Review by Skylark Alauda Thibedeau

My kids are taking mandarin at the Charter Scholl they attend. I thought this would be a good addendum to help them with the Class. I have done the Danish and German Rosetta Stones in the past. I did get a lot out of the German one but I had taken a German class in college. The Danish one not so well as my pronounciation of Scandanavian vowels is lacking. Fortunately the Danes speak American English.

The Mandarin course is a bit different in that it teaches Chinese Letters too though you can decide to do the entire course using only the Roman alphabet. I found the software can be as easy or as Challenging as you wish.

The Course is presented in three sections. A basic, intermediate, and more advanced sections. You create a profile for yourself and based on your age and gender the software will compensate for you on its voice recognition software.

The best thing about the course is the voice recognition. You say the words and the system tell you if you are correct. I can’t pronounce English very well so I’m not quite sure how accurate it is.

The Basic course is pretty simple. It teaches you touristy things like eating, walking, running, cooking, and the differences in gender. I like rosetta stone because it emmerses you in the language. It doesn’t try to translate. You infer from the pictures what you are saying.

The courses get harder and harder as you go along. I found I tend to forget what I learned in the class if I try to remember but pick it up again immediately when confronted with it in real life.

I would reccomend it highly for someone just looking for a simple tool to introduce them to the Chinese alphabet and Mandarin. I thought it and the other courses I got to be well worth it.