Should I pay?

Honestly, I think you would be penalizing their hard work.

Following on from Henning, the service, in my opinion, is worth paying for. I spend more in the pub a month than I do on Cpod.

I enjoyed my free trial enough to upgrade, and I think it's entirely worth it!

Dave: wha? Frank: what are these tools? Also, how much is "a John" on the market these days? Im pretty sure he took my 1000 yuan bike battery anyway, so he is doing ok financially. Darcey: Thats what she said

What tools? Well, for one, there's a little known area on the site, accessible by premium subscribers only, that makes Ken bark like a dog every time you press a button. As for the Johns, there are two of them, and I'm sorry to say that you have to pay for them both by the pound. Much cheaper to just upgrade your membership!

Bark like a dog? Thats (also) what she said Im still not convinced.

There's another button that will make me break out into a tearful rendition of "Danny Boy," but I don't think that's quite the convincing you need. :-)

Hi chitty wang wang wang Even if you can only afford the Basic membership--its really nice to have the entire dialogue in front of you when you listen--helps especially if your listening is poor. Sometimes I'm not sure about a tone or spelling. Besides that you are helping to keep a great service up and running. Every little bit helps!!

chittywangwangbangwangwang, depends on - your current level: if you are already pretty fluent and just pick up one word every other Media lesson, it is probably not needed --> cf. Changye - your other ressources: In my view, CPod becomes valuable if you are *not* already embedded in a rich Chinese environment where everybody is eager to teach you and where you have Chinese classes all day long - the time you have at hand: If your learning slot is already over after listening to the podcasts once and you know you will not have the time to listen to the Fix and the Qing Wens later during the day, well,... - the frequency you forget your user name and PW; could become either expensive or service intensive to enter a new "t" or "w" or "wang" two times a week ;)

Frank: no thats not enough. But if youd record it for me and post it I would be happy to watch. shiwuqingren: sorry about your unfortunate user name. Also, I can get the dialgues on my ipod with the free membership already. Henning: I understand where you are coming from. I really just listen to the ipod lessons on my ride to and from work (although now on the bus, b*stards), I just wonder whether I'll study more if ive paid for it.

You should DEFINITELY upgrade your membership! Better tools, more access, and ChinesePod doesn't have to start pimping out John and Dave on the weekends for extra cash. It's good all around!

using my name in that context! thats hurts so much! (thats what she said)

I'm afraid you'll have to wait for the live version when I come back to Shanghai, dear. :-)

I bought a premium subscription 3 days after I discovered Cpod, I was too excited to even use up my free trial.

chittttywangwangwang: Being that you live in Shanghai and regardless of the fact that so many people in Shanghai who would rather speak English with you than Chinese, still you are living in China and you are in an environment that is perfect for improving your Mandarin. You've said yourself that you are in an environment where you speak Chinese on a daily basis, however, I think given light of the fact that you are consistently here using Chinesepod that shows you are looking for improvement. I've said many times before that things really start to come together when you listen to the podcasts in tandem with the expansion materials. Just listening to the podcasts alone is not enough. Using The Fix, the Transcripts, Flashcards, etc. are all very valuable to help improve quickly. Without these things, of course there is improvement but it's marginal as compared with using the full system. It's like working out just doing the treadmill for 30 minutes, sure you do experience results, however once that is combined with other forms of cardio, weight training, swimming, Ab work, etc. that's when you really start seeing the results you're looking for. It's like you are saying, "I have a treadmill at home, what do I need a Health Club membership for?" Well if you compare the body of someone who just works treadmill, and someone who does a complete workout on a consistent basis, the answer is perfectly clear. I think, above all you should look at it this way, the Basic subscription is $60 dollars per year and the Premium subscription is $240 dollars per year, BOTH of those options are extremely affordable, once you upgrade, the wealth of resources available to you that can help you very rapidly improve are more than worth the cost of one dinner out at a restaurant once a month.

I started off with basic for a little while, because I was skint. Then I upgraded because I was impatient.

Thank you all for your advice. Its been nice to talk about ME. my favourite topic. Im just not getting the major differences between a months free subscription, which you can just update with about three clicks and a fake email address, over a paid one. I still can get all the fix, transcripts, vocab cards etc for a sum total of 0 RMB.

Then you just have to keep getting free email addresses, which is far too much effort. I pay for convenience, plus the dollar has tanked, which is even better.

Well, working with changing fake-email-addresses is not only really cheap, it is actually fraud. It would in general never come to my mind to pursue such a strategy and in particular not here, given the fairness of the service.

...enter a new "wang" two times a week. That's also what she said.