Creating an alternative to Chinesepod with more beginner content

[geek_frappa]

I did gave up on CPod, mainly because of the MP3 content. There is no beginners content only in Mandarin. MP3 incl. intermediate are mostly in English, with a very short dialog in Mandarin.

Fair enough. Would you like to help us create an alternative to CPod with more content for beginners? I was thinking about creating a sentence-building audio project, with more drills and practice instead of the dialogs in CPod. What do you think? We started drawing out a curriculum this weekend and would appreciate your input.

[gato]

Take a look at the Chinese lessons that are available at the China Radio International site. They look pretty good for beginners.

http://english.cri.cn/chinese/

http://english.cri.cn/3426/2006/08/04/102@122800.htm

Learn Chinese Now

Audio: mms://media.chinabroadcast.cn/eng/language/LCN/178.wma

Lesson 176 我的生日宴会

M: Dàjiā hǎo. Huānyíng shōutīng Xiànzài Xué Hànyǔ. Wǒ shì ML.

S: Wǒ shì Stuart. Jīn tiān shì fùxí kè.

M: Listen out for 安排 ‘organize' ānpái, 生日宴会 ‘birthday party'，shēngrì yànhuì.

S: 打算 ‘intend', dǎsuàn, and ‘first', which is 先. Now for our chat. Tīng, and chóngfù.

M: Now we want to organize a birthday party. 现在我们想安排一个生日宴会， xiànzài wǒmén xiǎng ānpái yíge shēngrì yànhuì.

S: 谁的生日宴会 shuí de shēngrì yànhuì?

M: 我的生日宴会 wǒ de shēngrì yànhuì.

S: 你的生日是哪一天？Nǐ de shēngrì shì nǎyìtiān?

M: 下周末，星期六 xià zhōumò, xīngqī lìu.

S: 你打算干什么 nǐ dǎsuàn gàn shénme?

M: 我们先吃晚饭 wǒmen xiān chī wǎn fàn.吃完饭之后，我们去唱卡拉OK。 chì wán fàn zhīhòu, wǒmen qùchàng kǎlāOK.

S: 你请客吗 nǐqǐngkèma?

M: We'll go Dutch. 我们AA制。

http://english.cri.cn/3426/2007/06/01/102@233800.htm

Chinese Studio

Audio: mms://media.chinabroadcast.cn/eng/language/studio/lesson241.wma

B: I remember zixingche is bicycle, so first up you better tell me what the word for car is Y.

Y: Mei wenti, no problem. Generally it’s called qi4 che1.

B: qi4 che1. And what about, can you drive?

Y: Dangran… bu4 hui4 le, of course I can’t. At least I know how to say that in Chinese… Here’s你会开车吗？

B: ni3 hui4 kai1 che1 ma?

Y: ni3 means you,

B: ni3,

Y: hui4 means be able to do sth,

B: hui4,

Y: kai1 che1 means drive a car,

B: kai1 che1,

Y: the syllable ma is put at the end of a statement to form a question,

B: ma,

Y: ni3 hui4 kai1 che1 ma?

B: ni3 hui4 kai1 che1 ma? Can you drive?

[Luobot]

I was thinking about creating a sentence-building audio project, with more drills and practice ...

Sounds constructive. Can you tell us more? How would it work? Is there a prototype to look at?

[geek_frappa]

Sounds constructive. Can you tell us more? How would it work? Is there a prototype to look at?

Well, this is nothing new. The idea is to provide the master formulas for the sentences then drill and provide opportunity listen for patterns. When I first started learning Mandarin, I forced myself to drill and drill and drill so that I would hear patterns before people finished their sentences. This gave me more time to think of a response...

Nothing innovative, but having a resource that allows students to just practice.

AFTER I GO TO THE PARK, I WILL RETURN HOME.

AFTER I GO TO THE SCHOOL, I WILL RETURN HOME.

AFTER I GO TO THE GYM, I WILL RETURN HOME.

so they can here the SUBJECT VERB了OBJECT ,就 VERB OBJECT.

I was taught with this style: grammar first, vocab last. Again, I am only thinking from one of my perspectives, where the focus of this lesson set will be sentence-building.

What do you think?

[koreth]

I'd use that. Grammar is a big hole in my self-testing right now. I've tried to sort of work around it by making flashcards (in PlecoDict) with a bunch of sample sentences for each grammatical pattern I'm learning, but that's both tedious to do by hand and not very satisfying since after enough repetitions I end up just memorizing my sample sentences verbatim. Something that could substitute sensible random nouns, verbs, etc. into my sample sentences would be fabulous.

I'm not sure I'd say it's a replacement for something like ChinesePod; the latter (at the upper levels, anyway) is, IMO, most helpful for improving listening comprehension and building vocabulary. But it's no good for drilling.

[taryn]

I think that would be cool G. F. As far as learning methods, Pimsleur helped me retain more because of the repetition. Repetition is all the more important in a non-Chinese environment because there's no cultural context to reinforce what we're learning.

I'm all for drills. That's how I learned English--yes, hooked on phonics worked for me--so that's how I would expect to learn in Chinese.

I once attempted to come up with some soap opera type Pimsleur based dialogues but it takes crazy creativity and a bit more time than I actually have.

Chinesepod is popular because it's fun but as a primary study method, a more structured approach is ideal.

[geek_frappa]

Repetition is all the more important in a non-Chinese environment because there's no cultural context to reinforce what we're learning.

good point. this is precisely how drills differ from dialogs. the drills are only meant to address the kinesthetic learning style and improve listening ability. better listening ability lowers your stress level and removes some pressure from your response/speech.

Eventually, the hope is that when you hear this... 不干不凈

... in your mind you will be saying 吃了沒病 before the rest of the sentence is uttered.

like i said before, this is not my innovation. this is one of several successful pedagogies used worldwide.

I once attempted to come up with some soap opera type Pimsleur based dialogues but it takes crazy creativity and a bit more time than I actually have.

oh, those are cool. hope you can write more. in fact, i will have a little more spare time later. perhaps i can animate some characters.

[Luobot]

What do you think?

I think it sounds fabulous. If you need any help testing it, I'll be happy to volunteer.