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! 
A recent membership survey from the Canadian Society for Training and Development listed the following as the top priority for workplace learning and performance practitioners:
Leadership and Development 70.7%
This is consistent with research findings from Bersin & Associates. A recent Bersin report listed leadership development as one of the top trends for 2007. From the report:
“Leadership development takes center stage - Research in 2006 showed leadership development and management training to be the highest area of program spending. Spending will likely be higher in 2007 as companies scramble to fill the leadership pipeline.”
For my clients, leadership development is now front and centre. The stakes are high, and results are demanded. The question now becomes: What will work in corporate leadership development?
Those of you that have been following my learning experiment with ChinesePod have seen that I have made some observations about what works for me as an adult learner. I think we can apply some of these principles to corporate leadership development programs:
1. Tailored program: I see a shift away from the one size fits all business school style courses towards more customized, personalized and contextualized learning.
Leadership development programs will increasingly blend best practices in instructor led training with leading edge action learning, e-learning, and virtual collaboration techniques. Leaders are looking for “Just What I Want” learning.
2. Learning at my own pace: Leaders need to be in control of when and how they learn. The design of a good leadership development program should provide flexibility for learners to determine their own pace.
3. Self Service: Leaders should be provided with a menu of learning options that they can access on a self service basis. This menu could include courseware, learning activities, job aids, archived audio and video presentations, manuals, PDF articles, self assessment tools and more.
4. One to one coaching and mentoring: I often hear from leaders I work with that they feel isolated. They find it difficult to discuss personal development issues with colleagues and co-workers. Working with a coach or a mentor will accelerate the leadership development process by providing access to positive and constructive dialogue about workplace leadership issues.
5. Community: A community of practice (CoP) refers to the process of social learning that occurs when people who have a common interest in some subject or problem collaborate over an extended period to share ideas, find solutions, and build innovations. An innovative leadership development program will finds ways to promote social networking amongst a cohort of leaders, and implement strategies that promote community building and collaboration.
I am a few weeks into my study of Mandarin with ChinesePod. I feel like I am making progress, and am quite motivated to carry on. Here is what is working for me:
1. Tailored program: With the help of my ChinesePod counselor, Aggie, I have developed a personalized program of study. This is very important to me as I am not a newbie. I have studied Mandarin before so I am at an elementary level. There are hundreds of lessons to choose from at both the newbie and elementary levels, so I have put together a program that combines lessons from both levels.
2. Learning at my own pace: I work full time (more than full time!) and I am also a full time husband and father of 2 boys. I need to squeeze my study of Mandarin into the little spaces I find during the day. So I squeeze in my daily podcast when I am on the subway, having my lunch or cooking dinner. I have made a point to do it each day, and I am finding the time.
3. Self Service: The ChinesePod site has a number of features (dialogues, expansion activities, vocabulary builders etc) that I can access whenever I have the time. I can spend time doing the things that help me learn.
4. Telepractice: I receive a daily 10 minute phone call from Aggie, my ChinesePod counselor. I get the call at 10:00 pm Toronto time. Knowing that I will be talking to Aggie each evening is a real incentive to listen to the daily podcast and to prepare myself for the lesson. The one-to-one practice and feedback is becoming essential to the development of my oral skills.
5. Community: I am just beginning to explore the ChinesePod community. It is a real motivator to be connected to so many people with similar learning goals. Community members share experiences, tips, stories, and best practices.
So far so good. I will continue to update everyone as I move forward.