Website Review: ChinesePod.com (Rating: 9/10)

What is it?

Broadcasting direct from Shanghai, ChinesePod.com (www.chinesepod.com) is a great site to learn conversational Mandarin if your native tongue is English. Each lesson is an audio MP3 that you can listen directly from the web page itself and is very much like a radio show. New lessons are added daily and one of their new features is "The Saturday Show" which gives listeners a taste of Chinese culture and some insight as to what's hot and what's not. There are currently over 200 lessons on the site and counting.

Site Review

While most of the features on this site will require a subscription fee, the actual MP3 lessons themselves are free to listen to. Each lesson is a podcast lesson, which means if you have an iPod or other media player, you can sync content that will automatically get the latest lesson and download it.

There is a variety of ways you can access the free MP3 lessons. You can download each individual MP3 lesson itself, or you can follow the links on their website for BitTorrent downloads, or you can simply listen to the lessons directly from the webpage itself, which has embedded players.

Each lesson is about 15 minutes long (on average) and each lesson focuses on a particular topic. What's great about these lessons is that it builds upon what was learned from previous lessons. The hosts are great in that they help the listener by quickly reviewing words that were learned before (in case you've forgotten).

Each lesson usually begins with a dialogue between two people in Mandarin. This dialogue is repeated three times slowly. It is then broken down sentence by sentence, then word by word and it is all explained in English. The hosts are very good at relating it's use and sometimes go further by explaining how certain terms or sayings came about.

I would highly recommend that you start by listening to all the "Newbie" lessons, then work your way up to "Elementary", then "Intermediate", then "Upper Intermediate", then finally to the "Advanced" lessons.

To begin listening to the "Newbie" lessons, go to the ChinesePod.com website and click on "Podcast Archive" near the top of the page. Along the left side of the screen, you should see the different levels with numbered brackets (which indicates how many lessons there are in that particular level). Click on "Newbie" and you'll see the list of Newbie lessons, with the number representing what lesson number it is.

You'll have to scroll to the bottom of the page and click on "Previous Entries" several times before you get to lesson #1.

I found that the lessons were slow enough to pick it up, but not too slow to discourage the listeners. I also found that the hosts views and their personal anecdotes quite refreshing and kept things interesting. I was quite surprised at how much I was able to retain and remember, which reflects the quality of the lessons and the fantastic job done by the hosts.

The only thing that I didn't like about the site involved site design. I started with only the "Newbie" lessons, however there were over 90 lessons under "Newbie" and the list sorted them with the most current lesson first. I ended up having to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and click on "Previous Entries" several times before I found the lesson I was on last.

While listening to all the lessons are free, there are extra materials that can be found for each lesson, but it will cost you a monthly fee. These extras include things like transcripts of the lesson, review materials, and lesson plans.

Also for a fee, users can have access to other parts of the site, including a "Learning Center", "Vocab Builder", "Flashcards", and "Glossary" sections.

I would have given this site a perfect 10 out of 10 if it were not for the extra paid features and the slight annoyance of finding the lesson I was last listening to. But overall, an excellent site and I would very highly recommend it to anyone wishing to learn Mandarin. Check it out at www.chinesepod.com or simply click on ChinesePod.com in the "Links" section on the right.

Overall Rating: 9/10

Things I Bought Over The Weekend

Over the weekend I bought the following CDs:

1. A-Mei Chang - I Want Happiness? (我要快樂?)
2. Jay Chou - November's Chopin (十一月的蕭邦)
3. Leehom Wang - Heros of Earth (蓋世英雄)
4. Fish Leong - Silk Road of Love (丝路)
5. Various Artists - Meteor Garden Soundtrack (流星花園)

I also got the DVD set of the highly recommended TV serial Meteor Garden (流星花園).

Last week, I finished watching S.H.E.'s "Reaching for the Stars" (真命天女) and I thought it was pretty good. Though it would appear as though "Reaching for the Stars" was not nearly as popular as they had hoped. Considering this is the first Mandarin serial I've watched, I have nothing to compare it to.

And I'm a little biased as well - S.H.E. music is the first Mandarin I've listened to and they are still my favorite to date.

Anyways, on the weekend, I watched the first 2 episodes of Meteor Garden. At first, I didn't think it was going to be as good as Reaching for the Stars, but after 2 episodes, it seems to be going somewhere and I can sort of see what all the hype is about.

I haven't had a chance to listen to all the CDs I got. But here are some of my thoughts about what I have heard so far...

• Leehom Wang's CD is a total disappointment. I heard several of his songs on this CD through YouTube and the Mandarin Internet Radio and was expecting most of his stuff to be slower and more R&B. However, a lot of his tracks are like rap. I'll have to listen to it more to get a better feeling for it
• I listened to A-Mei's CD and was quite surprised. I wasn't really a big fan of A-Mei (I heard some of hear songs, but didn't really feel much about them). But when I popped in this CD, a lot of her songs were quite catchy. Again, I'll have to listen to more
• Finally, I quickly listened to Jay Chou's CD. I was also pleasantly surprised as well. For some reason, I had the impression that Jay was more of a rapper, but after listening to this CD, it was a breath of fresh air. Maybe it was because I had low expectations for this CD....

I also spent a lot of time looking for specific CDs in Chinatown, but had no luck. I'm still looking for the following CDs:

1. Nicky Lee - Baby It's Me (Baby 是我)
2. Vicki Zhao - Double (雙)
3. Tank - Fighting
   

I have a feeling that these CDs are too new to be out there yet. I guess I'll have to wait.

I like Nicky Lee's style; catchy R&B tunes though I have a feeling he's not as popular as he should be.

Vicki Zhao has always been a favorite of mine and there are several tracks on her CD Double that I like. I've been looking for this CD for the longest time...I guess I'll have to wait a little longer.

Lastly, I've heard four of Tank's songs (I think he's only released the 4 songs) and I love all three! I especially like the song 獨唱情歌 (Solo Love Song) - a duet he did with Selina (from S.H.E.).

The search will continue for these CDs!

Welcome To All!

Welcome you all to my 2nd blog. Well, actually it's really my 3rd blog (but I trashed the very first one I did).

What is this blog going to be about?

Well, I'm currently "attempting" to learn Mandarin by immersing myself to it's entertainment scene through music, movies, and TV series. I also take whatever extra time and put it into learning to read the traditional Chinese language.

What I'll post will be things such as Mandarin music CD reviews, my thoughts about certain Chinese movies and what I thought about certain drama serials. But mostly, it'll contain my random thoughts or what I've been doing to learn the language.

I never realized the power blogging can have (and in my trader's blog, it has actually accelerated my learning). And so, what better motivation to learn something than to blog your progress.

I don't really care if anyone out there will read this - but just knowing there is a possibility that someone out there *might* be reading this is motivation enough.