When people want to learn a new language, one of the first places they turn is Rosetta Stone. This is especially true for difficult languages like Chinese, where there aren’t many schools or classes to learn in the U.S. In this review, after using the Mandarin language learning program from Rosetta Stone for roughly a month, we break down the good, the bad, and the ugly.
As this is a long and detailed review, we have included jump-to links above for your convenience.
At the outset of this review, let’s cover how the Rosetta Stone Chinese program is structured and how it generally works.
To start, one of the nice things about Rosetta Stone is that they provide you with a study plan. Once you login, the app directs you to the next lesson on your learning path. There is no guesswork as to what’s next on the agenda, like I’ve seen with a few other language learning programs.
However, if you zoom out, you can see that the curriculum isn’t all that complicated. At the end of the day, the Rosetta Stone Chinese course is just comprised of 20 different learning units, which each cover different topics, such as ordering food, shopping, everyday things, small talk, and topics like that.
Then, within each of these topical learning units, there are generally four lessons. Distilling it down further, within each lesson there are several different sections or exercises to complete, such as pronunciation, vocabulary, listening, and reading.
That’s the program from a high level. There are around 20 major study units, with each unit consisting of four lessons, and each lesson is made up of various exercises.
As far as what the lessons themselves are like, depending on which section you’re working, each one takes anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes to complete. Moreover, all the lessons utilize pretty much the same types of drills and exercises which revolve around images.
I’ll discuss this aspect in further detail below, but understand that pretty much every single drill or exercise within the lessons focuses on images. This includes matching images to spoken phrases, matching images to written phrases, and speaking aloud what you see in an image, among others.
It’s also important to note that in addition to the emphasis on images, Rosetta Stone’s Chinese program is also built around immersion. This results in very limited use of English in the lessons, and there is no moderator within the program to hold your hand.
The Rosetta Stone method seems to be based on the guiding principle that everything should be taught in Chinese in order to develop your comprehension naturally through context, exposure, and association.
In any event, that’s my overview of Rosetta’s learning method and what the program is like. Now before I dive straight into what I like and don’t like about this app, let’s quickly cover pricing.
If you decide to sign up, Rosetta Stone has three different plans to choose from: two monthly subscription options and one lifetime package.
The monthly subscription options range in price from around $13 to $16 per month, and the lifetime option costs around $400 (note that lifetime plan includes access to all Rosetta Stone languages, not just Chinese).
However, with that said, I should mention that those retail prices don’t mean much as Rosetta Stone regularly offers sales and special promotions. I sometimes see the monthly subscriptions going for around $8 to $12 after discounts, and the lifetime package is usually slashed down to $150, which makes Rosetta Stone cheaper than a lot of other Mandarin programs out there.
Now that we’ve covered pricing, as well as how the Rosetta Stone Chinese program works, let’s get into the pros and cons. Let’s start with what we liked.
The first thing that needs to be said about Rosetta Stone is that it’s a great fit for visual learners. As noted above, just about every drill and exercise within the program contains some sort of image or graphic.
To be honest, it’s the most image-heavy language program I’ve used and reviewed to date. Thus, if you’re a visual learner, and you comprehend and retain information best through visuals, then Rosetta Stone should be well-suited for your learning style.
The second strength of this program is the immersive learning framework which Rosetta Stone is built upon. It is difficult at first, especially for those with zero foundation in Mandarin (and even borderline frustrating), but in the long run, if you can stick with it, I think full immersion really helps you learn the language faster.
Rather than using English as a go-between and memorizing translations, you start to think in Chinese, and associate words with imagery and actions. This is a highly effective way of picking up a language gradually and naturally, sort of like when you first learned English as a baby.
Our brains are wired to recognize patterns, identify visual cues, and extract meaning from context, which is exactly what the Rosetta Stone curriculum is based on. So although it can be annoying, especially for beginners, I do think this style of teaching works.
Another thing I like about Rosetta Stone is how fast the lessons go. Most of the lessons are chopped up into 10-minute increments, and this provides a really flexible way of completing lessons.
A lot of other Mandarin language apps have really long lessons, including up to an hour long. This is especially true for those apps with audio lessons, such as Rocket Chinese and Pimsleur.
However, the nice thing about Rosetta Stone is that you can flex these lesson segments around in your day, perhaps doing one in the morning with your coffee, another on your lunch break, and another after dinner.
Consistency is key in language learning, and if a lesson takes a full hour, you might go multiple days without any practice because you don’t have time to start a full lesson. With Rosetta Stone though, you’ll almost always have time for at least one lesson segment.
The final pro worth noting in this post is Rosetta Stone’s TruAccent speech technology. This is the company’s speech recognition software which grades your pronunciation.
How it works is that as you complete verbal practice exercises throughout the lessons, Rosetta’s speech technology is able to provide you immediate feedback on your pronunciation. I’ve used around 20 different language learning apps at this point (most with varying speech software tools), and I have to say that Rosetta Stone’s speech technology is definitely near the top of the list.
It integrates seamlessly into lessons, is quick, and I’ve found it be fairly accurate, which is something I can’t necessarily say about other apps’ speech software. Overall, Rosetta Stone deserves credit in my opinion when it comes to pronunciation feedback.
Having outlined the strengths of this program, let’s turn to the cons.
The biggest drawback of the Rosetta Stone course that I’ve experienced is that the lessons are somewhat repetitive. Frankly, they’re just a little tedious after a while.
As noted above, the lessons are all somewhat derivative of the same picture-based exercises. These lessons just don’t have the same level of variety or diversity you get with other programs, like Duolingo or Babbel. They’re all sort of the same and repetitive.
Thus, I would say that if you’re the type of person who has trouble focusing, or you get bored easily, then Rosetta Stone may not be the best fit for you.
The next thing worthy of mention is that Rosetta Stone doesn’t offer direct grammar instruction. Whether this is a true drawback is debatable, because this is by design. Rosetta Stone believes in teaching you grammar more organically within the context of its drills.
However, it needs to be called out, because for people that like clear and concise, direct grammar explanations, you’re not going to get that here. Rosetta Stone immerses you in the Chinese language until you pick up on grammatical markers naturally. As such, it really just depends on your learning style as to whether this is a pro or con.
The final negative worth noting is that while Rosetta Stone’s speech software is solid, I wish the underlying speaking exercises themselves were more comprehensive and contextual. In my eyes, they are just sort of basic.
In the end, you’re simply asked to listen to and repeat words and phrases in a vacuum, which is great for refining your pronunciation, but not so great for learning to use the language in a spontaneous, conversational manner.
I wish there was more opportunity for you to think critically and use the language under pressure. I have seen other apps like Rocket Chinese and Pimsleur do this with simulated mock conversations, and it would be nice to see Rosetta Stone develop more exercises based on spontaneous verbal practice.
In the end, I think Rosetta Stone is a good app to learn Chinese. The company’s immersive, image-based approach to learning might not be for everyone, but if you can survive the first few lessons (which can be frustrating), you will get into the swing of it, and I found their method to be effective. I think this will be especially true for visual learners.
With a smart study plan, solid speech software, comprehensive drills, and plenty of bonus resources and tools, there’s a lot to like here. Honestly, the only cases in which I’d steer someone away from Rosetta Stone is if you are an auditory learner, or you have ADHD-like focus issues. In those cases, I’d recommend either Rocket Chinese or Pimsleur. With that said, I do think Rosetta Stone is an otherwise solid choice for learning Mandarin.
Yes, in my opinion, Rosetta Stone is a good program for learning to speak Mandarin. The fact that Rosetta Stone uses an image-based program helped me with learning, as Hànzì (Chinese characters) are difficult to learn.
I had a great experience with Rosetta Stone’s Chinese language learning program. Though a little frustrating at first, I found a groove and it was effective for me.
It really depends on what level of fluency you want to achieve. In my experience, if you want to reach an intermediate level of fluency (B1 or B2), you will need to dedicate 6 to 12 months of learning with Rosetta Stone.