learning Chinese while riding a bike

[andrew1981]

Hi All,

I live in Beijing and ride my bike for about 1.5 hours to and from work. I want to learn Chinese while riding with my MP3 player. Can anyone recommend any MP3 lessons that focus on learning by speaking and repetition for an intermediate learner? I really want to improve speaking and grammar. I thought about Chinese Pod but I really think it is kind of a waste just listening to those and not looking at the content. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Yezze]

Interesting and unique way to study. Try looking at various podcasts on iTunes and see what you find, i don't know of any off the top of my head. Or, you might be able to find something where someone says something in English, then in Chinese, and you can just repeat what they said a lot.

learning by speaking and repetition

Just my newbie thoughts.

[tooironic]

Why, Slow Chinese of course.

[Yezze]

Why, Slow Chinese of course.

Ahh! 我傻！ How could i forget about that, especially since i used it for a bit.

[gougou]

There's also Pimsleur, which some people were pretty happy with.

[Scoobyqueen]

I spend an hour a day riding my bike to and from work in a big city in Germany. Initially I also tried to learn Chinese using MP3 but had to stop as it was too dangerous not just for me but also for other road users (child suddenly appearing). I found it nearly equivalent to talking on the mobile phone whilst driving. Your concentration is just not as good. It seems a very efficient use of time but my safety is more important (and also in Germany it is not allowed).

[dumdumdum]

not advisable... cycling in china could be intimidiating. chinese saying, if you knocked someone down in china, it's as good as having another mother. meaning you got to take care of the victim (in money terms) for a pretty long time.

if you are obviously a westerner in appearance, with typical golden hair and green/blue eyes, things could be worse.

[Jordi]

Don't do it.

Trust me, I've been there. You can listen to music with no problem, but trying to hear someone speaking and repeat is completely different.

You can keep a low level of volume while listening to music, because you can hear part of it, and if a loud noise happens around me, it's okay if I miss 5 or 6 seconds of music. However, to hear language learning recordings, and try to repeat you will need more focus and you'll find you must turn the volume of your device higher, which might be very dangerous.

You are already taking advantage of going by bike: you do some exercise, save money, help the environment...

If you really want to do it, consider using the build in speaker of your MP3, if it has any. Do not use headphones.

[roddy]

Meanwhile, if you want to ignore all that advice, get yourself a 电子/mp3 复读机 - you'll need to take a hand off your bike quite often, but you can have it repeat sections and play back your own voice.

[edelweis]

I also would not try to do any real/hard study while driving/riding a bike in a city, any more than while exercising at home (I'm clumsy, most times if I concentrate on anything but the correct move I end up hurting myself).

But I still have some Chinese audio tracks on while exercising, because

1) the information in it, or at least the intonation of sentences, might enter my brain unconsciously

2) there are a few moments between sets, or while doing relatively safe moves, when I can focus on what I hear and parrot it.

So I imagine you could have some podcast or textbook track on repeat. When you're in a bicycle lane with little traffic, or stopped at a traffic light, you can focus on listening to it/parroting for a short while.

The rest of the time leave it as a background noise and take care of safety.

Since it's on repeat, you'll get an occasion to listen to the parts you're missing at the next traffic light (or even on the next ride).

(this means, in 1h of riding, you'll end up reviewing only perhaps 10' worth of audio material).

I would recommend

- reviewing/previewing audio tracks from a textbook you're studying

- Chinesepod intermediate vocabulary (...rv.mp3) tracks have English and Chinese words.

- perhaps FSI tracks

(hmmm won't the traffic noise drown the audio?)

Likewise you could have a hanzi card in a pocket, get it out at traffic lights and trace it with your fingers. But don't try to imagine it while moving.

[Flying Pigeon]

earworms.

Or you could DIY and funkify FSI. You could use an audio editing program like Audacity or Garage Band, lay down the FSI material or tracks from a good intermediate textbook (NPCR, Chinese Made Easier, etc.) and then lay down some funky background music on another track. Kinda like what the earworms people are doing.

Do you like to sing? I like to sing Chinese songs while riding my bike. Lots of people do it. I've passed many a crooner while out for a spin on my Flying Pigeon.

[Glenn]

Now that's an intriguing method! I'd like to try it out myself. It looks like they have free demos, so maybe when I get a chance I'll check it out. Thanks for posting that!