Want to learn Chinese? That’s a great idea and a big job! You can use a program like Rocket Chinese to get a quick start on conversations in Mandarin Chinese.

You can go to China and study at a school for foreigners, though you would have to have a good chunk of time and money for that option. There might be a class you could, if you happen to live in Los Angeles or another major city. There are a variety of online Chinese courses. I have explored them a little so far, and will write more about them later; so far, I have not found anything I like better than Rocket Chinese. Here are my thoughts on it:

Rocket Chinese

Rocket Chinese is a downloadable interactive program for learning Mandarin.

It’s hard to know where to begin in describing Rocket Chinese, as you get a lot for your money, especially with their downloadable version but also with the CD one. I’ve used and recommended Rocket Spanish, and it seems to me that the company has done another good job with this Mandarin Chinese package. I have begun working my way through the first Mandarin lessons myself.

You can click through to their site to find out a lot about the course and what people say about it who have actually used it. There are some sound files you can listen to also. Good luck understanding the first one!

In essence what this program gives you is a series of 31 interactive audio lessons, just under half an hour in length each. The discussions are between Dave Lewis of the UK. who speaks a good amount of Chinese already, and Lin Ping, a native of China.

A description of what topics are covered in each lesson is given on that webpage I just linked to. They cover practical things, like how to ask someone to speak more slowly, ordering coffee or a meal, planning a trip, feeling unwell, talking about work, going dancing, and much more.

As you practice, there are plenty of chances for you to review and to combine words you have learned in various lessons. This gets you thinking in the language.

I just finished listening to selections from some of the lessons, and I must say I was impressed by how far they had gotten by Lesson Six. (I used to speak and read some Mandarin myself but haven’t used it in years.)

Besides the sound files, you get all the transcripts along with a workbook that uses both characters and pinyin, the widely-used Romanized version of written Chinese that is much easier for us Westerners to learn. I think that trying to learn characters at the same time would be very hard.

I suggest that you check out the sample dialogs on their website, and then if you still aren’t sure if you want to use the program, you can explore what Rocket Chinese is like by subscribing to their six-day email course:
6 Day Course
Rocket Chinese is a good program for listening to and practicing on the go, and be sure to take time to study with the transcripts and other materials.

Also, you do need to be in a place where you can speak aloud to practice as you listen to the sound files. Just practicing mentally in your thoughts is not adequate. This is true of learning any language with any program. Speaking very softly is fine but whispering isn’t as good.

These seem to me to be the best of your choices for learning conversational Mandarin Chinese with a program.