Another way to learn Mandarin is via your iPod. Kate Chapman
says you can download lessons, transcripts, exercises, even get
one-on-one support and a personal tutor through Shanghai-based
ChinesePod.
Yet another way for expats in Shanghai to tackle the Mandarin
challenge is via the popular and versatile iPod. ChinesePod is a
Web-based Mandarin school accessed by users in 110 countries, and
based in Shanghai.
ChinesePod co-founder Ken Carroll has a solid background in
language teaching. He has been in Shanghai since 1994 and it was
here 10 years ago that he started the Kaien language school that
teaches English to local Chinese.
This is a traditional language school that teaches students in
the classroom. Carroll's business partner Brian McCloskey oversees
the running of Kaien language school (www.kaien.net.cn) while
Carroll devotes his time to ChinesePod.
Two years ago Carroll meet Canadian Hank Horkoff whose
background was in software. Carroll and Horkoff worked together on
an innovative new language school concept. The result was their
decision to take it online.
Carroll is the first to admit that there are already a lot of
language-training Websites, "but most of them aren't very good," he
says. They are created by software developers who can't produce
successful language schools and the people with the language skills
don't have the technical capabilities, he says.
With nearly 250,000 users around the world and thousands of
regular paying subscribers, it seems the ChinesePod format is
successful. "We use the technology to facilitate communication
between students and teachers or other students rather than leaving
the students to interact with the technology," says Carroll.
The basic podcast and transcript is US$6 a month, the premium
service with more resources and exercises is US$20 a month, and the
more advanced practice with a tutor is US$165 a month. There is an
initial free trial period.
Individuals advance at their own speed; they can listen to brief
digestible 10-minute lessons while jogging or sitting at their
desk.
In the two years since ChinesePod has started, the popularity of
the technology they are using has grown rapidly. Podcasts, RSS
syndication and blogs are now easily accessible to anyone with an
Internet connection. However, Carroll says there is no one way to
teach 250,000 global users - those who tried once. "We are always
trying to refine it as we go along."
Their site is always in "beta." In the world of computer geeks
this means the software is constantly being tested and updated in
response to feedback and developments. Google operates under the
same system of constant upgrading.
At the same time as technology was expanding to make online
learning easier, the world's interest in Mandarin was also
burgeoning, and Carroll says this interest is only increasing with
the Olympics looming in the near future.
It seems the hierarchy of the Catholic Church is even interested
in the language: ChinesePod has two long-term subscribers from
Vatican City. "I'm hoping one of them is your man," says Carroll,
the native Irishman in him shining through.
The main focus of ChinesePod is North America where the iPod
culture was born but there are students from many countries
including one from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The iPod culture is central to the concept of ChinesePod. At the
same time as Carroll and Horkoff launched ChinesePod, the company
started EnglishPod which was aimed at teaching English to Chinese
people. But, Chinese people did not embrace the concept. "You need
that iPod culture which didn't exist in China two years ago but
things are changing and it will happen in China," says Carroll.
And when they do, expect to see EnglishPod back; it was sold to
Carroll's Kaien language school and they are currently working on
re-launching it.
Despite the success of ChinesePod, Carroll doesn't see himself
as a Mandarin teacher. "I'm not qualified as a Mandarin teacher."
But, he claims to know all about learning languages and his skills
combined with those of Jenny Zhu, the other host of the podcasts,
offer listeners both a native perspective and that of a foreigner
with decades of teaching experience.
Carroll says they stopped counting the lesson downloads when
they got to 20 million and he has no idea how high it would be now.
One of the keys to ChinesePod's success is that their podcasts
sound like conversations rather than the dry drills, which many
traditional CDs often are. Things are kept short and simple for
people who don't have much time. "We're not overly ambitious and we
certainly don't reduce the language to grammar, because then we'd
lose everyone's interest."
Other strengths of the learning style include the relationship
that learners feel with the teachers and the relevance of the
lessons that are guided by students' feedback, Carroll says.
While it is difficult for Carroll to be objective about the
effectiveness of the Website, he says there is a large base of
"hardcore" long-term users and a lot of positive anecdotal
feedback.
"People will write in and say 'I learned more here in two months
than I did in that night school'."
And Carroll can't understand why more people are not making use
of the opportunities the Internet provides. "You can create an
entire business from a small room and distribute it to the whole
world, receive payment even. There's no part of a digital business
you can't do online now and there are a billion people
connected."
ChinesePod has not spent any money on advertising. "That was the
scariest decision of my life to put a business plan together that
didn't have an advertising plan in it. I guess we're just radical,
the more I think about it."
They are now reproducing the success of ChinesePod with
SpanishSense (www.spanishsense.com), an online Spanish learning
school also based in Shanghai. Four people were brought over from
South America and the Website has been operational for nearly eight
weeks.
"If SpanishSense gets the traction ChinesePod has I'm retiring
in five years - I'm done," says Carroll.
www.chinesepod.com
By Kate Chapman
(Shanghai Daily May 31, 2007)