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(language)pod101? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 3931 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes  Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 1 of 14 21 May 2014 at 5:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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Has anyone subscribed to any of the (language)pod101 sites? Was it worth it?
I'm thinking about signing up for filipinopod101, but it's a bit on the expensive side. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 4917 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 2 of 14 21 May 2014 at 6:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've used them for a couple different languages, although I've never had a paid
subscription from them. When you sign up with a free account, you get full access to all their content for 7 days, so you can check out their more advanced lessons to see if it's worth it to you as far as subject matter, etc. A word of caution, though: They're extremely spammy with your email address - to the point you'll want to just click "Report Spam". As far as content goes, at least with the languages I've checked out, it's pretty good and covers a fair amount. The beginning courses, such as Survival Phrases, are pretty much identical across languages, content-wise. But beyond that, the courses begin to get more culture-specific. R. == Edited by hrhenry on 21 May 2014 at 6:27pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 4953 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 3 of 14 21 May 2014 at 7:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've been using the Chinese and the Russian ones, and I must say they're both worth it. They are really comprehensive.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| chokofingrz Pentaglot Senior Member England Joined 4976 days ago 241 posts - 430 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Japanese, Catalan, Luxembourgish | Message 4 of 14 21 May 2014 at 7:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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I used RussianPod101 for 3 months. There is a lot of material and the site is very slick and easy to use, but at beginner level, expect to hear a lot of English. The typical format of their podcasts is "Listen to 5 minutes of mostly English conversation and gain 1 or 2 new phrases in your TL". I found that to be one of the more inefficient ways to spend my time. Although, the presenters were enjoyable and fun to listen to.
If you have no other materials in Filipino then I can see the benefit, but don't expect it to really push your brain into learning mode. The 101Pod approach is too casual (and importantly, passive) compared with other popular courses such as Assimil, Michel Thomas, Teach Yourself, even Babbel. Immersing yourself in a serious textbook or some suitable native materials would likely be a more productive approach. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| BaronBill Triglot Senior Member United States HowToLanguages.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4476 days ago 335 posts - 594 votes Speaks: English*, French, German Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Persian | Message 5 of 14 21 May 2014 at 9:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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My advice:
Sign-up and get the 7 day premium trial to check it out. I have subscribed premium for 3 different languages: Chineseclass101.com - Fantastic. Tons of material and very worth it. As one of their "flagship" languages, this pod is fantastic. Germanpod101.com - Also fantastic. Thousands of lessons and absolutely worth the cost. I owe quite a but of my German fluency to Germanpod101.com. Highly recommended. Persianpod101.com - Not worth it at all. Not even close. Only a handful of lessons and sorely lacking any real content. Even if it were free, I would probably not use it. It's kind of like they started it, but forgot about it. Admittedly it is a lesser studied language, but in my opinion they should not have put it out there if they weren't going to put any real content into it. So, as you can see, quality varies heavily. That's why I recommend you check it out on the free trial first. If they have a lot of lessons, go for it. If not, pass it up. PS: There is a lot of English in the Beginner Podcasts, but they cut down on that quite a bit into the intermediate and advanced levels. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| lichtrausch Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5747 days ago 525 posts - 1072 votes Speaks: English*, German, Japanese Studies: Korean, Mandarin | Message 6 of 14 21 May 2014 at 9:35pm | IP Logged | ||
I was excited when I found out about Persianpod101 but after I saw how little was available for it I couldn't bring myself to subscribe. It seems like Persian is utterly cursed when it comes to learning materials. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| evilado Diglot Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3793 days ago 64 posts - 82 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 7 of 14 21 May 2014 at 9:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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By all means, use your 7-Day free trial period with abandon, that's what it's there
for. A while back, I did it for Chinese and downloaded the audio for a few levels. Interesting content and hosts, easy to find the level that's right for you, plenty of room to grow. I find it a good low-intensity activity to supplement courses and serious study. I'm sure the audio would be even better with transcripts and flashcards, but I never used the full system. I read your Taga-log, and this jumped out at me as really familiar:
I personally didn't bother to use it with French or Spanish, after a few months and courses, I'm ready to read the news and listen to some native content. I think that's what the 101pod series is best for, to help bridge the gap between beginner and lower intermediate for languages that share almost nothing with a language you know. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 3931 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 8 of 14 22 May 2014 at 11:24am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the feedback, everyone! I ended up signing up, and then paying 1 dollar for premium access for a full
month. I'll just have to be careful about next month, because the company screams "automatic renewal" - and yes, the messages in my inbox are a bit crazy. Still, it's worth a shot! I might end up really liking it! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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