Beginning Chinese Videocourse?

[Meng Lelan]

I'm looking for a high school or college level beginning Chinese textbook series that has DVD videos of actors and actresses acting out real life dialogues. I'm not looking for audio only DVDs - my students need something more visual. Does anything like this exist? I think the NPCR had something like this, but I could be mistaken.

[lau]

Yes, NPCR has a DVD. You can take a look at what's on it here: http://www.hanyu.com.cn/oldedition/En/htm_newlesson/mulu.htm

Check out http://www.studychineseculture.com/ If you scroll down long enough, you'll be able to choose "Studying Chinese Multimedia" and DVDs. I've seen "Conversational Chinese 301" DVDs, which seem OK, but not necessarily great, and "Communicate in Chinese" (with Da Shan) which has a storyline of sorts. Some courses seem to have quite a few DVDs, not just one.

[Meng Lelan]

Excellent, I didn't even know NPCR had an online DVD. I would think that it the only textbook series out there that has an online DVD like that, right? I've seen After School Chinese DVD, but I don't think high schoolers would want to watch DVD with kids in them. I wish there were more DVDs aimed at high schooler and college students studying beginning Chinese so they can see real life situations being acted out.

[self-taught-mba]

There's also ones from CCTV but they are a little hard to come by. There are links some where here. Sorry can't remember, maybe someone else does.

[Meng Lelan]

Has anyone tried Chinese Panorama? Looks like it comes with DVDs, but is there some way to view a short sample DVD online before I buy it? I want to make sure the DVDs are good for ages 14 and over and they show real life situations in China and real life application of Chinese.

[renzhe]

The NPCR DVDs are all on youtube, BTW.

I found them OK, they're as good as you can do with artificial textbook conversations.

[Meng Lelan]

Do the NPCR DVDs follow the dialogues in the textbooks? Or are there transcripts provided in the teacher's guide?

[lau]

They follow the textbook dialogues. The audio CDs have a much slower speed.

[Meng Lelan]

Thanks lau for your advice!

Anyone here tried the DVD for Chinese Panorama...?

[Chinese Learner]

If I remember rightly, the last time I was at the BLCU bookshop I saw a DVD called 'Happy Beijing' which follows a wai guo ren around as he travels through Beijing. Can't seem to find it online but I'll keep an eye out for it next I go.

[Meng Lelan]

Happy Beijing - seems I've seen it in China Sprout online or something like that. Have you actually watched the Happy Beijing DVD?

[Chinese Learner]

No sorry! I wanted to buy it a few months ago but never did in the end so I don't know how good or bad it is.

[elina]

There's also ones from CCTV but they are a little hard to come by. There are links some where here. Sorry can't remember, maybe someone else does.

I think they might be:

http://www.studychineseculture.com/search.asp?keyword=Happy+China%2DLearning+Chinese&thetype=0&dclass=0

Watch online:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/8003-an-incredible-new-resource-for-beginnerintermediate-learners&page=2

Some information about Happpy Beijing: Practical Chinese Conversation (2Books+3DVDs+4CDs):

http://www.studychineseculture.com/book.asp?id=4328

[Chinese Learner]

I was in the big bookshop in Xidan today. I found a DVD package that might be what you're looking for:

'The World of Chinese'

Foreign Language and Research Press

Forgot to look at the price but it seems to teach all every-day practical useable spoken chinese.

http://www.chinabooks.ch/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1752&osCsid=asqf5bf16hvveruvanhjjrkc87

[Meng Lelan]

Thanks, Chineselearner, I think that is what I was looking for as well as the NPCR DVDs. Textbooks with both audio and visual DVDs for Chinese learners can be a challenge to find in the US! I think beginning Chinese students need to both see and hear dialogues so they can feel like speaking Chinese has a practical value in many different situations.

[renzhe]

I think that annotating an episode of a real TV show could be a great thing for advanced beginners. Obviously just letting them watch it is out of the question for beginners, but if you prepared a simple episode carefully, it could be a great learning experience.

You could prepare a word list, print out parts of the dialogue and hand them out for the students to read in advance, then watch a simple show together, stopping from time to time to discuss a certain sentence pattern or the like.

It's work (and more of an extension, you can't base teaching on this), but I think it will be beneficial. There are many lower-intermediate shows in our First Episode project, many have plot summaries, some have vocabulary lists, and some even have complete transcripts. It would probably need some extra work, but the excitement you get after being able to follow a real Chinese TV show is a fantastic motivational tool.

Empty Mirror, for example, is very easy to follow, very typical, and there is even a beginner-level wordlist available.

[self-taught-mba]

In case you don't know Elina has a great website that has excellent service and great prices - would highly recommend them! And I guess we should have pointed to her earlier since she really knows her stuff.

[Meng Lelan]

Yes, I looked at Elina's website, thanks.

My experience with teaching Chinese is there seems to be audio-only supplements to textbooks. Very different from teaching sign language, there are very good DVDs of dialogues between deaf people, and between deaf people and those learning sign language. They make excellent language practice and help the students see how they can use sign language. So that is why I like the NPCR DVDs because students can see how they can use Chinese.