Chinese Made Easier (CME) Software Survey

[1on1Mandarin]

Dear Readers,

1on1Mandarin, also known as The Language Center in Wudaokou, is closely working with Martin Symonds, the author of Chinese Made Easier (CME), and a software company in Beijing that is licensed to design a digital/online version of the highly acclaimed CME series. Over the next couple months, the design of the digital/online version will be produced and tested, hopefully, coming out sometime in May. What we would like to do in the meantime is to understand what kind of features students value in such a software program.

Some of the issues we hope to address in this inquiry include the following:

Personal:

What is your Nationality?

How long have you been studying Mandarin?

Are you fluent in other languages? If so, what are they and what is your fluency?

Other Software Programs:

Have you used any other Chinese software programs? If so, which one?

If you have used any other software programs, what were the pros and cons?

What kind of features would you like to see in a Chinese language learning software?

If you have not used a software program before, why not? Would you consider using one in the future?

Language learning software programs, like many other similar “Self-teach” products, require a heavy amount of self motivation, what do you think we could do to help stimulate active long term use of the software program?

Funtionality:

Do you think any of the following features are important, if so, why:

Audio/video media to for chapter dialogues

Save functions

Pinyin translation – Highlight a section of characters, press a button and out comes the pinyin.

Self recording and comparison with native speaker

Etymology function – Learn the history of a character and the story behind it

Built in dictionary (i.e. Jinshan Ciba)

Games

Flashcards

Writing function – highlight a character and the software would show you the stroke order

Any other features you can think of?

Printed CME:

Have you studied CME before? What did you like? What did you not like?

If you had a digital version to complement the textbook, would you find it beneficial?

Why would you choose a digital version over a printed one? Or, visa versa?

What kind of improvements should be made?

Pricing:

Would you rather pay for a software program in full, or be able to download it in sections and pay for each chapter separately?

If after trying a demo, willing to buy, and software was sold in a bundle, what price would you be willing to pay?

If after trying a demo, willing to buy, and payments were made for each chapter, what price would you be willing to pay?

Some of these questions may be less important than others, but anything that you could comment on would be wonderful. We would like to offer the best materials available in the market and hope that you become a part of creating that product. The more comments you can provide the better it will be for us to find a suitable combination of features that you value the most.

Please feel free to either post your comments or send me a private message on your opinions.

Thank you for your time. We are looking forward to hearing from you soon!

P.S. For those of you that are unfamiliar with CME, please take a look at www.chinesemadeeasier.com.