Is HSK Standard Course 1 good for a beginner?

[Lumbering Ox]

As long as one tried to learn which tones go with which words and tries to listen for them when listening is it really all that needed to get a tutor to master tones at the HSK 1 level, It's only 150 words. I can see someone wanting to wait a bit before going in on a tutor if one is starting out on their own and doesn't know if things will "stick" or if they will end up quiting.

 

It isn't as if you plowed through 10000 hours and find you have to relearn 20K words and how to talk

[DavyJonesLocker]

I think people are being unfair to Rosetta stone. Usually large corporations get met with a lot of unfair criticism simply due to their size. Just because they are a large company (and like all companies primary purpose is to make profits) it does not mean they are offering a bad product. 

 

I liked Rosetta stone, in fact I'd say it was one of the most enjoyable experiences I had learning Chinese. It was nice to come home after work and spend an hour or too front of the computer. It does have a lot of bells and whistles which can be a distraction but its a fun way to learn Chinese. You do need other resources so RS should not be your sole point of learning.

 

As an observation and certainly not critism,  I see a lot of advice for learning Chinese that would bore me to death. Sitting around reading entomology of characters, characters, radicals,  learning stroke order, reading tedious  texts are exceptionally dull in my view. I  dislike using  anki although I don't doubt it's effectiveness. I see it as a form of medicine. 

 

Learning chinese for many is a hobby and like all hobbies it should be enjoyed. People should find what did them best and importantly what they will stick to even if that means it's not entirely effective 

 

[mungouk]

9 hours ago, Lumbering Ox said:

It isn't as if you plowed through 10000 hours and find you have to relearn 20K words and how to talk

 

No, but getting it wrong from the start and then having to un-learn and re-learn the correct way after, say, HSK1 or 6 months is going to be a major setback.

 

For what it's worth, the non-teacher tools I found most useful regarding tones have been:

 

- Audio-only tests for HSK 1-2-3 vocabulary on memrise... after I've heard the audio repeated over and over again I can more or less hear the audio examples (from multiple speakers) in my head when I read the characters.   (Caveat: the speakers don't all pronounce the words exactly the same.)  Here's the HSK 1&2 test I used.  Level 3 I built myself and can't currently publish it. 

 

- Similar for the audio for Skritter app, when I've been learning to write the characters, although I find this is much much slower in terms of covering all the vocab.  To the extent that I had to give up on Skritter to get all the vocab learned in time for my HSK 2 exam.  I then started over again on Skritter with the HSK levels, which is a lot quicker and easier once you already know how to read the characters, and want to focus on writing/stroke order and learning the tones, which are also tested. 

 

- Olle's "Hacking Chinese" tone training course.  I only did the test section of this in the early days, but it was a useful objective confirmation that I was at least interpreting them correctly.  There's also a training section I've not used. 

 

 

[Shelley]

17 minutes ago, DavyJonesLocker said:

You do need other resources so RS should not be your sole point of learning.

 

This is the main point about RS, you need to know this before you invest and find its not all you need.  It is a good review tool.

[DavyJonesLocker]

2 hours ago, Shelley said:

This is the main point about RS, you need to know this before you invest and find its not all you need.  It is a good review tool.

 

You  have a 30day money back guarantee if you don't like it. Its £144 for 12 months including access to a teacher. A handful of lessons with a language teacher will cost the same 

I think it's worth buying personally.

 

These companies have a lot of resources to invest in making a good product so I think it's a good buy . I used an old version many years back and I thought it quite enjoyable. 

 

PS: I just turned on my VPN and set it to usa. Its cheaper $119 for 12 months or you have the option of 3 months of you prefer