Relevant Content
We'll always make sure you know exactly what the lesson is about. You will easily understand whether it is relevant for you.

How do you fix a boring Chinese course?

Great Hosts
Here at ChinesePod, all our lessons are presented in an entertaining manner by our great hosts. You'll find language learners, teachers, and even professors sharing their insights, ideas, and teaching methods in our video and audio lessons.
Brief Lesson Summaries
A brief introduction of the lesson will always tell you what this lesson is about and what language level is the intended target. If you're interested in the subject, but might not be able to understand it in full, fear not; we have transcripts of lesson dialogues vocabulary so you can follow along.
IN THIS LESSON
ID: 1498 Upper Intermediate
Foreigners everywhere are working hard at learning Chinese. Unfortunately, many of those sincere students find themselves learning from boring, poorly designed material. In this lesson we take a look at this issue from the angle of the school and the teachers, who are asking each other: what can we do to make these Chinese classes more interesting?
John,Jenny
Awesome Materials
Our lessons contain natural communication in Chinese in video and audio format. We have have lessons focused on video or a podcast format and our lessons have transcripts of Lesson Dialogues, Important Vocabulary, Expanded Materials for a deep dive into the lesson topic and Exercises focused on testing your retention.
Detailed Vocabulary
Each lesson has it's unique vocabulary and will provide you with definitions and recordings so you can practice the pronunciation. You will also be able to grasp the core material of a lesson at a glance. Here we're showing you the Simplified Chinese version.
SIMPLIFIED PINYIN ENGLISH  
反映 fǎnyìng to report
教材 jiàocái teaching materials
语法点 yǔfǎdiǎn grammar point
编 biān to compose, to write
今天老板很生气有学生反映上课太无聊要求退学费
jīntiān 今天lǎobǎn 老板hěn 很shēngqì 生气yǒu 有xuésheng 学生fǎnyìng 反映shàngkè 上课tài 太wúliáo 无聊yāoqiú 要求tuì 退xuéfèi 学费
Boss is really angry today. Some students have complained that the classes are too boring, and they're demanding that their tuition be returned.
哎主要是我们用的教材太无聊了学生都没兴趣学特别是欧美学生
āi 哎zhǔyào 主要shì 是wǒmen 我们yòng 用de 的jiàocái 教材tài 太wúliáo 无聊le 了xuésheng 学生dōu 都méi 没xìngqù 兴趣xué 学tèbié shì 特别是Ōuměi 欧美xuésheng 学生
Agh, the main thing is that the materials we use are too boring. None of the students feel like studying; especially the Western students.
就是对话都是按照语法点编的很生硬有些话平时我们根本不那样说
jiùshì 就是duìhuà 对话dōu 都shì 是ànzhào 按照yǔfǎdiǎn 语法点biān 编de 的hěn 很shēngyìng 生硬yǒuxiē 有些huà 话píngshí 平时wǒmen 我们gēnběn 根本bù 不nàyàng 那样shuō 说
Exactly. The dialogs are all written according to grammar points – they sound forced. Some of those expressions we would never say in daily life.
中高级教材偏重阅读理解大概是为考HSK服务的吧对提高口语帮助不大
zhōnggāojí 中高级jiàocái 教材piānzhòng 偏重yuèdú 阅读lǐjiě 理解dàgài 大概shì 是wèi 为kǎo 考HSK HSKfúwù 服务de 的ba 吧duì 对tígāo 提高kǒuyǔ 口语bāngzhù 帮助bùdà 不大
The upper-intermediate materials stress reading comprehension, which is mostly for taking the HSK. It doesn't do much for one's spoken language.
Natural Dialogues
Each lesson is centered around a natural dialogue with key vocabulary directly prepared and translated for your use. You can also listen to each sentence as an individual recording to improve your listening and comprehension skills.
Try It For Free
ChinesePod is 100% Free to Try. Create an account today and get started!