After finishing all three levels of Rosetta Stone where can I expect to be at? Would I
know enough to begin NPCR2? Is there an official word count for Rosetta Stone? I'm
trying to map out my learning plan.
I've been doing well with Rosetta Stone, but off it I cannot remember Pinyin spellings,
and I'm struggling with character writing. Is this fine, especially the Pinyin part? Do
I just need to wait for things to make sense and not bother fretting over it? What are
some good Rosetta Stone supplements, especially focused on writing?
And lastly, after finishing all of Rosetta Stone, I was planning on joining Livemocha
with hopes of finding a language partner. Should I jump into Livemocha with the few
phrases I know, (这个男孩子喝水 and such,) or wait to practice pronunciation until I have
more to practice with?
Sorry there's so many questions, especially in a first post. I should mention that I've
only been learning for a few days, (which makes my numerous questions sound stupid, I
know,) but I'm mostly just not sure what direction to go in with this and what is okay
to not understand and be confused about in the beginning.
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Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5140 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian
| Message 2 of 20 21 March 2010 at 11:19pm | IP Logged |
What made you choose Rosetta Stone?
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Lilitu Newbie United States zhongwenstudent Joined 5122 days ago 7 posts - 8 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin
| Message 3 of 20 21 March 2010 at 11:25pm | IP Logged |
Honestly, because my boyfriend worships it, and loves to go on about how it's the best,
even the US military uses it etc etc etc. I do like it, but I feel that when I finish
Rosetta Stone, I'll be very behind in writing. I think it could be a good tool for a
beginning student, but other supplements are needed as well.
Edited by Lilitu on 21 March 2010 at 11:26pm
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Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5140 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian
| Message 4 of 20 22 March 2010 at 12:13am | IP Logged |
What languages did your boyfriend learn with Rosetta Stone?
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Lilitu Newbie United States zhongwenstudent Joined 5122 days ago 7 posts - 8 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin
| Message 5 of 20 22 March 2010 at 12:22am | IP Logged |
He learned a bit of German, but not enough worth speaking of. He's not the authority on
learning languages.
Are the questions a hint that you think Rosetta Stone is worthless or?
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Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5140 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian
| Message 6 of 20 22 March 2010 at 12:45am | IP Logged |
Lilitu wrote:
Are the questions a hint that you think Rosetta Stone is worthless or?
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Indeed.
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Lilitu Newbie United States zhongwenstudent Joined 5122 days ago 7 posts - 8 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin
| Message 7 of 20 22 March 2010 at 12:49am | IP Logged |
Yet I already have Rosetta Stone. I doubt it's completely worthless, and though I don't
know about language learning like you do, I'm sure using more than one program at the
same time to combine different aspects is a good thing. I believe I learn well with it,
in particular listening, but it's lacking in writing, like I said. Do you only want to
say it's worthless, or some bit of advice?
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Pyx Diglot Senior Member China Joined 5494 days ago 670 posts - 892 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Mandarin
| Message 8 of 20 22 March 2010 at 1:11am | IP Logged |
The general consensus in the Mandarin learning community is, that it is, in fact, worthless. Sorry :( You can look around this forum and on chinese-forum.com and read through the reads about it to see why. You can and should, however, study it as an example of very very successful marketing! :) [Just don't open the pretty yellow box! ;) ]
If you want to learn Chinese (or any other language, for that matter), go the AJATT way, imho.
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