New Chinese Learning Platform

[Larry Language Lover]

Just ran across this new Chinese learning platform connected to the government.  Haven't had a chance yet to really look at it.

What do you think?

 

http://www.chinese-learning.cn/#/web

[道艺]

It's not mobile - friendly I see

[roddy]

Idioms. Ancient Poetry. What is it with these people?

 

They look to be using existing resources - elementary school textbooks, the Putonghua Shuiping Ceshi, the accumulated literary gems of 5,000 years of history - to put together a Chinese-learning site, without any adjustment for foreign learners. There might be some useful and interesting stuff on there, but I suspect you're going to need to look for it and identify it. Also hit a registration barrier pretty soon, and noticed they've got quite a bit of work to do on translating pages to English. 

 

Might be great. Might pass into obscurity. Pop back in six months and see what they're up to. 

 

What is worth noting - iFlytek, the company credited at the bottom, seem to have deep pockets and an AI / language recognition background. If they actually throw resources at it, who knows? 

[vellocet]

2 hours ago, roddy said:

Idioms. Ancient Poetry. What is it with these people?

They're not making materials that students need.  They're making materials that they find pleasing to create.

 

If it's by the government then it's basically a busy-work project.  Someone got funding and now they're spending it.  At the end of it all they present a site, and the higher-ups glance at it and approve the work.  Promotions for everyone.  Who cares if anyone learns anything?  

[roddy]

Where did you hear about this, Larry?

 

Anyone feeling brave? There's a 

Quote

Download PC client, more AI cool techs for you

link all over the site, which on clicking immediately downloads an .exe file. Frankly, I'm not running an .exe from anyone who thinks it's ok to not tell me I'm about to download the thing, but I'd love for someone else to take the risk and report back*. 

 

The 'government' bit to it looks to be the 教育部 and the 国家语言文字工作委员会, according to the about page. 

4 hours ago, vellocet said:

They're making materials that they find pleasing to create.

I suspect the vast majority of it is copy and pasted. Not necessarily a bad thing, they've bought together a lot of potentially useful stuff and at least partially indexed it in English.

 

*by post, if your computer isn't working for some reason.

[Bibu]

hardly know how what idiom talks refers. this site looks like more for chinese to learn chinese. only 1 of 5 chapter is for oversea learners, AKA. the last chapter.It looks ok for me for the first 4 chapters as a native, idiom, poetry, classic literature etc. that is how native learn chinese for thousands years..

 

How it looks like , the last chapter,  for your non-natives?

 

 

[roddy]

9 hours ago, Bibu said:

that is how native learn chinese for thousands years..

For thousands of years, the vast majority of Chinese people have been illiterate and uneducated. I wouldn't overestimate the importance of Song poetry in pre-Song times. 

[Bibu]

1 hour ago, roddy said:

For thousands of years, the vast majority of Chinese people have been illiterate and uneducated

 

absolutely correct, but this is not my argument about. To be literate for a chinese, or other words, well-educated,  it means read as many as possible of those pre-Song, poetry is one of the key elements.

[Luxi]

Ever heard of it? Me neither until this morning.  

 

From CGTN

 

Quote

A major Chinese learning platform has attracted around 647,000 users from 152 countries and regions by the end of May, an official from China's Ministry of Education (MOE) said on Tuesday.

 

Launched on October 25, 2019, the Global Chinese Learning Platform has developed a mobile app that supports six languages, namely, Chinese, English, Russian, Japanese, Korean and Thai.

 

They forgot to add a link to the Platform, here it is:

全球中文学习平台 : http://www.chinese-learning.cn/#/web

 

Warning. First glance makes one dizzy! Can't say anything about the contents yet, but I'll probably spend the rest of the week exploring it. Now off to find the App.

 

Edited to add: Apple Store doesn't have the App, neither in Chinese nor in English. So where did the 647.000 viewers found it? Web Site only for now.

[xinoxanu]

Never heard of it either, but seems interesting and while the website looks overkill, at least it's not made for Internet Explorer 6.0 as one would expect ?

 

Also this:

 

At least they are upfront about what you can expect from their data collection goals.

[roddy]

That has come up before (actually, Luxi, looks like you liked the OP's post ? ) - hang on, I'll merge with...

[mungouk]

The new HSK Official Youtube Channel has been live-streaming lessons recently too, snatches of which I've seen at random. 

 

Didn't look particularly engaging, to be honest.

[Luxi]

1 hour ago, roddy said:

That has come up before (actually, Luxi,

 

?my memory isn't what it used to be...? I don't even remember what the site looked like in October . Thanks Roddy for paying attention!

 

Having looked at it a bit more carefully, it seems like the site isn't quite ready to go global yet. They seem to have 'borrowed' a lot of it from everywhere. I recognise some of the teachers from the 中国大学 mooc courses, maybe that´s where the Putonghua Proficiency section comes from. 

 

But I am interested in iFLY´s AI input. Maybe it´s time to install a VPN to access Chinese sites from Europe....

 

 

[roddy]

Is it actually blocked from Europe? I can click around fine, but haven't tried to register. 

10 minutes ago, Luxi said:

Thanks Roddy for paying attention!

I'd have missed it, but I saw Iflytek mentioned and knew I'd heard the name somewhere. 

[Luxi]

16 minutes ago, roddy said:

blocked from Europe?

 

Yup, and UK gets it on the rebound. It won´t let you register. Some material is available but the would be useful Putonghua and Translation sections aren´t. The apps aren´t available in the Apple UK and Chinese stores when searched from Britain.

 

So much for Global.

[PerpetualChange]

On 10/29/2019 at 3:17 AM, roddy said:

Idioms. Ancient Poetry. What is it with these people?

 

As others have said, it probably has to do more with the ease of finding these materials as they are all embedded in the minds of Chinese educations who learned them in their own Chinese classes.