Rosetta Stone Chinese, Level I

by Peter
(WY)

I used the Level I Chinese course as a refresher from my college days. It was easy to use; I just started up the CD and followed the instructions. There were a variety of different activities to practice listening, speaking and reading, so I could switch between them whenever I got bored or overloaded.

The method of learning seemed pretty intuitive, although I agree that it can be a bit too repetitive in places, and it is easy to "cheat" by guessing on some of the activities, especially the ones involving matching pictures to words.

I don't know if I would recommend it for a complete newbie to the language, but for someone whose taken a basic Chinese course, even years ago, it can be helpful. Or starting with a different course and using this one to supplement. In general, I think using multiple approaches to immerse yourself is always a good thing. The only problem with this is that because the Rosetta Stone courses are fairly expensive, it may be financially difficult to buy more than one program at a time. I guess it will depend our your resources, your need to learn the language, and your own ways of learning.

Hope you enjoy your new language!