Best course package out there? (mystery)

[xrave3]

Hey guys,

Curious what you'd recommend as the best course one can order out there to have at your side?

I'm intermediate, but not natively fluent. Can read/write at a 3rd grade level and speak fluently Mandarin.

I've heard Rosetta Stone and Rocket Chinese eCourse are all good, what do you guys think is best?

cheers

[renzhe]

I'm intermediate, but not natively fluent. Can read/write at a 3rd grade level and speak fluently Mandarin.

You probably want a flashcard program, a good grammar book, a good dictionary and a selection of modern literature.

Then read a few thousand pages.

If you're already fluent (or intermediate, even), I don't think Rosetta Stone will help you much.

[c6ray]

I've heard Rosetta Stone and Rocket Chinese eCourse are all good, what do you guys think is best?

I did a lesson in Rosetta Stone after learning my first 20 汉字 from a character book, and immediately spotted two instances in TRS where a homonym was in place of the appropriate character. (The sentence still made sense with one of them but did not match the picture.) Because of this, I did not have confidence that the other new-to-me characters were correct. Probably they have gotten better with their latest revision, but TRS has pulled off the amazing feat of being at the same time both boring and frustrating.

[wrbt]

Yeah I agree with Renzhe if you speakl fluent Mandarin then Rosetta would be a huge waste of money, even moreso than when new learners buy it.

Why not jump into some of those abridged books that are offered with downloadable MP3s?

Stuff like this: http://www.chinabooks.com/cart/product.php?productid=20632

[xrave3]

thanks for the link wrbt.

renzhe, any good online dictionaries or grammar resources you'd recommend?

Thanks and cheers

[renzhe]

For dictionaries, I like www.nciku.com and www.mdbg.net

For flashcards, I recommend either Mnemosyne or Anki. Both have pre-made decks with the most common 1000-2000 characters.

I don't know how well you can learn grammar online. I think the best option is really investing in a good (paper) textbook and working your way through it.

Another thing I would recommend, if your listening is up-to-speed, is watching TV shows. Check this thread for many recommendations, including vocabulary lists, discussions, transcripts, etc. (Almost) all shows come with Chinese subtitles, so if you can understand the speech, it will help your reading. Just click and watch.