Summary
ChinesePod is a fabulous resource for Chinese learners of all levels. The content is fresh, up-to-date and constantly flowing. They are hip to the latest trends and vocabulary and do a solid job of producing good content to work with. The production quality of the podcasts is high, and the personalities involved are varied.
As the original flagship podcast to be released by the Praxis Language team, ChinesePod is simply packed with years worth of consistent, quality Mandarin content including audio lessons and additional learning materials. Praxis Language bases its products on combined Web-based and mobile learning. Community, fresh media content, talented course design team, array of web-based tools for practice and review. A unique combination of media and method, it's no wonder thousands are using ChinesePod every day.
Be sure to check out the free resources available to visitors.
The success of ItalianPod, FrenchPod and SpanishPod, Praxis's podcast-driven, socially enhanced, user backed language-learning phenomenon is maturing elegantly.
From ChinesePod.com
ChinesePod is a language training service designed around your needs, rather than the traditional constraints of language schools and publishers. Technology solves these problems, and can make the learning of a new language easier.
We take the best pedagogical approaches of the classroom, layer in the community features of the social web, and tailor a customized learning pathway for each student.
Use ChinesePod as a replacement to classroom-study or to make better use of classroom time.
There are many ways to listen to ChinesePod lessons, making learning Chinese as flexible and convenient as possible. If you like to study at your computer, you can listen to the lesson via the built-in Flash player on the site. Click the “Play” button, slip on your headphones or turn up your speakers, and learn.
Once you’ve listened to each lesson, you need to review to ensure that the material is firmly cemented in your head. First, download the Lesson PDF, which contains the dialogue, a translation, and both key and supplementary vocabulary, and read along with the podcast. After that, come to ChinesePod.com and take advantage of the myriad of online review tools available. Pour over each line of the dialogue, looking up unfamiliar words and listening to line-by-line audio. Dig deeper into key vocabulary with expansion sentences, which put important words into varied context to get you a better idea of how they are used. Finally, complete the lesson exercises to ensure that you really know what you’ve learned.
Language is about communication, and once you’ve learned something new you need to practice using it in real communication. Guided and Executive users have individual teachers that provide critical insight into the language and opportunities to practice Chinese with a native Chinese speaker. In each practice session, you can expand and broaden your Chinese in a friendly, stress-free way with a counselor that is familiar with you and your learning goals. Your counselor will help you identify and eliminate problem areas, and let you strengthen your Chinese communication skills.
At the end of your learning cycle each day, you should come back and reinforce the material you’ve learned both from today’s lesson and previous lessons. Each period of reinforcement will create a stronger foundation upon which future learning will be built. Use the flashcards and concentration game to make sure that you remember the vocabulary you’ve learned from previous lessons. Review your vocabulary list, identify words you’re not sure about, and look them up in the ChinesePod dictionary. Skim through the Grammar Guide to identify structures with which you’re unfamiliar and find lessons that cover those points. Finally, take the Listening Test occasionally to see the improvement that your hard work has earned you.