Chinesepod

[Manos]

I found some information about Chinesepod here and there on the forum but my search didnt lead to any specific topic about that. If there is one, i am sorry and an administrator might want to merge the two or delete mine.

In the meantime, i would like some information and mostly some personal thoughts about Chinesepod. Do you think it is a good addition to someone learning chinese with a private tutor(i have 2 lessons per week, 2 hours/time)?

I ve listened to some of their free podcasts and i must admit i liked the fact that not only they have different levels,they also offer a pdf transcript for the dialogue and exercises etc etc.

Also, i m wondering the following: If someone registers for a month with the BASIC subscription which offers :

WHAT YOU GET

• thousands of lessons
  

WHAT YOU ARE MISSING

• review audio (dialogue-only, vocab)
  
• lesson review activities (dialogue, vocabulary, expansion, grammar, exercises)
  
• full mobile access (Apple iOS, Android)
  
• personal vocabulary list
  
• ability to save target vocabulary and sync across devices
  
• class sessions
  

1)Do i have access to the podcast and the PDF dialogue/vocabulary?

2)Can i download any podcast+PDF from any level within this month? Someone could even download every single one of them? I d find it strange if they let that happen because that means that everyone would subscribe for a month and get everything.

Looking forward to your personal experiences with chinesepod, what cases you found it helpful and is it really worth the money and the extra time learning?

Cheers!

[icebear]

You are correct. I think they count on subscribers either being more interested in premium content, or the savings of a 1 month binge not worthwhile relative to the hassle of downloading all 1000+ lessons in a single go. (Besides, if your goal is to screw them, you could just use torrents.)

I've been a premium subscriber for quite some time, and always have found it worthwhile - if you use it daily the cost is pretty trivial.

[Manos]

Since you mentioned you use it on a daily basis, i assume you ve found it very helpful. Could you please elaborate on that and tell me some specific examples?

Did it help you improve your listening skills? speaking? vocabulary or?

Thanks!

[ThatBlokeDave]

Hi Manos,

I have been a subscriber to Chinesepod for around 2 years now. I also started off on a premium account for the first year and then renewed my subscription and downgraded to Basic as they had a great deal on at the time so maybe I can share a few thoughts to help you decide.

First of all, I think ChinesePod is a fantastic resource to supplement your learning and in your case you are thinking of doing just that since you also have other lessons in your schedule.

Lets talk about the service in general first. My opinion is this;

Pros

• Well structured, level appropriate content
  
• Lessons content is geared towards real world usage rather than academic.
  
• Personal RSS feeds - This means you can automatically download lessons without having to go to the site and manually do it.
  
• A generally friendly community
  
• Traditional Friendly - Learners of Traditional can use 95% of the resources (A bug in one of the memory games prevents it from being 100%)
  

Cons

• Limited range of voice actors / accents
  
• Teacher / Community feedback can be a little slow at times
  
• Podcasts only improve listening skills. There is no prompting to try and recall what you have learnt like pimsleur.
  
• If you are based in Taiwan, you should be careful to check the words you are learning. I found I was learning lots of words that are never used in Taiwan.
  

Basic Vs Premium

The question on whether to go with basic or premium I would say depends on a few things;

1) You current level

2) How many other learning resources you use

3) Your budget

Having used both, I would say the premium level is worth every penny if you are a beginner / elementary level student in the language, not too tech savvy (I will explain that in a bit) and not aware of some of the vast free learning resources elsewhere. Premium features like the flash cards are great for initially learning a word but there is no feature to remind you to review the cards (spaced repetition) so after learning you will probably find yourself using a program like Anki (which is free) for this. The matching game is fun for a bit but longer term as you progress it is something that is used less and less. So the most useful features of premium to me are the review mp3s, the dialogue mp3's and the review / grammar sections.

The review mp3's and dialogues are great for reviewing once you have absorbed the banter and explanations and just want a quick efficient review. However, if you are a little tech savvy, you can chop the dialogue out of the lesson mp3 so if you were on a basic account the only thing you are missing mp3 wise is the review MP3.

In my experience the review tab is just the same as the MP3, maybe with an extra sentence of two but can be useful for shadowing specific sentences quickly and then finally, the grammar tab I cannot comment on because it was added after I downgraded to basic.

So overall, I would say that if you are a beginner / elementary level student a premium account is worth it. For intermediate and above, I think you would be fine with the Basic subscription.

I hope you found this helpful and not too ranty Maybe see you around on the site sometime.

Happy learning.

[Manos]

Wow thank you very much for all the time you put into this response! It sure cleared a few things out.

My level is Elementary and my main source of learning is my private tutor.

I think i might start off with a basic subscription though, and see how that goes.

[amytheorangutan]

Anyone here still using Chinesepod? What do you guys think of the new-ish lessons since Fiona and the gang left? I’ve honestly been having difficulties listening to the new lessons. A lot of them are either too hard for the level or it’s just hard for me to concentrate listening from start to finish. I listen to mostly Upper Intermediate but sometimes Advance lessons. I’m curious if I’m the only one who feels that their new lessons are less engaging compared to their old materials. 

[PerpetualChange]

1 minute ago, amytheorangutan said:

Anyone here still using Chinesepod? What do you guys think of the new-ish lessons since Fiona and the gang left? I’ve honestly been having difficulties listening to the new lessons. A lot of them are either too hard for the level or it’s just hard for me to concentrate listening from start to finish. I listen to mostly Upper Intermediate but sometimes Advance lessons. I’m curious if I’m the only one who feels that their new lessons are less engaging compared to their old materials. 

Well, I couldn't afford them when they were supposedly really good, but a few years ago I did a trial and found that I couldn't really get into it. Mainly because I feel like after a certain point of competency with the language I have to guide my own learning by my own interests, not by what a website thinks I'll be interested in.

[Moshen]

Quote

’m curious if I’m the only one who feels that their new lessons are less engaging compared to their old materials. 

 

I didn't like the new material, either.  Seems to me they are trying too hard to be entertaining and upbeat.  Fortunately there's quite a lot of the old stuff, and it doesn't feel outdated.

[matteo]

7 hours ago, PerpetualChange said:

Well, I couldn't afford them when they were supposedly really good, but a few years ago I did a trial and found that I couldn't really get into it. Mainly because I feel like after a certain point of competency with the language I have to guide my own learning by my own interests, not by what a website thinks I'll be interested in.

 

yeah I second PerpetualChange in this comment, if you listen to Chinese Pod upper intermediate or even advance level you can definitely make an extra effort and start listening to native material, according to your taste and waaay more engaging.

I was in this same situation just a few months ago and was advised to make the switch in this thread https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/topic/59917-discouraged-by-my-inability-to-understand-moviestv/page/3/ , I'm very happy to have followed the advice.

 

[amytheorangutan]

I think what you guys say is true. I just like the convenience of having short dialogues being explained mainly in Chinese (once you’re Upper Int) with the transcript that I can also use for mimicking and only a few new words that are introduced at a time that I can put to flash card. I normally listen to each lessons 3-4 or more time to get the new words to stick, so I subscribe more for the structure but it would be useless if I can’t get through the content. I do listen to a few podcasts for pure listening practice but I use Chinesepod I guess for a slightly different purpose than just listening.  

[Moshen]

I have a problem with Chinesepod!

I bought a subscription from their recent sale and I can't get them to activate it. I sent in three requests for help, and after more than a week, have not heard anything back from them. Does anyone know of an alternative way to contact them? If I can't get them to help me, I'll be forced to do a chargeback on my credit card, which I would rather not do.

Thanks for any tips.

Moshen

[amytheorangutan]

@Moshen did you try to post on their forum? I found a bunch of other people posting having problems with payment. 

[Moshen]

Thanks, Amy. I just posted on their forum. I don't like to do that, but let's see if it gets their attention. They must be having huge problems as a company if they cannot answer their support requests!

[PerpetualChange]

Unfortunately @Moshen when I subbed a few years ago I had an equally tough time cancelling it. They did cancel eventually but it took way longer than it should of (though not as bad as a gym membership).

[Dawei3]

On 1/10/2021 at 3:34 PM, Moshen said:

I sent in three requests for help, and after more than a week, have not heard anything

A strong way, but not offensive way, to make the request using the "reluctant participant" approach.  You can tell them "I paid for the subscription on x date.  It hasn't been activated.  If you don't activate it by x date, I will be forced to do a credit card chargeback.  Please activate it immediately."  

 

This is a more diplomatic way of saying "If you don't activate my subscription now, I'm filing a credit card chargeback."  Also, the person reading your note today might be different than those that ignored your previous notes.  Giving them the information when you paid while using the pressure of the chargeback should push them appropriately.

 

I also agree that old Chinesepod lessons never seem to go out-of-date.  

[Moshen]

Someone replied on the forum yesterday and said the customer service person would get in touch with me, but that still hasn't happened. Looks like the one person in charge of solving customer problems is missing in action!

[amytheorangutan]

That’s not good. I’m not renewing my Chinesepod subscription this year because I have been having problem just trying to get interested in their new lessons and I started to get more out of regular podcasts. I hope I won’t come across any issue as I already cancelled my subscription last month and it’s not due until next month. 

[Moshen]

Since I still did not hear back from Chinesepod customer service, I am going ahead with a chargeback.

[amytheorangutan]

Wow their customer service must have declined so much. I remember I had a problem with my payment 2 years ago and there wasn’t much drama it was resolved fairly quickly. 

[Jan Finster]

What happened to Chinesepod???

 

I used to be one of the favourite resources for studying Chinese for some. Personally, I never really got hooked, but I did appreciate the old lessons and the lessons with Fiona and friends. But, now it sucks big time. Most of the recent videos on Youtube do not get that many views (rarely more than 10K) and quite frankly the English-Chinese chat between a foreigner and a Chinese is so boring and gets old fast.

 

How did they screw this up so badly?