A ChinesePod question...

[Strawberries513]

I listen to ChinesePod quite frequently... however I am not sure what to do during and after a lesson! I am past elementary and just starting Intermediate, so I usually just listen to the podcast once or twice and then learn the new vocab. What else should I be doing when I do a new podcast?

[roddy]

Million and one things.

An initial listening exercise - assuming you know roughly what the topic is from the title / blurb on the site - is to make a list of words / phrases you expect to hear, looking up any you don't know the Chinese for. For a piece on say, going to the bank, you might have a list (yours will be in Chinese though) like:

Nouns: Bank card, travelers check, cash, form, queue

Verbs: Pay in, withdraw, change, queue

As you listen tick off the ones you hear, and try to make a note of ones you didn't think of but should have.

Want to practice speaking / pronunciation? Listen and record yourself echoing what you hear using something like Audacity (do a search on here for Audacity, useful tool) then listen back to yourself and try and spot the differences between you and the model. If it's a conversation just play back one part and roleplay the other yourself.

Want to practice writing? Transcribe all or a part of the dialogue. Just skip or use pinyin for characters you don't know.

Grammar / Vocab? Listen again and take a note of all the 把 constructions, use of 的/得/地, etc. Take a note of measure words you hear and list other nouns you can use with them.

[Colleenjh]

Hello Strawberries,

Actually, I work at ChinesePod (I am NOT here advertising, I am learning Chinese too and am just here for fun!). Once you listen to the lesson, you can download the transcripts to make sure you actually SEE the words (helps with learning of course!). Words you want to remember, you can put into your vocab list, then quiz yourself using flashcards and games. You can just sign up for a free trial to try all this.

Personally I write out flashcards as well, and carry them around in my pocket.

Hope this helps!

Colleen

[Luobot]

you can download the transcripts to make sure you actually SEE the words (helps with learning of course!)

If you want the better (and juicier) part of the podcast – the “banter” as they call it – you can find a full transcript of some of Cpod's podcasts (minus the dialogues) at: http://www.goulnik.com/chinese/ChinesePod/

Yv indicated on Cpod's site that he's creating them for his own study purposes and making them available on his site for free.

He has both Simplified and Traditional Character versions (with English for the English parts). Unfortunately, no Pinyin, as that's apparently not his interest. I'll probably take his Simplified Character version and work it backwards into Pinyin, in the hopes that I'll learn more about characters and understand more of the intermediate level podcasts in the process.

[gamerfu]

If you sign-up for a free trial; they will let you download the transcripts, and $9USD a month is fairly reasonable.

[Colleenjh]

Hey, oops, I guess I get a bit carried away. Yes, the transcripts are just of the dialogue, which is what the lesson is focused on. For beginners like me, this is enough stuff for one lesson, but yes, for upper levels, getting all the banter is quite valuable, and its great that people have the time to do that and post it for everyone!

I think the best place to ask any questions about ChinesePod (which is what I did, beffore I worked there) was to go to their forums, everyone is helpful there, and lots of people will give you their additional resources (like reworked mp3s, full transcripts etc.)

Colleen

[Luobot]

$9USD a month is fairly reasonable

I entirely agree with you, and I don’t have a problem with the price. In fact, I’d rather pay a little more and get an additional full transcript. The full transcript is useful when (1) you’re struggling to keep up with the conversation, (2) you want to visually review or refer back to something that was said, or (3) you just didn’t understand something in particular and you would like to see it in black and white. I also agree that the skeleton transcript is useful. As I'm struggling to bootstrap myself to the next level, I find it to be very beneficial to have a full transcript so that I can visually review the entire podcast. In fact, it's one of the most useful activities that I've found with regards to making full use of the podcasts. A podcast is more than just reciting a dialogue.

………........................

Here’s a great site for free mp3 remixes of both Cpod and ChineseLearnOnline (CLO) podcasts:

http://woshuole.yunhan.org/

There's no need to search the web for CLO’s full transcripts, it’s on their site and they have them for every lesson in addition to the shorter version.