With the Hanban partnering with ChinesePod to develop the Online Confucius Institute, we have been encouraging them to be a lot more collaborative with the people who will use the site - that is, you. For reference, the last attempt at a domain name was “Linese”, or short for living in Chinese.
Please let us know which one you prefer.
Hank.
What should be the URL for the new Online Confucius Institute website (options listed in alphabetical order)?
When I see “Online Confucius Institute”, I imagine a forum on Chinese philosophy. I would love to see such a site; but it sounds like this is a language-culture site. I love this too…but I think a different sort of title would better convey the nature of the site. Maybe “The Wenhua Institute”? (I like that because wenhua is culture, but both wen and hua are about language.) Or “The Wenhua Forum.”
I was under the impression (from my Chinese teacher) that some people have an issue with using the word Hanyu (as opposed to Zhongwen) as the name of the Chinese language since it means the “language of the Hans”. I assume this has something to do with the fact that there are native, non-Han ethnic minorities in China that also speak the language. Being new to studying the language, I’m not sure how big an issue this is but it may be worth considering if you going to include “Hanyu” in the URL.
Regarding the previous comment, I think they are stuck using the term “Confucius Institute” since this is associated with the larger initiative of the same name by the Chinese government and I assume they went to keep the same “brand name”.
Don’t think I’ve been living under a rock.. but what is Hanban? or the objective of the Online Confucius Institute?
I have been studying Chinese for three years, and while any name with “Han” or “Hanyu” or “Zhongwen” in it makes perfect sense to me now, as someone just starting out, I would have found it confusing and counterintuitive. “Go to where? ‘Ehanyu?’ Bless you!” This seems to be precisely the barrier that the Confucius Institute is trying to overcome in terms of making Mandarin learning accessible to non-Mandarin speakers.
If the target audience for the new website is made up of primarily English speakers who wish to learn Chinese and may have no background in it at all, I would recommend you stay away from domain names employing pinyin and stick to one using English, such as chinesestudying.com, confuciusonline.com, etc. Remember the target audience!
Moloch,
You can find out more about the Hanban and the Online Confucius Institute here:
http://blog.praxislanguage.com.....institute/
I think echinese.org.cn is best because it is shorter. If you are searching using iphone or itouch it would be quicker to type in than confuciusinstitute.net . Also e is suggestive of web based learning or distance learning or even ethnic chinese.
What about www.ConfuciusHeSay.com
simple and rings a bell.
confusious online sums up the content of the website, its the best choice of the ones available. except for confuscious is a difficult word to spell, compared to say chineseonline.net or something simple like that.
Scott took the words out of my mouth. It is pointless and a big turn-off to address new learners of a language in that language.
Call a spade a spade, just use their name. They already have a well known physical presence, and they’re hoping to become much more widely known over time.
Trendy made up names like echinese make me pass it off as just another one of dozens of incredibly poorly designed, pedagogically inappropriate, Chinese language bandwagon sites that fail to teach Chinese in broken English.
To pay proper tribute and respect to one of China’s most famous philosophers, the best name would be:
www.kongzi.com
Can’t add a lot, but saw ‘ad’ on ChinesePod. Came to site and it’s really not clear what the intent is! So, really, NONE of the possible domaine names “speak for themselves”. They don’t give a hint. So it seems that the people who will look for the site won’t be ‘outsiders’, but will be people who already know what Confucius Institute is about and are trying to find it - or are here from a link from another site. In this case I think a domaine name that clearly references the site - Confucius Institute - probably .com as that’s first thing people check, or .net. etc. Nothing else makes sense except for people who are even more ‘insiders’.
If Confucius Institute becomes ‘known’ like ChinesePod, that’s what people will LOOK/SEARCH for.
I think you should have an “Other” option in there. None of the options provided really grab you, which might explain the anaemic voting. How about ConfuciusPod.com. Just kidding! I guess you guys really have your work cut out. Good luck coming up with a domain. The one you come up with will shape the way the whole thing is going to be perceived by the target audience.
Some content from Hank’s link: … Praxis Language will develop an official Online Confucius Institute…. It will… offer students, teachers and institutions up-to-date information on developments in the burgeoning Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (TCFL) industry. In addition, new social networking features will enable individuals/groups to integrate digital learning materials into their studies. Teachers of Chinese around the world will have the tools to share, connect, and collaborate….
It’s unclear exactly what the target audience is: brand-new English-speaking learners of Chinese AND Teachers of Chinese as a Foreign Language AND nonChinese English-only school administrators?
I’m an advanced language student and a Chinese teacher, too. I’ve been to some training at a Confucius Institute site. I agree that the name is unfortunate: sounds to nonChinese like philosophy, maybe even religion, not language, education, and culture (as I believe the name implies to Mainland Chinese, if not other Chinese too).
If the goal is to help the whole range of nonChinese from total newbie to Chinese language teacher, plus principals and those trying to start programs in their schools, wow, it’s going to be hard work picking from that list. If it wasn’t meant to reach beginning learners of Chinese, I would say go with any of the ones with “Confucius”. Presumably many school administrators looking into starting Chinese programs will hear of Confucius Institutes one way or another.
But if you’re really trying to reach total beginners up through intermediate level Chinese ability, unconnected with schools, this list is skimpy… maybe chinesestudying.com and that’s the only one I imagine would give the correct impression. But it gives a poor reflection of the other aspects of the planned site.
ChinesePod.com is such a great name! It covers all the bases for a wide range of Chinese learners. You need something like that for this site. ChineseLanguage.com or something more broad like that.
I agree with Auntie Sue that ‘echinese’ would make this project just sound like one of the many pathetic attempts at Chinese teaching already on the web.
I would also imagine a .com ending would be better than a .cn one - it’s far more memorable and doesn’t sound like it’s a dodgy Chinese fraud site.
Great idea by the way! I can’t wait to see it up and running.
Pedro,
Good idea. It is a little late in the game, but “Other” has been added as a choice. I especially second this thought:
For target market, they are locally at a global audience starting with English, Korean and Spanish-language versions focusing on students and teachers of the Chinese language. When you compare this to the approach of the English-only British Council website (www.britishcouncil.org) it is already a compromise (yet a necessary one!) for our English-dominated world.
How’s putonghua.net ?
Most impact would probably have:
chinese.com or chinese.org
This would be understood all over the world, it is short, and it is appropriate considering the official status of the institution offering it.
All putonghua, hanzi, hanyu etc. domains are understood only by those who already started learning the language. The confucius-stuff is - as said above - associated with philosophy. As AuntuieSue pointed out, trendy terms are by definition not time-stable.
How about
CIO.org CIO.com CIO.cn
and if that is already taken - use the numbers for I & O such a 1 & 0 or isn’t Confucius also known as Kong ? How about KONG.org or something using that - KONG10 ?
Let me know your thoughts,
Henry
www.OnlineConfuciusInstitute.com
long but to the point.
ConfuciusLanguageOnline.
I’ll go for chinesestudying.com coz and do agree with the argument ,SCOTT Feb 7th, 2008 at 12:18 pm, put forward.
Hi,
I am a Businessman, Adult student, in the night class at the Confucius Institute in Moncton New-Brunswick Canada. As a student of the Institute, I know Hanban because it is all over our study books but I think, in the comunity, people know the Confucius Institute more than they know Hanban.
I think the words Confucius and Institute should be in the domain name or part of the words because I think having Confuciusonline look like a philosophy website on Confucius!
Please let all the institutes around the world know when the website will be online and running.
春节快乐
刘瑞克
I vote other.
I think “ConfuPod.com” is Better.
Nobody associates Confucius with Chinese language learning or teaching. Everything with “han” (and other Chinese syllables) would also be no good idea, because not everybody knows that Chinese is the “Han” language, or knows that “yu” means language.
So I agree with Henning: chinese.net chinese.org chinese.com chinese.com.cn would be the best web addresses (if available…)
It depends on whom you’re trying to reach. People who don’t know that there are Chinese language resources online would recognize that Confucius is Chinese. Chinese.com, .org, etc are probably already taken, and, even if they are available, don’t relate to either the Praxis or the Confucius Insitute brand.
Thus, I voted for ConfuciusInstitute.net.
Ack.. didn’t see the previous blog post. Thanks.
Yeah I’d definitely avoid the use of the word Confucius in the domain as it’s pretty impossible to spell.
I don’t really see how this could benefit CPod.. CPod is the number one game in town, and partnering with a non-profit organization and giving them web technology seems like you’re giving the competition a boost.. even if you have exposure through their site.
I would go for www.confuciousonline.com for the ease to remember by foreigners worldwide:
the Confucious institute is now recongnized worldwide as Chinese language learning school, the online term is nowadays a household name as an internet paltform (virtually existing) for something that actually exists on land, plus the .com extension which makes it easy to remember…
anyway, once the platforms starts placing links in many sites and/or searching in search engine, using terms like: learn chinese, putonghua, hanyu, zhongwen, confucious… will sure lead to this site….
bonne chance
I would avoid using the word Confucius. When I saw the name “Confucius Institute,” I immediately assumed it was for promotion of the Confucianism religion or philosophy (which is fine if that’s your intent). The connection between the C.I. name and an attempt to promote learning of the Chinese language or culture in general was not obvious. Maybe those well-steeped in Chinese culture or language learning already see a connection between that name and language learning, but if the intent is to promote language/culture learning to *new* people, the name Confucius Institute will not convey that meaning. People will more likely infer a connection to Eastern mysticism. Besides, “Confucius” is easy to misspell; a bad thing for a domain name. How about something directly meaningful and easy to remember and spell, like “www.learnchinese.com”?
Too bad confuci.us is taken.
How about iconfucius.org?
I agree with those who say that using the name Confucius seems to point more toward philosophy than language learning.
As someone who develops websites, I also suggest something not too long, easy to remember and spell (for most people, including newbies to the Chinese language) and ideally with a simply dot-com or dot-org. No country suffix. Something very “transparent.”
Although I voted for e-han.org, with reservations, I’m amending my vote
I like the above suggested ConfuPod but without a hyphen.
Throwing out some ideas that are available now:
CONFUPOD.COM
CHINESELANG.ORG
CHINESECLASSROOM.NET
ZHONGWENNOW.COM
(I know the “now” is tricky but I’m grasping at straws)
pls log on www.ecpod.com,in there,you can learn Chinese from the other or teach me and the others English,you can meet more friends from China
www.ecpod.com
学英语的同时，还可以教老外汉语，并成为他们的朋友，全免费哦
I think that ConfuciusPod.com from Pedro is a very good idea!
I like Pedro’s tongue-in-cheek ConfuciusPod.com. That’s what I planned to type before I realized I had to pick from a menu. It combines the old with the new and suggests on-line learning.
I would preffer confuciusinstitute.net , to me it is a learning centre and need to be recognized as such
Choosing a web name, especially if the simpliest have already been taken, is difficult. Like trying to set up a meeting it’s nearly impossible to get concensus and eventually you just have to do it. Eventually, people will adjust and begin to wonder what all the fuss had been about to begin with.
I would suggest though that the extension should be .edu, this is universally recognized as indicating a website focused on education. While it’s most ofter used in the United States by universities and colleges there is no restriction that I know of to other educational venues using it.
It’s also not absolutely necessary to have a single web name. The organization I work for went through a name change several years ago, People can still reach us through our old web address and several variants of our past and current name.
The name i have chosen is appropriate.
confuscitute.com
The Confucius Institute should strive to stand for quality in Chinese language learning. It should be the equivalent to the British Institute or the Instituto Cervantes. I don´t think that the website should have any other name than the brand itself. It is then up to the marketing team to fill it with value and meaning.
I agree that .net, .com or .org provide a more institutional image.
Are you still looking for names? I suggest
e-seechinese.com
e.see.chinese.com
e.see.spikchinese.com
ispikchinese.com
i.spik.chinese.com
spikchinese.com
spikmandarin.com
spik.mandarin.com
mandarineasy.com
ezmandarin.com
Congratulations & thanks for your excellent service!
Why not
www.whynotchinese.edu ?
Everyone can spell it and it sums up the purpose and aim of the Confucius institutes - propagate the Chinese language and culture world wide - insinuating that this is feasible and accessible.
Confucius need not necessarily shine up in the name of the site - there are other ways and means to tell Google the right paths to this site …