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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5754 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes  Studies: Mandarin | Message 9 of 21 04 June 2011 at 9:06pm | IP Logged | |||||
That's when using the freebie materials. When paying for the materials, you get the characters. I generally will buy a level...the audios and PDFs. I'm not interested in their online features, nor in working their lessons on my iPod. Buying the audios and PDFs gives me separate MP3s of the dialog or stories. The slow or repeat version in the lower levels have pauses so you can echo the phrase that was just said. There is also a set of "normal" speed MP3s with the same dialog/stories without any pauses. The slow/repeat versions so far use only the main female voice. The normal speed versions generally use 2 different native speakers. I use the MP3s for echoing and shadowing. When playing the the MP3s on my iPod, I can see the pinyin. The preference set for my account on their website is pinyin so I assume that's why pinyin appears on my iPod. If my preference was say simplified characters, then I assume those would appear on my iPod. BTW, once in a while I encounter errors in the PDFs. It's annoying but since I feel the price is reasonable and my knowledge of characters or English can compensate for the errors, it's not a big enough deal. Eg. if you suspect a mistake then check what the characters say. There's also some other things in the PDFs and audios that I haven't really used yet... remember seeing some additional MP3 dialogs with questions and character writing sheets. Edited by Snowflake on 04 June 2011 at 10:16pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6377 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 10 of 21 04 June 2011 at 9:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
I've never had concious knowledge of Mandarin grammar. Or, maybe. It's hard to say, since all the things I associate with grammar, like conjugations and cases, aren't present in Mandarin. For me Mandarin feels like vocabulary and pronunciation from beginning to end. To clarify my statement: the other methods failed because I got so bored with them. I procrastrinated and cut my study time short. I never got anywhere because I rarely studied. ChinesePod engaged me and made me keep on going. The lessons were fun and I found myself enjoying the experience. Any resource will probably teach you the language if you just stick with it, but my problem was I couldn't stick with them. I got bored. In fact, I'm having the same problem with Michel Thomas Spanish. I started using it but around halfway I kept procrastrinating and studying other languages instead, because studying with MT is just so boring. So that's what ChinesePod did for me. It engaged me. The fact that it has a community of people learning together is probably also a part of that. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| aaronfan Newbie United States Joined 4718 days ago 14 posts - 28 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 11 of 21 05 June 2011 at 1:15am | IP Logged | |||||
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I've looked at both programs. I decided that if I were going to spend money on one, I would choose ChineseLearnOnline. I didn't like the randomness of Chinese Pod. As informative and sometimes entertaining as they were, they didn't meet my desire for a sequential, more organized way to learn Mandarin. And there are other sites out there that are similar to Chinese Pod. I think I had found two others that were similar.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6345 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 12 of 21 05 June 2011 at 6:55am | IP Logged | |||||
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Chinesepod beginner and newbie lessons are great, and well worth your time if you're strong in English. After that, I
just hate it. Random, negative, English intensive, poor translation method, non-building, single chinese commentator lessons. There are so many better programs out there for intermediate learners, at least look around when you get there. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6174 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 13 of 21 05 June 2011 at 2:57pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Snowflake, that's good to know. For the freebie downloads there's just the pinyin of the new words, without a translation.
ChinesePod has the pinyin, characters, and a translation, which is quite nicely presented. I got those mp3s with a trial account so I don't know if it's the case with their free downloads or not. EDIT: If it wasn't clear, I was referring to the material displayed on the Ipod screen. Edited by newyorkeric on 06 June 2011 at 3:21am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5806 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 14 of 21 05 June 2011 at 4:54pm | IP Logged | |||||
Are you able to verify that? It may be that the preferences only affect the online materials and the downloads are pinyin only. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5754 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 15 of 21 05 June 2011 at 5:22pm | IP Logged | |||||
Well, it's been over a month since buying a level so I cannot go back, reset the default and redownload the material. I suppose someone could ask them. Edited by Snowflake on 05 June 2011 at 9:15pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6377 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 16 of 21 05 June 2011 at 5:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I recall seeing both characters, pinyin and translation as "lyrics" on my iPhone when playing CPod dialogue MP3s,
but it was a long time ago, so I can't be sure. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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