It seems like I am not the only one learning Mandarin this year! And I am not the only one to have discovered ChinesePod.
Check out this “learning Chinese” segment that aired as part of the recent “China Rising” series on NBC Nightly News:
I’m coming up to the 10 month mark of my study of Mandarin Chinese using ChinesePod. I had 2 goals when I signed up for ChinesePod last January:
#1- To learn as much Chinese as I could in one year.
#2- To assess the effectiveness of the ChinesePod instructional design and delivery model (podcasting, e-learning, social networking, personalization).
Here is the short answer: I have learned a lot of Chinese, and the ChinesePod model is very effective.
Here is what has worked for me:
Continuous and flexible learning: I made a commitment to listen to at least one ChinesePod newbie/elementary podcast every day. Each podcast clocks in at around 10 minutes or so. I figured that I could find at least 10 minutes per day to listen to the podcast, and I believed that my comprehension of Chinese would increase greatly if I could keep this comittment. Aside from a bit of slacking during the summer months of July and August, I have been able to keep this commitment. Ken and Jenny (my podcast teachers) have become part of my daily life. I listen to the podcast on the subway going to the office, when I have a break at work, when I’m on a flight to visit an out-of-town client, when I’m doing the dishes at home, when I’m shaving, whenever I have 10 extra minutes. Continuous and flexible learning, even if only 10 minutes per day, has given me better results than I achieved in 2 previous attempts to learn Chinese in a classroom setting.
Personalized learning ChinesePod offers a “My Feed” option which enables me to select which podcasts I want to receive on a daily basis. I can choose from nearly 700 available podcasts, and I can tailor my learning schedule in a way that suits my own personal learning needs. This is “Just want I want” learning. I do not have to sit through an entire course or complete an entire online module, if only parts of it are relevant to my own needs. Rather, ChinesePod provides learning content in a self service fashion, and provides tools that help me to organize learning content into a personal learning playlist.
I am aiming for 1 year of continuous study of Mandarin. At the end of this period I will be able to make some solid observations about what it means to be a Web 2.0 learner. What will happen at the end of the year? Perhaps I will continue with ChinesePod and work to be an intermediate/advanced speaker of Mandarin Chinese. Or perhaps it will be time for Spanish at Spanish Sense (brought to us by the producers of ChinesePod).
I am nearing the 5 month mark of my study of Mandarin with ChinesePod. I will answer your questions right away:
Yes. I am still studying (almost) daily.
Yes. I am continuing to make progress.
I have been seriously busy with work and family commitments over the past few weeks. Normally this busy period would have marked the end of any extracurricular activities, such as language learning.
What is it about the Chinesepod model that has allowed me to continue with my studies? I think it is the flexibility of learning options. I can pick and choose how and when I learn. Most importantly, I can decide on the intensity of my studies. When I have some extra time, I can study a lot. When I am very busy, I can lessen the intensity. But I never have to stop studying.
Here is what is currently working for me:
Daily Podcast: I continue to listen to a daily podcast. When I first started with ChinesePod, I attempted to sequence my podcasts in a logical progession. I spent a lot of time tinkering with the order of my podcasts. Now I am too busy to do that. I just listen daily to topics that interest me. It seems that the less I structure my learning, the more I learn.
Rote listening: I have a playlist on my ipod with Chinese only versions of the daily podcasts that I have listened to over the past 5 months. Each day I listen at least once or twice to the complete playlist. This means that I am repeatedly going over everything I have learned. Again and again until it has become branded onto my brain. This memorization technique is pretty traditional stuff. But it works. See Ken Carroll’s recent post Listening and Learning for more on this, or look at my colleague Dan’s recent post on Back to Basics.
I am aiming for 1 year of continuous study of Mandarin. At the end of this period I will be able to make some solid observations about what it means to be a Web 2.0 learner.
Paul is a New Media Superstar!
Later tonight, before he goes online to do his nightly lesson with his Chinapod tutor, Paul Dillon will be interviewed by a journalist by the China Economic Review.
The interview will cover his experience with ChinesePod, thoughts on trends in learning, and generally cover the topic of podcasting.
Stay tuned for the full interview and more of our shameless self-promotion! 
I started learning Mandarin (again!) 4 weeks ago. The question you ask, is why? A couple of reasons:
The first reason is purely utilitarian. I’ve worked on a couple of projects in Shanghai recently, and have been to China a few times over the past 3 years. The enterprise learning and communications market in China continues to boom, so learning Mandarin is a good business decision.
The second and more important reason is this: As a Learning Guy I spend most of my days recommending blended learning solutions to my clients. Recently, the learning solutions I have recommended have included the use of cutting edge social media and collaboration tools (podcasts, blogging, webinars, wikis and others to name a few).
My clients are always wowed when I show them something like a corporate video presentation delivered via iPod. Or when I show how to set up a blog as a companion to a classroom based training session. Once clients get over the “cool” factor, they always ask a valid question- “Are people going to learn anything? ”
My answer is- “They are!” I am a walking and Mandarin talking example of a guy who is achieving measureable results through blended learning. A few weeks back I stumbled upon a podcast on iTunes called ChinesePod (www.ChinesePod.com). I subscribed to the podcast a now receive a daily Mandarin lesson.
The daily lesson is approximately 10 to 14 minutes in length, and consists of vocabulary building and dialogue practice combined with language and cultural insights. This is the real stuff! Not classroom based language, but practical everyday language that you can use on the streets of China.
Here’s where the blended learning part comes in: When you visit the website (and sign up as a premium user) you have access to companion learning activities, a community forum, blogs, a wiki, flashcards that you can download to your mobile phone, and other seriously cool learning stuff.
But here is the best part: I receive a daily 10 minute phone call (via Skype) from my teacher in Shanghai! I have a chance to practice speaking each day. And this is the missing link in many learning programs isn’t it. You need to take what you have learned and put it into action.
And the results: I am speaking Mandarin, and am progessing very quickly. I have tried to learn Mandarin in a classroom based setting on a couple of occasions, but with only limited success. The ChinesePod approach to blended learning is working for me.
And I am certain it will work with my clients. So I have promised each and every one of them that I will continue to use myself as a guinea pig for blended learning. Over the next few months I will document my progress in this blog. I am interested is discovering what works and what doesn’t work, and then applying the lessons I have learned to the unique needs of my clients.
As always, the Learning Guy keeps on learning!
As most blogs are virtually unread by outsiders, Seth Godin asked If no one reads your post, does it exist? He doesn’t have this problem, of course, but for the rest of us…why do we blog?
Well, in our case, Paul and I are doing this to give ourselves a place to think and possibly share the insights that we glean from running our businesses, the projects that we do together and just living our lives.
The name of the blog is The Learning Guys is meant to work in a couple of ways. First, we have completed many learning projects for our clients and feel that we have something share professionally. However, we are also lifelong learning junkies. For example, Paul and I took a Mandarin Chinese course at a local community college a few years ago. That was OK, but Paul is now continuing on his journey using a web based blended learning toolkit that involves podcasts, blogs, wikis, and most impressively, a 10 minute call daily with a tutor from China! I’m sure he’ll tell you all about it himself.