I think I could probably guess how most people use, or, ‘consume’ ChinesePod. Most likely, it’s: load up on the audio, listen to a bunch, then get the transcripts. After that, it’s the forums, the Learning Center, etc. Some peoole go through everything, and do so really systematically. Others do it more partially and randomly.
But what I’d like to know is if anyone has new or unique suggestions/insights from a user perspective. If, for example, you wanted to work on producing the 4 tones, you could go through the transcripts before you actually hear the dialogs and try to read them aloud. If you did this with a teacher, that’d be good, but if you recorded yourself, that’d be even better. After that you compare your recordings with the podcast, and hopefully get closer to the correct forms.
Also, in terms of using devices, if you have unusual ideas or habits, again, we’d love to hear from you.
I’m always amazed by the creativity and ingeninuity of the Big Brain. All of these ideas can help other learners and make us all more effective. Feel free to pile in.
Ken Carroll
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Not sure how unique that is but :
a) I never look at the transcript before listening to the lesson, at least once for the challenging levels, often 2-3 times for the easier ones, repeating what I can. [that's to develop oral understanding]
b) I hardly ever return to the pdf transcripts, prefering what I copy/paste from Expansion where pinyin is not listed [so as not to be attracted/distracted by the transcription], prefering to look up the words I forgot.
c) I systematically go through Expansion material, repeating all patterns until such time as I have the mechanical fluency [might still not be perfect but I trust my musical ear, point being to train my speech muscles]
d) for the easier levels, or once I’m familiar enough with the words, I extract only the dialogues from the mp3 file (using mp3DirectCut freeware) and loop through them
Yv
Hi Ken,
So far it looks like I have two modes for processing ChinesePod.
Review mode: For the Elementary lessons, I start the audio, then CTRL-click the “Review Materials” to open it in a new tab. While the topic is being introduced, I can roll over the characters in the dialogue to see if there are any I don’t remember or don’t know. I keep the dialogue open as it is read.. sometimes I look at it to practice scanning, othertimes I ignore it and just listen. If it’s one that’s easy for me, I’ll also do the exercises during the podcast — in between the important bits I want to catch.
New Info Mode: For the Intermediate lessons, I read the transcript first (easier to read than in the review lessons and has the pinyin and english). I practice saying it and make sure I understand all the vocab and grammar, or at least know what I don’t understand so well. I do this because at this level the podcast seems to explain sticking points in the dialogue before ever reading the dialogue.. if I don’t read the transcript first I’m sometimes lost before I begin. Then I listen to the podcast and follow along in the transcript and then I spend a lot of time stopping and restarting the podcast so I can try to figure out what Jenny is saying about the dialogue (not necessarily a bad thing to have to do). The dialogues are the right level.. it’s the discussion I can’t always follow.
I think you’ve had comments about the difficulty of Intermediate compared to Elementary, but as a newcomer, this is what might help me.
* Level dialogue is good, level discussion is a little too advanced: Translating everything said in Chinese about the level in the pdf as well would help me. Sometimes it’s so fast and so conversational that I can’t figure out what’s being said and I can’t always figure out how to look it up. I then feel I’ve missed something I probably needed to know.
* Modify the discussion: Modify the conversation so that you’re better translating what’s being said in Chinese about it as you go.
* One more repetition: Add another repetition of each line of dialogue where you do the translation in the podcast.. in Elementary you repeat it 3 times. In Intermediate, you blitz through.. maybe 2x per line would be a better transition. The repetition gives me a little time to process what’s being said, especially if I haven’t pre-studied the transcript.
Erika Lee
Wow! Excellent. This is what I meant by original and effective ways to use the service. I think these kind sof variations can keep the experience fresh and add a nmemonic dimension to the learning.
More. More. Tell me more!
Ken Carroll
Ken I do explicity study some stuff and have used the PDF transcripts sometimes, the expansion material sometimes.
However a lot of the newbie stuff just absorbed, then a lot of the elementary stuff just adsorbed. Basically when in the mood I will listen to a bunch of podcasts again and again, sometimes paying attention sometimes not. In the car, on the bus, before I go to sleep, when I wake up, whilst I am working. I might have cut out just the dialogues, speed it up, stick music under it (electronic reggae works best for me) etc.
It seemed that I couldn’t do that with the intermediate level particualarly as I started with the latest ones first and still need to ‘study’ these and usally struggle with the topic specific chat. Now however I went back to a bunch of Intermediates around lesson 20 or so and find that I can actually just play them and adsorb stuff the chat is attainable and teaches me anything I don’t know about the dialogue. So now I just need to mixup some of these and play, play, play the audio.
I don’t like to ‘study’ anything if I can possibly help it, but am happy to conentrate whenever possible. Soon I will probably have a bunch of intermediate dialogues (from that middle era) with some juicier chat running in a loop maybe with music. That will run in the background of my daily life for a short while until understanding and remembering the words and phrases is as natural as breathing.
Occaisionally there is a big sortie into the world of Chinese televison or radio to see how much more I can understand, and hopefully I should start chucking some of the stuff back at my Skype partner.
I’ve started using the PDF transcript contents in a new way on my PDA, and now I only sit at a computer for the community stuff.
I grab the last week or two of newbie transcripts, copy the contents into a plain text file, then remove all simplified characters and pinyin so that I can save it in Big5 format (but you could do the same with simplified/GB format). It takes a while, but it’s worth it. That text file, plus the MP3s, (and any videos, hint hint) get copied to my PDA’s SDCard and then I’m free from the computer and desk! Gone! Outa here!
The traditional character dialogues sit on my Palm PDA, one lesson per memo. Quick to load, search, or flip through them, it occupies little space, and I can “read” (OK, look at) it while listening to the mp3 on my PDA, and my eyes are never pestered by the visual superglue of pinyin. My ears can focus on hearing the sounds clearly.
Then, at the bottom of the memo page, I attempt to type out the pinyin from the sound while listening. The original PDF can provide a check of my success, and therefore of my hearing, or PlecoDict does it phrase by phrase if I’m on the road.
With PlecoDict I can look up extended meanings of words and phrases used, and find related phrases and usages which I’ll jot down in the memo if they’re interesting.
Finally at the end of the memo I might write a list of vocab with its pinyin and English. Often I won’t bother writing the English, because the meanings absorb with no conscious effort while I’m doing the rest of it. Since a PDA memo is free form, I can add comments to myself in English, or anything else I want to keep with the lesson.
Later I’ll also collect a list of all the interesting hanzi into a PlecoDict flashcard set, which I can use to practise handwriting with PlecoDict as well as for more typical flashcard use. Scrolling down the memo so I can’t see its prior contents, I can try typing the hanzi by myself from the mp3 sounds using CJKOS, a good testing exercise but that’s still a bit hard for me to do.
I have never listened to a podcast on my computer. Everything always goes from my Copying folder directly onto my 8GB CF card. I have PlecoDict on my 4GB SD card (yup. I’m using an Axim x51v and Windows mobile 5.) If I can find any mandopop that, in my warped view, goes with the lesson, I download it onto the CF card too. I carry all of the transcripts on my CF card too. I try to read each transcript before I listen to the podcast, which I have been known to do fifteen or twenty times in a row (mostly on planes). However, reading pdfs in Acrobat for the PPC doesn’t go smoothly, so I use the PDA version of the transcript only when I’ve forgotten to print it out. Hint: if you can run it, Acrobat 2 runs with fewer error messages than Acro 1 for PPCs.
I look for anything I don’t know in PlecoDict, but I can’t make flash cards–this is my problem, not PD’s. Actually, I can make as many flash cards as I want, but, within a month, they corrupt themselves and all my efforts are out the window. (Really. This is a problem of my own doing. You’d have to be a computer products tester, as I am, to have the kinds of problems I have.)
Right now, since I can’t make my own flashcards, I’m focussing on pronunciation and spend a lot of time listening for vowel and consonant differences. Consonants got my attention first (I love mandarin Ls, Ns and some Ds), but I’ve discovered that the vowels, being more liquid, are also hard to reproduce without rounding off or otherwise contaminating them. So, I often repeat a single sentence more times than I can count. I like PDA players that will isolate a part of a recording and/or slow down or speed up the playback without altering the level of the voice–no mouse squeaks, no voice from the crypt. The PDA doesn’t have enough power to do this perfectly, but it does help with the conversation in some of the intermediate-level productions.
Long enough for ya?
First I listen the the podcast.
Then I memorize the vocabulary/phrases using a mnemonic and proceed to the next. The only thing that requires study is the grammar. I find that a mnemonic is way better than using flash cards(which I never use).
My methodology is like this:
I’ve got a 40-45 minute commute to work. On the way there in the morning, I listen to the latest podcast two or three times. I speak along with it in the car. If there’s a spot or a phrase I’m sticking on after the second time through, I rewind to that part and listen to it a few more times.
When I get to the office, I print out the transcript if it’s an Elementary lesson and I tack it onto the wall of my cube. It stays there for anywhere for a few days to a few weeks, until I’m sure I’ve got it. (For some of them, I just can’t seem to get them to stick in my head, so I look at them a lot.) I look at the transcripts pretty frequently throughout the day. I’m hoping to absorb some of it through sheer osmosis.
At the end of my day, usually sometime after midnight, I listen to the lesson one more time while I go through the review exercises and expansion materials. I’ll usually do the review materials two or three times. Then I go back to a previous lesson and review it. The selection of the review lesson is completely random, but I don’t listen to the podcast again. I just do the review exercises and the expansion.
I do, however, have a special playlist on my iPod for lessons I want to review. There are days when I just can’t take any *new* vocabulary and opt to skip a day’s lesson in order to work on stuff I’m still fuzzy on.
At this point, I still don’t have it. I was never a particularly a good student, but I’m aware of my shortcomings and I do my best to work around them or overcome them. The key for me is repetition and usage. On the days when you have an Upper Intermediate lesson, I review the stuff I’ve already done.
What I’ve written above applies mostly to the Elementary lessons, since I’m currently trying to make that transition from Newbie to Elementary. The Newbie stuff I don’t need to review much. It’s been really encouraging to listen to those and only pick up a few new words each time.
Interesting question because I’ve been wondering about the same thing. I teach Spanish and Portuguese at the Univ. of Texas, but I’ve been really interested in the delivery, pace, interactions, and community of chinese pod. Since I’m at the university, part of my world is tied to how many credits students receive, time is divided into semesters, and students need to get a letter grade for performance. Chinese pod doesn’t have to worry about any of those.
OK what I do… I’m a newbie and I’ve studied the first 36 lessons and the most recent 15 lessons. (Interesting to see how different they are.) I’ve been at it for a around 10 weeks. I listen mainly on my ipod, in the gym, coming and going to work. I also print out the pdf of the dialogs and meet once a week with a Chinese language tutor. She fills in the gaps, based on the dialog content, e.g., counters, time, directions, alternate ways of saying things, pronunciation practice, tone practice, etc.
I keep alternating between reviewing the pdf, practing with my tutor, and listening again and again to the clips. I imagine that I have listened to some of them over 20 times.
My focus has been on oral language and pinyin reading. I haven’t worried too much right now with characters.
Orlando,
At the broadest level, we want to develop the ‘life long learning’ idea for ChinesePod. I’m not sure how universities will work in the future but I think that professionals will need to think of learning as flexible, never-ending, ubiquitious, etc. This has greatly influenced the mode of delivery we’ve chosen.
Ken Carroll
I’m three mode consumer.
Casual: Listen to the lower level lessons for any new words, usage, cultural explaination.
Semi-casual: (I use most intermediate lessons like this) I load the dialog into an mp3 player and listen repeatedly while doing other things (driving, waiting at the airport…) and eventually the explanitary chatter clicks and I understand.
Serious: I listen to the dialog a few times, and read the transcript. Then I edit transcript and dialog. I remove all of the translation from the transcript and practice reading it until I haven’t forgotten any words or characters. I edit the dialog to remove everything but the dialog, make it repeat once, and insert silences into the second repetetion so that I can repeat each phrase right after it is spoken. I do the repeating when I’m commuting to work in the morning, and go through as many recent dialogs this way as there is time for before I arrive (5 or 6 usually).
In regard to the recent poll on quantity of lessons consumed.
1-2 casual + 1-2 semi-casual + 1-2 serious = 5-6
I didn’t count previously studied lessons that I listen to casually.
我恐怕我就是学步邯郸 because I don’t listen to much English language media any more since I found chinesepod. Its as close as I can get to immersion without moving to China.
Mark