I agree. Version 3 is far superior to v2.
I just started on Version 3. Its got a pretty slick interface, (and it should for the amount it costs). Does anyone have a success story with v3? Any advice out there?
Hi,
I have been working my way through Rosetta Stone, I’m near the end of Level 1 and using a combination of that and Anki for memorization has been very good to me, I think.
I am looking for somebody else, also using Rosetta, and ideally somewhere roughly at the same level to practice speaking/listening with.
Respond or PM if interested, I live in Taipei, at Muzha（木柵）
With respect, what you want is not another learner struggling through with RS plus flashcards; what you want is a fluent speaker of Chinese who can understand what subset of vocabulary and structures you’ve been exposed to and limit their speech to that set. Practicing with another learner might be better than nothing (I say “might be”) but it won’t really advance you, and you won’t know when you are making a mistake or listening to something wrong from the other person. This includes tones at this stage as well.
I would suggest that you print out a vocabulary list and write out (at least in English) a list of the “representative sample sentences” you’ve studied. For example, you probably have had sentences like “This is a boy” and “The airplane is yellow” (if RS follows the same path for all languages damn the torpedoes and don’t worry about differences between them – and AFAIK it does). Doing that might help you to get a live tutor who will be of more help to you (and at least will not be saying incorrect things and will know what things really mean.)
Also, for those with R$:
I’ve taken to using a simple iPhone digital recorder to make myself audio flashcards for the R$ materials. Just cue up the R$ in the “Preview” mode, make sure you have the translations for the sentences (you can download the English .pdf file and mostly they match – mostly!) and then play the audio while recording, pause, read the English meaning, and play the audio again to finish the recording. That gives you a mini-song of about 10-15 seconds or so. Rename the file in a way that makes sense to you (I use the English meaning) and put them on your iPod or iPhone on “shuffle” (I usually organize one lesson as an album, then I can mix and match using playlists.)
This method will obviously work even for versions of R$ where you can’t directly access the .mp3 files on the disc, and it’s faster than finding the right file and renaming it, then adding the English and duplicating the target language utterance.
It did seem like a good idea at the time, but after staring at your post for a while and pondering, you have me convinced that it is not a good idea.
My feelings on rosetta stone are mixed. It is not a good method to start with I think. If you’re just starting I don’t think it’s the best program to use. It’s terrible at teaching grammar, though fairly good at vocabulary. I just think of it as a flashcard system… which is why I wouldn’t actually pay for it. For beginners I think pimsleur is quite good for pronunciation and basic sentences. Once you get past that a good text is much better than RS in my opinion… though like I said it might be a good supplement for vocabulary purposes.
There are so many factors to learning due to people’s individual learning style. For me, I do not like Pimsleur at all, and find Rosetta to be outstanding. I actually didn’t find it that useful until I supplemented it with Anki. Since I want to learn to speak/read/type (everything but writing), Rosetta hits all of those points, which is also nice for me. I can also ask questions from my Taiwanese Fiance or coworkers which helps with the Grammar. But, I do agree that it’s really just a glorified flash card system. Maybe if I went back to Pimsleur now I would get more out of it… But I doubt it.
At any rate, for me, Rosetta + Anki + Taiwanese Fiance is so good that I don’t even plan to take formal classes. At least, not for a while.
Rosetta stone are doing an offer where you can buy it, use it, and if you don’t want it for any reason return it in six months for a no questions asked refund. Now what “could” happen is you buy it, install it, and call them and say your pc has broken ! So you want to return it. As long as you de activate the internet connection before starting up the rosetta stone software after that, it works fine 
You also have to buy a new headset as they obviously want theirs back !
Geez, if you’re going to pirate it might as well BT it.
Having started with RS about a year and a half ago, my advice would be to instead start with a tutor and a pinyin chart just drilling the basic pronunciation and tones with the native language tutor correcting you until you are able to say most of the material correctly at least 70% of the time. Then start to add some basic words and combination of words - again with the tutor correcting you. After that, then by all means jump in and go through the material writing down sample sentences in a durable notebook to periodically review with a tutor that’s flexible enough to let you play in your little sandbox of growing vocabulary and sentence patterns.
Perhaps not as much fun as the instant gratification of whizzing through each chapter, new vocabulary and sentence structures from day 1. However, for most of us mere mortals skipping this step will likely come back to bite you as you’ll need to relearn lots of the material and fight to eliminate ingrained bad habits to be clearly understood by the locals.
If you’re going to hire a tutor anyway, why not learn the language instead of just sounds that you can’t relate to anything meaningful?
And use no supporting materials with the tutor? I guess some people can learn that way but think most of us, especially beginners, find it more productive to systemically go through material before, during and after class/tutor sessions. I personally would never have gotten beyond newbie level studying Chinese just showing up for class/tutor sessions regardless of how good the teacher is but guess there are some people out there that can do that, in which case I envy you all. 
The material in version 3 Rosetta Stone Mandarin is much more than just sounds. They go chapter by chapter introducing vocabulary and basic sentence patterns like any basic supporting textbook but its far and away much more interactive than any textbook could ever be. Each chapter also has supporting audio tapes in pure Chinese (no English like Pimsleur) that reinforces the material in each chapter. Its complete immersion though so not for everyone - no English explanations and instead requires the student to figure out / associate the dialogue to the pictures, pinyin and/or characters. As with most things, depends on one’s personal taste but to me RS is as good a place to start as any and certainly no worse than the basic textbooks used in the university programs in Taiwan like Practical Audio Visual Chinese 1.
Well, when I take on a student, I consider that I am responsible for providing materials for the student based on his individualized progress, so yes, I would like someone using no supporting materials just fine. If I’m taking your money, it is my job to create the supporting materials you need (flash card files, vocal lists, mp3 files for audio flashcards, etc). and to figure out/help guide the learner as to what it makes the most sense to learn next. That is why Moodle is free, and it makes a great tutoring platform to keep all those materials together for the student.
I imagine if you were my tutor then your approach would likely be superior to using the material I used in the past. However, most of us don 't have access to super tutors with a western background that spent lots of time really thinking about how to teach Mandarin to non-Asian students and have the ability to customize a complete modern program for the student.
Therefore, the choice often comes down to using the material the tutor uses for their group classes (e.g., basic textbooks at Shi Da or NTU) or the more modern material available for solo learning (e.g., Rosetta Stone, Chinese Pod’s dialogues etc.) and/or more modern texts used in the u.s. ( e.g., Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar - my favorite Chinese book so far 
).
Personally, I just don’t like the traditional textbooks used in Taiwan nor group classes taught at the big programs as I feel those things won’t get me to the level I want to achieve fast enough with my given, innate ability to learn Chinese (or should say relatively lack of language learning talent in my case :fume: ). But again, there are those that do quite well using those other approaches so not knocking it for everyone 
Oh, but that’s what Skype is for, my friend!