Podcast Awards

Cool, shame Top Of The Pods didn't get nominated.

I went, I voted. Go ChinesePod! I noticed there was another Chinese pod, but not in the same category, called iMandarinpod.com. Interesting to find it is in Tianjin where I am most familiar with China, yet never heard of it. So I thought I'd take a listen to their podcast. Actually, I have never listened to another language-learning podcast. Oh wow, I never realized how professional, enjoyable and different ChinesePod is. While iMandarin is a good attempt, it was not as enjoyable as here, not even close. First, their recording isn't even near as good as quality as here. Their's has the faint static like when you just recording something with your own computer's mic. During the dialog you could hear thumping whenever someone/something moved, etc...they don't have a sound recording room, I guess ChinesePod's first great move from the beginning. But that didn't matter when it came to their speaking anway, as the two people reading the dialog obviously just read from the script, no emotions or expressions like we get here, so it wasn't that enjoyable anyway. The teacher also seems to be as if reading from a script. What she teaches seems okay, but alas, it is not taught as well and as fun as Chinese is done here. ChinesePod really has a great model of having two people talking... I didn't realize how rare and useful/enjoyable that is. Otherwise it is just a lecture and not fun. With all due respect to iMandarin's teacher, Jenny is much more of a joy to listen to, as she knows her English so well to give equivalent expressions in both langauges, and her voice really shows excitement and dedication to teaching us. Jenny is a lot more calm and not nervous like this girl was. The lesson I listened to on iMandarin was one on the Olympic dolls, 福娃 (http://imandarinpod.com/hoola/files/2007/20070723-fuwa1F.mp3). ChinesePod also did a lesson on this (http://chinesepod.com/learnchinese/the-olympic-mascots) which was much more 好听. I just wanted to write to this compliment ChinesePod, not just Jenny, but the whole staff that makes it happen. I didn't realize how profession you guys really were! Of course, if you have time, iMandarin would be another great way to practice and learn some Chinese, especially since she only spoke Chinese (I didn't see a way to determine lesson difficulty, but this Olympic Doll one was all in Chinese), so it would be something for advanced students, even though the "Podcast" page says "Intermediate" at the top (no way to change that as far as I could find). She does some good examples and is more like what I experienced in classes in China, where the teacher just speaks and we listen for the most part. Her speaking is clear and not too fast (mostly because she has to keep reading her notes)． ChinesePod goes way above classroom material and teaching... it is like they are the textbook themself, in living audio form. :) 加油！ -Rich