Why I'll cancel my subscription

@eupnea63355 So glad to hear your tale. Glad we've helped. After having spent 4 years in China I returned home to finally finish off my degre - Chinese/Open(based on my results I was able to select the courses and tailor my own major)

I was already able to speak Chinese fluently, so classes were easy, the extra couple of new words each week was nice - but the topics were so boring. We also used a Cheng&Tsui text book, which I found to be full of some very abnormal Mandarin - definitely how not how mainlanders speak (if we can even group them all in one category considering the colourful variety of dialects that exist).

Suffice to say that I was using ChinesePod as my main supplementary learning tool too. People used to ask me what the best tool for learning Chinese was and I'd simply say Chinesepod.com, then write it down for them.

And now I work here! I'm seriousluy lucky - actually working on something that I feel passionate about!

Anyway, please if you guys have suggestions and other resources for learning Chinese, do share. I'd like to think that we are in a constant state of rolling forward.

I'm a beginner, about to finish my second semester of Chinese. I find CP very, very valuable. I learn every character in a lesson. I gather as many sample sentences I can through the search function to get the patterns in my head. I put them all on flash cards and write them, memorizing along the way. I grab any and all grammar I can on CP, and it drives home what I only thinly learned in my college courses. I want to take the HSK or State Dept test, but know I've a long, long way to go, and as an older adult I sometimes doubt if I will ever get there. But for now, CP has made me the top student in my class. For me, it's perfect. Oops, spoke too soon - I still want that pinyin easily available for all sentences so I don't have to look it up and type it out! :)

By the way, I also study very elementary children's books (to pick up new words and to practice reading and proper phrasing) and selected books like Cheng & Tsui's Tales and Traditions. CP, though, offers me a tad more of real speaking Chinese, something I can't get in my environment here in the states.

Regarding a full transcript of the banter and whatnot, just for me, personally, I'd not use it. I love the "reach" of the brain to understand, and of the ear straining to hear. This is my experience in learning Spanish, and of my Spanish-speaking acquaintances
who are learning English. In the big picture this struggle seems to be another necessary facet of learning a language. The ability of the brain to fit in the puzzle pieces you DO know, and, hoping those pieces happen to be strategically placed so you can sucessfully solve the rest of the puzzle.

ilovechinesepod

I agree that reading magazines and books can be used in place of LingQ, they are a great tool. Yet simple phrases like 与众不同 and differences in 要是 and 如果 need explanation. LingQ seems like a lazy man's way to run a Mandarin teaching website. However, it obviously works for some.

Saying that, I do occassionaly use LingQ, but only to download the impromtu conversations. They are a little change from chinesepod, good comprehension practice... and have no music in the background, Yeah!

@mikeinewshot

When using LingQ you must first understrand the philosophy behind it: read Steve Kaufmann's blog, watch his videos.

I dont think Friedemann's post was a LingQ ad.

Check it out. (I am not associated with LingQ.)

tvan

I just don't understand what's wrong with rohr482 using 'inbuilt'?  Sounds ok to me.

I did wonder whether it was an advert for LingQ though.

I have looked at LingQ briefly now and there is some material which looks interesting - I just wish I had the time!

@rohr482, I didn't mean to be snide with the first comment.  I just didn't recognize you from the boards and wondered if you were the proprietor of lingq (and hence Chinese and hence the English error).  I don't really care, as long as its upfront.

On the banter transcript, its been requested before and, as I'm sure you've seen, there's a variety of opinions.  Personally, for Upper Intermediate and Advanced lessons, I don't listen to the banter the first day; I strictly listen to the dialog, check out the vocab, and try to puzzle out the meaning myself.  I've always been of the full immersion school of thought, but maybe that's just the way I learn.  Obviously, there's lots of other ways as well.

Anyway, thx for the tip, can't lose with free, though the accountant in me wonders about the business model.

Incidentally I hadn't seen LingQ before and am now checking it out.

ilovechinesepod

Actually yes I did understand it, given that I listened to these podcasts many many times - if you look down that very lesson's comments you will see one from me where I have posted words I heard in the banter (actually the format is all run together after the site changed its format once).

I also was used to hearing Jenny introduce herself and I knew her Chinese name ...

I agree it probably took me a long time, but I would spend hours stopping and rewinding and relistening.  I suppose now this is more like upper intermediate level.

Those lessons were done a long time ago when their experience of doing these levels was less than now.  I think they are tough but then I worked it out!  I probably owe a lot to this task to bring my listening level up.

To be frank, what appears impossible to understand eventually becomes attainable.  This is a long journey, and Chinese is VERY hard! 

I just watched a Chinese film where I understood virtually nothing despite the English subtitles, but they were speaking Mandarin but faster than it would seem possible.

I ought to grit my teeth and start doing the same thing on harder Chinese to see if I can improve further - I think it may be the best way - ie work it out yourself.

This bit of banter is a little exceptional though, John gets straight back on to the lesson here. I find that he does pretty well at bridging, and explaining the topics Jenny covers.

But now you point it out, there are time when I have felt a mist descend on a lesson at Intermediate level. It is funny that you mention it, because having read henning's transcript it sounds so much clearer, I am not just 'getting it from context'.

The community is excellent, so if I was a bit more proactive, I could have asked the board about the bits that were not too clear and had that prompt supplied by someone like Henning.

Essentially, I'm a happy bunny here, but you are making a completely valid point.

@mikeinewshot

Did YOU understand the banter (without Hennning's transcript)?

Do you think this banter is OK for an intermediate student????

I dont think so.

ilovechinesepod

I think you should ask yourself why your Chinese wife doesn't want you to know what Jenny said!  ;-)

@ miantiao

Thank you for answering my posts in Chinese - will give me an opportunity to learn... ;-)

@henning

thank you for your explanations. This tells me again that I have still a lot to learn...

anyone who has had formal study experience will tell you that comprehending what the teacher is saying is the most challenging aspect. reading can and should be done in your own time. this time spent reading and reviewing will increase vocab retention and therefore promote the ability to visualise characters when you hear them or before and as you speak(imperitive if one really wants to get to an advanced level because thginking in pinyin will only get ou so far).

as such, chinesepod provides a great alternative to listening to a teacher in a formal class. vocab are explained using everyday speech. the banter and vocab explanations are an invaluable resource for any learner.the most advanced learner will still find vocab that is new and discussions that will challenge.

one can't jump straight into listening to movies. as has been mentioned plenty of times before, you must learn to walk before you can run, but that doesn't mean you should be afraid of falling on your face once in a while in the process.

anyone who has studied to the level of advanced will tell you that you'll need between five and ten years in country backed by a formal degree in your own country, ask john, matt, pete and many others who participate here.

i've heard it all from my students in china before, all looking for a magic bullet.

i like it here because as chanelle has said, i like the people.

Well I always try to figure out unknown words myself by listening over and over again, but at some point you want to know whether you got it right (after listening). In other cases you never find out and you want to know eventually. So not providing transcripts is a means to prevent people from cheating? I am a grown-up and I know best how long I listen, before l look up the word. What I also like about lingq is the built-in babylon dictionary that lets you look up (any) word and save it to your vocab-list while reading the transript, just by moving the cursor over the text. Furthermore lingq highlights the words you already know in the text (based on your vocab list), so you get a pretty good idea how many words you know.

It is about making best use of my time. If I had a transcript, I woud advance more quickly. How much time haveI wasted looking up words and not finding them because I couldn't figure the pronunciation out correctly?

Creating a transcript is not necessarily awkward, you can pay people to transcribe it, that's how lingq does it.

Yes, lingq Chinese is only beta right now. But everything I get from CP with my 250$/year subscription I get for free there.

CP was of great value for me, but I think the competition offers nicer features for me.

Friedemann

A full transcript would be nice, sometimes... but I have two feelings on this one.

Often the supplementary vocab is thoughtful enough to throw light on some points... and the other thing - 

You are learning Chinese, if it doesn't all make sense don't bang your head against the wall. Perhaps drop down a level for a while.

I have been listening to the Upper-Intermediate lessons for longer than I have been able to make sense of all of it. I am getting exposed to some Chinese I can get the gist of... but I really am more at home in the level below.

Perhaps they could have a lesson Wiki where some vocab would get thrown in.

Also, I have seen conversational transcripts before - and they get huge fast. A 15 minute lesson of average paced banter would be a tough job for anyone...

Finally, ilovechinesepod, what a username! I guess it is tough love: you do bring up some fair points. Chinesepod does have "Resources" for a bit more of the Grammar stuff. As for the lack of Characters... they seem to be thinking about it. Chinesepod is born out of podcasts, and as a result it is more dialog based, for now at least.

A while ago I looked at this "lingq" and did not find it very interesting or worthwile to spend time on. If I remember correctly it is based on a method developped by Steve Kaufman? who speaks quite a lot of languages. At that time the site was a beta (i did not like the interface a lot), lacked the active & knowledgable community you find here and a few other reasons I forgot ;-). It is partially / not free and you have to buy points for services.

ilovechinesepod,
this is what I hear:

其实全说中文呢，我就想说自己的中文名字啊。 那今天我们中级课程(哎呀)要去一个特别高兴的场合

The core message of the first part is: Jenny explained that she used her Chinese name in the introduction because when speaking Chinese it just slips out.

@ilovechinesepod

Must admit i am not 100% sure what your point is - you argue for transcripts but point out (correctly) that you need various stratgies for learning the language.  I guesss one doesn't have to use them, so at that level I agree with you.

I think I can argue not getting everything on a plate and still using CP - but that is just for ME.  I can't speak for others.  CP in general is certainly more 'on a plate' than the rigours of f/t language study - but it depends how you use it.  I don't want it more on a plate than I have now.  I have a basic subscription - I understand that you get much more help if you pay more.  

I don't think transcripts of these discussions would particularly help me - there are better ways to use my time than pick them apart. When I first lived in China I started listening to talk-back radio & at first I understood nothing at all but the time-call.  After repeated listening I began to understand the kind of topics and then I learnt what the 'expert' was saying (mainly because they always said the same thing more or less.)   This is just one of the ways that I enjoy learning the language. 

CP lessons, without transcripts, at least at the higher levels is rather like this.

@ilovechinesepod

你真的觉得我们来这里的学生那么笨吗？ 难道这是我唯一的学法呢？

You can just read a webpage, a magazine, a book, and find out everything by yourself.

废话！ 但是你忘了指出学生也可以在其他的地方看影片，听音乐，上正式中文课等等。

mikeinewshot says

I can't imagine why a Chinese native could not understand them

Do you understand this? --- http://www.box.net/shared/xnyyin6g86

My Chinese (from Taiwan) wife didn't.

see also usr1's complaint in http://chinesepod.com/lessons/chinese-wedding-customs/discussion

I would really like to know if Henning and/or his Chinese wife understand this...

To Ilovechinesepod

I benefited a great deal from figuring out the discussion in older intermediate lessons.  (I actually posted the words I had discovered for tens maybe almost 100 podcasts)

I can't imagine why a Chinese native could not understand them

@ bodawei

I think that any language is best not served on a plate.

Then - why you use CPod?

You can just read a webpage, a magazine, a book, and find out everything by yourself.

That saves you a lot of money, but needs time and effort.

@ tvan

inbuilt - Adjective - (of a quality or feeling) present from the beginning: an inbuilt prejudice

but friedemann meant:

built-in - Adjective - included as an essential part: a built-in cupboard; essential: a built-in instinct

I like it the way it is - sometimes the effort (and time) figuring something out is what makes it stick in your head. 

I agree with Mike - I think that any language is best not served on a plate.

mikeinewshot said:

I think it is very good for your Chinese to figure out the what they are saying

Some sentences of Jenny in the older Intermediate podcast banter are not understandable, even for my wife who is Chinese. A FULL transcript would be great, and one of CPod's competitors offers such a script.

@ rohr4842:

CPod can and will not be the one and only solution for learning Chinese. It's only an add-on. Nearly no grammar, no characters and no writing, no HSK tests, no essays or short stories for reading -- only dialogues: that's by far not enough.

tvan,
the natural translation for us Germans - we have the word "eingebaut" (literally in-built -> built-in). It is actually a real word, although obviously not a commonly used one.

Regarding the subject: Actually, the banter vocab can usually be directly found in a common dictionary like CEDICT. This is different from the dialogues where the (given!) vocab translation is indeed indispensable.

In-built?

I think it is very good for your Chinese to figure out the what they are saying, rather than be given it 'on a plate'