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Okay, so let's dive straight into the demo. So I'm going to split this presentation, guys,
I'm going to split this up into two parts - first of all, I just want to give you guys
a general overview review of what Rocket Language actually has, you know, the platform - what
it includes - and all that. So, that's the first bit. And in the second bit, I wanted
to give you guys a live demo of what it's like to go through each lesson one by one,
and how long it typically takes to complete a lesson. So, let's get started. So first
of all, we go back to the home screen over here. This is my dashboard, and you're typically
going to be spending a lot of time here. The Rocket Checklist here is kinda like, it allows
you to try out features of this platform just to get you familiarized. You're probably going
to use that in the first couple of days, but after that, you're just *** through these
lessons without having to refer back to this section. Under that would be course recommendation,
it's a really neat feature to help you keep track of lessons, so where you're left off
last time, the progress you can pick it up from there, and it neatly lists all the lessons
that are upcoming for ya. Under that would be links to all the lessons that you have
done and you haven't done, and gives you like a bird's eye view to your progress. And, moving
on to my assessments - this is where all the quizzes are, guys. It's split up into two
types of tests, the first tab would be the "My Rocket Rehearsals" tab. This is great,
I think the greatest use for this section is that, once you learn a lot of units and
you just want to test your proficiency just to kinda like see how much you remember from
all these units. So, tick the ones you want to do self tests on and you just start the
test. And after that, it takes you to a quiz, and you just typically answer them (the questions),
and, depending on your score, you will be, sorry, depending on your answers, you will
be awarded a score in turn. And, that's it. Very simple. Very, very useful as well. And
moving on to my proficiency. This would be another section of tests. Typically, in Rocket
Chinese, it's split up into three stages. What they refer to as stages would be lessons,
right - stage one includes lessons one through three, stage two includes lessons four through
six, and stage three includes lessons seven to eight. And, obviously, the language and
culture counterparts as well. So, what you do here is, it's kinda similar to the my rocket
rehearsals except you're tested and based on these fixed lessons, you don't have that
flexibility to choose topics you wanna be tested on. Again, it just takes you right
to the quiz. The great thing about this is that these tests are based on what's known
as the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages as a guideline. And while Rocket
Chinese doesn't explicitly tell you what level you're at when you're completing these tests,
I would reckon that if you'd be equivalent to an A2 or a B1 level of proficiency according
to this framework. And it's a pretty useful guidelines to help us all, so you can really
test your knowledge. So moving on, this is one of my favorite sections of the site - My
Badges. This is a really unique feature, it's kind of like a points system as it says over
here, and what it does is if we scroll down over here, where it says How do we get more
points, and we just expand on that section, these are, and this is a table of all the
things you can do within this platform and every single action you take, and you might
ask a question in the forum, you might complete a lesson or something, you earn points, and
these points move you up first of all, the leader board, so you can compare yourself
against other people, you're awarded badges, depending on the points you have accumulated.
For example, right now, I have 520 points - I'm officially a Chinese learner, I guess.
And I have to get a thousand points to become an apprentice, so this is a big tip as well,
so one of my favorite features in the program. Moving on, next up would be the forum. This
is essentially the Rocket Chinese forum. You can ask anything, just about. There's culture,
travel, feedback, comments, grammar, vocab, just about anything you can think of, you
can ask. And, you know, there are experts in these forums, and so, you can count on
it that your questions are going to be answered, and that's it. Moving on, we have My Toolbox.
This is like an additional component I really like about the program as well. Sorry guys,
I'm just feeling a little thirsty. Anyway, so here is my toolbox and it's split up into
four sections, and I'm thinking you're probably going to be interested most in this advanced
learning techniques section. So what this is, guys, is that it gives you a repository
of tools, you know, tips and advice and all that kinda good stuff. So you can start learning
and really start accelerating your Chinese learning at a huge rate. It's one thing just
to go through the program. Just by going through the program, just by its sheer organization,
you can probably work through it much faster than you would an ordinary language program,
however, if you start implementing these techniques, tips and tricks and you start reading up on
things like attitude and all that kinda good stuff, that typically isn't covered in any
language learning program, you can really accelerate your Chinese learning. So, I really
advocate you guys check this out if you decide to ever invest in this program. So, that's,
so much for the left navigation.
And, moving on to the top navigation. That's where the bulk of the content is - it's up
into five sections, there's the interactive audio lessons, the language and culture lessons,
the writing lessons, games just to supplement your learning, and just to reinforce concepts
and all that, and also there's the survival kit, you know. So, let's just kinda like move
on and do a demo of these features. I think you're really going to enjoy them.
So let's kinda like pick up from where I left off, which would be lesson one point three
- meeting for coffee. So let's just head over to that page. So, now it's loaded. Now, if
you'll see, at the top right here, there's the full audio, that contains the audio recording
of the conversation that you see down here. And right next to that, you can also download
the full audio. So you can kinda like put these in your iPod or your portable listening
devices so you can take them on the go and revise to see if you remember these terms
and all that kinda good stuff. Really great if you're going on a drive or if you're traveling
long distance, you have nothing else to do, you can always revise using these audios you
have on your portable music players, on your iPod and stuff. If you scroll down here we
can see that the rest is split up into three distinct sections, first of all is the conversations
section, there's the practice and the my level sections. So, instead of just explaining these
ones to you, I just wanted to give you guys a demo of what these are, so here's the conversations.
So, let's play the audio track over here. So gain, if you can see, the lesson is typically
very short conversations. [Da wei, jin tian ji yue ji hao? Jin tian *** yue *** si hao
xing qi er, zhe ge xing qi ni mang ma? Bu tai mang. Wo xing qi wu xiao xi. Wo men yi
qi he ka fei hao ma? Hao. Wo men shen me *** hou jian? Xia wu san dian zen me yang? Hao,
xing qi wu xia wu san dian wo jie ni! Zai jian!] Okay, so that would be the end of the
audio, again, only thirty eight seconds. Very quick. Very, very quick. And, I'm going to
skip this Rocket Review audio, it's kinda similar, I want to draw your attention to
this role playing track section, I think that's another highlight of this Rocket Chinese program.
So again, instead of explaining, I'll just play. So what this is you know one part of
this audio is edited out, either Dave or Lin's voice, and you can just play the audio, and
role play, effectively, one of these guys. So, let me role play Dave. So, who starts?
Lin starts. Okay, so let's play the audio. [Da wei, jin tian ji yue ji hao? Jin tian
*** yue *** si hao xing qi er, zhe ge xing qi ni mang ma? Bu tai mang. Wo xing qi wu
xiao xi. Wo men yi qi he ka fei hao ma? Hao. Wo men shen me *** hou jian? Xia wu san dian
zen me yang? Hao, xing qi wu xia wu san dian wo jie ni! Zai jian!] As you can see, it really
complements your timing perfectly, there's nothing you need to do, just speak at your
natural pace, and if you fall behind a little, just pause, it's perfectly fine. This is a
really good way to reinforce, just practicing your flow, in terms of your pronunciation,
so this is really, really useful. So, moving on, so that's the conversations section, so
going through it once, and get familiar with this conversation here. So let's move on to
this second tab here, practice. So what exactly is it? So this, I just wanted to draw your
attention again to another really cool feature of Rocket Chinese program. It's called Rocket
Record, with this, you can improve your accent. So let me do a demo of how this works. So,
over here, there's the transcript once again. And you'll see this play button, so you just
click this. [Da Wei, jin tian ji yue ji hao?] And as you can see after you click that, the
tutor, the tutor's recording is played automatically. If you'll notice, down here, there's this
red record button, and what you do is you try and pronounce that, you try and say that
out loud. So, for example, I would say, okay, "Da wei, jin tian ji yue ji hao", and I just
pause the recording here. Whoops, did something wrong. Let's re-record. Da wei, jin tian ji
yue ji hao? And there we go. And there's the recording. And what this allows you to do,
essentially, right, these two tracks side by side, and if you'll notice this play button
over to the right here, you play and let's see what happens. Da wei, jin tian ji yue
ji hao? And you can compare side by side, literally, how your pronunciation compares
to your tutor's pronunciation. This is a really, really neat feature to help you localize your
accent. I think one of the many challenges that language learners like ourselves face
a lot of the times is that we find it tough to localize our accents because certain sounds
in foreign languages simply don't exist in our native tongues. For example, in Chinese,
the tones, the tones system, and the r's, the r's can be quite difficult to pronounce
as well. So, if you're a native English speaker, you might find that to be a little tough,
and Rocket Record is a really really neat feature because you can record and re-record
as many times as you like until you get your pronunciation to your satisfaction, guys,
so you can really use this to your fullest advantage. So you can kinda see it and kinda
practice phrase by phrase, it goes to this level of detail, so it really helps you practice
your pronunciation on a very deep level. At the bottom, there are some other additional
words as well, so you can practice and follow along. So moving on to the third tab over
here, my level. This is another very unique feature. I think it's pretty interesting,
so it's split up into two sections, and this is where i have to explain it a little bit.
So here in the "Hear it say it" section, and also the "Know it" section. Now in the hear
it say it section, as you can see here, you'll see like a scale. A scale that goes from not
at all, which means you don't really get the pronunciation, to it's really easy, and if
you press get started, right, zai jian, what the system does is that it throws a phrase
at ya. For this, I've already gone through these, so, let's just go down over here, where
all the phrases aren't rated. If you click that, you'll see all the phrases that you
haven't rated yet. So, let's just close that back up. So what that does is that you press
the get started button, it'll probably bring up this, the first line here, so let's see
what it does. Sorry, I've already rated four, so it's probably gonna bring up, it's still
going to bring this up because these four are already in the it's easy category. So,
let's started. Oh no, I'm wrong. So, sorry, I didn't actually say this. In the know it
section, it's different from the hear it say it section. Now in the hear it say it section,
you typically hear the recording, and you simply repeat after your tutor. So, for example,
you can just try it. You listen to your tutor, and you record your pronunciation, for example,
you say, zai jian. Again, you can compare it. And you reveal. Reveal just the characters
and the meaning, and then all you do after that is you give yourself your rating. So
you can say, pretty good, it's great. Moving on down here. The Know it section is actually
pretty similar except with a, it's actually the above section with a bit of an added twist.
Instead of the tutor's recording being displayed, you have the English phrase being displayed.
So what you have to do is you have to think back to the Chinese equivalent and you have
to think back to how to pronounce and record it, so for example, the first, I know, would
be, di yi. And, of course, you can show it, just to check your answers, di yi, and here
it's right. So, you can just say, this is pretty good, and you can just rate yourself.
So that would be the my level section. And if you scroll down, there's a quiz to supplement
the lesson as well, and it's multiple choice, but it really does go into some pretty good
detail about the covered material, so I highly encourage you do the quizzes as well. Only
five questions, really, really easy. So that would be a typical interactive audio lesson.
So let's move on to a language and culture lesson. So let's start with 1.5 greetings
- formal and informal. As you can see, the format kinda varies, so language section,
it really covers a wide array of topics, so over here, it differentiates between formal
and informal greetings, which is really important, especially in Asian languages, perhaps not
so much in Chinese, but maybe in Japanese or Korean, this is really important. Anyway,
here, they again, there's the Rocket Record button, you play it, listen to the tutor,
[ni hao], and of course, you can do your recording as well. I'm just going to skip this bit,
cuz we're kinda running out of time, but anyway, you get the idea. And, it really goes into
a lot of detail into explaining what it means as well. What it's trying to teach you, it's
not just trying to throw a bunch of phrases to have you repeat after them, so you really
understand. Like, for example, there's a difference between ni, and the more formal version would
be, I'm sorry, I don't think it mentions it here, anyway. Anyway, it says "ni hao", and
it explains that it's normally used between people who are kinda like who have just gotten
to know each other or even between strangers, right. And then, it just kinda like gives
you an explanation of all the typical things you can say during daily interaction, and
when you meet people and all that kinda good stuff. So, again, lots of detail, and sometimes,
with language, it does like a section, that describes the four tones, or it should be
five tones that exist in Chinese. So you can just follow along and just understand the
tonal system in Chinese. Pretty cool, eh? And they've got examples to top that off.
Once again, it's really, really cool. So, culture lessons are really useful as well.
And this is one of the highlights. Culture lessons are kinda like explained in English,
surprisingly, this is one of my favorite features as well of this program. Because the advice
that's given, cause I've lived in China and Shanghai, more specifically, for a good period
of time, I know to a certain extent what Chinese culture is like. And lots of the advice that's
given in the program is surprisingly, again, accurate. So, I really just stand to back
that up almost a hundred percent, since it's really great. So, there's my level, and you
can test yourself using the hear it say it feature, and the know it feature, so you can
go through that. So let's move on and see what writing lessons are like. So let's just
do a lesson, I remember this was pretty good, so let's take a look at that. So here, it's
not writing composition, it doesn't teach you how to write, that'd be more complex,
I think, and you can't probably include that in just one course, but it's just more like
teaching you how to write characters, individual characters, right, and all of these characters
are sorted and categorized by theme, like, for example, here, numbers would belong to
dollars and cents, and the great thing about this is that it has a picture describing the
stroke order, and there's also a video you can play it right here, and it teaches you
how to write it, this one's pretty easy. For more difficult characters, for example, five,
in the beginning, and then you play it. And it really does a great job of demo-ing how
you write a character. Very, very visual demonstration, which is great. And so, that would be the
writing lessons. And sometimes, as you can see at the bottom of here, it kinda like throws
a couple of facts and trivia just to supplement the material, so you kinda learn a couple
of cool things about the Chinese language in the process, so, just pick up a couple
of things. So, let's have a couple of games. So here, I just want to draw your attention
to phrase master. And just to give you a demo of this game, so what phrase master is, it's
a revision component, it's a game that helps you revise phrases. And again, there are different
levels, so let's just go into it, [da wei hen gao], sorry, if you noticed, it, let me
just do this first. Oh, whoops, I didn't actually make that in time. That's actually one of
the features I think was a little iffy with the program, it's really hard to drag and
drop. So let's just restart. So there's the audio, [san pin pi jiu], and these are the
options, san, ping, pi jiu, so three bottles of beer, right. And, you know, you move on,
this really helps you practice your listening and it does so in a fun and interactive way.
So this is, these games are really fun as well, so you can have a bit of fun while really
reinforcing these concepts along the way. Great way to revise your vocabulary. [Da wei
hen gao], so let me just skip this, you probably know what this is. There's also different
games, mega cards, word master, let's just have a look at what word master is. Sorry
guys, word master. It's kinda similar to phrase master except it tests you on words. [Kan].
So, you're given three letters, and you have to put them in order. If you don't put them
in order, let's just see what happens. This guy's walking towards the rocket, you know,
exclamation mark, and you know, you fall. So you have to do that on time. And once again,
san, the audio is playing and you drag these individual sounds to these corresponding boxes,
and there we go, you got it right! Kan. So we're just going to pause it here and we're
going to move on. Last of all, I just wanted to give you guys a quick demo of the mega
cards series. These are kinda like revision cards, except they're really well prepared.
So, let's just see what they do. So there's a card, three buttons, show card, back and
next, and there's also the count down timer, so here, you know there's show card, and you've
got 15 seconds to kinda like guess what it means, and the picture usually gives you a
hint and in this case, I don't think it does, but here it says qing zuo and you mentally
think it means please sit, and time's up. And there you go, the answer's revealed afterwards,
there are a hundred and fifty cards at each level at the beginner's level and the advanced
level, so you can go through these relatively easily. And these are pretty comprehensive,
so you don't have to go into the extra trouble of making these cards yourself. And, that
would sum up just about all of the features within Rocket Chinese. We will be returning
back to me live on screen.