After about a month with Rosetta Stone I can not yet write this review in Chinese, but was able to get a first impression of this very interesting language. The complete package consists of 5 levels, each divided into 4 units, which in turn have several chapters. Even after a month I have arrived only in unit 2 of the first level, even though I have already learned quite a lot of feeling. The unconventional Rosetta Stone method is completely to the so-called immersion. This means that there are no translations, and you have to open up the language by means of an association itself.
Example: At the beginning is a picture of a group of men presented along with the word. On the next page are then two images - one with men, one with women - as well as two words - and. As you know the word for men already, so unfamiliar word for "women" should be.
To avoid being killed by the Chinese characters, the program also offers the possibility to completely Latin transcription (Pinyin) to change, or to display both simultaneously. I let my characters (Simplified for PRC or Traditional for Hong Kong and Taiwan) show parallel and Pinyin because you may remember the debate better be composed in Chinese in 4 shades and depending on intonation advance the small but significant difference between "mother" (m) and "horse" (m) can mean. Therefore, just the speech recognition (microphone included) is an important element of the learning program, although advance can be frustrating (because you think it right to speak), but any language nuances adjusts based on the visible sound waveforms with the speaker. The program is dedicated to While also learning the characters, but not the letter, which is subject to the Chinese a certain stroke order.
The structure of Rosetta Stone is not necessarily suitable for rapidly acquiring a few helpful phrases for the upcoming China holiday. Rather, the learning method gives the record structure, so that one is fast even in a position to formulate new sets. Since it is also to get over when. With seemingly senseless sample sentences as "The key is in the shoe" or "The cat is on the chair" is confronted At the end of each chapter there is a small test of the already learned material, where one often has to describe images that require combining the learned vocabulary in a sentence, which was so far not requested (in this case, as the key is in the chair ). If it succeeds at first, the learning method provides a motivating sense of achievement, so that the learning never feels like work.
Conclusion:
For absolute beginners the Rosetta Stone learning method is ideal for a quick introduction to one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. Since the lessons build on each other and start very simple, will be advanced initially may feel somewhat challenged and do not know where to enter to miss anything.
