Learning English

Hi bodawei

I agree with you. For instance, I'm sure that John knows far more about Japanese grammar and pronunciation than average native Japanese, me included. The same is true for some of my Chinese friends, who can speak fluent Japanese. Sometimes, I even ask them how to speak Japanese correctly, hehe. I can speak "excellent" Japanese, but I can't effectively teach my mother tongue.

@matt

You are so right that being a native speaker does not make you a good teacher!  I don't think I could not teach English, my grammar knowledge is painfully inadequate.

A few years ago when spending a week living with a group of six native Chinese speakers I realised to my shock that if I asked about a certain phrase, chances were that they couldn't write it out for me, at least not without some debate. There were amusing arguments about the correct tone, and even about how to write characters; their pinyin was always suspect.  Members of the group came from three different regions of China, and they regularly picked on one or another of their companions because they couldn't understand what he or she was saying! I'd say 'what did he just say?' and they'd say 'We have no idea either!' and shriek with laughter.

@xiaohu , I disagree with your post. The fact is that natives that come here seek to learn english, what are you here for, to teach english? Well I am not and I only want to focus on learning chinese, not teaching people enlgish. The fact is that it is smart to make a post that people that intend to learn english go to ENGLISH POD, that is why they have that instead of bothering me. If anyone wants to makes chinese friends there are a million others ways to contact natives besides clogging chinese pod forums with spam to "be friends".

悌姆/tim，我是同意的

Hi Xiaohu,

               Although this issue appears to be simple black and white, it is more like a thousand shades of grey, all overlapping. Having read about your upcoming trip, I completely see where you are coming from when you said you mentioned the wonderful experiences you have had. I liken the language exchange situation to the young lovers' first kiss - it is much more electrifying and beautiful when it happens naturally than when one has to actually ask for it.

John was promoted to Praxis Senior Product Manager about 2 years ago, I was hired late last year as the new ChinesePod Product Manager. John still holds the positions of CPod host and also Lead Teacher as his linguistic experience and skills, not to mention genius, are unsurpassed. :D

Matt_C,

Thanks for clearing things up and helping all of us to understand the C-Pod teams stance on the issue.

By the way, you said you're the C-Pod Project Manager...I thought John was the Project Manager...?

Creating a post to say hi and introducing yourself is fine, we welcome new users who want to help others whilst simultaneously improving their own language skills.

Please remember it is best when THESE THINGS PROGRESS NATURALLY. There is no need to leave comments all over the site with email/contact details - this is regarded as spam.

Alternatively you are free to Private Message (PM) those you've become friendly with and would like to further communicate with.

This way, the users have the choice whether or not to reply to your PMs, or block them.

Be aware that if multiple complaints are received regarding a user's PMs, the user will be banned from PMing.

@Urcto's group called 'Correction' is a great example of people helping each other out - a perfect example of natural language exchange.

Quality is of paramount importance to us. We aim to offer superior quality services, and moderate the community in order to maintain a high standard of language assistance.

Being a native speaker doesn't automatically make someone an expert in that language, thus our highly qualified teachers and academic developers are able to ensure that you are receiving correct languistsic assistance within the community.

We also provide experienced, qualified, professional teachers in our Guided and Executive plans, if paying for 1 on 1 instruction is within your budget, I suggest you try out this service.

There have been cases where people are led away for language exchange and then asked to pay for language instruction.

Whilst we welcome competition, we would be silly to assist competition.

As for the business strategies of the company, these are handled by our executive team.

I am the Product Manager of ChinesePod, and is is my duty to you, our dear Poddies to do my utmost to ensure your ChinesePod experience is of the highest quality. I have given this issue a lot of thought and although many people mean well - we have to have clear policies that ensure quality is maintained. Thank you.

true or false ,there is a problem .10:03

I vehemently agree with BeijingStrong, I have met some really great friends through those "spam" posts who have truly helped my Chinese progress at a lighting fast pace.  Having them on the site does add an attractive feature to Chinesepod.  I think that people here learning Chinese should be eager to use what they've learned with real, native speakers.  Using what you know is the only way to progress.  15 minutes a day of real-life experience is a far better teacher than 8 hours of intensive study on Chinesepod, or any other language learning method.

At some point people need to stop insulating themselves from the real world and get out there an start using their language skills.  Living in a bubble is the quickest and surest route to failure.

I second TimSLSM, I think the addition of a language exchange/互相学习 tab in the community is a wonderful idea, give the native Chinese here for language exchange their own place to post that wont clog up the other forums, and just delete their "spam" posts if they post on the other boards.

I support this policy.  While a language exchange can be an excellent opportunity, it's not always what people are looking for.  In addition, if it IS what people are looking for, there are loads of websites out there with the goal of pairing language exchange matches.  ChinesePod has some other great things going on. :)

This new policy is great.

This is a good policy.  Its has been getting a little clogged with these posts.

Though I think a "language exchange/互相学习" sticky, or tab, or special discussion group (that is neverthless easy for people without good english skills to find，and stands out when one first enters the site) might be a nice idea.  Best of both worlds.

Hi,  

I personally guess that English-speaking friends must be eager to communicate with Chinese locals after having been learning Chinese for a few years.

After all, the goal of learning Chinese is to use to talk to Chinese persons instead of studing Chinese language itself.

Moreover, practice is an effective way to master any language including the oriental and ancient language-Chinese.

Therefore, Exchanging language just meets the market demand, and adds attraction to your Chinesepod company to expand your potencial clients throgh the additional value that is exchanging language with Chinese locals.

If I were the manager of Chinesepod, I would change the present policy and change this website into a more opening-up community to attract more Chinese lovers and even venture capitals.

光是卖卖教学光盘能有什么出息，引来风投才是正道．

个人看法，欢迎斧正．

beijingstrong

20090529

谢谢。