After a gap of a couple of years, we’ve decided re-start the ChinesePod blog. From this week, John Pasden and I will be posting here fairly regularly.
My focus will be on learning-related issues. In the last 4 years I’ve spent thousands of hours in the recording studio exploring audio-based learning objects. I feel I’ve learned a lot. I’ve also unlearned a lot – when learning migrates onto the network, everything changes and sometimes you have to drop old habits. In further posts I’ll explain through examples.
I will also share with you the rationale for developing lessons: how we go about creating them, and why we design them the way we do. I’ve had an internal training blog for some years and I will reveal some of its secrets. If you’re interested I can even offer some ‘backstage’ insights and stories from the studio.
The price of admission will be that your feedback/comments whenever you can. I definitely want your input, Big Brain. I want to hear from you. Tell us more.
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Good to see the blog back in action!
All the best,
Will
Great news. I’ve definitely missed hearing from you. I’m also sure the posts will generate a lot of feedback.
It is great to hear about the blog being re=activated. It will be good to continue hearing from each other in our efforts to learn/master the craft.
Nice, I’m looking forward to what will be brought up in future blogs
Great!
looking forward to reading!
Thanks for sharing your experience! There should have been a lot of interesting experience! I am looking forward to reading your blog. yayoi
Looking forward to future posts-need all the help I can get
Fantastic, there aren’t enough Chinese learning blogs out there. I’ve added this to my reading list, hope to read some valuable lessons!
Hello there,
My name is Gary and I come from Bellevue, WA. USA. I am new to this site and found it quite by chance. It seems to be a very well put together site. I am interested in learning more. Although, I come from America, I have spent the past 18 years living in Taipei, Taiwan. I am the director of The English Library which is one of the first, if not the first, all English libraries in Taiwan. WE loan books, music CDs, English study material and videos as well as teach English as a second language.
Please take a look at my website: http://www.theenglishlibrary.com
I look forward to hearing from you and will look forward to using your site to learn Mandarin.
謝謝 or is it…. 谢谢?
Best Regards,
Gary
Director
The English Library
Tien Mu, Taipei, Taiwan
I see your program as pretty darn successful, there are a LOT of very active people literally hanging on your every word ! And it will be nice to get insight into how you make it all work. I think one of facets that makes it successful is the occasional tongue and irreverent humor used during the podcasts.
Who’s the happy dude in the picture? Not you Ken, but the other guy…
I find it great to have a blog on language learning issues where the Chinesepod staff can interact with the learners in an open way.
Now about language learning, I started a couple of weeks ago with a guided subscription and the difference with the most basic one (only the MP3 and PDF), where I was for almost a year, is huge! not because of the extra material which I haven’t really got into, but because of the simple fact that someone tells you what to do and when to do it, just a little bit.
I don’t know for the rest, but for me it’s important to have some sort of “road map” when I learn a foreign language. I think any method for language learning should have a little bit of a road map, specially when it is used by people who are speaking their native languages in their daily lives and don’t get a chance to practice a lot.
I have been staying with Chinese Pod for about one year. I’m not a premium user because I’m still wavering in many languages and not pondering over one at a time. I couldn’t get the previous blog. Still though I feel that the initiative will be fruitful. Just get ahead!
Damn!!! To be honest I think I used to spend more time reading replying and generally being opinionated on the blog than I ever have actually using ChinesePod. Having finally decided that I need to actually commit myself to my Chinese learning my “I live in China now I’ll stop really studying and pick it up” hasn’t worked. Mainly due to the whole “local dialect” thing. Anyway current plan is to punish myself by trying to learn the entire ele catalogue in 30 days. I expect imminent failure on this goal.
Kinda like old times.
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