Meng Lelan Posted September 18, 2008 at 09:05 PM Report Posted September 18, 2008 at 09:05 PM Roddy you're right, not that exciting. So that's the only video podcast out there? I tried finding video podcast on Active Chinese but couldn't find it. Quote
roddy Posted September 18, 2008 at 09:22 PM Report Posted September 18, 2008 at 09:22 PM (edited) There's MandarinTube.com, which is all video content. I think it's all free once you've signed up, but you'll need to check. There's a lot of stuff if you just search for 'learn Chinese' on Youtube, but often it's people who do a couple of videos then give up. AskBenny seems to be the most prolific but some are just pieces to camera or voice over text. There's some dialogue stuff in there though, like at the end . Random website at AskBenny.cn as well. Never come across this guy before - seems to be a lot of variable content, could be some gems in there. Edited September 18, 2008 at 09:48 PM by roddy Quote
leosmith Posted September 18, 2008 at 09:48 PM Report Posted September 18, 2008 at 09:48 PM AskBenny seems to be the most prolific He must have paid a mint for the right to use that jackson 5 song:) Extreme arrogance aside, the sound and video are good, and his english is excellent. Too bad I don't see any intermediate lessons. Quote
roddy Posted September 18, 2008 at 09:54 PM Report Posted September 18, 2008 at 09:54 PM He's certainly getting value for money out of it - I ended up shutting down Firefox rather than trying to figure out which damned tab was still playing the thing. It's a pity the askbenny stuff isn't a bit more structured. There's some ok stuff in there, but there's also a lot of 'Look, aren't we wacky, learn Chinese with us' while not getting around to the Chinese learning stuff. They've obviously got the staff and infrastructure and presumably some kind of funding. Looks like they organize events down in Shanghai though, so the online stuff is maybe just about advertising that side of things - I couldn't make much sense of their website. Quote
Meng Lelan Posted September 19, 2008 at 01:50 AM Report Posted September 19, 2008 at 01:50 AM Thanks roddy I'm going to try Mandarintube. Looks like you can sign up for free at first. I tried ChinesePod some time ago but got tired of the sarcasm in there. Quote
leosmith Posted September 19, 2008 at 03:55 AM Report Posted September 19, 2008 at 03:55 AM I tried ChinesePod some time ago but got tired of the sarcasm in there. Sarcasm? Sure you don't mean silliness? Quote
trevelyan Posted September 21, 2008 at 11:02 PM Report Posted September 21, 2008 at 11:02 PM Mandarintube? I had no idea these guys existed. They seem to be doing a good job of publishing original content, but the video I saw had talking hand puppets and I suspect they risk missing their target market. Adult learners make up most of the proactive online learning community right now. I'd be curious to hear what people think of them and the market for video. We wrap lessons around film clips and music videos, but are avoiding putting much effort into original video with Popup Chinese in order to focus on the core podcasts and manually annotated texts. Video is expensive and there doesn't seem to be an effective pedagogical approach that works. Anyone using video? Quote
roddy Posted September 21, 2008 at 11:22 PM Report Posted September 21, 2008 at 11:22 PM They advertised on here for a while - maybe a year, maybe less - but have dropped out for the time being. They've been running quite a while, a couple of years at least at a guess. I used to know / work with a couple of people involved back during my English teaching days. Quote
Luobot Posted September 22, 2008 at 01:57 AM Report Posted September 22, 2008 at 01:57 AM I would subscribe to a video-based site that puts out at least one video per week, preferably with a continuing storyline, with progressively developing complexity of vocabulary, sentence structure, and so on, and has supporting podcasts and transcripts. The podcasts would contain the actual lessons and would analyze the videos. There would be at least one podcast lesson per video, but there could be several podcasts released during the week that further expand on a single video. Quote
Meng Lelan Posted September 22, 2008 at 03:06 AM Report Posted September 22, 2008 at 03:06 AM Me too Luobot. I like that idea... I looked at Mandarintube and it wasn't that great in terms of videos. Chinese Learn Online is just starting to put up videos for Levels 1, 2, and 3. A few for Level 4, I think. They're okay. I've been told they put the videos up as an afterthought and they might go back and re-work and improve the videos. Quote
calibre2001 Posted October 20, 2008 at 11:12 PM Report Posted October 20, 2008 at 11:12 PM I'm thinking of trying out more podcasts for my daily listening diet. Currently I listen mainly to Princess Remy (Taiwan mandarin) When I mean podcast, I don't mean the language learning types but just the ordinary podcasts with normal people talking about whatever's on their mind. In mandarin of course.... Of course with scripts it will help me get more out of it, but right now my listening needs serious help here. So anybody can recommend me some other podcasts in chinese? It doesnt matter where it's mainland china, taiwan, HK, singapore, etc as long as it's in mandarin. Thanks! Quote
imron Posted October 21, 2008 at 01:08 AM Report Posted October 21, 2008 at 01:08 AM Moved above post to this thread, to keep everything in the one place. You might find this resource (from earlier in the thread) quite useful. You might also be interested in the Grand First Episode Project. TV is also a good way to improve your listening. Quote
atitarev Posted October 27, 2008 at 04:15 AM Report Posted October 27, 2008 at 04:15 AM I am interested in finding the following, if it exists: A news podcast with identical articles (translations) in Chinese and English (and/or other languages) (bilingual news). I lost such a link. It even had more languages. Has anyone seen anything like this? I am using the Chinese language sites but sometimes it helps to cheat and check if your understanding of the article is correct. Quote
gilozoaire Posted July 5, 2009 at 12:03 PM Report Posted July 5, 2009 at 12:03 PM Just a quick comment about www.chineselearnonline.com In beginner lesson 4, they introduce the possessive marker (?) 的 and give some examples such as 我的 etc Just a few lines later, they ask you to guess the meaning of a sentence this time using 得 placed after a verb (說), (你的中文說得很好.) and imply that they are the same thing. From the transcript: "Since there is already a 的after 說, it isn’t used after 你." .... notice that in the transcript the 的 is there, while it is not present in the audio file... to sum up: don't use this site! It's confusing as hell... Quote
roddy Posted July 22, 2009 at 07:20 AM Report Posted July 22, 2009 at 07:20 AM 慢速中文 has audio readings and transcripts on their website, and as the name suggests it's nice and slow. Also available on iTunes. Pointed out by Realmayo over here. Quote
atitarev Posted July 22, 2009 at 11:42 AM Report Posted July 22, 2009 at 11:42 AM This is awesome, Roddy! Exactly as the doctor prescribed Quote
querido Posted July 22, 2009 at 11:52 AM Report Posted July 22, 2009 at 11:52 AM How does one say this... Winner winner chicken dinner! Thanks realmayo and roddy! Speed (when speaking) about 3 chars/sec. Audio quality, accent, ambiance, all very good. Quote
roddy Posted July 22, 2009 at 11:56 AM Report Posted July 22, 2009 at 11:56 AM Sent them a link to this topic Quote
Meng Lelan Posted July 22, 2009 at 01:27 PM Report Posted July 22, 2009 at 01:27 PM This is awesome, Roddy! Exactly as the doctor prescribed And exactly what the audiologist prescribed. Thanks for mentioning 慢速中文. Quote
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