Review: Using Rosetta Stone to learn Chinese Mandarin
When researching software programs to learn Chinese Mandarin with it’s pretty hard to go past Rosetta Stone. The United States Army, Airforce, Marine Corps and Department of State are all Rosetta Stone customers.
For some that might be a reason to skip over the software but I figured if it was good enough for the US military then at the very least Rosetta Stone was worth looking over.
I’ve been using it for a few months now exclusively learning Chinese Mandarin for use in Taiwan (I’ll go into this later). In this post I aim to share my thoughts so far on my language learning experience.
The Rosetta Stone Learning Design
Rosetta Stone was developed by some guy called Allen Stoltzfus and was initially released in 1999. I won’t go into further details because nobody cares. What is important is that Rosetta Stone has been designed with complete language immersion in mind.
I’m currently living in Taiwan so this seemed like the logical approach to go. I’ve pretty much immersed myself in 24/7 Chinese outside of work, so why not attempt to learn in that environment too.
Let’s face it, when you’re cycling through Taiwan’s mountains with nothing more then a pannier full of water bottles, nobody is going to be coddling you along with English translations.
Using Rosetta Stone
As mentioned previously Rosetta Stone uses a total immersion method for teaching languages. Believe me when the creators say ‘total immersion learning’, they are not kidding either.
The Chinese Mandarin course is broken up into 3 levels;
Level 1 covers language basics, greetings and introductions, work and school, and shopping. Understandably at this level there is a lot of vocabulary to learn here. Although grammar is obviously used to present the vocabulary the focus at this point is primarily learning new words in Chinese.
In Level 2 you start to appreciate the Chinese grammar structure more and continue to build your vocabulary level. At this stage I found myself trying to formulate my own sentences which was a personal breakthrough for me. Topic wise level 2 covers travel, past and future, friends and social life, and dining and vacation.
Level 3 finishes off the course and primarily focuses on expanding the grammar you have learnt in the previous levels. Vocabulary at this point also becomes a lot more specialised.
The basic idea is that after completing level 3, Rosetta Stone students should have enough of an understanding and foundation in Chinese grammar and vocabulary to function verbally in day to day life.
Effectiveness of using Rosetta Stone to learn Chinese Mandarin
Whilst I’ve found the immersion method of learning Chinese Mandarin to be for the most part effective, my biggest hurdle has been the complete immersion in Chinese grammar. Anyone who speaks English and Chinese Mandarin will tell you that Chinese and English grammar rules couldn’t be more further apart.
Going into a complete immersion learning environment meant there was many times I was sitting there trying to understand the grammar presented. Not entirely sure what I was reading or listening to I had trouble or was simply unable to separate vocabulary from common grammatical phrases.
Grammar familiarity issues aside, I had no troubles picking up the vocabulary and thoroughly recommend the total immersion learning method for doing so.
Because you’re working from your pc or laptop, the lessons are able to be done at your own leisure and convenience. This was a big advantage over taking up a course at a local university or language school.
Of course there is a downside if you lack self motivation. For me not being able to order food and function in day to day life without relying on people, or being able speak to the local hot Taiwanese girls was all the motivation I needed.
Limitations of using Rosetta Stone
Although it kind of goes against the whole total immersion learning concept, I’ve found at times I was simply stuck trying to understand grammar.
To get around this I’ve found it invaluable to combine using Rosetta Stone with local language exchange. What I’ve found works best is that when I’m doing a lesson I simply write down in pinyin any grammar I don’t entirely understand and then take it to language exchange.
At my language exchange (I’m doing 2 lessons twice a week for 3 hours totalling 6), we then go over the grammar and it gets explained to me. If I’m feeling confident I then try to expand on it with the existing vocabulary I’ve learnt.
I highly recommend getting a language exchange happening for some of the more confusing grammar points. As I mentioned earlier English and Chinese grammar structure is miles apart. For a native English speaker getting your head around some of the Chinese grammar peculiarities and rules can be massively confusing.
Whilst it’s certainly possible to continue on the Rosetta Stone lessons without any language exchange (through repetition and revision you’ll probably work out certain grammar structures in time anyway), I’ve found language exchange vastly decreases learning times. This in turn lets you get on learning the language faster, rather then being stuck trying to understand a grammatical structure that initially makes no sense to you.
For me I just want to be able to talk to the locals as quickly as possible so anything I could do to cut down my learning time was in my opinion worth doing.
I’ve also found limitations with the speaking and writing components of the Chinese Mandarin course. Speaking seems to be largely useless as either my Asus EEE PC laptop microphone doesn’t seem to be up to the task of recording what I’m saying properly, or the Rosetta Stone speech recognition engine is garbage.
Skype and what not works fine on my EEE PC so I’m assuming it’s the Rosetta software itself. I obviously could invest in a headset with a stronger mic but while I’m abroad I’m mobile blogging and more equipment means more crap to haul around.
Writing in Chinese is no easy task (there are three main input systems that are all different) and seems a bit out of place when your learning grammar and vocabulary basics. I might come back to the writing component but probably not until I’ve got reading down pat.
Of course reading isn’t something I’m going to start until I’m comfortable with speaking, and that in itself is a ways off yet.
Specific Limitations for Taiwanese Mandarin
In addition to the limitations above there are also some specific considerations that need to be addressed when using Rosetta Stone to learn Chinese Mandarin for use in Taiwan.
The main consideration is the various differences in how some things are said and pronounced. Taiwanese Mandarin varies slightly from Chinese Mandarin and the locals are only too eager to point these differences out.
One example is the prominent use of ‘ar’ at the end of many words when Mandarin is spoken by the Chinese. In Taiwan this just doesn’t exist. The first example of this I ran into was when I was doing numbers. In Chinese Mandarin ‘two’ is literally pronounced ‘arr’ whereas in Taiwan it’s pronounced ‘err’. Another example is children, the Chinese say ‘harr’ whereas in Taiwan it’s more of a ‘ha’ with only a tiny pronunciation of the ‘r’ sound at the end.
Again language exchange with a local Taiwanese is essential for uncovering these differences as you go from lesson to lesson. If you are learning Chinese Mandarin for Taiwan there’s a real danger of picking up incorrect pronounciation and then having locals fail to understand you properly.
Believe me it’s bad enough when you do speak the language properly (people here tend to listen to you with their eyes ‘there’s no way this foreigner I’m looking at can speak any Chinese’), so do yourself a favour and make sure your pronunciation is right for your region.
Overall thoughts
The Rosetta Stone package is a powerful language learning tool and I definitely could have done worse for my first attempt at electronic language learning. I found the pace of the lessons to be functionally useful and well balanced.
I had a sense of being eased into the more difficult grammatical structures which is integral to avoiding feeling overwhelmed with new information.
The portability was a big deal for me as well as being able to take lessons on my own time when it suited me. Rosetta Stone being electronic obviously fits both of these criteria.
Whilst the Rosetta Stone software package definitely has some limitations when it comes to Mandarin Chinese, with some language exchange I believe these can be quickly and effectively overcome.
As a starting point Rosetta Stone
March 11th, 2010 at 10:53 am Leper(Quote)
The speech engine could be tuned for American-accented Mandarin and it may be having difficulty with your Australian-accented Mandarin. This would likely contribute to any microphone-related speech recognition problems.
March 11th, 2010 at 1:40 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
Ah I hadn’t thought of that. I remember similar issues with the Nintendo DS speech recognition engine for Brain Training too.
Another possibility is that I’m l’m learning Taiwanese pronounciation too. Might not be such a problem in the beginning but I imagine later on as familiarity with phrasing and sentence structure kicks in and I speed up my speeth rhythm, it’s going to cause headaches.
November 4th, 2010 at 5:49 pm Han(Quote)
Native Chinese speakers can almost tell which part of the world you’re from straightaway because the pronunciations are so different.
Taiwanese and China mainlanders sounds vastly different, but people from different part of China don’t pronounce the same way either. Some of them have really annoying accent even for a native speaker, lol…
There are some from places where they speak their dialects more often than Mandarin so they carry a heavier accent and sometimes doesn’t pronounce the words properly, e.g. Hong Kong people. But if you can master Taiwanese Mandarin, u’re pretty much safe anywhere becoz of the popularity of Taiwanese TV series and shows.