CSLPod (Chinese as a Second Language Podcast).

[wangzhulong]

Hello, everybody:

I am wangzhulong, from Beijing China. I am green of this chinese forum. Hope to be your good friend!

It is a fantastic place to discuss Chinese study experience. ^&^

I had been in OSAKA, Japan for about one year. To my astonishment, I found a great number of pepole who were eager to learn Chinese or improve their Chinese skill. However, it is so difficult to find a good chinese tearcher. So, when I was back to Beijing I talked with my friends, who have many experiences on tearching "Chinese as a foreign language". After that we decided to become volunteers and build up an on-line Podcast website, named CSLPod (Chinese as a Second Language Podcast).

（The website address is http://www.cslpod.com, and the feed address is http://feeds.feedburner.com/cslpod/ibxg ）

Now, CSLPod is getting more and more stronger because some talented and skillful people joined us. Currently, we mainly focus on intermediate and advanced speakers and provide about 5 episodes every week. we keep enhancing our services in order to meet different levels' needs in future.

Well, we sincerely hope you would be there and give us some ideas. All comments are welcome.

And also, We hope CLSPod would offers more and more authentic environment for you.

BTW, all materials on the website are free.^&^

[HashiriKata]

Thank you for the link, wangzhulong! I've tried out some of the podcasts for the 中 and 高 levels, and I think they are very good.

The Good:

- The speaking and reading are clear and not too fast, which are very important and helpful for practising learners.

- The fact that there's a text transcription of the recording (with free access) is commendable, and learners don't even have to register to obtain either.

- I also like the fact that both the podcast and transcription are all in pure Chinese, without the distraction of English or any other foreign language. (Please do keep it this way. The text given is already sufficient for people to check the meaning of the vocab in any foreign language they want, and you don't have to introduce distractions by taking on unnecessary work!)

The Bad:

I had only a very brief session with the site, so can't say much but here are 2 things I've noticed:

- The "Learning Guide" button/ link doesn't seem to work. I don't know whether you intend to save this button for something to be developed in the future, but I think if you let this button/ link take the user to the text, it would be very handy & nice. (I know that the text is accessible by clicking on the podcast heading, but the "learning guide" button would provide a more intuitive link)

- In the Intermediate level, you provide, in addition to the Chinese text, the pinyin in the following form:

青青：胡子（Hú Zi） ，周末（Zhōu Mò） 去（Qù） 看（Kàn） 电影（Diàn Yǐng） 吧（Ba） ？

胡子：行（Xíng） 呀（Ya） 。你（Ní） 喜欢（Xǐ Huan） 看（Kàn） 什么（Shén Me） 类型（Lèi Xíng） 的（De） ？

青青：我（Wǒ） 最（Zuì） 喜欢（Xǐ Huan） 看（Kàn） 恐怖片（Kǒng Bù Piān） 了（Le） 。你（Nǐ） 呢（Ne） ？

This does look very distracting and difficult to read. I think a neater way would be that, in addition to the Chinese text already provided, you only need to provide another version of the text in just pinyin. This will look much nicer and will also be easier for anyone who wants to read it:

Qīngqīng： Húzi，zhōumò qù kàn diànyǐng ba？

Húzi： Xíng ya. Nǐ xǐhuan kàn shénme lèixíng de？

Qīngqīng： Wǒ zuì xǐhuan kàn kǒngbù piàn le. Nǐ ne？

(The Ugly: None! )

Best wishes,

HK

[ccyjie]

I've tried the link too. Amazing place.

I like the host's voice, very nice and gentle.

Anyway, I'll look into it.

[wangzhulong]

Dear HashiriKata:

Thank you for your comments. I've already sent your advice to our team. We all think it's very important for us to improve our service in the coming future. In fact, we've already noticed some problem which you've mentioned. For example: the "Learning Guide" button, and one of my colleagues is working on it now. We hope this kind of articles will help the listeners more. Please wait a moment. It would come soon

Your second advice concerning the display form of pinyin is also very helpful. After discussion, we decided to adopt your advice(it will come out soon^^) to offer people more choices. For time being, we will keep it in the existing form for the convenience of beginners.

Thank you again dear HashiriKata! ^&^

Hope you will give us more advice in the future and let us give people more nice surprise...

[m.fardream]

CSLPod( http://www.cslpod.com/English/Default.aspx) began to provide free "Learning Guides" of the intermediate (PDF files). they are free to download or view.

you just sign up a free account (http://www.cslpod.com/English/register.aspx), and then you can see or download the learning guide.

in order to improve the CSLPod, We hope to get more comments and suggestions from you. please visit the CSLPod !

[thph2006]

I'm at the elementary level and a slow learner but I find your podcasts fantastic! I may only understand 10-20% of the material the first time I listen to a podcast, but the way you've structured it I find I learn a little more every time I listen. It's very challenging and keeps me interested. I especially like how the podcasts give you lots of different ways to say things. I feel like I'm learning the secrets of the language from an insider.

Thanks!

[m.fardream]

So my question is' date=' how can I register so that I can get the pdf's for the podcasts?

Thanks.[/quote']

I am very sorry that you can not sign up. maybe the interface is not very good. so you can not sign up easily. the following is the steps what I registered. hope it is helpful to you.

1. click http://www.cslpod.com/English/register.aspx

enter the register page.

2. fill your information (note: all the part with the * should be filled)

3. submit this page

4. if some information you filled is not correct, you will see a page where the incorrect part is refered by the red characters.

rewrite that parts, and submit again.

note: you must input the password, and the valide code again.

this is a sample:

Sign up for a free CSLPod account.

Email Address(*): (your own email account)

Your Name(*):

Password(*):

Confirm Password(*):

Resident Country(*): japan

What is your motivation to learn Chinese?(*): travel

How did you learn about CSLPod?(*): Other

Validate Code(*): RRCJ (this is what I saw. you will see the different code, just repeat what you see)

select agree to registering

[myingying]

Thank you, I like it very much:mrgreen:

[m.fardream]

从现在开始，CSLPod每周二、周四都将推出初级汉语播客，欢迎大家收听，也欢迎大家来论坛灌水、提问。

From now on, CSLPod will publish its newbie lessons every Tuseday and Thursday. Welcome to our Podcast. We are waiting for your comments!

今から，毎週火曜日と木曜日CSLPod の初級教室は始まります。ようこそ！

http://www.cslpod.com/English/allelementary.aspx

[marcusat]

what i would really love from a podcast was organised and easy to navigate lesson plans. someone just to tell me do this one, then this one, then this one etc etc.

I often find that there is little obvious follow on for courses online.

[Rrina]

I'd missed this thread before. Thanks to those who 'bumped' it! I just tried a couple of beginner podcasts (my level) and they're fantastic. I like the reading in 3 speeds and especially the vocabulary practice with the measure words for each noun... Very helpful site!

[Alan Palmer]

Thankyou for the information about your chinese learning website CSLpod. I have started Mandarin recently and these podcasts will be very useful.

I'll send feedback when I have some for you.

xie xie ni!

Kind regards

Alan Palmer

Lancashire

England

[Radial]

Great podcasts... I have been listening to the intermediate and advance... it is like being at my blcu class... keep up the good work.

[vkim67]

Hi,

I tried using the search function in all three categories (title, summary, content) and got 0 results for anything I tried.

I tried the terms groceries, grocery, business, travel, party. (each separately)

Is the search function still being worked on? I'm pretty sure there are podcasts on at least party and travel and business.

[wrbt]

It looks like there is a "content" link only for the recent four or five lessons at upper int, if you attempt to go back to older ones it's missing so just audio.

Is this on purpose?

[wangzhulong]

Dear All,

I am Dragon from CSLPod (Chinese as a Second Language Podcast). Glad to meet you! Here I would like to recommand our Chinse learning website-CSLPod.COM to all of you.

CSLPod is a free Chinese learning website. It was found in 2006 and started publishing podcast since Jan, 2007. So far CSLPod has provided more than 1,000 podcasts at different levels, including elementry, intermediate, and advanced lessons. It covers all aspects of Chinese learning, such as daily dialogs, living habits, travelling, bussiness, idioms,and news. At the same time, CSLPod provides free audio, text and learning guide for each lesson.

Our objective is to help Chinese learners improving their Chinese listenning, speaking, reading and writing.

Visit CSLPod @ http://www.cslpod.com and check it out!

Thank you!

大家好！

我是来自CSLPod (Chinese as a Second Language Podcast)的dragon. 很高兴在这里认识到大家。在这里，我想向大家郑重地推荐我们的汉语学习网站—CSLPod.COM。

CSLPod是一个免费学汉语的网站，成立于2006年，并于2007年1月对外发布课程，目前已经拥有超过1000个的播客课程。这些课程覆盖了初级、中级、中高级、高级等难度等级，内容涵盖了汉语学习的各个方面，包括日常会话、生活习惯、旅游用语、商务用语、i、实事新闻等。

CSLPod提供免费的课程音频、课程内容以及学习指南。目前已经有来自一百多个国家和地区的用户。CSLPod的宗旨是尽最大努力帮助广大汉语学习者提高汉语的听说读写能力。

希望大家经常访问CSLPod http://www.cslpod.com。

谢谢！

[daofeishi]

As much as I am happy for any study tool out there created for us Chinese learners, I really cannot stand intellectual dishonesty and plagiarism. The web page is clearly a rip-off of ChinesePod.com, who have been doing the very same thing for years now. The forum post count seems to have been inflated by spamming it with fake postings. The "audience comments" in the "about us" section have clearly been faked by non-native English speakers. This is not acceptable to a western audience.

If you want to appeal to a western audience, make sure that your products are clearly your own. That includes the web design. No-one is interested in getting affiliated with anyone trying to free-ride off of someone else's success.

Edited January 18, 2010 at 05:17 AM by daofeishi

[anonymoose]

Seems good, but the download speed is very slow, making it irritating to listen to streaming audio.

As much as I am happy for any study tool out there created for us Chinese learners, I really cannot stand intellectual dishonesty and plagiarism.

If there are fake posts, I agree, but as for ripping off Chinese Pod, where's the dishonesty or plagiarism in that? I mean, maybe Chinese Pod was the first to offer audio Chinese lessons, but they weren't the first to have downloadable audio on the web. How many different ways are there to present audio on a webpage? Any new site offering audio lessons will all resemble one another to some extent. And this one certainly isn't the only one to resemble Chinese Pod.

[daofeishi]

I am not talking about the idea of creating a CSL podcast per se. What bothers me is the design template and the setup used being almost identical to the ones at ChinesePod (once you're logged into chinesepod, that is). The similarity is far beyond mere "resemblance". It is basically the same thing. The justaposition of same idea, similar name and similar design is what screams plagiarism. Coupled with fake user testimonials, I don't get the feeling that I'm dealing with a serious company.

Edit: What I'm talking about

Edited January 18, 2010 at 06:43 AM by daofeishi

[imron]

It's like 非常可乐 and Coke