I decided that a refresher course was in order and opted to take Rosetta Stone.
Having a full-on conversation without peppering in a word of English (or two)? Not quite there. I can speak at a basic level (say, ordering food from a restaurant or giving directions to a taxi driver) and know standard grammar syntax but reading from a restaurant menu? Tough.
#ROSETTA STONE MANDARIN CHINESE REVIEW HOW TO#
Over time, with disuse, I can barely remember how to write certain words. I just happened to work hard and have an excellent memory, as the difficulty with Mandarin is that it’s a character based language where memorization of at least a couple thousand characters is required. The irony is that there were better, more fluent students in the class. At the end of each school year, they ranked each student and every year (except one) I won first place, taking home a giant trophy to boot. I grew up in a Mandarin Chinese speaking household and attended Chinese school once a week, every week from elementary school up to high school. Perhaps the biggest regret is not fully mastering Chinese. I love learning languages – yet despite studying three languages throughout elementary, grade school and college, I can’t convincingly say that I’m fluent in anything but English. One of the things that amazes the most when I travel is the ease with which the rest of the world is multi-lingual while Americans can get away with relying on just one common tongue. Is Rosetta Stone for Mandarin a Good Learning Tool? Currently, they're having a summer sale where if you purchase a 24 month Rosetta Stone subscription and get $80 off! All other subscriptions are discounted as well Rosetta Stone offers free online demos on their website.