Audio and Trancripts at Lingq.com

[fredrik_w]

Hi everybody,

Steve Kaufmanns language learning site Lingq.com has been running the Chinese version in Beta since Feb/March this year. The last few months, his chinese colleagues Wolf and Huahua have been adding Intermediate lessons.

I dont use all the features about saving words in the Lingq system, I only use the audio and transcript and use this together with Wenlin and Anki SRS software.

I have done self-studying with Pimsleur and then the complete FSI course. Compaired to Chinesepod Intermediate lessons,I think these Lingq lessons are more challenging. One downside is that there is no english translation but together with Wenlin, its not a big problem and I think it can also be an advantage since I need to struggle to get the meaning.

The audio content deals with different every-day topics. At first, I felt they spoke way too fast and colloquial (especially Wolf). Slowly I got used to it and I start to like this way fast, natural speaking. I guess they record their lessons without a fixed manuscript. I believe any student that uses the intermediate lessons should already have acquired a good pronunciation, these dialogs are not the best for learning clear pronunciation. On the other hand, the dialogs teaches the listener how Chinese are spoken in every-day life. The audio quality can be improved, the volume varies and sometimes you need to adjust it during listening.

The transcripts are only in characters. This was an obstacle for me since FSI is only pinyin but Im surprised how smoothly the transition from pinyin to characters took place. I decided to learn recognize characters (no hand-writing) and the first 1000 characters took six months to learn. From the day I started learning Chinese I have only focusing on pinyin but slowly I changed my mind and today I dont regret starting to learn characters.

Summary:

+ Its free

+ Colloquial dialogs with interesting topics

+ Challenging

- Audio quality can be improved

- Doesnt include English translation

It would be very interesting to hear other learners opinion.

Here is the website: http://www.chineselingq.com/

[HerrPetersen]

Really cool site! I consider myself "advanced nihao-level" but the beginner lessons are just fine for me. I especially like, that it is free and that you can download the mp3s (and create Anki cards with sound). Again great site!

I just checked out an intermediate lesson and I feel that they are talking quiet fast, but not quiet natural speed.

[doviende]

Ya, i like steve's approach to language learning. I used his site for italian for a short while, and it was quite fun, but now i've switched back to studying chinese again. Another thing that i strongly recommend, especially for beginners, is just having some chinese audio on as background audio for hours at a time. Even if you understand nothing at all at the start, just listening to some chinese for several hours per day for several weeks will result in big improvements in your listening skill.

I find that a good source for interesting chinese audio is from radio canada international: http://www.rciviva.ca/rci/ch/

They have a podcast and you can download mp3s of their daily 1hr show. no transcript, but it's very clearly spoken and at quite a quick pace usually. it's good for getting accustomed to real speakers. After you listen to that for a few weeks, Wolf and Huahua will sound really easy in comparison ;)