My ChinesePod experience

In early 2006 I began learning Mandarin Chinese, my main reason was for being in a multi-cultural relationship. Out of respect to my partners family I wanted to learn how to speak their language, her parents could speak very little English.

I started teaching myself by making use of Pimsleur’s Mandarin I,II and III audio language courses. Pimsleur has proven its self as most likely the worlds most successful self taught language programs. It is used even by CIA and FBI agents in the states. Let me tell you the Pimsleur courses are worth every cent. Using Pimsleur the listener constructs phrases or repeats from memory out loud along with a recording. The system is made up of multiple lessons, which are repeated until 70-80% comprehension is attained, at which point the user may continue to the next lesson. I started getting a little bored with this system though, but i did manage to get midway into Mandarin III. I will still finish this, perhaps in the next few months.

During my Pimsleur studies, I decided to see what else was available to help improve my vocab. I then came across the Rosetta Stone Mandarin series. The Rosetta stone serries, installs a collection of lessons and tests on your computer. It makes use of a lot of visual aspects to help learn a language. I didnt manage to get too far with the Rosetta Stone series but is definitely a great study aid.

Now nearly two years later I have been introduced to ChinesePod, thanks Gary! Now there is just something different about ChinesePod, something that just makes it I dont know…exiting…and…fun! Not only that but its free! ChinesePod is hosted mostly by Ken Carroll and Jenny Zhu. Whom, after a bit of research, seem to have radio backgrounds, and I think thats what makes their service stick out! It has that fun, quirky, radio sound to it! It feels like you are listening to a really good radio station. I find that this style lets me listen to it at almost anytime, for example while I’m working or at the gym. Also the lessons are not overly long, making it a less of a pain to do it again.

ChinesePod has a few experience levels so advanced will also find something there. New lessons are emailed daily, and I see they have a facebook application advertising the latest lesson as well. There are paid-for options as well, that provide PDF material, testing, access to the mobile site and other features. I could probably see myself upgrading to the Premium account at sometime this year, which is $150 for 6 months.

I must say though, that I am happy I have experience already with Mandarin before listening to ChinesPod I’m not sure how a total beginner would feel listening to the lessons, so I would recommed to any readers that are perhaps having a bit of trouble learning Mandarin with ChinesePod to maybe get something else first to get the basics right, then move to ChinesePod…but those you will most likely need to pay for…ChinesePod is free!

With all the Chinese investment here in South Africa, I would recommend that all South African business people download a few lessons, you never know when you might need it

Some interesting links:

• ChinesePod website
  
• ChinesePod Blog
• Wikipedia enty
• Interview with ChinesePod
• Facebook group
• Jenny Zhu Facebook group
• Facebook application

Thanks for reading