Need audio flashcards - Chinesepod vs CLO vs PopUp Chinese

[veneficus]

What's a good resource to continue learning spoken Mandarin Chinese? e.g. video/audio scenarios + audio flashcards. Audio flashcards are an absolute must! Paid resources are fine. I want a course with structure, dialogues that build on previous ones, repetition and building of vocabulary, etc.

For the past year, I haven't been on any disciplined study schedule (terrible I know) but just practicing with local friends and listening to Chinese podcasts. I practice about an hour for 4 times per week with friends. I always get complements on my accent, and I have learned a bunch of words and how to do basic things, but I still am speaking and listening at a very basic level. Most of my communication comes from body language. I more or less say the same things every week with maybe a new word here and there. Yeah pretty good, but I want to take it up a notch.

I tried the New Practical Chinese reader and Integrated Chinese books, and I didn't like either of them due to the reading aspect. I can't read and correctly reproduce the sounds. Sure, I know Pinyin and I can get close, but I'd rather learn through imitating natural speakers. I need to hear the rhythm and intricacies of the spoken language.

I have checked out Chinesepod, and it seemed great except for a lack of audio flash cards. Reviewing flashcards is so golden, it's ridiculous, and I would really like a site with audio flash cards.

Money is not a concern although I cannot currently travel to China. Even if I did though, I would still need to acquire learning resources. I have been speaking for 3 years, I can speak and listen at a basic level. I could understand the Newbie and Elementary level at Chinesepod, little of the intermediate, and not a thing above that.

Thanks!

[dreamon]

ChinesePod has "audio review" files for every lesson, although you have to pay extra to access them. To me, these "audio review" files are the primary value of ChinesePod, because most actual lessons are pretty bad (at teaching), and many are nauseating due to stupid jokes, especially the early ones where they also had the advertisements. The "audio review" files have two sections, vocabulary and sentences. The vocabulary section is the same level as the lesson, the sentences section is one level above - my estimate. In both sections they say the English, you say the Chinese, then they say the Chinese to verify correctness. The files can be practiced in the car while driving.

But I would also appreciate if anyone points to free upper-elementary and intermediate English-to-Mandarin audio flashcards that are car-worthy.

[veneficus]

Hmm I really like the call and response thing Dreamon. What other resources do you use?

[trevelyan]

If you want explicit structure in a sequential audio course, CLO is probably the closest thing to that. We don't do this at Popup Chinese for a number of reasons. Instead, people pick the lessons that interest them, view the online transcripts as they listen and click on words they don't know to schedule them for review using a customizable spaced-repetition algorithm. Review tools include online flashcards with audio support.

All of this stuff is currently included in our free subscription, so this isn't intended as a hard sell or anything. But I wanted to post since we keep getting slammed by some members in this forum for having a lack of structure when that isn't the case at all.

[laurenth]

Audio flashcards are an absolute must!

There's a Tatoeba Anki deck floating around (http://tatoeba.org/eng/) with about 1650 chinese sentences. I can't remember if I downloaded it from within Anki or if I found it on the Tatoeba site itself.

[Oggy Gautama]

@trevelyan: isnt a premium subscription is required to view transcript ?

I kind of interested in PopUp chinese, but I must admit using free subscription, I kind of lost on what to do. CLO model is much clearer. (go to lesson 2 after finishing lesson 1, and so on...)