魅力汉语 ('The Charm of Chinese') MOOC

[somethingfunny]

This thread is for discussion related to the MOOC 魅力汉语 (split off from this thread originally started by Luxi).

 

Below is an introduction to this course written by Luxi, but first I'd like to highlight the start date of the course is 24th March.

 

Quote

This mooc is in the 中国大学moocs (Chinese University moocs) platform. It starts on 24 March and runs for 10 weeks. The course title is  魅力汉语 ('The Charm of Chinese' seems to be the official translation). Please see this thread on 中国大学moocs for details about the platform.

 

The mooc is entirely in Chinese and I think one needs an upper intermediate level or higher to follow. There are no subtitles in Chinese either. However, much of the content is written on slides shown in the video lectures so it's easy to get the vocabulary. There is no way to download the lectures or slides, but you can use Printscreen to get the slides for personal use (I think posting them may go against the rules)

 

 This is going to be the 2nd run of the mooc, the first one is still online and can be accessed following the tip on the post above this, I think you may need to register with 中国大学 moocs first.

 

The course is given by Lan Xia, from Huazhong Agricultural University and it gives an overview of  'Common Chinese' (普通话， AKA Mandarin）linguistics. The course is for Chinese students at University level, and makes no concessions to foreigners. Not even Chinese subtitles. I find it hard to follow in parts and can't understand more than about 70%, if that much, but well worth the effort. It goes much deeper into the distinctive features of the language than any courses I've done, and it is very well delivered by Lan Xia, it gets quite technical in parts but is far from dry and dull. 

 

The mooc seems to be a follow up from a series of lectures Lan Xia gave a few years ago and there's even a 6-parts podcast of them in Ximalaya

 

Once the course goes live I'll put a schedule up here.

 

_____________

My original post:

 

How would you feel about following this course together Luxi?  Maybe posting comments here, clearing up any questions and discussing the content...?

Edited March 16, 2017 at 07:47 PM by somethingfunny

[Luxi]

Sounds like a splendid idea Somethingfunny. It'd really be worth it from what I've seen so far, there's a lot in the course that is of interest to foreign students and the classes are a joy to watch.

 

I think the official schedule setup for the course may be a little too optimistic for me, I'm very slow, though I have already followed some of the lessons in the previous run.

[somethingfunny]

OK.  Let me sign up tomorrow and have a little look around at the course material and see what the schedule looks like.  If we get a few people interested we could start another thread specifically for that course.

[Luxi]

That'll be great. I'll be around if you need help finding your way around the site. We should definitely start a thread and I'm sure people will be interested. We don't need to worry to much about the schedule, I think once you're registered, you'll be able to access all the classes.

 

[fabiothebest]

I'm at HSK 3 level and it may be hard for me to follow it, so I'm not sure if I'll take this course now or not at the moment, anyway I like the idea of having people in this forum taking these MOOCs completely in Chinese and I'd recommend opening a new thread for every course. Do checkout also xuetangx, I'm sure you'll love it. Their courses are built on Open edX, an open source platform developed by edX and made available to other institutions of higher learning that want to make similar offerings.

[艾墨本]

This looks great. I think I'll also try to take part as well. Still need to focus on my previous Chinese studying commitments, though.

[somethingfunny]

I've signed up - I don't seem to be able to access any of the videos from the last run so I've still only got the short introduction video as a guide to what it will be like.

 

There seem to be six 'chapters', but the course lasts for ten weeks, so I'm not sure exactly how the schedule works.

 

I'll probably try and stick to the schedule as I tend to give up on things if I don't do them to a fixed routine, but we can probably sort something out so that discussion can continue on the material from previous weeks even if the official schedule has already moved on.

 

I'm hoping there's not an absolute ton of material to get through - on the website it says that its a '32 hour' course which would mean just over three hours a week, which is pushing it a little for me, but I'll see how it goes.

[Luxi]

1 hour ago, somethingfunny said:

I don't seem to be able to access any of the videos from the last run

 

I think you can. Try this:

Go to this page: http://www.icourse163.org/course/HZAU-1001741023#/info

On right hand side, first box under banner. Next to 第2次开课 there's a little arrow, click on it  and a box appears with a link to 第1次开课. Select that option and now look at the big orange button below, on the oage: it says 已结束，查看内容. Click and you're in Version 1 on a page with announcements.  Click on 课件 on the left side menu and you're on the videos list!

 

If you can have a look there and run some of the videos, you'll get a much better idea. 32 hours, mmhh....

 

Fabio, I don't think HSK3 is enough There are no Chinese subtitles and no way to extract a transcript as you can do with Xuetang. But these moocs look like there to stay and run repeats for years, 加油！

[Luxi]

New thread since there are people interested in following and discussing this mooc, Would a kind Mod copy the relevant posts from this thread here, please?

 

Everybody : please read this as the belated introduction to this thread. Sorry for mixup,

 

This mooc is in the 中国大学moocs (Chinese University moocs) platform. It starts on 24 March and runs for 10 weeks. The course title is  魅力汉语 ('The Charm of Chinese' seems to be the official translation). Please see this thread on 中国大学moocs for details about the platform.

 

The mooc is entirely in Chinese and I think one needs an upper intermediate level or higher to follow. There are no subtitles in Chinese either. However, much of the content is written on slides shown in the video lectures so it's easy to get the vocabulary. There is no way to download the lectures or slides, but you can use Printscreen to get the slides for personal use (I think posting them may go against the rules)

 

 This is going to be the 2nd run of the mooc, the first one is still online and can be accessed following the tip on the post above this, I think you may need to register with 中国大学 moocs first.

 

The course is given by Lan Xia, from Huazhong Agricultural University and it gives an overview of  'Common Chinese' (普通话， AKA Mandarin）linguistics. The course is for Chinese students at University level, and makes no concessions to foreigners. Not even Chinese subtitles. I find it hard to follow in parts and can't understand more than about 70%, if that much, but well worth the effort. It goes much deeper into the distinctive features of the language than any courses I've done, and it is very well delivered by Lan Xia, it gets quite technical in parts but is far from dry and dull. 

 

The mooc seems to be a follow up from a series of lectures Lan Xia gave a few years ago and there's even a 6-parts podcast of them in Ximalaya

 

 

 

 

 

[roddy]

I've shifted the posts - something funny, as you now own the first post in this topic, could you edit in an introduction / links?

[somethingfunny]

Mine just says  已结束, there's no  查看内容.

 

I'll write up an introduction this evening when I've got some time.

[Luxi]

I just edited a former post to make things a bit clearer...

[Luxi]

Quote

Mine just says  已结束, there's no  查看内容.

 

Then itt could be because I registered before the previous run finished. Maybe nobody else can see Version 1, he-he-he 

 

(but everybody can listen to the podcast in Ximalaya to have a better idea)

[somethingfunny]

This course begins tomorrow!

 

There is a countdown clock on the webpage!

[somethingfunny]

OK.  I'm not sure how many people are on board - it might just be me and Luxi at the moment!

 

I've had a quick look (at work!), so I'll have a more extensive look this evening but it looks like this first chapter (week?) has six videos, each between 10 and 15 minutes in length.  I reckon there's about an hour and a half to get through.  There are no subtitles, but the slides look pretty useful.  There is no written material to accompany the course either.  I'll try and get these videos watched over the weekend and then we'll have a better idea of the level of this course.

[Guest realmayo]

I just watched the first one ... that lady has drunk very deep indeed from the Chinese-characters-are-simply-marvelous kool-aid. Hopefully it's just the feel-good patriotic boilerplate she feels obliged to get out of they way at the start. Luxi wrote well of the later lectures so it sounds like it must get a lot better. And she certainly speaks slowly and clearly, and yes the slides are very clear too.

[somethingfunny]

Excellent.  What's the point of having a Chinese teacher if you can't complain about their excessive enthusiasm for the Chinese language?  

 

Imagine...

 

汉语就是一个很一般的语言，和别的语言差不多

 

接下来我们看这个字。。。其实这个字没什么特别的意义

 

这首诗还不如莎士比亚那年写的Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day...

 

多没意思吧

[Luxi]

Don't be deceived by the first video, you are in for a treat   

 

If you watch the videos in Chrome, check the speed, you can slow down to 75% and does not distort the speech too much. Even so, I find it hard to follow but so worth the effort. 

 

 

[Guest realmayo]

6 minutes ago, somethingfunny said:

What's the point of having a Chinese teacher if you can't complain about their excessive enthusiasm for the Chinese language?  

 

I wasn't at all was surprised, just bored. "5,000 years of history". "The language is like pictures".

 

Just now, Luxi said:

Don't be deceived by the first video, you are in for a treat 

 

That's what I was hoping given what you wrote earlier.

[艾墨本]

How are you all intending to study with this: extract key vocabulary, transcribe what she says, focus on grammar patterns that she uses, shadow her speech, try to understand every word or just enjoying listening extensively? I'm sure there are plenty of other ways to approach this, but, I'm curious, how will you?

 

Because she does speak so clearly, I'm considering shadowing her (that 75% speed would be perfect) but mostly just doing extensive listening along with taking notes on the content.