My Chinese Coach

Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Tool for the DIY Language Learner...
Comment: So, this is not better than a trip to Beijing but it's a whole lot less expensive. Is it better than an instructor? Arguably... And here's why...

People like us either don't have the time, the money or the patience for class room instruction. If we did, we would be in a class room. We like to learn, but on our own schedule and what we want are the tools and resources to learn effectively! That's what My Chinese Coach is... an effective learning tool.

Here are the pros (IMHO)
1. Structured lessons with words that make sense. True, I probably do not need to know the Chinese word for hemp (unless I'm traveling through China with Snoop Doggy Dogg's entourage) but some words are thrown in to make a point; hemp, for instance was part of a lesson in the different vowel sounds.
2. Voice comparison. You can record your voice and compare it with that of the virtual instructor.
3. Writing tutor. You can practice writing Chinese characters in your lessons.
4. Games. I mean, they're games and they teach you... win, win!
5. Dictionary/Phrasebook. There is a decent sized, searchable dictionary and phrase book included. You can mark your favorite phrases and go back to your favorites list whenever you want!

Cons
1. The dictionary/phrasebook does not give you the option of practicing the characters. I wish that were included!
2. You have to "earn points" by playing games that demonstrate your mastery over the lessons before having the next lesson "unlocked". This prevents you from skipping around and studying lessons based on your interest.

Overall, I think this is a great tool for learning Chinese. Because Chinese depends heavily on tones, I cannot imagine learning it without the benefit of hearing it and this game gives you that.

I also went out and bought a book on the 100 essential Chinese characters based on some of the recommendations here on Amazon because I wanted to be sure I was learning the correct stroke order of the characters.

This is a fun way to learn and even my 8 year old daughter is enjoying learning Chinese this way! That's the icing on the cake!

Customer Rating:
Summary: Good, but doesn't replace a real teacher
Comment: This type of game is such a great idea! I think it's for someone who is quite serious about learning Mandarin (the main language of China), because it really goes into writing the characters. Now, I should have read the directions, then I wouldn't have been so freaked out when it went into a quiz very quickly after starting it. The quiz tests your level of knowledge in Mandarin, so don't worry - you're not supposed to know all of that right off the bat. For me, it said it would start at lesson 4, but I found it more helpful to go back to the introduction lesson, because it had skipped past pinyin (the English letters used to help you to learn pronunciation).

I thought the introduction was more difficult than lessons 1-4, because it goes right into common words/phrases, like "thank you," "welcome". Sure, that sounds like it should be right, but part of what they quiz you on is recognizing the characters. Luckily, the early lessons go slower. You start with how to read pinyin and then how to read tones in pinyin. However, you still are expected to become familiar enough with the characters to recognize them AND write them. That can be good because you are really learning the language. That can be bad for someone who just wants to learn how to speak and/or feels learning characters is too daunting. You have to learn them in this game, though, in order to gather points and unlock new lessons.

What is great about the game are the write and speak options. The write option allows you to practice writing the character, either over top of the character, or on your own by clearing the character from the page. My problem with it is that it doesn't have a repeat button to allow you to repeat one particular character. If you have a word made out of two characters, you have to press forward and back again to repeat it. I also find myself doing this a lot in order to figure out stroke order (the order in which you draw each line of the character - yes, there is an order to it!). This game does not take you through stroke order step-by-step, which I think is a major flaw. The character is "drawn" in front of you, but it goes rather quickly and you can't slow it down. You have to go forward or forward and back to get it to play again. I do this multiple times to figure out the stroke order. Besides that, when you draw characters for the "fading character" quizzes, it does not always pick up incorrect stroke order, or even incorrect characters, for that matter. Drawing characters also does not always work correctly. Sometimes it seems that I can't complete my character and have to clear it and start over because a stroke will not appear where I am trying to draw it. Minor flaws, though. Not enough for me to be turned off by this.

I have to admit, I have not used the speak option yet, but just having it there is awesome! ;) It allows you to record yourself reading the sound/character, and to compare it to their professional speaker. I do, however, have a problem with the speaker. I'm not advanced by any means, but it seems that the way some things are pronounced are a bit off, such as "wu" (five) and "jiu" (nine). I am confident of this because I checked with a native speaker. ;) I think this might be from the speaker's attempt to exaggerate tones used, for the beginner's sake. Tone is important, but it shouldn't be important enough to throw off correct pronunciation, right? Or maybe it's a regional dialect thing? I don't know. Your relative/friend/acquaintance/teacher should be the judge.

I also have to admit that I am only on lesson 6, and there are supposed to be many, many more lessons. I kind of wish lessons were not locked, but in a way it's good to be forced to stick with the lesson plan in the order in which it was meant to be. I also kind of wish you didn't have to learn the characters because it makes learning all that much harder, but I'm thinking of the benefits - hopefully I'll be able to read some things the next time I go to Chinatown, recognize kanji (Chinese-derived Japanese characters) in my manga (Japanese comics) (yes, I know it's not the same, but it's still nice to recognize things, even if they don't always share the same meaning), or actually write messages to relatives or in-laws. That would be cool.

If you want to refresh your memory and go back on what you've learned, you can go to previous lessons through the Learning section. You can test your knowledge though the Games sections, which allows you to choose which of the games you want to play, the difficulty, and whether or not you want to be tested on just words you've mastered, or other words as well.

There are some other options in the Reference section that I haven't made use of yet as well - there is a player status area, a dictionary (you can use by list, search, or mastered words, by English or Mandarin in pinyin), a phrasebook (which goes by category, list, search, and favorites), and a sketchpad. The sketchpad is a very interesting option. It allows you to use two different sized brushes, an eraser, and "undo last stroke" option in order for you or someone else to draw what they mean, whether it be a picture, phone number, or directions. Nice idea, but might not be enough for complicated directions! ;)

All-in-all, I thought this was worth the purchase, as I expect to be using what I learn in the next year. It also makes me interested in purchasing the other languages in this series. There is Japanese (just what I want), Spanish (who couldn't use that?), and French (I've always been curious about this one). I think what is so good about this is the thoroughness of it compared to other language learning programs I've used - you get to hear, speak, and write, with enough lessons to keep you busy for a looooong time! The graphics are very appealing as well. Plus, there are multiple profiles you can use, meaning you not only get to keep track of your progress, but if someone else wants to use it too, they can keep track of their own progress! A lot of thought was put into this game. Good job, Ubisoft!

Customer Rating:
Summary: Five Star Chinese
Comment: My Chinese Coach
This is one of the best Chinese (Mandarin) learning programs which I have come across and it is in a convenient format, as well.
The program is designed to start at a very basic level and after brief testing, you will be placed into the appropriate level. Each lesson gives the user several vocabulary words and several interactive ways of learning, from flashcards, hit-a-word, multiple choice, tones, and fading characters. Notes on culture are included intermittently. Users also have the opportunity to practice speaking and there is a feature to compare the user's speaking with that of a native speaker.
The program effectively reinforces learned material, while pairing it with new. The fading characters portion of the program is quite challenging, as it moves very fast, but once you start getting the hang of it, it is quite helpful. Some users have criticized the program for not including much Pinyin, (Romanized written alphabet/pronunciations), however, it serves the user well to learn pronunciations coupled with characters, as Pinyin is not used in China, except by children learning the language.
This is a great tool for kids, as well as adults. At $29 for over 1000 lessons, it is a bargain!

Customer Rating:
Summary: Good intro to learning chinese
Comment: This game's a great start to learning how to speak chinese, however I found it difficult on writing. Yes, you can trace chinese characters one at a time, but making strokes in the right order is important, and the game does not slow down enough or number the strokes. There's only a certain number of strokes to draw (before you run out of tries) and you have to figure it out how many (and which direction) through replaying the writing animation repeatedly. The game does have the full characters below the pinyin (chinese words in english characters) of the word at the top screen, but I found the letters to be too small. Other than that, the game's been great fun. It's inspired me to go deeper into learning chinese. I'm also looking forward to "My Japanese Coach" and other language games in this series.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Good on it's own, great as a supplement!
Comment: Never used any other product in the series, and to be honest I've always been a skeptic when it comes to any way of learning. Used this as a supplement to my beginner's Chinese class, and it's definitely helped me remember/learn a few things, and it's fun! Although obviously a game can't replace a classroom setting and a textbook, I could see someone using this to see if they like the language before signing up for a class, as an educational game for a worldly child, or as a way to practice that's more fun than flashcards. If all the "My [Language] Coach" games are this good, let's hope they keep building up the series! The developers probably wouldn't have gotten to Chinese so quick if it wasn't for the Olympics, even though they missed it by a few weeks.