My Happy Planet——Great site for Chinese learning!

[aimering]

Greetings!

My name is Louis and I'm currently studying in High School Affiliated to Fudan University in Shanghai. I am working with students from Harvard, Duke, etc. to launch a social networking website, My Happy Planet which is dedicated to language exchange and culture immersion.

In this thread, you are going to receive a brief introduction about how this site works and I really would like to hear your feedback.

Yours,

Louis

Learn a language. Make Friends. Have Fun.

Hard to find foreign friends to practise your Chinese?

Want to know more about the country and its culture?

Then join My Happy Planet! A new, fun, interactive site for language learning and multi-cultural communication.

You can:

# Get access to loads of lessons that are immensely help to your language learning!

# Learn Chinese and Chinese culture through videos, audio,etc.

# Have real-time interaction with friends from all around the world, as well as off-line messaging

# Participate in lots of fun activities and programmes online

Why choose My Happy Planet:

# Professional. The creators of My Happy Planet come from the best colleges in USA, e.g, Harvard, Duke, Northwestern, etc.

# Interactive. You may not just benefit from helping Chinese speakers with their English! You'll receive comprehensive guidance for Chinese learning and know more about Chinese people.

# Speak like a native. The ultimate purpose for Chinese learning is communication. Here you can interact with native speakers every day!

Chinese and Chinese culture are fascinating. Welcome to join My Happy Planet and help more Chinese speakers learn more about English and English culture. Meanwhile, you will immensely improve your Chinese through selfless assistance from the native speakers. Have friends from all around the globe!

My Happy Planet is still under construction and is due to launch the first week of August. It is our sincere hope that you spread the news and join us!

We are looking for a small group of around 50 users to be a part of the 'sneak preview' of the website when we launch it in the beginning of August. If you are interested and have more questions please contact me. My email is aimering@hotmail.com

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学语言。交朋友。找快乐。My Happy Planet。

xué yǔ yán。 jiāo péng yǒu。 zhǎo kuài lè。

想找外国朋友学中文，寻寻觅觅，但总是联系不到？

xiǎng zhǎo wài guó péng yǒu xué zhong wen, xún xún mì mì, dàn zǒng shì lián xì bú dào?

那就快来My Happy Planet吧! 新颖、互动、有趣的语言文化学堂!

nà jiù kuài lái My Happy Planet ba! xīn yǐn, hù dòng, yǒu qù de yǔ yán wén huà xué táng!

在这里你可以：

zài zhè lǐ nǐ kě yǐ:

# 在线学习丰富的课程内容

zài xiàn xué xí fēng fǔ de kè chéng nèi róng

# 通过精彩的视频节目学习语言，了解中国文化

tòng guò jīng cǎi de shì pín jié mù xué xí yǔ yán, liǎo jiě zhōng guó wén huà

# 与外国网友实时交流，互动联系

yǔ wài guó wǎng yǒu shí shí jiāo liú, hǜ dòng lián xì

# 还有许多许多精彩的在线活动与项目

hái yǒu xǔ xǔ duō duō jīng cǎi de zài xiàn huó dòng yǔ xiàng mù

My Happy Planet与其他的中文学习网站有什么不同？

My Happy Planet yǔ qí tā de zhōng wén xué xí wǎng zhàn yǒu shé me bù tóng?

# 专业。My Happy Planet的创建者来自美国最优秀的大学，如哈佛大学(Harvard)，杜克大学(Duke)，等。

zhuān yè. My Happy Planet de chuàng jiàn zhě lái zì měi guó zuì yōu xiù de dà xué, rú hā fó dà xué, dù kè dà xué, děng.

# 全互动。在这里你既是中文学习者，也是一名英语老师。

quán hù dòng. zaì zhè lǐ nǐ jì shì zhōng wén xué xí zhě, yě shì yī míng yīng yǔ lǎo shī.

# 绝对原汁原味的语言。学习中文的最大目的在于运用，而在这里你可以与外国网友真正进行实时交流。

jué duì yuán zhī yuán wèi de yǔ yán. xué xí zhōng wén de zuì dà mù dì zài yú yùn yòng, ér zài zhè lǐ nǐ kě yǐ yǔ wài guó wǎng yǒu zhēn zhèng jìn xíng shí shí jiāo liú.

中文以及中国文化源远流长，让人自豪心醉。欢迎你加入My Happy Planet。

zhōng wén yǐ jí zhōng guó wén huà yuān yuǎn liú cháng , ràng rén zì háo xīn zuì. huān yíng nǐ jiā rù My Happy Planet。

你将会得到中国网友无私的帮助，提高英语，真正做到朋友遍天下。

yǔ cǐ tóng shí, nǐ jiāng huì dé dào zhōng guó wǎng yǒuwú sī dē bāng zhù, tí gāo yīng yǔ, zhēn zhèng zuò dào péng yǒu biàn tiān xià.

目前My Happy Planet正在进行网站建设，即将在未来两周内发布。希望你能一直关注My Happy Planet。

mù qián My Happy Planet zhèng zài jìn xíng wǎng zhàn jiàn shè, jí jiāng zài wèi lái liǎng zhōu nèi fā bù. xī wàng nǐ néng yì zhí guān zhù My Happy Planet.

我们希望能够招募约50名体验者，在8月初发布前先睹为快。如果你有意向参与，或者有任何的建议与问题，欢迎你联系我们。

wǒ mēn xī wàng néng gòu zhāo mù yuē 50 míng tǐ yàn zhě, zài 8 yuè chū fā bù qián xiān dǔ wéi kuài. rú guǒ nǐ yǒu yì xiàng cān yù, huò zhě yǒu rèn hé de jiàn yì huò zhě wèn tí, huān yíng nǐ lián xì wǒ mēn.

联系方式：aimering@hotmail.com

lián xì fāng shì: aimering@hotmail.com

[roddy]

Any chance of a 'sneak preview' of the content so we can decide if we want to sign up or not?

[simonlaing]

Hi aimering,

I was wondering the same things as Roddy. Also will there be material for intermediate and advanced students. Discussing newspapers articles or TV shows perhaps?

I am interested you can PM or Email me the info.

The vast majority chinese learners are beginners or intermediate students. (See high drop out rate, and difficulty of Chinese) .

Anyway, Send info, Thanks,

Simon:)

[gougou]

you can PM or Email me the info.

Actually, why not keep it public so everybody can consider whether they want to sign up?

[aimering]

Hi aimering,

I was wondering the same things as Roddy. Also will there be material for intermediate and advanced students. Discussing newspapers articles or TV shows perhaps?

I am interested you can PM or Email me the info.

The vast majority chinese learners are beginners or intermediate students. (See high drop out rate, and difficulty of Chinese) .

Anyway, Send info, Thanks,

Simon

It's great to hear your feedbacks, Simon.

As you've mentioned, the vast majority Chinese learners are beginners or intermediate students, so I believe most of the lessons will be easy and approchable. However, the need for intermediate and advanced level of materials will also be taken into consideration.

One of the main difference between My Happy Planet and other learning sites is that the site is very interactive. Members are free to post lessons, upload videos, or have unlimited access to the chat room. I believe you will find what you need.

Thanks again,

Louis

[Rrina]

Great non-answer.

[gougou]

Members are free to post lessons, upload videos

So will you provide any content at all, or are you trying to recruit people to create content for you here?

[gato]

Have you seen http://www.chineseblast.com/ which allows lessons/video posting and interactivity.

[roddy]

Bearing in mind that this is high school project, I'm not really expecting huge quantities of content. However, perhaps you could take your camera phones out and interview some people on the street, then transcribe the interviews (perhaps with pinyin). Or even just interview classmates and teachers. That kind of thing (especially with the transcription) is always useful and will give people a reason to visit your site.

You can't normally just say 'come here and interact'. You need to give them something to interact with.

[aimering]

Bearing in mind that this is high school project, I'm not really expecting huge quantities of content.

I'm sorry, but My Happy Planet is not a high school project.

It was designed and coordinated by students from Harvard, Duke, etc.

Im just a high school student who is volunteerily helping them recruit new members.

So will you provide any content at all, or are you trying to recruit people to create content for you here?

The lessons and videos are created by our members.

[aimering]

Index page of My Happy Planet

My Happy Planet Group on Facebook:

http://hs.facebook.com/group.php?gid=3167276410

Plus, when the site will be launching?

Many of you have asked when you can view the site. Our developers in India are working double time (including weekends!) to get the site out as soon as possible. We have broken the site down into modules, so that you can have a sneak peak into the site as we're developing the other parts.

The first part that will be out -- by the end of this week (fingers crossed!) -- is the Friends module. In this phase, you will be able to register, enter your profiles, find native speakers to chat with, add people as friends, send offline messages, and talk with them on Skype or MSN.

In the coming weeks, we will be launching the Videos & Lessons section where you can add and view videos & lessons in multiple languages and file formats. We are extremely excited about the launch, and we'll definitely send you guys a link when we launch the first phase!

[aimering]

hey guys, My Happy Planet is now open for beta

check it out:

http://myhappyplanet.com/register.php?refid=196_P9anQpvt