Summary

It's difficult to "summarize" the booming expansion that has occurred with the Kaufmann crew since "The Linguist" appeared on Free Language a year ago. That is why Free Language has numerous articles on the various websites and resources available through multilinguist Steve Kaufmann's web entelechy, including the many LinqQ [liŋk] podcasts, the LingQ method, revisiting The Linguist on Language and why not throw in a little thelinguist.com love, too. :)

This particular podcast is ChineseLingQ, a roughly weekly podcast with mp3 audio content for Chinese language learners. Transcripts of the podcasts are available through LingQ.

From Website

What is ChineseLingQ?

First of all, the name itself (which is pronounced Chinese Link) needs a little explaining. The first part, “Chinese”, is fairly obvious since we teach Chinese. LingQ is the name of our online learning system which you can find at LingQ.com. At LingQ you’ll study many different languages in a fun, community atmosphere. The “Ling” in LingQ comes from TheLinguist.com the people behind LingQ. Lastly, the “Q” is important because it forms the speech bubble in our logo and throughout our site and because it makes “lingq” sound like “link” (we think!) which is what our system does for you.

At ChineseLingQ...

. we LingQ you to a world of real Chinese content
. we LingQ you to our revolutionary learning tools
. we LingQ you to a community of fellow Chinese learners

Our podcasts may contain interviews, articles, or audiobook excerpts but are most often just general conversations in Chinese. We will usually talk about topics of general interest. Please do send us feedback and topic requests. We’re always happy to hear from you.

After you listen to the podcast, sign up for a free account at LingQ (l-i-n-g-q.com) and study the full transcript using LingQ's revolutionary learning tools.

At LingQ, you may also want to submit writing for correction or join live 1 on 1 and group discussions with our tutors. Plus you will find thousands more podcasts with transcript. Come and find out what LingQ is all about!

Of course, even if you don’t decide to become a member, you can continue listening to the podcasts as long as you like.

Visit ChineseLingQ.com

Subscribe

Subscribe to ChineseLingQ Podcast.
Subscribe to ChineseLingQ Podcast via iTunes.

LingQ Podcast Network

ChineseLingQ
EnglishLingQ
FrenchLingQ
GermanLingQ
ItalianLingQ
JapaneseLingQ
PortugueseLingQ
RussianLingQ
SpanishLingQ
SwedishLingQ

Summary

ECPod is a booming site that has lots of different things all in one place. Mainly, the site offers a place for members of the community to upload and share videos that help others to learn Mandarin Chinese and English. Topics for the videos on the site range from Grammar to Humor to Kids to Whatever. There is a large variety of videos available on the site, and growing daily.

The site also offers a way to facilitate finding language partners for exchange and practice.

All in all, the site seems to be growing quickly into a vast repository of video materials for both English and Mandarin Chinese learners and teachers. Bravo!

From Website

Welcome to the ECpod community, where members from all walks of life in China and abroad teach each other Chinese or English and so much more. ECpod prides ourselves on the intrinsic value of not just book-learning but all the other qualitative factors that come from cultural exchange. You might learn the language, but we bet you will also learn cultural innuendo and colloquialisms. And guess what? It's free!

ECpod stands for "English Chinese Podcast" where our website's video clips are "Video Podcasted" by our members. While ECpod began as an English-and-Mandarin-only website, by popular demand we now accept clips in other Chinese dialects as well (for eg: Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien and etc). We realized cultural exchange wouldn't be complete without the inclusion of a rich variety of Chinese dialects which tend to be characteristic of different parts of Chinese populated-areas. Furthermore, some dialects will be extinct within one or two generations. Preservation of Chinese culture and history is nothing if it does not also preserve the dialects spoken by some of the ancient families of yore.

Website Objectives

ECpod's main objective is to offer excellent interactive teaching tools for members to learn Chinese and English language. Other objectives of ECpod include:

* build a community of individuals with similar interest of learning a foreign language,
* bring the world closer together and allow members to meet and interact with people from different cultural background,
* to promote chinese cultures to the world,
* to promote English cultures to the world,
* most importantly, we strive to make education FUN and FREE !

Why learn Chinese?

(the reasons can be endless but here are some......)

Napolean Bonaparte said, "China is a sleeping giant. Let her lie and sleep, for when she awakens she will astonish the world." Little did he know......

* China with its 1.5 billion people has the world's fastest growing economy and effectively Chinese/putonghua is used by almost one third of the world's population.
* Now most foreign companies cannot resist not entering China to set up factories that tap a seemingly endless supply of cheap labor or to partner local Chinese companies for distributing their products in China. Whether you are looking to set up factories in China, pitching cross-border IPO mandates or lobbying with the Chinese government for business licenses, it always helps to speaka-the-language!
* Even if you are living on the other end of the planet, you can't escape China. China's affluent ranks are among the fastest growing in the world and these individuals are quickly upgrading their lifestyles and vacationing all over the world. Wherever in the world you are, you will probably be swamped by at least reasonably wealthy Chinese tourists willing to spend. It can only be to your advantage to sell your products or services to them in Chinese.
* Your company is expanding into China and will consider sending you there to run the show......No harm picking up the language now.
* And also the first step to understanding the beauty of the chinese ancient culture is to learn the language.

Why learn English?

(not difficult to understand why English is so important in today's information age......)

* Nearly a quarter of the world's population speaks some English. That includes around 400m who speak it as their mother tongue and about the same number who speak it fluently as their second language. (Source: The Economist, Dec 2006)
* Even though it does not have the greatest number of speakers in the world (as compared to Chinese), it is the most widely used language in the world, and it will be used by more people in the future.
* English is the major language of news and information in the world. It is the language of business and government even in some countries where it is a minority language.
* Three quarters of all telex messages and telegrams are sent in English. 80% of computer data are processed and stored in English.
* English is very important for international travel. Travel more easily and communicate with people wherever you go — English is spoken in more than 100 countries.

Visit ECPod.com

Summary

This is a well-done podcast and video podcast for advanced beginner to intermediate level Mandarin Chinese learners.

Currently, this podcast is being updated about every week.

From Website

Learning Mandarin resources for you to use when you feel like something new and random. It's very simple and there is no translation, all in Chinese except a bit of English at the begining and at the end. The transcripts are in pinyin and simplified characters.

Visit learningmandarinpod.blogspot.com

Subscribe

Subscribe to LearningMandarinPodcast.
View learningmandarinpod Podcast Feed on Free Language.

Summary

This is a high-quality podcast done by a team in Beijing. This is a really good resource for learners of Chinese as a Second Language.

The entire site is in Chinese, so to navigate it you will need to be an intermediate level Chinese student.

The podcasts themselves are best suited for intermediate to advanced level Chinese learners.

From Website

CSLPod is run by a team in Beijing, China, which is designed to help people improve their Chinese skills. If you are learning Chinese as a second language and want to know more about Chinese culture, then CSLPod is the place for you. CLSPod offers an authentic environment for learning Chinese.

CLSPod presents students at various levels of listening comprehension with five audio clips each week And we are working to enhance our services to provide more levels of instruction in the coming future.

Visit CSLPod Chinese as a Second Language Podcast.

Subscribe

Subscribe to CSLPod Chinese as a Second Language Podcast.
Subscribe to CSLPod Chinese and a Second Language Podcast via iTunes.
View CSLPod Podcast Feed on Free Language.

Summary

This podcast, along with other podcasts by World Nomads, has nice entries with world-traveler action and a transcription to boot.

From Website

World Nomads present a series of podcast language guides. They are yours to download for free and contain all the essential phrases to keep you traveling safely.

We hope that in 2007 there'll be time to produce a few more guides, so feel free to leave us a comment or send an email with suggestions for the languages you'd like to learn.

Visit World Nomads Mandarin Chinese Language Guide for your iPod.