Mnemonics and Tones

Guys - just wanted some feedback on learning tones. Some websites and books suggest that you make up stories to try and remember Chinese vocab and their respective tones, but I'm not sure if that is likely to be a hindrance later on? In other words, when I'm going through the Rocket Chinese lessons, should I be trying to remember the tones of these words via a memory aid like mnemonics, or should I just be learning phrases/words and hoping that 'further down the line' the tones will become second nature? Lin Ping - interested in your thoughts too!

I read somewhere that when you use mnemonics to remember stuff that it works, but you will forget your mnemonic after awhile. By that time though you already know whatever it is by heart and know that it "just is". I think I agree with that statement. As long as you pick one mental trick per character for consistency then go for it!

i dont know when to use a type of tone can u name the types of tones and when do i say them ui am new to chinese too and im on lesson 1.0 i heard them talking about tones but i dont know when to use them please help and lin ping help me to becuase your chinese!

There are so many comments regarding Rocket Chinese that have NEVER been answered by the RC Team. If we are going to have faith in a comapny they need to review these posts more often than once-a-year. I have a few that are several months old --no comment! Please RC we like you BUT if you fail to respond then we will go elsewhere. Like my comment on lesson 14.1, Howard

Sorry Sorry Sorry! Dui Bu Qi! Dearest friends of RC. Please DO NOT go if you are still here today! The tones are HARD for beginners, YES!!!. Please feel free to invent your memory aids, no matter what they are, so long they suit YOUR NEEDS. There is NO rules here. One day you will forget all of the troubles, when you are the MASTERS!( Da Shi=Great Teacher) Thanks Howard for your comment, I sincerely apologise and I will do more to make up from now on. Kindest regards Lin Ping

I found the quirky stories in Matthew's Learning Chinese Characters very useful to learn the tones along with the 汉字. Eventually RC has the killer app - comparing our tines against the teachers. Many many times...

I think you just have to force yourself to remember not just the word but the tone as well. The new Write It section in testing is also very useful and drilling on tones. When doing the Know It exercises, make sure your tone matches theirs and don't be satisfied with yourself if it does not.