Help > Using ChinesePod
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Studying with ChinesePod ... in 10 steps
Step 1: Listen to the Podcast
When you find a podcast that interests you, you can download the file or simply click on the play button to begin learning immediately. (Notice that you have a choice between playing the “full” podcast and the “dialogue” only).
Step 2: Review the Dialogue
Now it’s time to closely examine the language in the dialogue. Simply click on the “Dialogue” tab to view the dialogue from the lesson. You can play the dialogue audio line by line to practice, or play the dialogue audio in full on the podcast player. Mouse over the words you are unsure of to see pinyin and an English translation.
If you prefer to study offline, simply download and print out the lesson transcript PDF file which can be on the top left hand side of the lesson page. The PDF transcript also includes a full English and Pinyin translation of the dialogue.
Step 3: Review the Vocabulary
Some of the vocabulary in the dialogue will be new to you. Click on the “Vocabulary” tab and you will see a list of the lesson’s key vocabulary, as well as supplementary vocabulary to complement the lesson. Check any of the words that you would like to save for further study and then click on the “Save Selected Vocabulary” button. Of course, you can also play the audio for the individual words from this page. Listen to the word’s pronunciation as much as you need.
Step 4: Study the Expansion Sentences
After you have a good grasp of the language in the podcast, it is time to see some of those vocabulary words in other contexts. Click on the “Expansion” tab, where you can broaden your understanding of the language by listening to new sentences. Again, you can mouse over the characters you don’t know, and play each sentence as many times as you like.
Step 5: Complete the Exercises
In order to confirm that you’ve locked the new language into your memory, you’ll want to try some exercises. Click on the “Exercises” tab, where you will find a variety of exercises for each lesson. While some exercises practice simple recall, others are designed to be more cognitive so that simple “one-to-one matching” or “multiple choice” elimination strategies will not work.
Step 6: Rate the lesson
A big part of what makes ChinesePod work is the community. By rating lessons, you’re helping others identify the best lessons, and they’re doing the same to help you. It only takes a second, and it makes a big difference.
Step 7: Ask Questions
The Discussion tab allows you to interact with other users as well as the ChinesePod teachers and staff. Is there something unclear about the lesson? Ask! Do you want to know how to say something related to the lesson content? Ask! Discussion is a great supplement to your learning process, and teacher answer academic questions continuously throughout the day.
Step 8: Review with Flash Cards
You may have completed a lesson and moved on, but if you have saved vocabulary words you can still continually review them through the flash card function. If flash cards are not your thing, you can try out some of our memory game or other tools. These features greatly strengthen long-term retention.
Step 9: Review the Dialogue Audio
Three days to a week after completing a lesson, it is a good idea to return to the lesson and listen to the dialogue audio only. Without the host’s explanations or translations, you can be sure whether or not you still retain the lesson content. Listening to the dialogue audio by itself is also very time effective because it is challenging but rather short compared to the entire podcast.
Step 10: Revisit the Lesson Exercises
If you feel confident that you have mastered a lesson’s content, it is still a good idea to revisit the exercises to make sure that you can still score near perfectly on them. This not only further consolidates the knowledge for you, but also reaffirms your mastery of the lesson. And that feels really good!
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