iKnow with Chinese lessons

[Hedge]

Hey,

iKnow now has Chinese courses, check it out.

I have tried the first lesson and its pretty cool.

[wenhailin]

I've been using iKnow since mid December and have really been enjoying it. At the moment they have a course designed to teach you to understand Chinese news and media, and there are 5 levels of it. I think they will soon have more beginner courses coming online. Definitely a site to check out.

[HerrPetersen]

I am still getting familiar with it - but from what I have seen so far I really like it. The example sentences seem to be pretty good and to the point - quality of the reading seems to be also very good.

It seems like a great place to pick up vocab.

They offer a course called "Chinese Media" which ins split into 5 "Lessons". Each lesson has around 250 vocab-entries, which even more proficient learners should still be able to pick up from. For each vocab entry there is at least one sample sentence.

Edited February 8, 2009 at 08:24 PM by HerrPetersen

[wrbt]

Really amazing how quickly the landscape has changed for available content to learn Chinese over the last few years. I've not been studying that long but even then starting out it was only books and you were lucky if good audio content to match came with it in digital format. Now podcasts and learning sites like this spring up everywhere like mushrooms after a rain storm.

It's really getting more and more absurd for chinesepod to keep a straight face charging people for podcast lessons.

Thanks for the link.

[HerrPetersen]

Yeah, while they skip out some of the fun talk (which is in Enlish for the basic lessons anyway) iknow provides material which I feel is superior to ChinesePod. To be fair though - ChinesePod is releasing on a daily (?) basis so the sheer amount of stuff does speak for them.

iKnow is even very generous when it comes to copyright issues! Really great stuff!

Now I just need to get this iknow-import feature for anki going (for Chinese, for Japanese it works just fine) (: if someone does get i done please share.

[greenleaf1348]

is there a way to make "podcasts" out of the example sentences?

say I want all the "Chinese Media: Lesson 1" sentences in one mp3, is there an automated way to get that?

[edit]basically I'd like to have the option to create the podcasts myself so I don't have to use their iKnow! widget/tool to study

Edited February 9, 2009 at 01:19 PM by greenleaf1348

[wenhailin]

greenleaf, have a look at this page

you can set it up so that after you have done a study session, it will automatically load all the sentences into a feed in itunes, so it should be what you are after.

[HerrPetersen]

Importing iKnow-lists into anki works now. Use the plugin from the anki page and type "zh-CN" when asked for the language-code. Great stuff!

[simonlaing]

Some of the games and activities on this site are quite good. Though I would like a Character input possibility for the dictation. The Brain flash is fairly good. It's amazing what bells and whistles can do.

It reminds me tremendously of Quizlet.com (load it and look up Nanjingsimon my account)

By incorporating different set and sentences this does well.

There's a matching game, a speed typing game and make your own test with Multiple choice matching and others.

Not so many bells and sound effects but still pretty cool.

Quizlet doesn't have the speaking and listening that this has but it is still good.

have fun,

SImon:)

Edited February 10, 2009 at 12:56 AM by simonlaing

[simonlaing]

This is definitely a quality tool. Espicially for those of us who have great characters but need refreshing on our pin yin.

I really like it and think it bodes well for the future. plus the load times are very fast.

have fun,

SImon:)

[HerrPetersen]

After having learned most of the first Chinese Character list, I have to say, that I honestly fell in love with the iKnow stuff. Some of the pictures really help reinforce the meaning and are most of the time really spot one - I sometimes consider even failing cards, because I want to see the pics again (there are some cute ladys on there too ).

Pronounciation is crystal clear, sentences are short and spot on. There is a lot of variation in vocab. The pics make you feel like on an ecstasy-trip (that is how I imagine it).

[simonlaing]

I agree. the new website name is smart.fm or http://smart.fm/home

It was down for a few days but has comeback and seems pretty good. I guess my suggestion to look at quizlet proved good as they have spread it out.

I am thinking of doing addition inputing of normal stuff we already use for studying like Chinesepod vocabulary or the iowa classes both I think would be good though they may not have the pictures of Iknow.

Have fun,

Simon:)

[yersi]

I decided to check it out today and I agree, it's a fantastic site. It's like if Quizlet, Anki and Facebook had a love child.

The only problem I found was that I already knew most of the vocabulary items in the lists for advanced students. I also prefer to make my own flashcards (time-consuming but invaluable for becoming familiar with the material), so I'll probably use this for any languages I don't have time to maintain an Anki deck for.

[HerrPetersen]

Yeah - I guess the site is (for the moment) aimed at students of upper beginner to lower advanced level (whatever that really means). So maybe it is somewhat too easy for some of the Chinese-cracks on this website.

Anyhow you can still search for example-sentences (possibly including pics) make your own lists and import the stuff into anki.

[Hedge]

Is it possible to import just a certain set of your iKnow sentences into Anki? Like, I am doing the Chinese Characters Level 1 list, but I only need a couple of those sentences (I know most of them).

[HerrPetersen]

As I imported all sentences into anki and delete unecessary ones, I am not sure. However the second iKnow (has been updated to smart.fm) plugin supports importing user lists - so there should be no problem. Don't know how good it works though.

http://ichi2.net/anki/wiki/Plugins#Importsmart.fmitems.2Candgenerallists.

[simonlaing]

Does Anki have some other type of testing like, typing in or games such as Quizlet or Smart.fm?

The review software seems very good , but I worry about just having the flash card testing method and self proscribing if I know a card or not.

What do you think?

Have fun,

Simon:)

[imron]

but I worry about just having the flash card testing method and self proscribing if I know a card or not.

Be honest with your responses (otherwise you're just cheating yourself) with a leaning towards being incorrect rather than correct, and you won't have any problems.

[Hedge]

Does Anki have some other type of testing like, typing in or games such as Quizlet or Smart.fm?

The review software seems very good , but I worry about just having the flash card testing method and self proscribing if I know a card or not.

Anki doesn't have other testing, but you can use it in conjunction with smart.fm (which I have started doing).

And I second imron about being honest with your answers. Also I rarely use the Easy button.

[LaoLiang]

Both very helpful with rich content and entertaining at the same time. Fantastic.