Really gutted to hear about this mate. After over 8 years of subscribing, I let my last subscription expire back in October because I've been just too busy to regularly use the site. But I just popped back on today as my new year resolution was to get back into my Chinese study. And I find these threads about Jenny and David now also having left. Might hold fire on resubscribing (and getting back into the Transcripts with Tal group!!) until I've sussed out if CPod is continuing!

Well I just bought an annual subscription .. I don't see much likelihood of them closing the shop in 2015. Whoever takes over the reins no doubt has plans for meeting a no doubt steadily increasing demand for Chinese learning materials.

@Bodawei the only hints I've been able to find on what is in store for new Chinesepod content has been by following links on Community->Team. Fiona links to a youtube channel and a site called MandarinMadeEZ. The videos I've sampled seem to be of good production quality, mostly in English, and point out some Mandarin vocabulary relevant to whatever the video is about, somewhat like the Qing Wen format.

Kaoru Gleissner seems to be associated with a site called sexymandarin, and a few other things, including BigFoot Entertainment. From what I could tell, sexymandarin is kind of similar to the MandarinMadeEZ videos, but with less clothing.

Bigfoot Entertainment lead me to "New Concept Mandarin" which I think might be the outfit that is taking over the individual instruction for Chinesepod.

My guess is that the Chinesepod library has enough lessons in it for most students to find new content for as long as they continue their subscriptions, and it doesn't cost much to just keep the Web site running. So, maybe the video content will be the draw for new students, and the Chinesepod library will be a source of study material for those of the new students that get serious about studying Chinese. Since nothing official has been said, I'm just filling the speculative vacuum.

omg, I just checked out sexy mandarin, this has to be the most ridiculous, male-oriented language learning website I've ever seen. absurd.

This does seem a shame, particularly if it means a change of tutors for the personal tuition. And surely there is more credibility being based in Mainland China rather than Taiwan.

It seems particularly poor customer relations for CP to not make any announcement upfront and tell all the subscribers what is going on instead just leaving us in the dark. Come on CP let us know your plans or do you not know yourselves what you are up to?

Why would you say there would be more credibility if Cpod was based in China?

I'm thinking that Cpod the way it has been for years is more like a Confucius Institute: happy to make money facilitating language learning and propagating a sanitised picture of China, while avoiding odious fact and castrating open discussion.

So looking forward to new management in Taiwan.

"Why would you say there would be more credibility if Cpod was based in China?" The Mandarin spoken in Taiwan is further from standard than that spoken in Shanghai. Given the my interest is language learning rather than muckraking, I think the answer should be obvious.

You make me laugh. The people conducting podcasts are but a selected few with easy to listen to Mandarin pronunciation. They speak very clearly, and much slower than the average person on any street anywhere in China.

As for muckraking, you sound like some of the talking heads trotted out each day in Beijing to meet the press.

All I can say is if you don't like it you know where the door is.

Mark, re: "The Mandarin spoken in Taiwan is further from standard than that spoken in Shanghai." --- you are probably right, but I'm not even sure what that means. Mandarin is not the "native" language or "mother tongue" to the majority of people in Shanghai or Taiwan. But a lot of people in Taipei would have roots in the mainland, so it would hardly be exotic either. I'm aware that word usage and tones on some words differ between Taiwan and the mainland, and I suppose that people in Shanghai who learned Mandarin as their second language would have learned the PRC standard as opposed to a (perhaps) different variant on Taiwan. I guess the operative questions for us are: Will the language models that CPod uses from Taiwan be harder for us to understand? And, will we be harder to understand if we learn from them and then try to speak to someone from the mainland? Given that hundreds of thousands of people from Taiwan now live in and do business in the mainland, I think the barrier cannot be that significant. On a separate note, I'm surprised that CPod was never ever able to recruit a wide variety of speakers from different parts of China, given the diversity of Shanghai.

I understand the desire to learn "correct" or standard Mandarin, elusive though that beast may be. Maybe somebody will create a competitor to CPod: "live from our studios in Harbin, China" to cater to the uber-purists.

I agree with the substance of what you say. No need to be snarky though. CPod was self censored all of these years, as are the Confucius Institutes that you cite. Does this diminish their legitimacy or value as language learning resources for the vast majority of learners? My answer is an emphatic "no!" If that were a deal breaker for you you wouldn't be here either. And I don't think a CPod based in Taiwan that might, in theory, tackle heretofore off-limits topics is going to make them the least bit more commercially viable. If you disagree, I will respect your opinion. I assume we are all here to improve our Mandarin.

I suspect you are more familiar with the location of the door than most, oh angry one. I believe you have been shown the door on more than one occasion.

So (following on from the other thread) are you MIANTIAO, or AUNTIE68, or DAVE?

Never heard of them before my dear newton, but perhaps they may have been casualties of what Podster describes as Cpod's self censorship. Understandable for sure, given Cpod being based in Shanghai and their need to remain accessible: Cpod have been shut down by the authorities before.

Podster, not that Cpod hasn't tackled prickly topics, they have. However, such topics have not been discussed frankly during the lesson or on discussion threads for obvious reasons, mainly commercial.

I was wrong to suggest Cpod be lumped in with Confucius Institutes. Although Cpod has had to self-censor, their only motive is to present lesson content and features that aid subscribers in their pursuit of attaining Mandarin language proficiency while making a profit: unlike the latter which is concerned more with presenting a bottle of the foulest baijiu as the purest of spring waters.

Regarding censorship, do you really think the move to Taiwan will mean they won't censor the sort of comment you made on the other thread? Do you really think vile and derogatory sexual comments should be permitted? Thankfully they have deleted those today.

I don't agree with everything you write, but it's always entertaining.

Why would I say there would be more credibility for CPod based in Mainland than in Taiwan? Maybe wrongly, but

a. I would presume the numerical majority of people learning Mandarin are doing so because of a connection with Mainland China rather than other Mandarin speaking countries

b. I think if I was to learn French online I would look for a site based in France, not in say French speaking Africa, or if I were learning Spanish I would look for a site in Spain rather than say Mexico. I would assume, maybe wrongly, one would get a version of the language more rooted in the country of origin that way although of course there are still massive regional variations

c. I am also more interested in what is going on in the Mainland society and the associated cultural nuances and ways of life than what is going on in Taiwan and I am not sure a site operating outside of the Mainland will pick up on this. Taiwan is a very different society.

Anyway, that's just my view, which may be naive.

I agree with you on everything there except the bit about Spanish. The vast majority of Spanish speakers live outside Spain - Spain itself only accounts for about 10% of the world's Spanish speakers. So I would want to learn the Spanish that is spoken by the most people - and frankly from a more interesting part of the world.

And that is the same reason why I want to learn mainland Mandarin rather than Taiwanese Mandarin. Less that 2% of Mandarin speakers speak Taiwanese Mandarin.

I'm not sure the location of a company has as much importance to language learning as you might think. Take Bussu.com, their offices are based in London yet teach multiple languages. ChineseClass101 (perhaps ChinesePod's main competitor) is based out of Japan owned by Innovative language, Yoyo Chinese is on the west coast, USA, etc etc.

A quick look at the contact us page shows that Cpod is a Hong Kong/New York owned company, and has been for many years.