Number of Lessons

974864162
 April 19, 2015, 09:22 AM posted in General Discussion

Why does it seem that ChinesePod has reduced its output to four lessons per week?

And why only five Qingwen lessons so far this year?

And why are the Qingwen lessons now done IN PLACE of another weekly lesson, instead of being released on a Saturday IN ADDITION to the regular weekly lessons?

Usually a reduction in output is a sign of financial difficulties.

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chris
 April 19, 2015, 01:22 PM

There's such a big library of qw lessons now that i don't think it particularly warrants a new one every week. I typically find these days that there is already a qw available for ad hoc grammar queries i have (unlike 6 or 7 years ago when there was a steady stream of new qw ideas being submitted to cpod by users). It's kind of similar for the other lessons as well i guess.  There is significantly more than enough content already,  at least at the newbie ele and intermediate levels ,to get to a decent level of Mandarin.  By the time one reaches UI i suspect cpod is no longer the primary new-learning tool. 

Anyway hope there aren't any financial difficulties. 

Chris

 

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adam_p_lax
 April 20, 2015, 12:52 AM

Its probably a cost saving measure. I would agree with Chris that up to upper intermediate chinesepod is not longer a prime learning tool. You have to start going for more natural content like tv shows, movies and videos that you can find on youtube.

 

I'm pushing into advanced and I find chinesepod is my core but you have to diversify your learning sources at that point with more reading and native content.

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mark
 April 20, 2015, 02:19 AM

I think that from the perspective of someone who wants to learn Chinese completely, but doesn't live in a Chinese environment, ChinesePod's output historically over-emphasized elementary and intermediate level content, to the detriment of more advanced content.  Much to my pleasant surprise, after the move to Taiwan, advanced level content has been getting more attention.  Selfishly, I hope this change in emphasis succeeds.

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Matt_T
 April 20, 2015, 09:46 PM

I agree with Mark, if you look at the number of lessons for each level the newbie and elementary lessons far out number the more advanced lessons. For the newer members to Chinesepod I feel tha the existing lower level content is more than enough to give people enough variety in topics that they will be entertained and still able to develop their mandarin skills so they can move onto the higher levels.

Personally, I would love to see the return of a show format similar to "Dear Amber" where there are weekly topics and discussions from the perspective of a foreigner living in China. Perhaps Gwilym could host it and give his perspective and experiences living in Taiwan. We could call it "Dear Gwilym" haha.