Update: THE VIDEO NOW WORKS! Welcome to the CPod Penitentiary, btw.
I mentioned a rambling description of ChinesePod that I did a couple of days ago. Here it is. I’d like to hear more about how you would describe CPod.
Ken Carroll
Update: THE VIDEO NOW WORKS! Welcome to the CPod Penitentiary, btw.
I mentioned a rambling description of ChinesePod that I did a couple of days ago. Here it is. I’d like to hear more about how you would describe CPod.
Ken Carroll
Maybe this should be retitled:
Ken’s interview from within the federal penitentiary
At least that’s what it looks like. But seriously, I like the point you made about “ownership”. It does make me feel good, as a user, to be able to do whatever I want with the lessons (except sell them on ebay). By the way, does ChinesePod have stock options?
What happened? Was it something you said? (YouTube says video is no longer available)
Anyhow, the Tube video is available if one directly goes to YouTube.
Ken-san,
Haha ha ha 呵呵，okay I can’t stop because you have on your ’serious face’. We’ve met face to face so I know this video is not your best marketing tour de force, it screams radio personality, jailhouse chic, and recovering addict tough talk about his experiences. We luv ya Ken. From an ol’ Hollywood Angeleno, I say ‘Go back and re-shoot!’
My blurb (If I was a genius that is you):
Chinesepod is about language. I know that seems like a very obvious thing to say, but it’s core to what we’re doing. We are placing ourselves in a position to utilize technology, the best teachers, and a community to improve our ability to talk to one another.
Timing is key to any business, and the convergence of China as an emerging nation of people in the world of nations, it’s language, the ability of technologies today like podcasting to reach out in such a scaleable way, and the very basic desire of people to learn and talk to others makes Chinesepod such an exciting proposition.
The technology and approach is very revolutionary, it’s learning and communicating on your terms. If you look at most recent teaching methods, it has been about imposing a standard onto a group of learners. For example, one textbook for the class. One level of vocabulary everyone must learn. This is so commonplace that we forget there are other methods. We forget that learning a language is a very very personal thing.
Chinesepod podcasts go out to each individual and they all utilize it differently. Some people will listen to it on the way to work, other’s sit down and quietly review, others re-mix it, others take the pdf transcript and listen to it over and over. There are podcasts that speed things up, others that take things real slow. Some is all in Chinese, other’s mix in English. This simply cannot happen in a classroom. The lecture format doesn’t work when teaching a language. We are enabling individuals to learn Chinese the best way possible, for their goals, their busy lives, on their time.
On the website we build upon this, there are blogs, comments, exercises, tutorials, flashcards, expanded dialogues, all available for each learner to utilize as they see fit. The technology today allows for time-shifting, it eases the burden of looking up words, translating. It’s a permanent store of knowledge and resources. It allows for interaction across countries, time zones, and in a safe supportive environment. The podcasts are fun, they’re free, they are excellent vehicles of learning content, but it’s the website and community there that will really consolidate and nurture the language acquisition.
It’s so so important to keep in mind the basic reason for language, language allows for a community. We like talking to one another. Today it’s Chinese, maybe English. Who knows, maybe in a few years we’ll have Zulupod.com. There’s really no limit to this. At Chinesepod we’re focused on Chinese, we’re based in Shanghai, but we actively work to support and nurture our internet space, the place where we have our Chinesepod community of learners.
This is vital, key to learning language. Language is not learned overnight, and it takes the motivation, the BigBrain of the community to keep one going at it. This is what separates our methodology from say something like going out on your own and buying some tapes or books. Most of us have tried learning languages, usually on our own. But the limitations of the classroom, the lack of support, the narrow band of resources make it a losing proposition for most of us. We believe we’ve found a way to embark on this journey and make learning Chinese quite enjoyable and do-able.
We understand that teaching Chinese to those outside of China is a huge opportunity to share a language. The timing is right, and it’s a rocket ride.
I can’t help but splice in a little from John’s comment (the other John)
http://www.chinesepod.com/blog.....pod-today/
…make’s learning Chinese quite enjoyable, do-able, and a slightly more than a little addicting.
The direct URL to the videoclip on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCkksqBSpzY
It says video has been removed by user.
Wow Lantian, you should get paid for that description.
zulupod.com? I’m there!
Guys, I took the video down to add a few things to it and now YouTube is being naughty - will let yous know as soon as we get it back up.
Sorry!
A
When do we get to see an animated Jenny?