|
The Thomas Crampton Channel
Why Web 2.0 works for learning MandarinPosted by Thomas Crampton, June 24, 2008 10:02 AM
Ken Carroll, co-founder of the Shanghai-based Chinesepod language teaching service, explains to Thomas Crampton why Web 2.0 tools work particularly well for learning Chinese in particular and languages in general. |
Partner Links
Jobs in China
Recent Comments
chengdude on
Blockages
Joel Marti on
Chengdu bus fire blamed on 62-year-old suicidal gambler
vivian on
Bound feet in China
Sajid on
China first police blog
Media Partners
Visit these sites for the latest China news
China Media Timeline
Major media events over the last three decades
Danwei Model Workers
 Recommended blogs and new media
Books on China
 Foreign journalists in China, from the Opium Wars to Mao : Paul French, author of a book on Carl Crow has written a book about the lives and exploits of foreign journalists reporting from China from the 1820s to 1949.
Earnshaw Books' Tales of Old Peking: Tales from Old Peking is available from Earnshaw Books, and like its sister, Tales from Old Shanghai is a book of fragments of information about periods, events or places in Beijing's history, collaging together pictures and text about eunuchs, concubines, the Lama Temple, Opium Wars, art, emperors, and a miscellany of other interesting topics
Henry F. Pringle's "Bridge House Survivor": Pringle was imprisoned by Japanese forces from October 1942 to August 1945, and Bridge House Survivor, available from Earnshaw Books, is his harrowing account of torture under the Japanese.
Front Page of the Day
A different newspaper every weekday
From the Vault
Classic Danwei posts
+ A short interview with Muzi Mei (2004.02): Danwei interviews Muzi Mei + CCTV vs. classic movies (2006.03): A rundown of several pastiches of Chinese movies appearing online as 大史记 - "The Year That Was". Some from CCTV, others not. With links to video. + Street hawker cries of Beijing (2006.12): Yang Changhe demonstrates hawker's cries in a video shot by Muzimei.
Danwei Archives
Danwei Feeds
Via Feedsky
 (on the mainland)or Feedburner  (blocked in China) Main feed: Main posts (FB has top links) Top Links: Links from the top bar Danwei Jobs: Want ads Danwei Digest: Updated daily, 19:30 |
 |
Chinese media, advertising, and urban life. |
|
tweet
facebook
bookmark
HaoHao
digg
Comments on Why Web 2.0 works for learning Mandarin
YouTube is so damn slow in China. Got a transcript?
Sorry about that! Have a near transcript in this posting.
http://www.thomascrampton.com/china/ken-carroll-chinesepod-praxis-shanghai-language/
Yeah its very complex...
How did such an inarticulate bastard become so successful? It's so painful to watch, not to mention his crow barring in a plug for that shitty website to boot
Man, Ken is a lot older than I pictured!
Yeah, Web 2.0 is great and all, unless of course you're on a China Telecom ADSL connection, in which case sites like Chinesepod are next to useless.
@Thomas Crampton: Thanks, much appreciated :)
@Anonymous: Chinesepod's streaming audio is basically unusable, but you can still download their MP3s and listen to them once they're done. If you got scared off before you should give it a try, it's actually really useful.
You can totally explore in a book on your own, too. But Chinese is really difficult, and benefits more from multimedia than say, a language more similar to my native language. (I could learn Spanish flipping through a book, but Chinese is a many-tentacled beast.)
I like ChinesePod. I pay them cash. I even opted for their Praxis Pass for an extra $10/mo to play with their other languages.
-danny